St Lucia or Guadeloupe
 

Hi,

im trying to plan a family holiday over Xmas break (my husband and me and our toddler). I’ve settled on these two islands and am having a hard time deciding. Help!

Our family travel style will dictate a lot. Basically, I love to run around and see everything and my husband hates that. He loves surfing, it’s his favorite passion, and he’d happily stay at the same surf beach for a week straight.

We do best in places that are walkable or we don’t need to rely on the same car, or at least where there’s a bunch of nearby (5-10 minutes) beaches so I can feel we’ve seen something new and he can feel it’s not a huge inconvenience. Add 1-2 other non-beach things in for me, and we’re good. Ah, romance!

so these are my takes on these two islands, and my concerns.

St Lucia - looks stunning. I think we could do well here because we could spend 5 days in south near Soufriere and seems concentrated / easy to get to everything, then 3-4 days in north near Pigeon Island. Biggest downside is I’m worried those two areas will be FULL over the Christmas holidays, which is a pet peeve of mine. I can’t enjoy a place when it’s really too full of tourists, especially the cruise ship variety (sorry to offend).

Guadeloupe - looks beautiful, though you have to travel around to see the beauty. We can spend a few nights on Les Saintes where everything is walkable, which is probably our happy place, even if there’s not a lot to “do”. We can also spend a few days in the north of Grande Terre where there’s excellent surf and it’s not touristy. While I’d love Basse Terre, though, my husband might hate it because he wants all sunny skies and little driving. So we would only do a couple nights there, which may leave me unsatisfied. Biggest downside is a lot of travel between places.

If helpful, I’ve been to Dominica (loved), St John (loved), Virgin Gorda for the day (baths were far too crowded, hated that), Cuba (loved), St Thomas (too developed and big).

Not sure I understand this comment:

"While I’d love Basse Terre, though, my husband might hate it because he wants all sunny skies and little driving" Does he think its permanently cloudy? Maybe watch a few Death in Paradise episodes and decide then what you think of the area. I've been a couple of times to Guadeloupe and was in Deshaies earlier this year and think it is a perfect location to be based on Basse Terre. And the sun shone every day.

And about driving around to see the beauty, not sure what you mean by that? Its a big island but you don't have to drive miles to see something nice. Its everywhere. Bear in mind that somewhere not touristy isn't always a good thing, lack of accommodation, amenities etc but if you say the surf is great in the north, you've obviously researched that. I never had Guadeloupe down as a surfing destination. Grande Terre isn't as beautiful as Basse Terre IMO. I just have a bit of trouble correlating my experience of Guadeloupe to your impressions of what it is like there. Why don't you ask on TA to get more opinions.

Xmas is going to be busy no matter where you choose to go, it might be a pet peeve of yours but that it how Xmas holidays are. People from the mainland will be going to Guadeloupe, do you speak any French?

What is there to say about St Lucia. It will be crowded in places so surely that is the end of that option.and things are not always walkable, esp not in Soufriere. Rodney Bay has restaurants etc in walkable distance but do you want to be walking around when it gets dark? That's not a good idea.

I'm not sure either island is a good match and it all seems a bit late in the planning for Xmas this year.