World Country Guide

Social Profile

Food & Drink
Fine local cuisine is offered at the island’s guest houses and there are several public restaurants. Local specialities include calaloo soup, curried goat, breadfruit, soursop ice cream and exotic fruit grown on the island – mangoes, papayas, figs, bananas and bitter mangoes. Restaurants and bars are usually closed by midnight.
Most well-known brands of drink are available and Saba has its own brand of rum – Saba Spice, a potent blend of rum, aniseed, cinnamon, orange peel, cloves, nutmeg, spice bush and brown sugar.

Nightlife
There are few visitors to the island and generally evenings are quiet, but on Friday and Saturday nights there is dancing at some restaurants and some guest houses have lively bars.

Shopping
By the middle of the last century, the decline in the world’s demand for sugar and indigo had left Saba looking at a very bleak future; the plantations, the only source of employment, reverted to forest. Undaunted, the men built boats and became fishermen, the women stayed at home and embroidered napkins and table cloths using a technique remembered by Mary Gertrude Johnson from her days in a Venezuelan convent. The fishing industry is now marginal but the embroidery has become Saba’s chief claim to fame. The Saba Artisans’ Foundation (founded in 1972 with money from the United Nations’ Development Programme) in The Bottom promotes local lacework, silk-screened fabrics and garments printed and handmade by Sabans, as does the Island Craft Shop in Windwardside. Shopping hours: Mon-Sat 0800-1200 and 1400-1800.

Special Events
For a full list of events, contact the Saba Tourist Bureau (see Contact Addresses section); the following is a selection of special events occurring in Saba in 2005:
Apr 30 Coronation Day & Queen’s Birthday. Jul Saba Summer Carnival Festival. Oct 22 Antillean Day. Dec Saba Days Mini Winter Carnival.

Social Conventions
Dutch customs are still important throughout the Netherlands Antilles, but tourism on neighbouring St Maarten has brought some US influence to Saba (several businesses are US-owned). Dress is casual and lightweight cottons are advised. Tipping: A surcharge of 20 per cent is usually added to guest house and restaurant bills to cover government tax and service. Elsewhere, 10 to 15 per cent is expected.