Planning a Trip to St. Lucia

Planning a trip to St. Lucia? These tips, ideas, suggestions, and pictures for hikes, attractions and food from our recent return visit will help!

I realized recently that I’ve reached that point in life where I say things like, “Ten years ago, we were…,” and I’m still talking about my adulthood. Not my youth, or high school, or even college. It’s been happening all the time lately. Ten years ago we moved back from Brazil, were traveling in South East Asia, bought our last house in Kentucky, and…

…visited St. Lucia. 

I can still remember the first time we went to a resort in the Caribbean.

We were on our honeymoon and I overheard conversations of couples that were celebrating their 4th anniversary and of those that were on their 12th visit to the island. My thoughts, then were – wow, that seems like forever away. Now my thoughts are – wow, we blew right past all that. 

Back then, we designated our resort trips to the Caribbean as our true vacation. We see a bit of the islands we visit, but spend a significant time reading and drinking rum. All other trips are travel – we go, go and see, see. But these trips are reserved for no pressure, just peace. 

We’ve stuck with it. This was trip number 16, in fact. Even with a move to California which makes it much more challenging to get to the islands, we keep it up. There is just something about it. 

Our typical time to go is around the holidays, but that has fluctuated a bit in recent years. We had this St. Lucia trip planned for the holiday season, but then when we remembered that I was turning 40 this October, and I vowed that I really wanted to be out of the country for the occasion, we moved the trip up to last week. 

I rarely get to writing trip recaps this soon after a visit, but there was something about this one that has me really wanting to sit down and write about it while going through my photos. 

The first time we went to St. Lucia we enjoyed it, but we were still infatuated with Jamaica. That infatuation remains, but there was something about St. Lucia this time around that had me in awe of the island from both a geographical and culinary standpoint. So as I attempt to share about it, I’ll work those somethings into tips should you hope to visit. 

ONE:  Hire private drivers. 

We’ve always stayed at Sandals. Like many resorts, they offer free transfer from the airport. This has been fine for most of our previous 15 trips, and still is if the commute is about 15 minutes. But after an eventful, hot trip back to the airport on our last visit to this island combined with being crammed into a bus with the fold-down seats occupied during last year’s trip to Jamaica, we decided that a private airport transfer is more than worth it. 

This year we hired Kurt of Island Man Taxi and Tour Service, an excellent choice. Great communication, careful driver, and we didn’t dread the rides to and from the airport. We also got to leave the resort a little later on our own, so that was a bonus. 

TWO:  Customize your own tour.  And hire a private driver. 

I’d blame it on my old age, if I hadn’t started to feel this way in my 20s, but I really dislike group tours. I’m a researcher, a travel writer, an adventurer. When we head to a destination, I know pretty much what I’d like to see and how I want to see it. I also get car sick really easily so I want to be on my own terms in regards to grabbing a break from the car. 

As a result, for our past several trips, we’ve hired drivers who will take us where we want to go while combining that with their local suggestions. This time around, we enlisted the help of Stanis’ Taxi Service. Our original plan was to hike the Tet Paul Nature Trail, eat at Fedo’s, stop by the St. Lucia Rum Distillery, and then go to a brewery on the island. Only one of those worked out (please see Be Flexible below). 

Stanis offered some other great suggestions on the fly and we ended up walking through the botanical garden, eating at Petit Peak Restaurant, and tasting rum. But he also added a stop at a banana plantation. I’m pretty sure he read my mind because I was going to ask him to do this throughout the day. He picked us up Dahl street food – fry bread stuffed with split peas and salted cod. Another winner for me. And swung us by a spot that made traditional cassava bread. I likely don’t need to express how much I enjoyed this. 

THREE:  Be flexible. 

As a traveler, you have to be flexible regardless of your destination, but this is even truer when visiting other countries, especially islands. The trail we wanted to hike was closed due to land disputes. The restaurant we wanted to go to was closed for vacation. The brewery was unexpectedly closed for repairs, which we learned after driving to it. The resort ran out of fresh limes for a while. Dinner orders got mixed up one night. 

The first few were disappointing, yes. But in all honesty, the rest really don’t bother us. You are visiting an island with limited supplies. Ships don’t come in, things sell out, customs and practices are often different than your own. It isn’t about YOU. I’ll repeat that so I can emphasize it to myself as well – as much as a vacation might be for our relaxation, the rest of it simply isn’t about us.

FOUR:  Find a balance between going and staying put. 

Everyone is different. Personally, I find it important to have a balance of things to do and time to rest that leans a little more on the side of time to rest. I revel in the act of doing nothing. I can sit and read and not talk for hours. At the same time, I hate to travel to a place and see it only through the windows of a resort.

And one must see St. Lucia. It is a stunning, mountainous place with generous, friendly people.

This trip we took the tour mentioned above and then another day we visited a sister resort with Pigeon Island next door which allowed for a hike around the historic grounds. That fit our doing budget just right. All other hours were filled with sleep, floating, reading, and rum sipping. 

Well, that’s enough of the talk. Now, I hope you’ll enjoy the pictures. Until next year…