Live on Martha’s Vineyard long enough and you might pick up some strong opinions about the Island. For every other island out there, we imagine there are plenty of locals with equally strong opinions about their home. So, we decided to call them up and ask them.

The Island: Nevis, the Caribbean

The Islander: Greg Phillip

The story In Brief: Nevis, a thirty-six-square-mile island in the Caribbean Sea, is home to about 13,000 people. Named Oualie or “land of beautiful waters” by the Indigenous people of the Lesser Antilles, the island is famous for an impactful export: Alexander Hamilton. Greg Phillip, a passionate Nevisian, runs Nevis Sun Tours.

History Has Its Eyes on Hamilton: Historians and locals have always known that the founding father and Federalist spent his early childhood on the island. “I remember, as a teenager, having a red T-shirt that said, ‘Alexander Hamilton and I are 100% Nevisians,’” said Phillip, who leads a Hamilton-focused tour. But Ron Chernow’s book and Lin-Manuel Miranda’s musical have recently sparked a Hamilton mania, with visitors traveling just to see his birthplace. 

Stay Alive: 2026 marks 250 years since Hamilton helped found our “great unfinished symphony” of a country – and Phillip thinks that Hamilton’s future success and entrepreneurial spirit was influenced by his early days on the island. “Nevis would have been an island where you ate what you grew, and you grew what you ate,” he said. “You had to make it.”

Young, Scrappy, and Hungry: What did people grow and eat on the island back then? Some of that local cuisine is still enjoyed today, including something called goat water. “Let me tell you, it tastes better than it sounds,” Phillip said. Goat water is a rich goat stew that’s often made on Saturday or Sunday. “I always say that if you’re a goat on this island and you made it through the weekend, you could breathe a sigh of relief.”

Satisfied: Phillip is happy to see the increased interest in his home island and welcomes history buffs on his tours. He also hopes that the world comes to understand all that Nevis has to offer, especially in terms of its flavors. Eventually, he’d like to see just a few more restaurants serving the food of Nevis throughout the world. That would be enough.