xkenx

IMO Barbados blows away St.Lucia for beaches, nitelife, restaurants, lovely people, sightseeing. I'd recommend all the time on B'dos. One week is not much time for two islands with all the airport/packing-unpacking time. If you do split, make it heavy on Barbados. We hit the highlights of St. Lucia in a full day a few years ago. You're just scratching the surface after a few days in Barbados. While St. Lucia has real natural beauty, and Barbados is more built up, once you get away from the congested coastal strip of Barbados, there is a beautiful tropical island. There are plantations, animal preserve, a cave to tour, rum factory, tropical gardens, the wild east coast which resembles outer Cape Cod. Of Flower Forest, a spectacular tropical garden/forest, a visitor once wrote in their guest book, "If I owned Paradise and Flower Forest, I'd rent out Paradise and live in Flower Forest."
See www.barbados.org

beachdreams3

Suzy_Q,

Are you sure your flight from NY is into SLU? As far as I know, only smaller planes are allowed there, and the only flights that originate from the US and land in SLU are the prop planes from SJU. There is a nonstop from JFK into UVF which arrives around 3 pm. So, basically, you lose that whole day to travel. If you then leave for Barbados on 3/19, you really only have two nights in St. Lucia. Whether that is enough depends on what you like to do. From Rodney Bay, I did a full day "Land and Sea" tour to the south part of the island which I highly recommend. Some people also like to do a zipline tour or hike in the rainforest, or even climb the Piton mountains. If you are going to spend more time in Barbados and less in St. Lucia, I would recommend that you wait until you get to Barbados for most of your beach time and shopping, although if I went back to St. Lucia, I would like to visit the beach and snorkel at Jalousie Plantation between the Piton mountains. To give you an idea of some of the things you can do, I'm including a link to some websites that offer tours in St. Lucia:

www.Barefootholidays.com
www.Sunlinktours.com

I'm more of a beach bum and only spent five days on Barbados and didn't really do any of the sightseeing that the previous poster discussed. I visited south, west, and east coast beaches and did some shopping and dining out, which was what I wanted for my vacation.

BTW, it is your vacation, so don't be unduly influenced by the preferences of a bunch of strangers on the internet. I think if you spend some time reading about the wide range of things to do on both islands and going through some trip reports, that will help you figure out how to split your time and which activities you will enjoy most.

Steviegene,

Thanks for all the details you posted about St. John; it will definitely help me when I plan a future trip there!

joethekid

Go to St. John. The best list of properties, dear Fellow Fodorites, is at www.stjohnvillarental.com.

Knowing

I have similar feelings as xkenx. Barbados is a whole different class of service. And 6-7 days is a decent amount of time for one island, but I wouldn't do two islands with that amount of time. That gets to be a lot of airport sitting time and adds cost to your trip. But that's up to you.

jwilson0070

Hi Suzy_Q,

You're right about avoiding the spring break crowd, and I know just the place. http://www.harbourheightscayman.com/ is a very low key condo/resort located in the Grand Cayman Islands that is just for you. The staff is very friendly and the other guests are just as nice. They offer pretty low rates and offer a variety of activities.

The resort is located on the Seven Mile Beach and it couldn't be any more relaxing.

Hopefully you make a decision soon.

Suzy_Q

So we finally booked flights and hotels! We're doing 3 nights in St. Lucia and 4 nights in Barbados.

Now that it's all reserved I'm getting pretty excited. I wanted to thank you all for your suggestions and help. We could not have booked this trip w/o you all!

Any suggestions for what to do/where to eat/shop/go out are of course, always welcome!

Will definitely follow up with a Trip Report on this one later in March!

Suzy_Q

Btw, we are staying at the Coco Palm in St. Lucia, thank you beachdreams3! And we're staying at the Silver Point Villa Hotel in Barbados.

beachdreams3

Suzy,

I hope you have a great trip.

I'm sure others will be able to help with restaurant recommendations; it has been about five years since I was in Barbados, and I didn't eat at that many restaurants in St. Lucia since I spent several days at an all-inclusive resort.

Anyway, my recommendations for Barbados are: Oistins fish fry (outdoor event on Friday nights, maybe other nights, inexpensive), Just Grillin (casual, lunch or dinner at Accra Beach or new location on west coast, inexpensive), and Champers (south coast, more expensive). I traveled solo and did not rent a car, so I didn't go to some of the nicer, more romantic restaurants on the West Coast.

My recommendations for St. Lucia in the Rodney Bay area are: The Edge (Caribbean-Asian fusion, expensive)and Red Snapper (moderate). One night, I just took pizza back to my room, so those were the only sit-down restaurants I went to for dinner in RB. Other options that might be good choices, depending on your preferences and budget are: Spinnakers (beach bar), Razamatazz (Indian, people seem to love it), the Lime (local food, also recommended for nightlife), Ku de Thai, Cafe Claude (recommended for breakfast and lunch), and Memories of Hong Kong. If you decide to venture away from Rodney Bay, the Rainforest Hideaway in Marigot Bay or the Coal Pot near the Castries area are supposed to be really good too (expensive).

brenandg

We haven't been to St Lucia since 2004 and I know that alot of things have changed. By that I mean new hotels, restaurants etc. I loved The Coal Pot on St Lucia. I really think it is the best Caribbean lobster I have had to date, I would also love to have have gone to The Friday Night Fish Fry at Anse LaRaye on STL. The zip lines look like fun too!

Knowing

There is always something to do while you are in Barbados! The nightclubs are mainly located in St Lawrence Gap area. They feature live entertainment most nights during the week. Most bands play local music like reggae. A number of the resorts and hotels also have live entertainment nightly.
You can visit the Bacardi rum plant. Make sure you sample the beer of Barbados called Banks while you are there.
Dining in Barbados is elegant and very tasteful. In fact, we think it's one of the best places for dining in the Caribbean.

Suzy_Q

We wanted to plan a full-day tour in St. Lucia, see the Pitons, the springs etc. Between these two operators, who would you suggest:

www.Barefootholidays.com
www.Sunlinktours.com

Any suggestions for the best package with either of these two?

Thanks in advance!