About St. Barts

LOCATION - located at 18°N, 63°W, in the northeastern corner of the Caribbean Sea, 4400 miles from Paris, 1700 miles from New York, 125 miles east from Puerto Rico, and 15 miles southeast from St. Maarten. It is small, a little more than eight square miles.

ACCOMMODATIONS - Hotels, villas, cottages, and apartments. Calling St. Barts - St-Barthélemy's country code is 590. To call from the U.S. or Canada, dial 011 (the international access code), then 590 plus the local six-digit number in St-Barthélemy.

COMMUNICATION - For local and international calls from public phones, the use of Telecartes is advised. The Telecartes, which look like credit cards, can be purchased at the Gustavia, St. Jean and Lorient Post Offices, and at the gas station near the airport. There are only three coin telephones in the island (Two of them are at the Galeries du Commerce in St Jean). Le Centre Alizé in Gustavia offers connection to the Internet by the time spent using their equipment. Some hotels maintain an ISP account for guests, and offer the passwords on a temporary basis. But if you bring your personnal laptop, you can establish an account with a local service provider: PowerAntilles - tel: (590) 29 69 70 - Based in French St. Martin, which is local call from St. Barts, they offer short term accounts to visitors ($20/week), which can be quickly and easily established over the phone or by email. You can email to them at informations@powerantilles.com Good download speeds by local standards.

CREDIT CARDS - Traveler's checks and major credit cards are widely accepted.

CURRENCY - Legal tender is the French franc. The official exchange rate (through most of1999) was approximately 6FF for US$1.00.

DRINKING WATER - Tap water is drinkable in most places and excellent local bottled water is available in stores and restaurants.

ELECTRICITY - 220 volts AC, 60 Hz (outlets accept European-style two-round-prong plugs).

TIME - St-Barthélemy is on Atlantic standard time, one hour ahead of Eastern standard time.

WHAT TO WEAR - St. Barths is very informal. Casual sportsclothes in cotton, and other light fabrics are fine by day, as are jeans, T-shirts, etc. (Bathing suits are for the beach, pool, or yacht, but not for town.) At night, women often dress for dinner in whatever happens to be fashionable in resortwear. Ties and jackets are never required for men.