good for you

If you're looking for a Caribbean island that's more unspoilt beauty and welcoming locals than glossy casinos and hordes of noisy tourists, then Saba could be just what you're after.

Perched halfway up Mount Scenery, Rendezvous offers a wonderful range of hikes and walks, while host Tom is a marine biologist who helped set up Saba's marine park and can tell you all you need to know about diving in the waters - known as some of the best Scuba spots in the world.

The island's scenery ranges from old agricultural plots, lush tropical rainforest and dry forest. While Saba is developing like every other place on the globe, it is moving at a slow pace, leaving the island's unique character intact.

The property itself is made up of beautifully hand-painted eco-cabins surrounded by rainforest, with its own gardens providing the restaurant - famous for some of the best food on the island - with literally freshly-picked organic produce. The family-run lodge is hosted by wonderful and talented people thoroughly committed to this eco-project and eager to share their island paradise.

good for saba

The ecolodge just about forces its guests to get back to basics - it's in the forest with no vehicle access, so there's no point renting a car, and there are no radios, TVs or telephones in the rooms. It's run entirely on solar energy, with clever water management and composting toilets. Most of the fruit, vegetables and herbs served in the restaurant are grown on the property. Co-owner Tom is a biologist and he and the rest of his family run the lodge with a real passion for the island and its conservation.

Rooms

Food

The rainforest restaurant is famous for some of the best food on Saba. With a bar serving delicious tropical cocktails, and an outdoor dining area overlooking the fish pond, it's the perfect setting for a relaxing meal. The restaurant serves breakfast, lunch and dinner, dishing up plenty of organic treats from the garden, which provides up to 70% of the restaurant's produce. Here you'll mix with your fellow guests and hosts, and chat with the locals who visit, as well as hikers who stop in for a replenishing meal. Dinner time can be popular, so make a booking.

Typical dishes include delicious garden-fresh salads of papaya and chicken, or fetta and olives, followed by red curry prawns or almond crusted snapper, finished with a dessert of home made mango icecream or classic apple pie. On Tuesday night there's a special rijstafel - the Dutch colonists' version of an Indonesian smorgasbord with a tantilising array of vegetables, meats and seafood prepared as fragrant curries and stir-fries, all served with fluffy white rice.

The restaurant is closed for lunch and dinner on Mondays, but is otherwise open for three meals a day, seven days a week. Prices range from $6.00- $8.00 for starters and $13.00 - $15 for mains.

sample menu

starters:

Garden Salad.

A combination of home grown lettuce varieties, tomatoes, cucumbers, sweet peppers, and onions. Olives and a house dressing are added

Greek Salad.

Feta cheese, olives and onions on a bed

of fresh greens.

Mozzarella Salad.

Mozzarella cheese, basil and tomatoes

on a bed of fresh greens.

Jerk Chicken Papaya Salad.

Spicy chicken breast slices on a bed of fresh greens

with Papaya (when in season)

entrees:

Red Curry Coconut Shrimp.

Sauteed shrimps with a red curry-based sauce, prepared with cream of coconut.

Almond Crusted Snapper.

Pan-fried snapper with an almond crust served with a

honey mustard thyme sauce.

Mahi Creole.

Dolphin fish (dorado) served with a Creole sauce.

This is a tomato-based sauce with onion, sweet pepper

and a variety of fresh herbs from the garden.

Steak Kebab.

A rib eye kebab served with a blue cheese or mushroom sauce.

Jerk Chicken.

Boneless chicken breast marinated in Jamaican Jerk seasoning, grilled and served with a mushroom sauce.

All entrees come with stir-fried vegetables from the garden, sweet potatoes, wild rice and beans, and plantains.

desserts:

Ice Cream.

A variety of homemade ice cream prepared from fresh fruits from the island; wild oranges, paw paw, sour sop, mango, guava.

Mom's Apple Pie.

Homemade by mom herself from fresh apples, real butter, raisins and the rest is a secret. Served with vanilla ice cream.

indonesian rijstafel

Tuesday night is Indonesian night, when we serve authentic Indonesian "Rijsttafel". Rijsttafel, which literally translates to "rice table", is a combination of about a dozen different dishes served with white rice. The dishes include such delicious Indonesian specialties as curried beef, pork in soy sauce, chicken sate with peanut sauce, shrimps or fish with lemongrass and coconut milk, omelet with sweet and sour sauce, christophenes in coconut cream, pickled cucumbers, carrots and onions, beans in a spicy coconut milk sauce, peanuts with grated coconut, plus a variety of other condiments prepared with spices from the Far East. The Rijsttafel is prepared weekly by Bernt and Elizabeth. Bernt was born and raised in Indonesia and Elizabeth lived for several months in the country.

The restaurant is open daily for breakfast,

lunch and dinner, except for dinner on Monday night. Prices range from $6.00- $8.00 for starters and $13.00 - $15 for entrees.

Features & Facilities

• Sweat lodge: Heated volcanic rocks sprinkled with herbs create an American Indian-style sauna. After 20-30 minutes of profusely perspiring, guests can take a dip in a cold tub and then transfer to the hot tub. The hot and cold tubs are made from old stock feed tanks that accommodate two persons - the hot tub is heated by a wood stove. An outdoor shower completes the complex. Perfect after a day of hiking or other physical activity. Massages and other treatments can also be arranged on request.
• Swimming pool with wooden deck and sea view.
• Restaurant and bar.
• Some cottages have self-catering facilities.
• Volunteer program: The Ecolodge has run an active volunteer's programme since its opening in 2002. Whether you are a nature nut seeking a career break or a student on a gap year looking to fill some time in a unique and truly fulfilling way, the lodge's programme will make the most of what you can offer.
• If you are interested in dive packages, the lodge can personalise a package to suit your interests. The ecolodge works with Sea Saba Advanced Dive Center and Saba Deep Dive Center, both very professional and reliable operators.

Local Info & Activities

Hiking and walking: The Ecolodge is located at a crossroads of hiking trails - historic footpaths that are still called "roads" by most Sabans. Each offers a different experience in terms of duration, degree of difficulty, landscape, views, vegetation, and cultural and geological features. From the Ecolodge you have immediate access to a terrific variety of walks and hikes, taking in a range of ecosystems such as dry forests and rain forests, as well as villages and farmland. Your hosts are happy to provide information, advice and trail maps.

Bird Watching: Saba is home to some 60 species of birds, including many seabirds. Along the north coast you will see dozens of Red-billed Tropicbirds, which are nesting and roosting in the steep cliffs. With 750-1,000 breeding pairs, Saba has the largest breeding population in the Caribbean and 12% of the global population. Brown Noddies and Boobies breed on Green Island, a tiny island near the airport, in late spring. Other seabirds worth watching are the Magnificent Frigatebird and the Osprey. Birds of prey include the American Kestrel, which is fairly common, and the Red-tail Hawk, which soars high overhead along the mountain slopes searching for prey. The shy Trembler is not common but can be observed at higher elevations in the rainforest. Early risers may be able to spot the rare Bridled Quail Dove on one of the rainforest trails. The Red-necked Pigeon, threatened by hunting on many islands, is rather common on Saba. There are three species of hummingbirds, the largest of which is the Purple-throated Carib, found mostly in the rainforest. A checklist of the birds of Saba is available at the Ecolodge.

Scuba diving: The waters around the entire island of Saba have been protected by the Saba National Marine Park since 1987. The Park has healthy, well-developed coral communities and abundant fish life, attracting about 6,000 SCUBA divers annually. The 27 dive sites offer a tremendous variety of experiences and include reefs, steep drop-offs, encrusted boulder labyrinths, and pinnacles. The offshore pinnacles, steep volcanic structures rising from great depths to 100 ft (30 m) below the surface, form the greatest attraction for (experienced) SCUBA divers. Here you can expect encounters with sharks, rays, turtles, large groupers, and often pelagic fish species. The protected leeward side of the island offers plenty of choices for shallow dives and some excellent snorkeling sites. Daily encounters with Hawksbill turtles, also at shallow sites, can be guaranteed. Weather permitting, a number of pristine sites, including spectacular walls, can be explored on the Windwardside of the island. Due to the steep character of the island, there is no shore access to dive sites and all diving is done by boat (but no boat rides are longer than 10 minutes). The Ecolodge can tailor a dive package to suit your interests.

Art workshops: Local artist and co-owner of the ecolodge, Heleen Cornet is available to host watercolor workshops for individuals as well as groups. Each workshop covers an individual subject such as composition, complementary colors, transparent colors and opaque colors. The duration is about two hours and materials are provided. The cost of a workshop is $25 per person. Born in Holland, Heleen came to the Netherlands Antilles in 1975, since then she has taught in Bonaire, Curacao, Sint Maarten and Saba. Since 1986 she has been working as a full-time artist and her work has been in many international shows. Heleen has also published books "Saban Cottages" with watercolors of the Saban houses and "Echoes of the Past" about the history of Saint Eustatius with watercolors of the historical buildings. She painted the mural in the Sacred Heart Church in the Bottom and has illustrated several children's books.

Sustainability

The philosophy at Ecolodge Rendez-Vous is to provide guests and visitors with intimate contact with nature and wilderness, while using resources responsibly and causing minimal environmental impact.

The buildings were constructed using eco-friendly and recycled materials. Decks and staircases are made of Trex Wood Polymer manufactured from reclaimed plastic and wood waste. The siding is Hardiplank, a product made of cement, sand and recycled paper. For the structural components of the buildings ACQ pressure treated lumber was used as an alternative for the toxic chromated copper arsenate lumber. ACQ lumber contains an alkaline, a fungicide and 100% recycled copper as an environmentally safe wood preservative.

All the buildings are equipped with solar panels for a 12V lighting system. The cottages have Texspor(r) sun showers, heated by solar energy. All the cottages use Sealand low-flush toilets connected to SunMar non-electrical composting units, producing odorless and pathogen-free compost. Two cottages are equipped with SunMar waterless non-electric toilets. Kitchen and garden waste is also composted.

Pure rainwater is collected off the roofs in cisterns. A solar-powered pump pumps the water into a cistern at the high end of the property, utilising gravity to send the water to all the cottages and the restaurant. Wash basins are equipped with water saving spring faucets.

The pool and hot tub are also eco-friendly. A product called the Nature 2 Express uses minerals to destroy bacteria and algae so that only a small amount of chlorine has to be used to keep the pool clean.

A solar pump connected to a solar panel takes care of the water flow from the pool through filters to the hot tub and back. This also makes it possible to warm the pool water after the hot tub has been heated.

About 70% of the vegetables served in the restaurant and all herbs are organically grown in the lodge's vegetable and herb gardens. Guests will also enjoy guava, papaya, avocado, lime, bitter-skin orange, wild raspberries, Surinam cherries, and passion fruit all grown on or near the property, as well as medicinal plants such as "headache bush", leaf of life and cilantro.

Getting There

by air:

Saba is located 28 miles southwest of St. Maarten, reached by a short 12-minute flight on Windward Island Airways. Winair provides 5 easily scheduled connecting flights to and from St. Maarten each day. Regularly scheduled international flights are offered to St. Maarten by the following airlines: American, Continental, US Airways, Air France, and KLM.

by sea:

The EdgeFerry service is now running 5 days per week, Wednesday through Sunday. Aqua Mania at Pelican Resort is the owner of the Edge and is also the host of many water sports activities in St. Maarten.

The ferry schedules do not allow for same day travel connections. The Edge departs Simpson Bay's Pelican Marina at 9:00 AM Wednesday through Sunday arriving at Fort Bay (Saba) at approximately 1030 AM, leaving from Saba (same day) for St. Maarten at 3:30 PM.

Dawn II travels between Saba and Dock Maarten at Chesterfields Marina in Philipsburg, Saint Maarten three times a week. Offering service on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays departing from Saba at 6:30 am and departing from Dock Maarten at 5:00 pm. Please arrive 30 minutes prior to departure. However, if you are delayed, please contact SCT and they will hold the boat for you.

insider tips

language

As Saba is part of the Netherland Antilles the official language is Dutch, but English is the common language of communication.

currency

The Netherlands Antillean guilder is the official currency (the fixed exchange rate is 1.80 guilders to the US dollar), but US dollars are widely accepted. Most restaurants and several stores accept credit cards. There are two banks in Windwardside, but no ATM machines. At the Ecolodge they accept US dollars, Euros, traveler checks and all major credit cards.

electricity

Saba has 110V/60Hz electricity. However, the Ecolodge is equipped with a 12V system only. It can provide for overnight charging of your camera or other batteries. Solar panels provide enough energy to power night lights and trail lights throughout the ecolodge.

what to bring

Good hiking shoes as well as flip-flops, a bathing suit, a raincoat for wet weather - all the things you'd bring for an active stay on a tropical island.

Visit our Transport section for flights, hybrid car rentals and train bookings.

Rates & Bookings

See the 'Rooms' section for detailed description of all cottages and maximum occupancy per cottage.

standard cottages

High Season - December 16 - April 15

US$85.00 p/cottage

Low Season - April 16-Dec 15

US$65.00 low season

deluxe cottages

mt scenery cottage

(includes private hot tub, regular solar shower, kitchenette with mini refrigerator)

Low Season - April 16-Dec 15

US$79.00 low season

High Season - December 16 - April 15

US$99.00 p/cottage

bird of paradise

(with private hot tub on the porch and regular solar shower)

Low Season - April 16-Dec 15

US$69.00 low season

High Season - December 16 - April 15

US$89.00 p/cottage

• These rates do not include the 5% government charge
• 10% service charge, which is added.
• An extra person in a cottage is charged at $10 p/night.
• Cottages with a kitchenette are US$10 extra (except for Mt Scenery where it's included in the rate)

• Accommodation for 2 people. Single rates are available on request.
• Generous breakfasts featuring organic local produce.

booking & cancellation policies

• In order to confirm your booking we need a credit card and expiration date. We will charge the card for the total cost of your lodging including 15% tax and service charge.
• If cancellations are made at any stage, 10% will be charged as a cancellation fee.
• If cancellations are made near the date of arrival, 100% charge starting the 8th day before the booked arrival date, 75% the 15th day, 50% the 30th day and 25% the 45th day

Want to avoid cancellation fees? Visit our Insurance section for information on travel insurance.