Travel: Ottley's Plantation Inn, St Kitts

Clamber up the steps from the manicured lawn and sink into the easy chairs on the wrap-around veranda, and the sensation of relaxed warmth wafting with the trade winds is akin to the golden glow of a swift double, but without the hangover.

It's only when I step into the snug little library and spot a framed poster of the same lemon house and veranda, jostling with beautiful people, and the tagline: "...if you're drinking Bacardi" that I realise that this tropical paradise doesn't resemble an ad; it was the setting for one.

Makes sense, really. Situated in 35 pristine acres, Ottley's is a short drive (12 minutes) from the capital of Basseterre, and is a lovingly restored 18th- century sugar plantation, which this year celebrates its 20th anniversary as a destination hotel, one from which it is hard to leave. Family run, it may be a clich, but it's true that you arrive as a guest and leave as friends of owners Karen and Marty.

While the Great House, as it's known, offers spacious rooms which open out onto wide verandas, I've been lucky enough to be allocated an intimate stone cottage, with its own plunge pool, surrounded by mango trees from which the ripe fruit drops, ready to eat. After devouring a delicious specimen, I ponder how dinner can compete, but this is to underestimate the hotel's Royal Palm restaurant where I feast on the finest lobster I've eaten since dining at Andrew Fairlie at Gleneagles.

Located between the Caribbean Sea and Atlantic Ocean, St Kitts has the laid-back feel of Hawaii, 30 years ago. While islands such as Barbados are swamped by tourists, St Kitts has been cautious in its development, and enjoys a more rustic feel. Five years ago the last of the sugar plantations closed and the island is preparing for a future fuelled by the tourist dollar, but on its own terms. A series of massive developments is planned for the south east of the island, including Christophe Harbour, comprising luxury holiday homes, condos and a new golf course.

The island's draws are many, but among the most languid is hanging out on the balcony of Ballahoo bar and restaurant in the centre of Basseterre watching the weekly market. As a diver, however, it's the warm waters of the Caribbean that entice me, so early one Sunday morning I met up with Kenneth Samuel, a local fisherman who also runs the island's oldest dive shop. We set out from Basseterre harbour for a spot on the aptly named Paradise Reef on the north of the island. I never tire of the sensation of slowly falling through fathoms and looking up to see the surface disappearing under a canopy of water. To stop and look around is to feel like an insect trapped in aspic.

The success of any dive is dependent to a large degree on luck and the erratic personal schedule of the creatures of the deep. Today I'd like to think it was the prayers of Maynard, my driver who was heading to church after dropping me off at the harbour side for providing the dizzy pleasure of gazing into the dark eyes of a conger eel which stared out of a crevice at me. Yet a fine dive took on a more touching quality upon reaching the surface when one of the other divers pointed out that the spot was nameless.

"Let's call it 'Scotsman Reef'," she suggested and Mr Samuel readily agreed.

The diving in St Kitts is very good, comparable to Barbados but without the jostling boats, and a second dive, this time in the company of Dive St Kitts, and under the tutelage of Kent Griggs, allowed me to explore the wreck of the River Taw, a vessel which was allowed to sink after the owners failed to pay the bill of its first bail out. It's a strange sensation to fly over a sunken and rusted jeep which was parked on the deck.

After all that activity, my mind once again turned to dinner. So how does one dine in St Kitts? The short answer is: exceedingly well. The long, slightly, more involved answer is dependent on your taste on any given night. Fancy brilliantly barbecued meat, limbo dancers, a flaming fire-pit and the feel of sand under your toes? Then pop along to Mr X's Shiggidy Shack where the lobster is freshly buttered, the steak tastily blackened and the floor show rather extraordinary. For a more refined, sophisticated atmosphere there is the Spice Mill on Cockleshell Bay, where the fish is supremely fresh and dinner and drinks can lead to dancing on the beach.

Speaking as a glutton, I've always been partial to grazing my way through an all-you-can eat buffet, so I was delighted to discover Waterfalls restaurant where I sampled "goats water", the traditional and delicious stew. For a laid-back vibe, and the kind of meal where lunch slowly dissolves with cocktails into a drowsy afternoon, head for the Reggae Beach Bar out on the South East Peninsula and try the honey mustard ribs. While you settle down for an afternoon snooze, any hyperactive partners can occupy themselves snorkelling on the protected reef.

St Kitts is an island of surprises. While I prefer to explore below the surface, those who wish to rise into the sky will be delighted at the arrival of zipline, run by Sky Safari Tours, which transports brave souls at high speed and at a height of 250ft across the rainforest valley. Their slogan? "Give it a try, everyone can fly."

The St Kitts experience that lingered in my mind longest is hard to choose. There was the little beach where, before our eyes, the waters appeared to clash together, at the point where the Atlantic Ocean embraces the Caribbean Sea. Then there was the view out to the pale-blue horizon from Brimstone Hill, the grey stone fortress, built by the British to defend this most precious of islands. It was from this place that the UK exerted an iron grip over much of the Caribbean at a time when the population of the island exceeded that of New York and Philadelphia. It reminded me of a line in the journal of Janet Schaw, the wife of a Scots plantation owner who, writing of her experiences on Antigua and St Kitts in the 1770s, said that over the Christmas period: "the crack of the inhuman whip must not be heard."

Each of the Caribbean islands has a unique quality. St Kitts makes you feel like you've discovered a great secret you're not quite sure you wish to share.

THE FACTS British Airways offers the following deal from Glasgow, Aberdeen and Edinburgh. Flight and seven nights from 1129pp with room-only accommodation at Ottley's Plantation Inn, 5-26 October 2010. See www.ba.com for details.

This article was first published in the Scotsman, July 31, 2010