7 Days in Saint Lucia – Things to Do, What I Ate & More

Hey Friends!

My 2023 travel started off with a trip to St. Lucia, a country located in the southern Caribbean known for its beauty, beaches and luxury resorts. Thankfully, I had seven days to enjoy this beautiful island and do a little exploring of my own, although it was a work trip. To give you an idea of things to do in St. Lucia, places to eat, places to see, and how much to budget, check out my itinerary.

Day 1 – Arrival

Coming from Antigua and Barbuda, my trip was facilitated through the use of Inter Caribbean Airways. Unfortunately, it wasn’t a non-stop flight. There was a layover in Barbados for about two hours and I finally arrived in St. Lucia around 7:00 P.M. It’s important to note that St. Lucia has two airports, one near Castries, George F. L. Charles Airport (SLU) which services regional flights and an international airport further south (Hewanorra Airport, UVF).

Friday Night Street Party

The street party is just as its name suggests: a party in the street. A portion of Dauphin Street is blocked off and residents setup table-top bars and food stands for persons to try local foods. There’s also vendors selling souvenirs along with arts and crafts. What’s a party without music? There’s a sound system setup on the corner and a DJ playing all the hottest music, old and new. We heard everything from pop, soca, reggae and dancehall while there and I can definitely say I enjoyed the music. The vibes were also pretty chill. You can move to the center of the street to party or chill on the outskirts and still enjoy yourself. Transportation (Castries – Gros Islet): $50 XCD

Other Night Activities you may want to try:

• Rodney Bay Village: a strip with late night bars and clubs
• Anse La Raye Fish Fry: Friday evenings at their beachside fisheries complex

Day 2 – Let’s go to Soufriere!

I definitely underestimated the travel time in St. Lucia. We stayed in Castries and the Rodney Bay area and it took us over an hour to travel to Soufriere. This is undoubtedly the longest I’ve been in a vehicle travelling through any of the Caribbean islands. It was also a different experience given how mountainous the island is with its curvy roads. However, driving through the island also felt like a tour in itself. It was really amazing seeing the natural landscape and feeling the cool breeze come through the windows. The taxi driver used the opportunity to point out various villages, explaining their significance and also stopped at several lookout points which I enjoyed.

Lunch at The Beacon Restaurant

Our first stop for the day was lunch at The Beacon Restaurant which was included in a kayak tour we booked. The restaurant has one of the best views of the majestic Piton’s. It was a buffet lunch inclusive of a drink and dessert. We got there around 1 p.m. and the lunch wasn’t what I hoped it would be. It had local options or your regular items you’d find on a Caribbean lunch menu – macaroni pie, rice, stew chicken, green salad, potato salad etc. However, I’m somewhat of a picky eater so I didn’t enjoy it. Besides the flavour not being there, the food also wasn’t warm.

Clear Kayak Tour with Tropical Kayak Adventures

This is something I was influenced into doing by social media. It’s an emerging activity here in the Caribbean and one I’ve wanted to try, so I said “hey, why not?” Originally, I wanted to do the drone photoshoot add on, but kept it simple and did the above water snorkelling experience. FYI I’m not a swimmer so this was a pretty cool way to see under the water without actually getting into the water. It was also another way to see the island and the Piton’s.

The tour started at Beach Park, Soufriere and we kayaked near the coast to a bat cave, then around a reef area up until a certain point. The reef was cool to see but I had hopes of seeing more colourful fish/reef. Being out on the water was a bit intimidating at first, but I easily got relaxed by simply observing my surroundings. Honestly, St. Lucia is beautiful! The tour lasted for 2 hours and cost: $85 USD inclusive of the buffet lunch. One thing I didn’t like about this tour was they didn’t say you’d need your own transportation from the lunch spot to the beach. Thankfully our taxi driver stayed with us.

Transportation from Castries to Soufriere (RT): $200 XCD
Tour Website

Day 3 – Tour Day

Unfortunately, this day didn’t go as planned. We had previously scheduled a tour to take us “chasing waterfalls” and to the Sulphur Springs, but the tour guide had an emergency situation. Me being determined to go out again contacted our taxi driver from the previous day and he agreed to take us to the Sulphur Springs and a waterfall. During the drive he pointed out a variety of waterfalls, but said he couldn’t take us to them because of safety precautions. Not sure if he was capping or not, but I was ultimately sad about this decision because I saw what these waterfalls looked like on social media and it would have been cool to see in person. Nonetheless, here’s what we got up to for our mini tour.

Sulphur Springs Park

Said to be the only drive-in volcano in the Caribbean, Sulphur Springs park offers two types of activities; a tour of the dormant volcano and/or a mud bath experience. We settled for the latter which was $25 XCD. This was my first time being at a Sulphur spring and I was a bit excited. We were first told to test the water of the different baths to ensure they weren’t too hot for our skin. Starting with the lowest bath and working my way up to the hottest bath, I enjoyed the experience. The heat of the water seemingly relaxed me and I felt good. I didn’t stay too long in the baths as I didn’t want the heat to dry out my skin. We also rubbed the mud on our skins before going back into the bath. I was a bit skeptical of this so I didn’t use too much, but my skin indeed felt softer after coming out of the bath.

Piton Falls

On our journey back we stopped at Piton Falls which isn’t too far from the sulphur springs, thus the water is pretty warm. It wasn’t the largest waterfall, but still pretty in its own way especially with all the natural plants surrounding the area. This was probably my first time standing under a waterfall. There were three baths/pools for you to relax in which was a nice touch. The cost to enter was $7.50 XCD.

Waterfalls to Visit:

• Diamond Falls
• Toraille Falls
• River Rock
• Sapphire Falls
• Anse La Raye Falls

It’s suggested to do research on the falls you wish to visit or to inquire with a local as access to some may be difficult. We were also told that there are snakes in certain parts of the island so it’s important to be mindful.

Cacoa Sainte Lucie

Quick stop for some authentic St. Lucian chocolate! Cacoa Sainte Lucie was giving luxury upon entrance to their store. They had bits of chocolate available for testing and bars of varying flavours and sizes available for purchase. The highlight of their showcase was the selection of chocolate pieces on display. I purchased a box of four, unfortunately I can’t remember all the flavours but the espresso was definitely a hit! The others seemingly melted on the journey back home. Also, given the authenticity, these chocolates aren’t your regular supermarket prices. Cacoa Saint Lucie also offers tours where they share more of how their chocolate is made and you can also create your own bar. Additionally, they host a restaurant offering a cocoa infused Caribbean cuisine.

Pigeon Island

Pigeon Island is a 44-acre islet located in Gros Islet in the northern region of Saint Lucia. Once isolated from the country in the Caribbean Sea, the island was artificially joined to the western coast of mainland in 1972 by a man-made causeway built from dirt excavated to form the Rodney Bay Marina.

Wikipedia

The taxi driver thought it would be cool for us to check out Pigeon Island National Landmark so that’s where we headed next. This is located in Gros Islet and was also our last stop/activity for the day. We grabbed a bite to eat at one of the local restaurants on the beach. I had a hamburger which was pretty good. The park offers green spaces for persons to enjoy being in nature as well as hiking trails and signage where you can learn a bit of history. Entrance fee: $10 USD

Fort Rodney can be accessed through one of the hiking trails on Pigeon Island offering 360 views of Rodney bay and Martinique on a clear day. I didn’t expect to do any sort of hiking, but I obliged for majority of the way. There are two trails located in the area, we took the “easier” of the two. The views were cool but I definitely felt tricked into the effort it would take to get there. Once inside the national park, you also have access to two beaches, one had a bit of seaweed onshore so we opted for the next. The water was clear enough to enjoy and a good way to relax after that walk. The park closes at 5 p.m. so we had to head back to the area on the beach with restaurants to wait for our ride.

Transportation from Rodney Bay to all stopes mentioned above (RT): $175 XCD

Given it was the weekend (Day 2 and 3), that’s when I did most of my adventure around the island. During the week I was mainly concerned with attending the workshop and trying different restaurants in Rodney bay for dinner. We stayed at Coco Palm Resort which is located in Rodney Bay and served as the perfect location to get around. I was actually amazed at the different types of restaurants located in one area – Mexican, Italian, Indian, American, Local etc. We also did a bit of shopping at Baywalk Shopping Mall located nearby which offered duty free shopping.

Restaurants

Spices of India

This was my first choice after returning from our kayak tour. Given I’ve been there before I knew it wouldn’t disappoint. I really wanted to try something different but couldn’t make up my mind and didn’t want to make a bad selection. Therefore, I stuck with my standard order, Butter Chicken and Basmati Rice. I find the prices for the mains to be a little high and the portions weren’t big enough to be shared, but the sides (rice, naan etc) came in shareable portion sizes. They gave us a complimentary starter which I wasn’t a fan of, nor did I like my drink of choice (a watermelon tea), but the meal was pretty good and filling.

Amici Restaurant & Pizzeria

This is an Italian restaurant specialising in pizza. The menu also included a few pasta options and although they were made from scratch, none of the selections enticed me. Therefore I went with a pizza from their gourmet pizza options known as the St. Lucia. It came with pepperoni, chicken and a stuffed crust. The pizza was THIN but I really enjoyed it. I also had a passion fruit mojito, which has become a go-to drink, however they used way too much passion fruit syrup and I wasn’t feeling it.

Sakuragi

Last, but not least. A food I’ve grown to love, sushi (only when cooked though). Decided to check out Sakuragi, a Japanese restaurant for their options and the menu should have been my indication of what to expect. I went with the Shrimp Tempura roll which was solely the rice wrapped around fried shrimp. I was definitely disappointed by this and didn’t enjoy. I got fried calamari to start and that was okay. My coworker had a Bento box and that looked interesting, but I’m not sure I would have ate some of the options provided.

On the other nights I indulged in good ole American fast food, whereby I tried the KFC and Domino’s pizza. The KFC dipping wings were pretty good. I really enjoyed my stay in St. Lucia and vowed to be back again. During the week we took a walk over to Reduit Beach which was nearby the hotel. Sadly, I didn’t get to go swimming but the water looked extremely inviting. I’m pretty sure there’s lots of activities to try that I’m not aware of. The people were very friendly and the island just has something about it I can’t descirbe. “je ne sais quoi”

Things to Note:

• If you get motion sick, ensure to walk with your medication. St. Lucia isn’t a flat island so you’ll be driving up and down hills, around slopes etc.
• The currency used is Eastern Caribbean Dollars (XCD) but USD is widely accepted. Varying places may use different exchange rates, but for the most part is was 2.60 XCD – 1.00 USD.
• Do your research before travelling and be mindful of the areas you choose to stay or frequent. They’re quite a few Air BnB’s on island in addition to budget hotels etc.
• We came a week or so too early, but there’s usually a Jazz Festival in May and their carnival is hosted in July (1^st – 19^th 2023)
• All transportation costs mentioned above are based on my contribution to the total, which was half (2 people).

Until Next Time,