St. Kitts' British settlers designed and built the second largest fort in the Caribbean to protect an island just 68 square miles in size -- it was that important to them -- and with good reason.

• Savoring High Tea at the Golden Lemon on St. Kitts, a proper treat
• Touring Nevis' plantation inns
• Taking in the view from Brimstone Hill Fortress

St. Kitts is a whale-shaped island has mountains running down its back. The tail is blessed with opalescent beaches that look pink one day and gold the next.

St. Kitts is a volcanic island, a fact to which it owes its dramatic central mountains, its rather unpredictable geologic history, and its lush tropical vegetation. In fact, St. Kitts' pre-Columbian Carib inhabitants knew their island as Liamuiga, or "fertile land," a reference to the island's rich and productive volcanic soil.