Bath Hotel of 1778

Nevis, Saint Kitts and Nevis

Located just outside Charlestown, this was the first hotel built in the Caribbean and may even be said to have started tourism in the Americas; it was a luxury hotel and spa. The soothing waters of the hotel's hot springs lured many famous Europeans, including the poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Antigua-based Vice Admiral Horatio Lord Nelson and Prince William Henry, Duke of Clarence, the future William IV of the United Kingdom. These luminaries attended balls and private parties at the hotel. The hotel's time of splendiferous entertainment and revelry collapsed with the sugar industry in the 19th century, and the original structure suffered damage in a 1950 earthquake. However, in recent years the building has been repaired and restored, and now serves as government offices. Open-air access to the volcanic hot-spring water is available to anyone without charge, and in 2013 a channel was built to allow people to access pools of the volcanic water when it is less than extremely hot, as it is when it first emerges from the spring.