lejonmichelle

I hope I did not make a mistake, but, I threw the vacation dart and it hit St. Lucia. What seemed to be a great toss, I purchased the inclusive trip for my wife and I to the Sandals Regency. Now, I read a lot of bad reviews! How bad can it be though? If anybody has any insider scoop as we are there for 9 days.

Can I call ahead for dinner reservations?
Do you make reservations at the regency for the grand?

Cool things i can impress my wife with would also be appreciated.

sleeepy

You did not make a mistake. Sandals is a love/hate thing. You'll find just as many good reviews. The only thing I think most agree on is that the food is just okay.

We stayed at the Grande last year. Loved it. We ate at the Regency and Halcyon (make reservations your FIRST day for the week for LaToc, Kimonos and the Pier).

Lots to do in St. Lucia - you will not be bored unless you try!! I highly recommend the All Day Sail/Adventure Sail to Soufriere - best bang for the buck. Book your excursions within 24 hours of your arrival and book the excursion the first day it's offered - if you have to cancel/reschedule, you should have one other day you could do it. Don't book all day excursions on the same days you have dinner reservations - you'll be too crunched for time unless you can book an 8:30 reservation (I think generally reservations for those few restaurants are 6:30 and 8:30 - others don't need 'em). You cannot call prior to your arrival.

Enjoy!!!

brenandg

I think you will be fine. We stayed at the Regency twice and did see a bit of decline in the food the second time. While I don't think we would stay at a Sandal's property again, I have no regrets about having stayed there, although we went with lower priced room categories. We met some great people during our stays. You should absolutely make sure that you get off of the resort and check out St Lucia. It is really beautiful. Recommend as sleeepy did, a day sail, or land and sea tour to Soufriere. We hired a taxi for the day to go where we wanted, but whatever works for you. The Castries Market is fun for a couple of hours. I recommend getting your own taxi as opposed to the Sandal's shopping trip. Since you have nine days there, you also might want to look into a day trip to the Grenadines. That would be a cool thing to impress your wife with!

lejonmichelle

Thanks for the replys, I am excited about the trip, really! How does the all day taxi work? did you negotiate with the driver? what was your cost? will they stop for cocktails along the way? Did you get the cab out front of the resort or did the consierge (sp) arrange it for you?

We are going with another couple and they dont arrive for several hours after us, do you think I can book their reservations so we can eat together?

Any help would be appreciated

sleeepy

Try Cosoltours.com (I think that's the site) - nothing but great reviews and VERY reasonable prices. There was a guy we met on the Grande's beach named Charlie (Soronson, I think), who approached us about taking us on a trou, but being our first trip, we were leary to go anywhere with someone we didn't know, etc. I wish I knew more because several couples we met did a tour with him and LOVED LOVED LOVED him. The locals can really give you a great flavor of the island, know the hot spots and can explain quite a bit. Not everyone is a great tour guide, but those 2 I can confidently recommend. But do the Soufriere Day Sail also. Then do the taxi to the rest of the island (there's so much!!!).

sleeepy

actually, it's cosol-tours.com (just looked it up).

brenandg

If you get a taxi driver, they will do whatever you want for the day. When we took taxis to Castries, the drivers always gave us a card if we wanted them for anything else. Definitely negotiate a price. Also, chat with the bartenders , they may know of someone. For your first night, and no reservations, I would recommend Armando's, the Italian restuarant on the bluff area. Nice outdoor seating area. One thing that bugged me about Sandal's is they rotate closing the restaurants. The schedule will be posted.

lejonmichelle

Excellent, info! Thanks for the help. If you think of anything else...Oh one more thing, did you convert dollars over or did you use US dollars (assuming you are from US). Should I bring a lot of small denomination money for tipping? What did you do?

brenandg

US dollars are widely accepted but yes, bring plenty of small demoninations. Just curious what room category you booked? If you have been reading reviews, you probably know that the beach at The Regency is often rough. The Beach Grill food we thought was pretty bad, but a burger would do in a pinch. BTW, Armando's also serves breakfast and lunch. The breakfast was pretty mediocore when we ate there, but lunch was quite good. It is either buffet or off the menu. The calzones for lunch are pretty good. I liked the salmon and lamb chops there as well. It was probably our favorite restaurant. Kimino's is fun, but pretty generic "Japanese" food.

Thinking more about the taxi issue, if you are traveling with another couple, I bet you could negotiate a pretty good price per couple for a day trip. Four or five hours should be plenty for a day trip and seeing the sights. If you like to snorkel, one of the day sails that sleeepy mentioned might be a better option. One taxi company too that comes to mind is philliptoursstlucia.com and another named Fabian get good reviews. Don't know Fabians contact info without some archive searching.

One last thing, if you tire of the food a bit (we did) and want to go off resort for dinner, I highly recommend The Coal Pot in Castries. Excellent food and atmosphere. The lobster was exceptional!

brenandg

Oops, wanted to mention the neat formula to easily calculate EC to USD that I learned from Sunnyboy on this forum. Dived the EC number by three and add 10% of that number. It does come out close and not hard to do in your head.

lejonmichelle

More great data! Thanks so much. I am hoping that this thing comes together. We booked the premium room, nothing special as we thought we would not be in there to much. Reading the reviews I think we made a good choice, as the upgraded rooms seem to fall short of the expectations of the guests. I wanted to do that jungle swing thing but again, reading the reviews, it sounds like much to do about nothing. I will wait for the trip to Costa Rica for that expierence. Reading your posts brings up a good point about off resort resturants. If you have any other suggestions, we sure would appreciate it. Thanks again......1 month till wheels up!

jersey

brenandg-I'm not great in math, but doesn't that just work out to about 30%? For someone like me, who is math challenged, it's easier for me to figure 30%. Please correct my math blunders if that doesn't figure correctly.

I'm off to St. Lucia in four weeks. Woohoo! We're staying at Ti Kaye.

lejonmichelle

Hey its 4 weeks for me also! We plan to start working the weekends researching. Gotta get the most bang for the buck!

lejonmichelle

Just took a look at Ti Kaye, that looks extremely cool. No swim up bar though. You can see where my prioities are.

beachdreams3

Jersey,

Your math is not quite right. Assuming an exchange rate of $2.65 EC for each $1 US (which is what I got at when I exchanged money at the hotel and what was used in many restaurants), each EC $ is worth about 38 cents US. I'm usually OK at doing math in my head, but I found this exchange rate hard to compute mentally, so I did two things. I memorized a few equivalents (e.g., $10 EC = $3.77 US) that I could multiply or divide pretty easily, and I made up a conversion sheet using excel that I sometimes carried with me. I didn't use my conversion sheet much because I felt like an idiot pulling it out in front of other people though. If you use US $, they will almost always round up because they don't seem to have any US coins and probably want to make a little extra money from tourists.

Kawag

Your choice of islands is at the top of my list. It is very lush and has some great scenery. We stayed at the Grande 2 years ago and only made it to the Regency for 1 dinner at Kimonos which we really enjoyed. Our friends went to "Arizonas??" and also loved it. If you get a chance it would be worth a trip to the Grande to hike to the top of pigeons point which is the peak right beside the resort. There is a small fee as I believe it is considered parkland. It gives you a fabulous view of the surrounding area and neighbouring islands. If your week turns out to be hot, it would be best to go early in the morning. Enjoy!

jersey

Lejon-that's why I'm going with my love, he's great at going for drinks!

Beachdreamer-thanks for the correction. I'm the first to admit math isn't my strong suit. I guess I'll hand the money conversion over to my husband also. He is very handy not to mention the love of my life.

Kawag- we spend one day on the beach then one day doing something physical. While I'm not sure about hiking the Pitons I've been considering the gardens and maybe rainforest hike. Also a day sail sounds good to me. I like to plan ahead and book at the last minute (for tours at least). I'm very committed to doing whatever grabs my fancy each morning.

dominick2

Jersey -
If your math is good enough to calculate 30%, multiply the EC price by 40% to give you a real rough idea of the equivalent US $$$ price. This equates to an exchange rate of $2.50EC per US dollar, which is slightly below the official rate of $2.68. (By the way, you actually get a slightly better rate if you are exchanging travellers checks than cash -- not sure why that is.) However, as a practical matter, it is the correct calculation if you are buying something from a street merchant or paying a cab driver, since that is the exchange rate that most of them use. The reason that they use that (aside from the fact that it is easier and the fact that it nets them a little bit more money) is that most of them would rather be paid in EC dollars than US dollars. It is a pain in the neck for them to exchange US money to local currency because the lines at the banks are usually long and they move very slowly. As a result, they charge a premium which saves you the hassle of exchanging money.
Brenandg points out that the beach at the Regency tends to get rough. While it is true that the beach is often not as calm as the typical Caribbean beach, it is normally not nearly as rough as a typical day at the Jersey Shore or in the Hamptons. We often take our three year old kids to that beach and, even when the red flags are up, it is usually calm enough for them to play in the water -- with life jackets on, that is...
The resort itself is beautiful so, in my opinion, lejonmichelle, you didn't make a mistake. Have a great vacation.

Kawag

Just to clarify the hike I was referring to...it isn't the Pitons...it's more of a short hike to the top of an "escarpment". The location is located beside the Sandals Grande property. Hope this helps!

jersey

Thanks everyone!