St. Vincent and the Grenadines – Off the Beaten Path but Right in Our Backyard
Posted on January 20, 2010 By Julie
We just returned from our 8 day assignment in St. Vincent and the Grenadines.
We went with great expectations as well as a little apprehension because as our viewers know, Travelscope doesn’t cover the typical tourist locales. Travelscope’s mission is to dig deep into the culture of a destination and share the true experience with our viewers. That’s very difficult to do if the destination is a “Disneyland” experience created for tourists – which many of the Caribbean islands have become.
What we found far exceeded our expectations. SVG is relatively new to the tourism game and as such the typical kitchy souvenir shops, polished dining spots and paid-for play “local” bands won’t be found. What a relief! The only big-ship cruise stop is St. Vincent’s main port in Kingstown and the cruisers have a clean, well polished, space to hang out with a steel drum band, sterile restaurants, lots of t-shirt shops and absolutely no locals allowed. Obviously that’s now what we covered.
We found a long tradition of intercultural tolerance and co-mingling, unspoiled wilderness with more hiking and back-country activities than the average visitor can reasonably manage, pristine, almost abandoned beaches and above all, welcoming people.
The episode produced from this visit won’t be released until 2011 but it will be jam packed with SVG’s grass-roots environmental efforts, to protect endangered species such as the St. Vincent Parrot, iguanas and turtles. The story mirrors what we’ve seen in other areas of the world. Once local people understand that by protecting indigenous species rather than harvesting them for food or bi-products, everyone benefits from increased tourism but most importantly, the environment and wildlife thrive thanks to tourism.
Traditional Caribbean cuisine still exists in the local restaurants and we’ll share that flavor with our viewers as well as the stories of the people behind the recipes—from ex-pats to descendants of the plantation slave owners as well as slaves.
So if you’re looking for an unspoiled spot in the Caribbean, we’ve found it! St. Vincent and the Grenadines are off the beaten path but right in our backyard—just 5 hours from New York.
To view our SVG photo album visit Joseph’s Facebook page - http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2026962&id=1279954461&l=e09bc499b5
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