Things to Do in St. Eustatius

St. Eustatius is an island that history forgot, and visiting it feels like discovering a secret. In the 18th century, Statia was one of the busiest ports in the Caribbean - a duty-free warehouse for sugar, rum, and arms that served every colonial power and the American revolutionaries alike.

The Dutch, British, and French fought over it 22 times. Today, fewer than 100 tourists visit on any given week, and the island's extraordinary historical layers sit largely unmarked and unexplored. Start in Upper Town at Fort Oranje, the best-preserved Dutch colonial fort in the Caribbean, where on November 16, 1776, the garrison fired an 11-gun salute to the American brig Andrew Doria - the first international recognition of the United States flag.

A plaque commemorates the event, and the fort's ramparts provide views across Oranjestad's rooftops to the sea. The St. Eustatius Historical Foundation Museum, housed in the restored De Graaff House on Kerkweg, displays artifacts from the island's Amerindian, colonial, and slave trade eras, including blue beads that were a currency of the enslaved and have become a symbol of Statian identity.

Walk downhill to Lower Town, where the ruins of over 600 18th-century warehouses line the waterfront - most are just foundation walls and crumbling arches now, but their sheer number conveys the scale of commerce that once flowed through this tiny harbor. Some of the ruins extend underwater, creating unique snorkeling and diving opportunities where you swim among submerged colonial architecture. The Honen Dalim synagogue ruins in Upper Town mark the second-oldest Jewish house of worship in the Western Hemisphere, built in 1739 by Sephardic merchants who were part of Statia's cosmopolitan trading community.

The Quill, the island's dormant volcano, dominates the southern half and offers the best hiking. The Quill Trail from the parking area off Rosemary Lane climbs through dry forest to the crater rim in about 45 minutes, where you can peer into a tropical rainforest growing inside the caldera. The more demanding Crater Trail descends into the interior, where massive silk cotton trees and giant elephant ears create a primeval atmosphere. Birders come for the Quill's forest, which shelters the bridled quail-dove and red-bellied woodpecker among other species. On the island's northern end, Boven National Park has exposed volcanic landscapes, cactus-studded hillsides, and the Venus Bay Trail leading to a dramatic rocky shoreline. Zeelandia Beach, Statia's only significant stretch of sand on the Atlantic coast, is too rough for swimming but excellent for solitary walks, beachcombing for blue beads, and watching hawksbill and leatherback turtles nest from April through August.