Frequently Asked Questions about St Helena
And other useful information
The only stupid question is the one that is not asked.{a}
The answers to questions we are often asked about St Helena
The Frequently Asked Questions
If you have a question about St Helena that is not covered below, on our page Quick Facts or elsewhere on this site please contact us.
We also have a page of Frequently Asked Questions about this site relating to this website.
Index:
01: Where is St Helena, and how would I get there?
02: Do I need a visa and how can I get one?
03: Is your money the same as Britain?
05: Isn’t St Helena the place where Napoleon was exiled/died?
06: Will I see a Wirebird while I’m there?
07: When was St Helena discovered?
09: How is St Helena governed?
10: Can I immigrate to St Helena?
11: I’m a journalist writing about St Helena, can I ask you some questions?
14: Where can I get up-to-date news about St Helena?
15: What race are the people of St Helena?
16: What language is spoken on St Helena?
01: Where is St Helena, and how would I get there?
15°55’24.3”S; 5°43’3.5”W{1}, approximately 1,900Km west of the Angola/Namibia border in the South Atlantic Ocean.
See our page Where is St Helena? to learn more about St Helena. The scheduled commercial air service commenced on 14th October 2017 and now runs weekly, every Saturday, throughout the year with additional flights during our summer. Also see our page Getting Here for all the ways to get here, and our page Visitor Information to find out everything relevant you need to know about visiting.
02: Do I need a visa and how can I get one?
Visas are handled by the Government of St Helena. There is information on our page Visitor Information.
03: Is your money the same as Britain?
Our Pound (£, SHP) is worth the same as the British Pound (£, GBP) but we have our own notes and coins, though British money is accepted here (as are a few other currencies). Our page Notes and Coins of St Helena explains it all.
04: Did I pronounce it right?
If you pronounced it ‘Saint Heleeeeenah’ then yes, you got it right. Please do not pronounce it ‘Saint Helaynah’! See Our island’s name.
05: Isn’t St Helena the place where Napoleon was exiled/died?
It is. You can read about him on our page Napoleon, about where he stayed on our pages The Briars Pavilion & Longwood House and about his tomb on our page Napoleon’s Tomb.
But there’s a lot more to St Helena than Napoleon! Check out our Island Information pages to learn about the rest of our fascinating history, our culture and lifestyle, and many other things that make St Helena the most extraordinary place on Earth.
06: Will I see a Wirebird while I’m there?
We can’t guarantee it, but if you want to see a Wirebird it’s very likely you will succeed. The island-tour companies recommended on our page Visitor Information routinely find Wirebirds for visitors; otherwise ask the Tourist Information Office to recommend a tour guide that knows where the Wirebirds live, or contact the St Helena National Trust.
Wirebirds can usually be found, though a little walking may be required.
07: When was St Helena discovered?
Strangely, we’re not precisely sure! If there were any documents directly recoding our discovery they have not been found; probably lost in the Lisbon earthquake and fire in 1755. From other documents we can be sure that it was discovered by João da Nova, a Galician navigator sailing in the service of the King of Portugal, sometime in 1502, most probably on 3rd May. Many older histories of St Helena give our discovery date as 21st May 1502, but this is an error. All is explained on our page Discovery of St Helena.
08: Who owns St Helena now?
St Helena is currently a British Overseas Territory. It was settled in 1659 by The East India Company, became a Crown Colony in 1834 and has remained under the British Crown ever since.
09: How is St Helena governed?
Like any other British Overseas Territory, St Helena has a Governor, appointed by the UK Government, who has ultimate power over the territory. Since the 2009 Constitution the Governor is required to act in most things in accordance with the wishes of a democratically-elected Council, but there are caveats and exceptions to this, so we say St Helena is ‘nearly a democracy’. See our page Government on St Helena for more.
10: Can I immigrate to St Helena?
Yes - if you are sure you want to… See our page Could you live here? to help you analyse the advantages and disadvantages, then see our page Saints to read about the people you would be living with and our page Jobs on St Helena to figure out how you would support yourself.
11: I’m a journalist writing about St Helena, can I ask you some questions?
We’d be delighted to help! We’d like to help you write an informed article, unlike the ones on our page Do they mean us?! Please contact us. You may also find our page Quick Facts a good place to start.
12: How old is Jonathan?
As explained on our page Jonathan the tortoise, we can only estimate his age; we think him to be around years old.
13: What happens in the year?
You can read about the annual events and celebrations on our pages This Year and Holidays and other festivals.
14: Where can I get up-to-date news about St Helena?
Your options are:
All of the above carry the latest St Helena news.
15: What race are the people of St Helena?
Human!☺ But if you’re enquiring about our ethnicity, saints that have traced their ancestry found elements of European, African and Asian, coming primarily from English Settlers and the formerly-enslaved (from various sources) but with contributions by visitors and sailors from all over the world.
16: What language is spoken on St Helena?
English is the official language. Most Saints, however, amongst themselves, speak a derivation of English which can initially be quite hard to understand, even by native English speakers. This dialect is commonly referred to as ‘Saint’. (Fortunately, for you, Saints will happily speak with you in normal English.)
Some other languages are spoken but only by people who acquired them overseas - none are taught in the island’s schools.
17: Can you help me with…?
People often ask us to help them with St Helena-related projects, such as researching family history, relocating here, getting jobs, buying and selling things and even getting messages to people. Sadly our resources are very limited and we can’t help with them all. Such help as we can give is summarised on our page Help With; an index to other pages with useful information. We hope you find it a useful starting point.
Peculiar Questions Asked
We publish our email address and get emails every day asking questions about St Helena. Most ask familiar questions which are already answered above or elsewhere on Saint Helena Island Info. Some ask interesting questions, to which we always respond as helpfully as we can. And some… Some are just odd and the only reply we could really give is a facetious one. Being polite we actually don’t but if we did this is what we might have written{2}:
| Question | How we might have answered (if we hadn’t resisted the temptation…☺) |
|---|---|
| Do I need a passport to enter St Helena? | Most people show a passport, but actually we accept just about anything here - driving licence, Blockbuster Membership Card, used rail ticket, whatever you have. You might have problems if you offer a Membership Card for ISIS or Al-Qaeda, but… |
| Is my passport stamped at St Helena or in London? | In London. Our passport stamp went missing in 1984 and we haven’t yet got around to replacing it. So we take your passport at the airport, send it by post to London for stamping and wait until it comes back. This rarely takes longer than three months. |
| I have developed a product that restores youth. Where can I sell it in St Helena? | Anywhere where American tourists gather. |
| We looked at your website but couldn’t tell - are you the St Helena Island near Baltimore in the USA? | We understand your confusion. The fact that we are in the South Atlantic is only mentioned 945 times on the site (at the last count) so we understand why you might have missed it. No, we are not near Baltimore, USA - we are in the South Atlantic (946). |
| I’ll be in California in June. What should I see in St Helena? | There is a great deal to see in St Helena, but you might find it rather a long excursion from California… |
| Where is the St Helena Embassy in Nigeria? | Although St Helena has embassies in every other country in the world - even North Korea and Antarctica - for some reason we seem to have forgotten to open one in Nigeria. You will have to use the British Embassy instead. Sorry. |
| There’s another St Helena in Australia. Is there any connection? | Yes. We both have the same name. |
| Didn’t Napoleon have something to do with St Helena? | No, not really. He was only here for about 1% of our history. |
| I’ll be staying in Longwood. Where will be my nearest McDonalds? | Probably Swakopmund (Namibia), but the ones in Johannesburg are easier to get to. |
Credits:
{a} Hull, E., K. Jackson, et al., in ‘Requirements engineering, Springer’ (2005)