After graduating from college, I can say that this year has been nothing short of surreal for me. For the first time in my life, I was able to experience magical sites outside of Chicago after I had constantly put off traveling. My excuses for this ranged from:
- “I don’t want to be alone.”
- “I need to finish school first.”
- “I’m scared to travel.”
- “What if my job rejects my PTO?”
Until recently, I had never heard of small islands like Saba before. Saba is an unimaginable place where sand clashes with sea, and where the island’s peaks brought me warmth and excitement. There isn’t a photographer in existence who could capture what the retina can in these circumstances. I can certainly try, although I do not claim to be a photographer or writer. I’m merely a woman who loves beautiful things. A simpleton.
There were quite a few highlights on this single-day trip, including but not limited to: The Ladder hiking trail, Saba’s single main road, the world’s shortest runway, obvious breathtaking views, and many…MANY bananas.
On the way up the island to reach the trail, I encountered two locals who offered me their surplus bananas. They definitely knew what was in store for me when it came to the treacherous journey ahead. It didn’t occur to me that we would need to march our way to nearly the peak of Saba to find a restaurant. I didn’t do any research, so I pretty much shot myself in the leg on my own with that one. The restaurant that we did end up encountering was called “Saba Snack”. Was it the greatest food in the world? At the time, it absolutely was!
The Walk from the Airport to “The Bottom”.
The ladder is a hiking trail that consists of a relatively steep staircase. It is located at the very peak of the island in the village of “The Bottom” and ends down in Ladder Bay. For clarification, “The Bottom” isn’t near the bottom of anything, as a matter of fact, it was very high up in elevation and goes down to Ladder Bay, which IS at the bottom of the island. The only way to get down and back up is to hike half a mile there and back. It is a challenging trail, so if you want to attempt to hike this trail, come prepared and hydrate as often as possible. The weather during February is more than enough to cause heatstroke if you’re not careful. Disclaimer: Shade on the main road of this island is scarce! Dress accordingly for 90°F+/32°C+ temperatures.
A note from Rose: If you have one of those friends who likes to eat once every 9 hours, let ’em be. Get yourself a snack.
Although the hike was beyond exhausting and I could not wait to rush back up the island and relax, the view at Ladder Bay made it all worthwhile. The ocean was crystal clear, and it was soothing to listen to the sounds of water crashing against the earth. I genuinely wish I could’ve stayed for an extra day or so, but the flight was unfortunately booked. What I was concerned about at the bottom of the trail was how I was gonna get back up the steps since they were broken all the way at the bottom. I’m clueless as to how I was able to get back up.
Once up the trail, an emergency service vehicle spotted me and asked if I needed a ride down the island, back towards the airport. Of course, I obliged and was grateful to put the walking on hold for a bit.
This flight taking off from the runway at SAB was impressive to say the least.
Before leaving, there was some time to kill, so I decided to walk around the beach where the crabs were bearing gorgeous sand-like shells. I stupidly decided to walk up a steep, rocky hill and fell on my side like a dufus, which caused a bunch of rocks to get loose, and me to start sliding down towards the water. That ended up leaving me with a dark purple bruise for a few weeks as well as a nice little adrenaline rush (the photos were worth it for me, though). For the remainder of the time, I took in the sounds of the Island on a hammock next to the sea. It was the most at ease I’ve felt in a very long time. My companion was preoccupied with his phone for the majority of the trip, so I would’ve felt alone anyway.
At the end of the trip, I flew back to Sint Maarten, where I stayed for a few days. I ended up island hopping alone for the second trip from Sint Maarten, and I will be including it in one of the upcoming posts. Overall, Saba had very friendly locals in comparison to where I’m from, and it was an incredibly rewarding trip for me, considering the difficulty of the hike. The views and free bananas made it worth the trip nonetheless. Would I return? Absolutely! (Although my calves say otherwise). I would, however, lengthen the duration of the trip. One day simply wasn’t enough to be able to stroll through the island’s entirety. Compared to the other trips of 2025, I felt that this one specifically had been the most rushed, and I wasn’t able to take everything in during the hike.
This was a ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ star destination for roseonroads since it wasn’t all simple to get food, and everything was very fast-paced.
