St. Lucia Accommodations w/ Water Activities
 

Family of four ("kids" aged 17 and 20) hoping to charter a sailboat out of St. Lucia this summer and would like to end the trip by staying someplace "special". Have traveled extensively and always enjoy those places that truly go above and beyond in making sure the accommodations are suited to their surroundings i.e, Bosque del Cabo in Osa Peninsula, Costa Rica! Hoping to find a place on the water that has lots of water based activities available - kite surfing, wind surfing, etc. Any recommendations?

There are three very special places in St. Lucia, and Anse Chastanet is more of the type of lodging you're looking for (cliffside rooms open to the elements), but I think water sports are limited to diving, ocean kayaking, and windsurfing.

The Viceroy is more luxurious and has a spectacular location between the Pitons. It may have somewhat more extensive water sports options, but its bay is more secluded and may not get enough wind for windsurfing. So that may not fit your needs. The accommodations themselves are beautiful but not special in the sense you are describing; it's the location that so special ... and I can't even begin to say how special the location is.

The third place is Ladera, but it's landlocked, albeit spectacular. It also offers luxuriously indulgent rooms open to the elements. But it's not a good spot for your needs. There's a fourth plantation-based resort, but it's also land-locked.

Your kids may be interested in climbing one of the pitons. That's possible, and a great experience.

The busier, less special beachfront resorts are all in the northern part of the island. I think they will offer more of the types of activities you are looking for.

Thanks so much for the response.

Couple follow-ups - I've been doing research on travel and getting to St. Lucia is considerably more difficult than I originally thought. - 3 - 5 connections! for the dates we have in mind. That may put us over the top from a logistics and time perspective. Limited travel window, etc..

Also considered Bahamas for sailing and water based activities, but I'm concerned that may not be "as special". I know nothing about the Bahamas other than some areas are very developed - while I see there are some islands that perhaps are not, that gives me pause. We've chartered a sailboat in BVI previously and loved it so that is my base of comparison and want this destination to be different, but just as special in its own way. Trying to find the combination of natural beauty, not heavily developed, sailing potential and options for water based action activities while not taking a full day to get to our destination from Boston. Thoughts on the Bahamas or other potential destinations we should consider?

Thank you!

There are certainly other places to charter a boat in the Caribbean. If St. Lucia is too hard to reach (and you don't want to go back to the BVI, which is the best place in the Caribbean to charter a boat), then the Bahamas isn't a bad choice at all. There are so many islands that are close together you can almost always find a great beach.

But you can also charter a boat in St. Martin (The Moorings has a base there). And you can easily get to Anguilla, Saba, St. Eustatius, and St. Barth.

Finally, if you really do want to sail in the Bahamas, you might consider renting your boat in Miami, which is only 130 miles or so from Nassau (and closer to other islands in the Bahamas). You could even sail down to the Keys there. But this is sailing in the Atlantic, not the Caribbean.

Thank you. We're focused on the original plan of sailing in the Grenadines. Do you know if there is any private taxi/charter/ferry that goes between St. Lucia to St. Vincent? One concern about starting in St. Lucia is our kids appetite for a 6 hour sail. So, we're trying to sort flying into St. Lucia, spending a couple days there and then picking up the boat in St. Vincent. Also, any sense of if we had a couple days on either end of our sailing and looking for land based water acitivites is Grenada or St. Lucia preferable? I get it that the beaches are totally different, but I have less of a sense of whether one is preferable over the other for wind surfing, kite surfing, etc. Thank you!

Yes, I believe there are some ferries now but they are not daily. Take a look at this: http://www.bedytravel.com/documents/news.html. I've never done this ferry, so I can't really comment, but St. Vincent is actually fairly close to St. Lucia ... you can see St. Vincent from the south tip of St. Lucia on a clear day.

But you may be able to make a connection to St. Vincent through Barbados by air, and Barbados has a much busier airport than St. Lucia (it's a regional hub). So I'd also look into air connections.

Great, thanks. Appreciate the link and the other thoughts.