Sandals Grande location in relation to excursions?
 

My fiance and I are thinking of honeymooning next August at Sandals Grande in St. Lucia. I have 2 questions about this resort's location:
1.) Which airport is the closer one to Sandals? Is it Castries?
2.) Is this Sandals in a location close enough to visit the drive-in volcano or the Diamond Mineral Baths?
Thank you!

Vigies airport is about 15 minutes away. It's the smaller airport which can't handle big jets. There are differing opinions about flying into castries and taking a very long (1hr plus) ride. The ride does afford you the opportunity to "see" more of teh island. When it comes to getting to teh resort after a lot of traveling, I want the fastest ride so Vigies was much better.

Most of the excursions are on the SW side of the island, about an hour ride from the Grande. Best bet is either rent a jeep or get a local cab driver to drive you around for the day. There are hotels closer to these places.

BTW The Grande is fantastic and you will love it

Paul

honeymooner,

Hi, Are you refering to the Sandals, that used to be the Hyatt on Rodney Bay?

Yes, that's exactly the hotel I am referering to.

We stayed here and flew into the airport no problem, with a quick "cab" ride right to our hotel. However it was a smaller plane that we picked up on a San Juan Connection. I made sure we did it this way as I heard the trip from the other end of the island was really tough and didnt want to take a helicopter.

The best excursion that we had was a day sail that picked us up right at the Hyatt's Beach! There was only 89 of us on it representing 3 different countries, this was nice as we all got to know eachother, I still keep in touch with one girl from Ireland. We snorkeled, got a tour of Souffrie (bad spelling), and the "volcano". It was wan eye opening experience!

We also took a cab into Rodney Bay, I must say I wasnt that impressed here.

I would def. try and get a room with a room of Rodney Bay (Amazing!!), and def. not one with a "private pool"... no view at all
Hope this helps :)
Ruby

oops, that should read 9 NOT 89... big difference :)

It does get a bit cofusing with the names (Vieux Fort and Vigie get mixed up) but here are the names and locations of airports in St.Lucia

"Hewanorra Int'l Airport" located in the city of Vieux Fort. Southern tip of island. About a 1 1/2 hour drive to Sandals Grande. Many love the drive to see the beautiful island, others don't because it's long and winding road. Air Jamaica Flights arrive here.

"Vigie Airport" is located in the city of Castries. 15 minute drive to the Grande North of Castries. American's small seater planes arrive here.

Donna

Thank you so much for the information on the airports. It definitely does get confusing.
Any tips on what to do/see in St. Lucia when we want to leave Sandals and explore? Is there any good snorkling, or is that best done on another island?

I dove all around the Island and felt the best snorkeling was around the Anse Chastenet hotel. You can snorkel or dive right off the beach there. Sandals does do 2 or 3 snorkeling excursions daily anyway.