Updated · by Annie, owner of Villa ONLY VIEW
Why it matters when you book
A few weeks each year the island fills up, the restaurants book out and the harbour turns into a show. They are wonderful to see, and worth knowing about, either to be here for them or to avoid them. Dates move a little from one year to the next, so check the organisers' sites before you fix your flights.
January: the Music Festival
The St Barts Music Festival brings classical musicians, jazz players and dancers to the island for about two weeks in January, with concerts in the churches of Gustavia and Lorient and a few open-air evenings. Low-key, excellent, and the island is at its prettiest once the holiday crowd has left.
February and March: Carnival
Carnival builds up through February with parades in Gustavia and ends on Mardi Gras and Ash Wednesday, when Vaval, the carnival king, is burned on Shell Beach. Loud, local and great fun with children.
On the map📍 Shell Beach
March: the Bucket Regatta
For four days in mid-March the world's largest sailing yachts race around the island and fill Gustavia harbour. If you don't sail, the best seats are the terraces above Gustavia and the hills along the course; from Pointe Milou you watch them pass offshore.
April: Les Voiles de Saint-Barth
A week of racing for a hundred or so yachts, from the big maxis to local boats, with parties in the harbour every evening. Late April also brings the St Barth Film Festival, a few days of Caribbean cinema in Gustavia.
May and June: the quiet pleasures
No big events, which is exactly the point: warmer sea, calm island, easy tables. Every other spring, the Transat Paprec, a two-handed sailing race from Concarneau in Brittany, finishes in Gustavia, and the harbour fills with small, fast boats and their tired crews.
July and August: the fêtes
Bastille Day on 14 July is celebrated in Gustavia with fireworks. Then the neighbourhoods take turns through August, each with its own fête of music, food and boat races: the island's own day, the Fête de la Saint-Barthélemy, is on 24 August with a regatta and fireworks over Gustavia harbour, and Corossol follows with the Fête de Saint-Louis on the 25th.
On the map📍 Corossol Beach
September and October: the pause
Nothing on the calendar. Many restaurants and some hotels close for a few weeks so their teams can take their own holidays, and the island reopens for Thanksgiving.
November: Gourmet Festival, Cata Cup, Thanksgiving
In the first half of November the Saint-Barth Gourmet Festival pairs visiting Michelin-starred chefs with the island's restaurants for a week of special menus; book those dinners early. The St Barth Cata Cup, a beach-catamaran regatta launched from St Jean, follows in the second half of the month. Thanksgiving week is when the season really starts.
On the map📍 St Jean Beach (Restaurants Side)
December: Christmas and New Year
Gustavia puts up its Christmas village, the harbour fills with the biggest yachts of the year, and on 31 December the New Year's Eve regatta sails around the island in the afternoon before the fireworks over the harbour at midnight. At the villa these two weeks are rented as 7-night packages and book out up to a year ahead.
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