St. Lucia - Unfriendly?
 

I keep getting mixed signals about St. Lucia. Beautiful place, good diving and snorkling, great rain-forest hiking... but unfriendly people, bordering on hostile. I realize this is a gross over-generalization, but a few nasty people in your face tend to cancel out dozens of nice (or at least neutral) folks. <BR> <BR>I've avoided Jamaica for the same reason. <BR> <BR>Am I just being paranoid, or is there some sort of connection between a lush green landscape and a hostile-to-tourists attitude? Is it my imagination, or are the drier/flatter islands (Bonaire, Anguilla, Turks & Caicos, Caymans, etc.) also friendlier?

We were in St. Lucia in December '95 at one of the Sandals resorts and did find the St. Lucians 'indifferent' to the presence of tourists, but certainly not hostile. No-one was 'in your face' on or off the property. In a morning trip to Castries, we walked all around the town by ourselves, through the stores, alleyways, shops etc., and didnt really find/see anything that closely bordered hostility - frankly, they really didnt seem to care ! <BR>Can't understand why you're avoiding Jamaica. Have always found the Jamaicans to be some of the most friendly, ougoing people that you'd want to meet. Our four trips to the island ( and possible 5th this December) have all been enjoyable, in a large part, to the Jamaicans - we've never encountered any hint of hostility from them - They're anything but ! <BR> <BR>

We went there for our honeymoon, and stayed at Club St Lucia. We found both the waitstaff and the locals very friendly. We went on several tours around the island, and found everyone to be very genuine. That's what we liked about the island, it's not commercialized. The only fast food restaurant is a KFC! If your looking for a real geataway, I say St. Lucia!

<BR>I had also read that about St. Lucia (from many different sources) before I visited. I found the St. Lucians to have the nicest, most friendly people--more so than any other island we have been to. I should mention that we did not spend much time in the towns of Castries and Soufriere, and perhaps the attitude problems are encountered more in the larger cities. <BR> <BR>I wouldn't let the talk of unfriendly locals discourage you from going. Our experience was exactly the opposite. We enjoyed St. Lucia much more than Jamaica.

St. Lucians are very shy reserved proud people but if you make the effort to be friendly to them you will find them very warm, friendly and interesting. if you go with the "I'm a great tourist attitude and you should serve me" they will treat you with cold indifference. We also found the people of Jamaica to be very friendly, again, they treat you exactly thge way you treat them. <BR> <BR>