My husband and I have been to St. Lucia before and seen the major sights there. Our February 2008 cruise lands us there for a day. We are interested in seeing the rainforest and in particular the rainforest aerial tram. Any reason why we'd have to use the ship excursion (or any other island excursion company for that matter) for this rather than just hire a taxi when we get off the ship to take us to the rainforest? Thanks!

The only reason I would ever consider an over priced ship excursion is that they are responsible for getting you back to the ship before it sails. You will pay far less at the pier for an excursion since you can negotiate a better price, especially if you have a number of people going on the excursion with you. (Helpful if you happen to meet some other couples who are also interested in same excursion and into saving some money). Make sure you hire a "licensed" tour guide. There are a number of locals who will offer huge discounts, and they may give you a fabulous tour but who knows....A rule of thumb my husband and I follow is, how long is the tour? What time does ship sail? If we have 8 hours on an island and the tour is 7 hours long I wouldn't do it, anything can happen and that's cutting it close.
The rainforest is spectacular and if possible try to get to the volcano (I believe there is a combined tour) it's fascinating to walk into the volcano and see it bubbling and steaming. Have a great time St. Lucia is a beautiful island.

wow, I was going to ask the same exact question. the cruise excursion price seems very high. Do you have any idea what the cost is without going through the cruise line for the aerial tram through the rainforest and what the taxi would be?
When we were at St. Thomas last year, we hired a taxi for the 'day' and it worked out incredibly well, however it was for a tour and to go to the beach, not for a very specific activity. For the rainforest tour or aerial tram do you need reservations ahead of time?

You could contact Cosol tours in St. Lucia and inquire through them. They get rave reviews from everyone who posts about them.

Keep in mind that you will be at the Northen end of the island when your ship comes in and you will more than likely have to travel about 1 hour each way to get to a rain forest tour - the southern end of the island takes 1.5 hours to get to and is where the Pitons are located and the higher elevations. St. Lucia is full of rain forests, but mostly the southern half of the island for the better ones.

Thanks to both of you for your information. Having seen the volcano before, is there anything else anyone can recommend for St. Lucia? Is the snorkeling particularly good anywhere in/around St. Lucia or just so-so, as we have found so much in the Caribbean? Also, I'm hearing now that the aerial tram isn't very good in that you really only see the tops of trees. Can anyone here comment on that? Thanks - Claire