St Lucia advice - trip with 2 boys
 

I am currently planning for a week long vacation in St Lucia. My cousin is stationed in St Lucia so we thought it would be the best time to go to St Lucia knowing that we would not have to look for a hotel.
We are looking at around mid February 2007. I was looking at airfares on American and I am getting tickets for around 1880 USD for the 4 of us(Me, husband and our 2 sons ages 5 & 3). This is from Chicago to St Lucia with a stop in San Juan. I am looking at all the activities that can be done in St Lucia. Are there a lot of places to go snorkelling as I know my husband loves it. And of course the boys love the beach !
We are planning to rent a car but as I am looking at sunlinktours.com I am wondering if the car rental is a good idea.
We could take one of the trips and go as far as the Pitons..Any advice there ??
TIA
Ash

Do you know what part of St. Lucia you are staying in? If you are staying in a private home, rather than a hotel, unless you are going to be right in Rodney Bay, you probably won't be walking distance to the beach, stores and restaurants. I would recommend renting a car, unless you are completely freaked out about driving on the left hand side of the road. Recommedations on nearby beaches, etc. will depend upon where you are staying.
By the way, 4 tickets for $1880 in February is a very good price. I'd book it asap if I were you.

I agree that you've found fantastic airfare for that time of year!

I think it would be a shame to be in St. Lucia and not see the Pitons and the surrounding rainforest. If you're staying in the northern part of the island and don't want to drive that far on your own, I'd highly recommend either hiring a driver for the day or doing a water taxi or catamaran to take you down to that part of the island.

As for driving on St. Lucia, if you're already accustomed to driving on the left, you'd be fine. It's just very hilly with tons of blind curves and some major potholes. If it's your first time driving on the left, you may want to pass on it.

Let's see, I would also recommend some time at the gorgeous botnical garden, maybe some time walking around exploring Castries and seeing the monument to Derek Walcott (one of two Nobel prize winners from St. Lucia). I'd want to see Cap Estate, Pigeon Point, Rodney Bay, Marigot Bay. I'd want to snorkel around the Pitons, maybe have lunch at Anse Chastenet for a splurge. A helicopter tour around the island. Horseback riding, some mild hiking.

If you have the time and money to spare, there's a marvelous daytrip to the Tobago Cays by plane and sailboat available. There's really no end of things to do in St. Lucia.

Of course, an island tour to see the Pitons and the volcano. An amazing science lession for the boys. Snorkeling at Anse Chastanet, Rainforest Skyride, ATV ride and horseback riding. If you need transportation we used Fabian www.fabiantoursstlucia.com

Thanks for all the great advice !! We are originally from India so we are used to driving on the left hand side of the road. In fact we were just in India in october and the husband did a ton of driving(it just freaked out my boys as they are used to driving in Chicago !) so drivingwise we should be fine !
I will be booking the tickets in a day or two as I too thought it was an excellent deal. This fare is directly from the American Airlines website if anyone else wants to get in ;-)
Thanks so much !
Ash

Oh and By the way my cousins mailing address has the following:
rodney bay, grosislet
She also said that SLU is only 10 minutes away from their place !
Ash

Ash, you should be all set with the rental car, then! Great, as it's a much better way to see a new place, in my opinion.

You'll be in the northern portion of the island, and there's plenty up there to keep you busy, but be sure to leave a couple of days for exploring down near the Pitons. How long will you be there? Sounds like a great time!

Just got back from SL a few months ago. Maybe the kids might enjoy it, but of all the things we did there, the volcano was the one thing I really could have done without - there's no lava, not even a geyser like Yellowstone, just some steam coming out of the ground. As for snorkeling, I personally thought the snorkeling at Jalousie Plantation was better than Anse Chastanet. Regardless, just about anything you do will be amazing, it is a beautiful island! Enjoy!

Ok !!!! Am back once again to request for a bit of your help !! We have finalized on going from 8th Feb to 17th Feb to St Lucia..Now my question is if this is a lot of time to be spending there ?? As in would there be something to do for so many days ? Right now am thinking that we would book a resort for a couple of days in the Pitons and the remaining days stay with my cousin !!
TIA
Ash

I was in St. Lucia 12/6 - 13 and definitely wanted to stay several more days. One thing to keep in mind is that two of your days will be mostly travel days.

I imagine that your activities with two children will be different than mine as a solo traveler, but I think that the natural beauty of the island and the availability of watersports and variety of beaches will provide plenty to do. In terms of snorkeling, I was on a day trip that stopped near TiKaye for snorkeling off the boat, and this was a good spot too.

You might want to spend a couple of days at a resort in the southern part of the island. IMO, the drive back and forth from Rodney Bay area would be stressful and tedious to do it too many times.

There is soooooooooo much to do and see that you could not possibly think you spent too much time there. ejcrowe gives great advice/tips. And there are zip line adventures, ATVs adventures, water sports . . . one really good all day trip is the Soufriere Adventure Sail. Best bang for the buck - you sail from Castries to the southern end of the island on a huge catamaran, get off in Soufriere and board a shuttle bus that will take you to the Pitons, Botanical Gardens, Diamond Waterfall, Volcano, lunch at a local restaurant, back to the catamaran, and a 45-minutes snorkeling/swimming stop on the sail back to Castries. Do the hike on Pigeon Island. Have fun!!!

We finally booked the tickets yesterday nite. We fly out on February 9th and fly back on Feb 19th.
Now I need to find a resort for 1 nite somewhere near the Pitons.Any recommendations ?? specially for the kids
where they have some kid oriented tours etc..I know all the kids will care about is the beach but still ;-)
Maybe we will book a resort for 1 nite so that we dont have to hurry and come back to my cousins place..
Ash

Ok Here is the deal..I have been looking into booking a place for us for 2 or 3 nights in the week of February 12th.
We figure we should give my neice a break since we will be with them for 10 days and also to get a tour of the Soufriere
in detail ! So I am looking at Mago Estate and she quoted me a rate of 325$ for their Eden suite(On the website its quoted as 400$).
Then I go onto VRBO and come across a 1 bedroom villa for 100$ a nite. Now I know there is no comparison between Mago and this
one. This is probably a bare bone place with no amenities whatsoever. However even then it is so cheap, so could there
be a catch. I spoke to its owner yesterday and he said I will have to pay when I get there. We only need the place to crash at night
and maybe a nap fro the kids in the afternoon. Most of the time we will be out anyways on the beach, hiking, snorkelling etc.
However I rather cough up the cash if it is a matter of safety..Any advice/suggestions please ??
TIA
Ash

Can you give us more info about the villa you found? I can't imagine it's very much for only $100/night, but someone here might know it by name if you can provide it. The price you quote for Mago seems a little high, actually. I didn't realize they were that expensive, even in February!

Here it is:
http://www.vrbo.com/99739

Hopefully someone has stayed here before !!
Ash

One thing that came to my mind after looking at the link provided was degree of difficulty getting there. It looks really cute. Just wondering what the implications of 2 miles above Soufriere and 2000 feet above sea level are?