St. Lucia
 

Going to St. Lucia soon. What tours do you recommend? How is the weather in January?
How far is it from Vieux to Castries?
Is the shopping good for cameras, perfume, etc? or what. What ever info will be greatly appreciated. Thank-you

I recently answered another post about this. What tours you take largely depends on your interests. Check out stlucia.org and sunlinktours.com to get some ideas. Recommend either the land and sea tour or hiring your own taxi for the day for a tour of the island. They know all of the spots to go to. Also recommend the Castries Market for a little shopping. Not sure about the duty free deals, we are not big shoppers.

The driving time from Vieux Fort to Castries is about 1.5 hours. Nice scenery, lots of banana plantations. Where are you staying?

I think the weather will be great in January. Both times we went to STL it was late Nov, early Dec and the weather was great. Very little rain and warm water temps.

Recommend the Coal Pot for dinner. Also heard good things about The ChartHouse (might be the Charter House, can't remember) for a more upscale dinner.

We did not do this, (maybe next time), you might want to check out the Jump Up in Gros Islet and/or the "fish fry" in Anse La Raye. I correspond with someone who hired a taxi that took them to both. It is on Friday. Again, it is all about what your interests are.Have a wonderful time!

Brenda

The Day Sail and Sunset Cruise is a must!

Hello marlong! Whle you are in St. Lucia malke sure you visit the SUFRIERE area. That is where dia,mond falls are. Diamond falls are a beautiful waterfall and it is alsoi close to the beautiful rainforest on the island. A great easy trail to hike is the BARRE D L-ISLE trail. It is an easy hike with incredible scenery and beautiful plants everywhere. I would recommend in St. Lucia you look into staying at the INN ON THE BAY resort. It i on top of the hill overlooking beautiful Marigot Bay and it is a beautiful, wonderful resort that will save you a lot of money.I will get the website address for you and post it here as soon as I get it.You should ask around about the horseback riding tours on the island also, there are some great ones.

Hello marlong, here is the website address for The INN ON THE BAY resort. Go to www.Inn on The Bay/St.Lucia and you can find it there.Hope this helps

The entire area around Soufriere and Marigot Bay are gorgeous. I found the Gros Islet jump-up to be overrated - people begging for money, a giant speaker set up in an intersection, and people either dancing in place or (more likely) standing on the edge watching it all. The guy dancing with a glass bottle on his head was priceless. Can't remember how many times it fell and shattered. The fish fry (including lobster) has to be better, though Anse La Rey appears dirt poor.

The Barre D L'isle trail through the rain forest offers some nice sights. The only downside was that it's a straight trip - no loop back to the start of the trail.

St. Lucia is a beautiful island but, if duty free shopping for cameras and perfume is high on your "must have" list, St. Lucia probably shouldn't be your first choice of islands. It's got some duty free shops, but nowhere near the quantity/variety of a place like St. Martin, St. Thomas or Nassau. Castries market is great for fresh fruit and vegetables, crafts, souvenirs, etc.
Re: activities -- If you like seafood, I highly recommend the Anse La Raye fish night. Skinnyboy is right, it's a very poor looking village, but fish night is still a lot of fun and a good bargain for a very good meal.

If you want good duty free shopping go to St Thomas or St Maarten, not St Lucia. However, it is a beautiful place if you are more interested in nature, etc.

About tours:
We were in St. Lucia in Mar 05 and returning Feb 06. We hired a private driver to take us on the island tour. It was 1/2 the price of what the resorts were charging. There were 6 of us and I posted on travel sites like this for anyone who would be at our resort at the time we were there who was interested in joining us. I believe we paid 35.00 US per person and we went in a new Mercedes air conditioned van. Yason supplied cool beverages, pop, water and beer for us. It was a full day excursion seeing Castries, The Pitons, Soufrierre, the Botanical Gardens. He is a very nice young man. His number is 258-6112, Yason's Cabs.
He offered to take us to Jump UP for the Fish Fry as well on the Friday evening and then return to pick us up, but we opted to stay at the hotel. In Feb 06 we will take him up on this offer.

belair whatweeksin Feb will you be there? We will be there with 2 other couples the weeks of Feb 25th - March 11.

We are going Feb 4 to 11th. Only one week. I really wanted to go for 2 but this way I get another tropical getaway later on in the year, well that's my hope anyways. Too bad we'll miss you. We made some great new friends on our last trip to Sandals Regency and hope to this time as well. That is part of the fun of travelling.