St Kitts Scenic Railway

When St Kitts closed its sugar industry in 2005, it kept the railway that had served the cane since the line's completion in 1926 - and turned the narrow-gauge loop into a scenic passenger railway that bills itself as the last railway in the West Indies. Double-decker cars with open upper decks ride the old cane route around the island's northern half, crossing steel bridges over ghuts, passing village yards where children wave as they have for a century, with Brimstone Hill and the sea on one side and the volcano's cane-cloaked slopes on the other. A bus completes the southern half of the circle back to Basseterre.

What you actually see

• The open upper deck - cane land, coast and volcano at rooftop height.
• The ghut bridges - steel spans over the ravines running to the sea.
• Village waving - the line's oldest tradition, still observed.
• The sugar relics - abandoned windmills and boiling-house chimneys en route.

When to go

December to April, when cruise schedules keep departures frequent - off season the train runs rarely, so confirm before planning around it. Morning runs beat the heat on the open deck.

Honest expectations

It is unashamedly a tourist train: commentary, a choir, included drinks and cruise-day crowds, priced accordingly. The rail portion covers roughly two-thirds of the loop with a bus for the rest. Ride it for the access - the coastal cane country it crosses has no road equivalent - rather than for railway purism.

Nearby

Brimstone Hill Fortress, Romney Manor and Basseterre's Independence Square.