Ladera for 3 days in December
Aug 1st, 2006, 12:13 PM
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Ladera for 3 days in December
Hello. My husband and I are planning a trip to Ladera on St. Lucia the first week in December. We would arrive on the island on December 2 and depart on December 6. This would give us four nights and three full days. Do you think this would be enough time to fully enjoy the resort? We have always wanted to go there, but the travel time (from Minneapolis) is considerable, so I'm a little concerned about such a brief stay. Also, would this be a good time of year for a visit? Any advice would be greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance.
Aug 1st, 2006, 12:32 PM
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Though it would certainly be preferable if you could stay longer, I'm of the mindset that it's better to go for 4 nights than not at all. I don't know what kind of travel time you're looking at, coming from MSP. If you don't plan to leave the resort at all, I'd say it was time to fully enjoy it, but I daresay that once you see how beautiful st. Lucia is, you may want to get out a bit to explore.
December should be a good time to go. You'll probably still get scattered rain each day (it's in a RAIN forest) but not prolonged showers.
December should be a good time to go. You'll probably still get scattered rain each day (it's in a RAIN forest) but not prolonged showers.
Aug 1st, 2006, 04:07 PM
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You weren't kidding about the long travel time from Minneapolis! I did a search for the heck of it because I know that it is a long day to St Lucia from Detroit. Do you have your flights booked already? Like ej said though, better to go than not go. You will surely lose 2 full days to travel. Even if you only have 3 full days, I would explore a little one of them, maybe the day in the middle for a half day if there is something you want to do. As to the weather, we have been twice within a week of your time span and the weather was fine. We noticed a few of those liquid sunshine showers.
Aug 1st, 2006, 05:16 PM
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Yes, we have flights on hold until tomorrow. We leave Mpls at 5:30 a.m. and arrive St. Lucia at 3:24 p.m. (one stop in Atlanta). On the return trip, we leave St. Lucia at 1:15 p.m. and return to Mpls at 11:36 p.m. (stopping in Barbados and Atlanta). You are right - we lost two full days to travel! I think we'll plan to spend the majority of our time relaxing at the resort, and as brenandg suggested, take the middle day for some exploration. It seems like a lot of travel time to me for just three days of relaxation, but it sounds like those three days would be really wonderful! Thanks for your input!
Aug 2nd, 2006, 12:36 PM
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I was able to change our flight slightly on the return to eliminate the Barbardos leg, which also had the bonus of reducing the ticket price considerably! We are flying Delta. Our revised itinerary has us leaving St. Lucia at 4:14. I also shifted the schedule by one day, so we'll be arriving on December 1 and returning on December 5.
Aug 2nd, 2006, 05:20 PM
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Just to throw something else into the mix, you may want to take the helicopter one way to decrease your travel time. I'm assuming you are landing at UVF since your connection is in Atlanta. Check out stluciahelicopters.com for more details, but you can take the helicopter from the airport to the Jalousie Plantation's helipad, then a very short ride to Ladera or vice versa. We stayed in Castries, but took the helicopter both of our trips on the way in. Beats a long taxi ride after a long flight. Others may prefer to do it the opposite way. The price has gone up over the last couple of years. It is now $120pp one way subject to $20 landing fees at Jalousie for non-guests per the website. If you can fit it into your budget, I think it is worth it. The scenery is stunning. I think ejcrowe who posts here also did the helicopter ride. I think the taxi ride will be about 1.5 hours to Ladera. Don't know if you had considered this angle of your travel or not.
Aug 3rd, 2006, 05:06 AM
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Brenda, you have good recall! I did take the helicopted, back when it was more like $75 pp, but I flew from the SLU airport up north down to the Jalousie helipad, which saved a significant amount of time. I really have no idea how long it would take to drive from the southern airport to Ladera--it looks much closer on the map, but the roads could be that much worse, too!
