No beach, no problem – tiny Saba island is still paradise

Legend holds that the producers of the original 1933 King Kong movie were enthralled with its craggy, volcanic silhouette and used its likeness as Skull Island. Photos: TNS

It's a hot and humid summer day in the Caribbean and the wind is up. Just moments after Winair’s de Havilland Twin-Otter bumpily takes off from St. Maarten, the tiny island of Saba, just a 10-minute flight away, rises like a sceptre from the floor of the crystal-blue Caribbean.

As the plane putters toward Saba’s 396m airstrip, the shortest commercial runway in the world, I see waves lashing against the island’s rocky, steep shores. Beneath the waterline, the volcanic island stretches to the sea bottom, its jagged ledges and coral reefs providing arguably the best diving spots in the Caribbean.