The Best Viewpoints and Photo Spots in St Barts

For a small island, St Barts stacks up an unusual number of great views, because it is all hills and coast. Half the pleasure of driving around is the next bend opening onto another one. The forums fill up with “best photo spots” threads every season, so here is the honest shortlist: the views worth stopping for, when to catch them, and how to reach them without white-knuckling the roads yourself.

The one everyone comes for: the airport

St Barts’ most famous view is of its own airport. From the hill on the approach, the Col de la Tourmente, cars pull in above the road to watch the small planes clear the rise and drop steeply toward the runway. From the other end, St Jean beach sits right below the landing, so you can watch the same show with your feet in the sand. It is dramatic, free, and unlike anything else in the Caribbean; our guide to the airport and the landing explains why it is safer than it looks.

Above Gustavia: the forts and the harbour

The heights over Gustavia give you the town, the harbour and the yachts from above, and they come with history. Fort Gustav, up by the lighthouse, is only a few minutes from town and frames the harbour beautifully. Fort Karl, across the bay, is a quieter climb with a view down over Shell Beach. Both are Swedish-era forts, so the view comes with a story, told in our guide to the island’s Swedish history.

The beaches from above, and the high point

Some of the best views are of the beaches you are about to lie on. The road down to Gouverneur opens onto one of the island’s great sweeps of sand, and the approach to Saline does the same over the dunes. The lookout toward Colombier, at the north-west tip, catches the bay and the boats at anchor. And for the widest view of all, Morne du Vitet is the island’s high point, with a panorama across the whole of St Barts and out to the neighbouring islands. Several of these pair naturally with a walk, covered in our hiking guide.

Reaching them the easy way

The catch is that the best viewpoints sit at the tops and ends of steep, narrow roads, which is exactly where a nervous driver would rather not be. If you would like to see them without wrestling the hills, a private driver who knows where and when the light is best turns it into an easy half-day. You can arrange a private driver for a viewpoints-and-photos loop. And if a view from your own terrace is the dream, plenty of villas are built around one; you can browse the villas by outlook.

The bottom line

St Barts rewards anyone who looks up: the airport hill for the planes, the forts for the harbour, the coast roads for the beaches, and Morne du Vitet for the lot. Go early or late for the light and the quiet, carry water and sun protection, and if the roads are not your idea of fun, let a driver take you to the spots. Bring a camera, because you will use it. For the walks behind many of these views, see our hiking guide.