Travel Review: St. Lucia
St. Lucia was my first experience with traveling to the Caribbean, and I have to say, it made an amazing first impression! This St. Lucia travel review will help you get an idea of just some of the MANY things to do on this gorgeous island.
Guys, I’m going to be completely honest with you right now, I am not a beach person. I am basically incapable of relaxing, and I have the kind of skin that gets sunburned just thinking about the sun.
Don’t get me wrong, beaches are gorgeous. Every time I look at pictures of the Caribbean, islands in the South Pacific, and elsewhere around the world, I think it’s just breathtaking!
When I say I’m not a beach person, I don’t mean that I don’t appreciate the beaches and their beauty, and the activities there are along them. I mean I can’t get myself to lay out for a couple of hours for some of the reasons mentioned above!
My husband is the relaxing on the beach type, and I’m an on-the-go type of traveler. After reading all the St. Lucia travel reviews, we decided this was the island for us based on how many activities there were (between relaxing, of course!).
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Things to know before you travel
A few helpful tips:
St. Lucia uses type G sockets. Make sure you have a travel adapter that will work for your electronics!
St. Lucia weather is either wet or dry. We went in the beginning of December, and the weather was perfect for laying on the beach. If it did rain, it would be very quick and the sun would come back out almost immediately!
If you’re concerned about the rain when you go, check out this awesome and compact travel umbrella.
MY ABSOLUTE FAVORITE TRAVEL COMPANION: A portable luggage scale. If you’re ever concerned about overpacking on the way there, or bringing home too many souvenirs, this will really help ease your mind.
And last, but not least, I always like to take a travel guide with me whenever I go somewhere new.
St. Lucia Resorts
There are a variety of St. Lucia hotels and resorts and the price ranges do vary a little.
It all really depends on what you’re looking to get out of your resort. We stayed at Windjammer Landing, and you can see my full review of the resort here.
When we went in 2016, Windjammer offered the option of either pay as you go for food and drinks, or all-inclusive. We went with the all-inclusive package, and we’d do the same next time we visit!
Related: Hotel Review – Windjammer Landing, St Lucia
St. Lucia is popular with honeymooners, and the Windjammer was really great for romance with couples as well as family vacations.
St. Lucia Things to Do
There seem to be plenty of activities everywhere in the Caribbean, but we chose St. Lucia because of the different landscape it seemed to offer.
The Pitons in St. Lucia are a tourist attraction, and one of the main postcard images of the island. The Pitons are volcanic plugs that look like moss-covered mountains. They’re beautiful.
St. Lucia also has a rainforest that covers most of the island, and in general the island has quite a hilly landscape.
On our ride from the airport to the hotel (about a 45-60 minute drive), the roads were winding and very curvy. If you get motion sickness in these types of situations (like myself), you may want to prepare ahead of time and know to expect this!
Aside from activities offered at the resort, there were tons of options for additional excursions (that you pay extra for) both through the resort and other agencies.
We did not book any of these excursions through the resort. This trip was the second time in my life that I have used a travel agent (totally recommend it in this situation – traveling somewhere you don’t know much about and have never been), and she set us up with a representative from a company called Solar Tours.
The representative came to our hotel the day after our arrival and met with us and went over the excursion options. When we decided what we wanted to do, he booked everything for us and arranged transportation to pick us up from the hotel and drop us off afterward.
It was unbelievably effortless!
Other activities offered both through Windjammer Landing and Solar Tours include (descriptions are of the activities and excursions we participated in specifically):
Land and Sea Tour
If you are only going to choose one St. Lucia excursion, this is my number one recommendation if you’d like to get a feel of the entire island and see everything it has to offer.
It was an all day tour, departing in the morning after breakfast and returning for dinner (lunch was included in the price of the tour).
The tour started by taking a bus down to the area with the Pitons, with stops along the way including Castries, Marigot Bay, Diamond Falls Botanical Gardens, and Sulphur Springs.
The tour included lunch before we continued to Soufriere and from there returned back to the other end of the island by catamaran.
The catamaran was fun, there was a DJ, bar, and dancing (if you chose to!). They also stopped the catamaran to give people who wanted a chance to get out and go for a swim or do some snorkeling!
They did provide snorkels for you to use, but I would advise to bring your own. A friend of mine (who snorkels a lot when she travels) recommended this, and we didn’t do it. But I really wish we had.
I’m saying this because the snorkels are in salt water, and even though they may be cleaned, they still had an extremely salty taste when we were using them.
Honestly, if you plan to snorkel anywhere, please consider bringing your own. There are varying price points, and I really believe you’ll enjoy the experience more!
I loved being able to see different aspects of the island by driving through it, and then again from the sea. You can also take the tour by land only, or by sea only, depending on your preferences!
Visiting the Rainforest of St. Lucia
We loved ziplining, and I would highly recommend this if you’re up for it!
I honestly was a little nervous at first, but once I went down a line or two it was so much fun! They had us go on practice lines before going into the rainforest.
It involves a little bit of hiking, but to me (not a hiker by any means) it was more of a leisurely walk from post to post. The guides were great and pointed out various types of flowers, plants and vegetation along the way.
If you’re not into ziplining, you can also take an aerial tram tour of the rainforest!
My only regret for honestly this entire vacation is that we didn’t have our GoPro with us. We bought it for vacations after this trip, but having it while zip lining, or doing any of these activities really, would have been perfect!
St. Lucia Volcano
On the land and sea tour, we had the option of staying on the bus to go through the drive-in volcano, or doing the mud bath.
We chose the mud bath at the Sulphur Springs, but those in our group that went through the volcano loved it!
Mud Bath
They say there is something in these waters that help with skin issues and blemishes.
I don’t know for sure about any of that, but I can say this was an interesting and somewhat relaxing experience!
First, you get into your swimsuit and slather yourself in the mud which is the runoff from the volcano.
Once the mud dries, you take a dip in the nice, warm (and somewhat small) pool with the sulphur water.
The smell can be a bit overpowering at first, but I was able to get used to it fairly quickly!
After washing off in the pool, there are showers so you can get any remaining mud off yourself. I’m really happy we chose to do this!
Diamond Falls Botanical Gardens
This is such a beautiful place with some gorgeous flowers and plants! We did this part on the land and sea tour as well, and we had a guided tour through part of the gardens. You can also see the Diamond Falls waterfall here!
Shopping in Downtown Castries
Another fun experience was going shopping in downtown Castires. Pointe Seraphine is a very nice collection of shops with various types of things for sale; souvenirs, rum, clothes, jewelry, etc.
Downtown Castries also has a flea market and a large shopping hall with stalls from various local vendors.
More Things to Do in St. Lucia
- Day trips to Martinique and the Granadines
- Gros Islet street party
- Anse La Raye fish fry
- Dolphin and whale watching
- Horseback riding on the beach
- Snorkeling
- Kayaking we did this at the resort only, but there are other areas of the island where you can kayak as well!
And that’s just to name a few! There’s so much more to do and I really encourage you investigate it!
Using a travel agent
We used a local travel agent since we had not been to the Caribbean before. While I’ve traveled enough in Europe to feel comfortable booking everything on my own, I found the travel agent to be extremely valuable, and it only ended up costing us $50 extra to use her (I was expecting it to be much more).
The travel agent helped us choose a destination. We gave her our interests and a budget, and from there she made her recommendations.
She gave us a few hotel options in each, most of which she had personally been to. Once we decided on St. Lucia, she was able to give us quotes on additional hotels we were looking into. She coordinated our flights, transportation to and from the airport on departure and arrival days, and set us up with the Solar Tours representative to book our excursions.
Although we didn’t need it, she was available to help us with any hiccups that may have come up during our trip.
Overall Experience
This was one of the best vacations I have been on!
I have only one complaint about the entire trip, and that is nothing that could have been changed…my car sickness!
I got queasy on the car ride from the airport to the hotel, as they are located on opposite ends of the island and there are quite a lot of winding roads to get from place to place.
This was the only time I felt a little sick, and was easily remedied by closing my eyes…which is really unfortunate because you could really get a good glimpse of the island outside of your resort and tourist attractions!
I loved everything about St. Lucia and I hope to return someday soon! Don’t forget to check out my review on the Windjammer Landing Resort!
How about you? Have you taken a St. Lucia vacation? What are your recommendations of things to do on the island?