DH & I have decided to go to St. Lucia in March for our anniversary for 4 or 5 nights. (Yay!) We know we want an all-inclusive and will probably go with one of the Sandals resorts. Any suggestions on which one to stay at? Or do you recommend a different all-inclusive? I would also love to hear your restaurant suggestions, fun things to do, experiences, and anything else you want to tell me.
I'm so excited yet nervous. Neither of us has ever been out of the country.
We stayed at Ti Kaye three yrs ago and enjoyed it. It's not AI but I think you can get a food/drink package. The food at the resort was really good and reasonably priced. It was very relaxing and I liked that it was a smaller, boutique resort. I've been to AIs but never a Sandals. There are tons of activities in St.Lucia. We did snorkeling and a trip to the volcano, botanic gardens, a waterfall, plantation and some other stuff that was pretty fun. They also have zip lining and you can climb the Pitons. I was getting car sick there with the winding roads so we limited ourselves on the activities where you had to spend a lot of time in the car getting there.
We stayed at both Ladera (not AI) and Sandals Regency. Liked both, but would only return to Ladera. IMO sandals wasn't anything special that I would need to go all the way to St Lucia for. Its not anywhere near the Pitons and we didn't find the town all that amazing.
I would like to stay at Ti Kaye in the future as well.
We stayed at the Sandals Grande for our honeymoon and enjoyed it. We also visited the other Sandals properties. The Halcyon(?) was really small and looked boring. The Regency was much more of a sprawling property than the Grande; they had intra-resort shuttles because some stuff was so far apart.
We did one excursion through Sandals and went out on our own to the Friday night fish fry in town.
Post by honeybadger on Oct 28, 2013 22:29:53 GMT -5
We honeymooned at the Grande in 2009. It was wonderful. Relaxing and plenty of sunshine. Food was decent--in my experience, AIs don't have the GREATEST food in the world, but it's good enough.
We went parasailing, zip lining, and took the helicopter there. If you can take the helicopter to get there, I highly recommend it. 30 minutes instead of 1.5 in the bus, and the views are amazing. We did that instead of doing dinner on the beach (overrated in our opinion, but we live on the West Coast, so we see beach a lot).
I stayed at the body holiday in St. lucia and it was AMAZING. A spa treatment every day is included. The grounds were beautiful. Lots of activities like yoga. The food was superb.
Post by vcubergirl on Oct 29, 2013 10:48:04 GMT -5
We stayed at the Windjammer (you can add an AI package, totally worth it!) and really liked it. We went on a few tours and stopped at all of the Sandals at some point to drop off/pick up people, and what struck me most about them was how all three of them looked the same. Once you were inside, you could have been on any tropical island anywhere. As in, there was nothing unique about them. Also, on one of the tours, we got to hike into part of the forest that the Sandals management had deemed too dangerous (no idea about this one because it was perfectly safe and totally gorgeous down there!).
Post by mrsukyankee on Oct 29, 2013 12:16:54 GMT -5
We stayed at East Winds Inn for our honeymoon and LOVED it. It was small and intimate which was nice. We went there more for the food and drink than to do activities and to feel like we were special (there are only something like 60 people or less that stay there at any one time). It's one of the top rated resorts on the island.
We visited St Lucia this year. You really don't need a AI. But I recommend Ti Kaye as well because of the amazing location. St Lucia is amazing. I put all of my reviews on Trip Advisor.
We stayed at Sandals grande in St. Lucia and plan on going back for our 5 yr anniversary. We loved the food, drinks and relaxation. They had nice live entertainment, games, and water=sports. It was very relaxing and we felt like we were catered to the whole time. Would definitly reccomend if your not picky (I've read some negative reviews)
St. Lucia is lovely, and everyone there is so friendly. I would highly recommend not doing an AI so that you get off of the resort property and can explore local restaurants, shops, markets, etc. In my experience, AI resorts tend to kind of suck you in, in that you mostly stay on the property and don't truly get to discover the island you're visiting. We rented a car and drove all over the island, and it was a blast. Some of the best meals I had there were at little hole-in-the-wall places we discovered.
If that interests you at all, I highly recommend Nature's Paradise in Marigot Bay. It's like a B&B run by expats, but you get your own private cottage. Fabulous service and experience there.
We stayed at the Windjammer (you can add an AI package, totally worth it!) and really liked it. We went on a few tours and stopped at all of the Sandals at some point to drop off/pick up people, and what struck me most about them was how all three of them looked the same. Once you were inside, you could have been on any tropical island anywhere. As in, there was nothing unique about them. Also, on one of the tours, we got to hike into part of the forest that the Sandals management had deemed too dangerous (no idea about this one because it was perfectly safe and totally gorgeous down there!).
Anyway, that's my 2 cents.
Thanks for the recommendation! We have decided to stay at the Windjammer. I have a few questions: What tours did you take? Did you rent a car to explore the island? The food - are there other places nearby to go to to eat or are you pretty much stuck at the resort to eat? We are debating about the all-inclusive now even though initially we wanted one.
We stayed at the Windjammer (you can add an AI package, totally worth it!) and really liked it. We went on a few tours and stopped at all of the Sandals at some point to drop off/pick up people, and what struck me most about them was how all three of them looked the same. Once you were inside, you could have been on any tropical island anywhere. As in, there was nothing unique about them. Also, on one of the tours, we got to hike into part of the forest that the Sandals management had deemed too dangerous (no idea about this one because it was perfectly safe and totally gorgeous down there!).
Anyway, that's my 2 cents.
Thanks for the recommendation! We have decided to stay at the Windjammer. I have a few questions: What tours did you take? Did you rent a car to explore the island? The food - are there other places nearby to go to to eat or are you pretty much stuck at the resort to eat? We are debating about the all-inclusive now even though initially we wanted one.
We rented a car...driving is a little scary on the island, but we did ok.
Please do the fish fry on Friday night..it was one of the most fun things we did. we loved the botanical gardens and sulfur bath! we did a sunset sail...horseback riding and we just explored in the car.
Post by jenniferl923 on Nov 16, 2013 23:07:35 GMT -5
Ti Kaye a million times over. Loved it loved it. It's been the only vacation that DH and I have agreed upon as far as quality of experience and it sits at the top of both our "best vacations" list.
Post by vcubergirl on Jan 17, 2014 14:51:16 GMT -5
Sorry I just now saw this, I babied early and things have been a little crazy! We didn't rent a car, but we did get out of the resort quite a bit to do tours and stuff. And the fish fry! Definitely do the gardens and the sulfur baths as pp said.
Also, I would definitely recommend the AI option. It gets you much better breakfast, drinks, you can eat at the nicer places in the resort more often (hello Dragonfly!), and we spent a ton of time snorkeling. For us it was definitely worth it, I think we both drank our weight in pina coladas ;-)