Visa and entry requirements Montserrat:
Passport required
No visa is required

Information from the Foreign Office about your Montserrat trip:
https://www.auswaertiges-amt.de/de/grossbritanniensicherheit/206408

The island of Montserrat is an overseas territory of the United Kingdom with a population of around 5,000. The small Caribbean island is geographically part of the Lesser Antilles and is located in the southwest of Antigua, southeast of Nevis and northwest of the French island of Guadeloupe.

The official language on Montserrat is English and the island's currency is the common East Caribbean dollar, where 1 euro corresponds to around 3 XCD. Montserrat is now considered the safest island in the entire Caribbean.

The largest towns in Montserrat include Little Bay, Davy Hill, Brades, Salem, Geralds, St. Johns, Old Town, Woodlands, St. Georges Hill and Frith.

The island of Montserrat is of volcanic origin and is home to the Soufriere Hills volcano, which is still active today. After a gap of around 400 years, a large part of the island was devastated after its eruption in 1995. The volcano completely reduced the then capital, Plymouth, with its almost 8,000 inhabitants to rubble, so that the entire southern part of the island of Montserrat has been closed since then.

As a result of the volcanic eruption, many residents fled the island and the population shrank massively to only around 2,000 people. The British government originally wanted to temporarily abandon the island of Montserrat entirely, but this failed due to the enormous resistance of the remaining island residents. The Caribbean island of Montserrat now has a population of around 5,000 people again.

The capital Plymouth, which was only rebuilt after the severe Hurricane Hugo in 1989, was finally abandoned in 1997 after the volcanic eruption and complete destruction. The small town of Little Bay in the north of the island was now built as the new capital. However, the city of Plymouth is still the legal capital of Montserrat, with zero residents.

In the early years, the Caribbean island of Montserrat was particularly well known among musicians. In the 1980s, the “Air Studios” of former Beatles producer George Martin, who temporarily lived on Montserrat, were located on the Caribbean island. Over time, many renowned musicians, such as Dire Straits, The Police, OMD, Paul McCartney and Phil Collins, came to him to record their new albums.

In July 2015 I traveled to the volcanic island of Montserrat for the only time so far. With the ferry from St. John's in Antigua, which leaves three times a week for Montserrat, I reached the island after a journey of around two hours.

My planned stay of three days ended up being five days. I originally wanted to take a ferry from there to Guadeloupe, but this connection had since been canceled without my information. So I had to wait for the next flight back to Antigua because the timetable of the departing ferries was really very inaccurate.

But the five days on the beautiful island of Montserrat will definitely remain in my memory forever, what a fantastic trip. During this time I stayed with Jennifer, who I luckily found on the internet portal "Couchsurfing" and who let me stay in her chic hostel for just an unbelievable 10 euros per night.

Jennifer also picked me up from the port in her car and took me to her house, not far from the volcano monitoring center. This huge and majestic volcano, Soufriere, seemed simply enormous, like the absolute ruler of this Caribbean island.

On the first day, out of sheer curiosity, I visited the Montserrat Volcano Observatory and the National Museum of Montserrat to find out pretty much everything about the history of this island.

In the days that followed, all the islanders were incredibly friendly and helpful in a way I had never experienced anywhere else on my travels around the world. It was just a lot of fun to be spoken to in a friendly manner by many people on the island or even, as a foreign visitor, to talk to complete strangers on every street corner, unique in this world.

A really very emotional moment of this trip was the visit to the old capital, Plymouth. For me it was simply unimaginable that all the people living there were so suddenly torn from their normal lives. Apart from the large church spire, which only stands out a few meters, the huge volcano was left with only rubble and ash after its eruption, what a cruel sight.

All that could be seen far and wide of the former city of Plymouth was gray ash, unimaginable where a vibrant, newly rebuilt capital once stood. In the swimming pool of the former 5-star hotel, the volcanic ash reached up to the top edge and the reception deck only just peeked out of the ash. This sight after the volcanic eruption was really one of the saddest moments in my entire time traveling through all the countries in the world.

Montserrat, a quiet and tranquil Caribbean island with an impressive landscape where you can hardly find a restaurant, is nevertheless a fantastic place in the world that cannot be surpassed in terms of friendliness.

Thank you for an unforgettable time.