St Lucia is a very common stop for many Caribbean cruise liners. It’s volcanic formation has resulted in a very mountainous island with challenging roads that provide stunning views literally around every corner.
And I mean literally. If you blink, you’ll miss one.
We disembarked our ship – the Regal Princess – in Castries, which is on the west coast. The beaches are up north and other activities worth doing are down south.
It’s an island of reasonable size – 617 square kilometres – but driving anywhere takes time because the roads are so slow due to their winding nature up and down mountains. So the first thing to realise is you won’t be able to see everything.
When visiting St Lucia on a cruise, you have a few options: do an official cruise shore excursion, hire a car, or hire a guided taxi ride for the day.
Cruise excursions are always overpriced, and you spend your day on tour in a bus full of other people. Hiring a car is risky because cars on islands sell out quickly, and sometimes they don’t even honour your booking (I saw both of these happen this week). Lastly, as you exit the terminal you will no doubt be bombarded with tour and taxi salespeople, which generally feels like its own red flag.
It can be easy to immediately disregard these hawkers but I encourage you to actually ask around. They have different options and you’ll be able to find something you want to do. The prices vary depending on how many are in your group and you will get your own private taxi driver/tour guide for the day, which will give you as much (or as little) flexibility as you need.
To give an idea on pricing, we had a group of 5 adults, who paid $45 each, but my parents also did their own (similar) tour and they paid $60 each, so the more you have in your group the cheaper it will be per person.
Driving to Soufriere
We headed south from Castries towards Soufriere, which is a hub of a number of a number of attractions. To get to Soufriere you must drive about 90 minutes up and down at least 10 mountains (I genuinely lost count and the driver had no idea). This is easier said than done, as the road is windy, bumpy, thin, and riddled with potholes.
I was very glad to have taken a private tour at the cruise terminal rather than hiring a car for this reason alone. Although the extra flexibility would have been nice, the drive would have been long and stressful.
That said if you think you can handle yourself on the roads – like if you are from New Zealand which has similar roads – then go right ahead because it would have been cool to stop at one or some of the many local restaurants and bars with what I imagine are magnificent oceanic views.
Despite being so steep and windy – or in more likelihood because of it – it is a spectacular drive. Every gap in the trees is another opportunity to glimpse the stunning mountainous coastline. In typical Caribbean style, many of the houses in the villages are painted in differing pastel colours and looked really pretty from above. One village actually reminded me of Cinque Terre, Italy, being on the coast with coloured houses built closely up he side of a mountain.
Sulphur Springs Volcano
The first stop on the tour was Sulphur Springs Volcano, famed as the Caribbean’s only drive in Volcano. You pay US$12 for your entry which includes a very brief “tour” (or a walk up some steps with a guide), and entry into the mud baths.
It has an elevation of around 300 metres, it last erupted in 1769 and at its hottest point the water and mud is around 100 degrees Celcius.
It was really more of a rock formation with mud than an actual volcano so don’t expect to be seeing too much lava bubbling away. But the steam is obvious and it is a very dramatic location.
The mud bath was a bit fun. The water flows through the springs and at the baths I estimate that it had to have been over 40 degrees celcius. The heat was immediate and made me recoil at first. After you were feeling suitably relaxed they have buckets of the sulphur mud for you to lather up with, wait for it to dry, then wash off in the steaming muddy water.
I’m not much of an exfoliator, but I do think that my skin was noticeably smoother after the mud bath, so it’s not just a gimmick.
It can get really crowded on cruise days as it is a very popular activity, so just be prepared for lots of people – the baths are not very big.
Toraille Waterfall
Our taxi driver took us to Toraille Waterfall, which was a nice waterfall, not to far from the Botanical Gardens. It is a refreshing place for a dip after the mud spa. In fact, many people left the mud on their face to wash off in waterfall as the distance between the two is not far.
Soufriere
We didn’t spend a lot of time in Soufriere unfortunately. We could have, but the day we went was January 2nd, which in St Lucia is still a public holiday for New Years. It was a lovely little seaside town, not much beach, but plenty of local places to eat and drink in well maintained, colourful colonial timber buildings.
There is also an ATM inside the Bank of St Lucia, housed in a beautifully well-preserved colonial building along the main street.
The Pitons
The Pitons are two steep mountains located right on the coast, dominating the landscape of Soufriere and surrounds, reaching a height of around 800 metres. Gros Piton, the larger of the two can be hiked, but it is a very strenuous and steep 2-3 hour hike – and that’s just to reach the summit. Your driver will likely stop at an excellent viewing point on the way into Soufriere.
Due to the length of time it would take to hike, I probably wouldn’t advise doing it as a cruise excursion, because it would be the only activity you’ll have time for. Plus you’ll need to organise a guide and transport there.
Not impossible, but it would be tight.
Marigot Bay
We didn’t go down to the bay itself, and I doubt you would have time on a regular day trip, but our driver did stop at a place with a pretty special view of the bay. The only catch was you had to buy a drink at the place he stopped as it wasn’t just a lookout. Given that beers were only $3, and I was pretty thirsty this was an easy decision to make.
As an added bonus we were treated to a bit of a show as well. As I mentioned, you had buy a drink or at least pay $2 to take some photos and enjoy the view. Some large German guy thought he would try and take advantage of these people by taking his photos and just leaving. The owner lady, who was fairly hefty herself closed the gate and said he couldn’t leave until he paid, which he refused to do.
He pushed her, she pushed back, arms were thrown, the fence was bent, shirts were ripped and police were called. B.man couldn’t handle the excitement and broke into tears, I felt bad for the owner who is just trying to make an honest living and this man on vacation is just trying to take advantage of her for the sake of a couple of bucks.
Discover Castries
When we got back to the terminal, our tour had ended but we still had a couple of hours until “all aboard” so we took a short “taxi” into town to have a poke around. I use the word taxi loosely because it was clearly just some dudes car.
He dropped us near the Cathedral Basilica of the Immaculate Conception and since it was still the New Year’s holiday the whole town happened to be out in droves at a street market nearby.
There was a DJ playing music, stalls with drinks, food, toys, other random wares. Best of all, I didn’t see a single white person apart from our little group.
We missed lunch so we found a lady cooking chicken on a BBQ by the side of the road who sold us a leg and thigh for $2 each. I don’t know how this magical lady did it but the meat was perfectly moist with the skin ever so crispy, all in some delicious home made tomato sauce. It will go down as one of my favourite meals of the trip because of the experience and lack of food poisoning.
We kept walking and since we had a few more dollars to spend we sat down at an outdoor bar and ordered a few beers: Piton, named for the towering mountains “Gros and Perit Piton” near Soufriere. It was another local joint and it was great to be able to sit down and watch the locals go by.
There were so many little bars along this road, many only just larger than a hole in the wall operation. We selected one where we were most sure we wouldn’t get murdered called Triple D’s and had a round of Pitons.
Beaches of St Lucia
Unlike other Caribbean islands, St Lucia is not known for its beaches. In fact many beaches have black sand due to the volcanic nature of the island. While I didn’t visit a single beach on St Lucia, here are a few that had been recommended to me in one form or another.
- Anse Chastanet, near Soufriere
- Anse Mamin, near Soufriere
- Smuggler’s Cove, northern St Lucia
- LaBas Beach, Marigot Bay
Things to Note for visiting St Lucia
Getting a tour the day of at the cruise terminal seems counter-intutive as it feels like you’re just begging to be ripped off. But all things considered I actually think it is the best and most efficient way of seeing a lot of the attractions for a reasonable price with a fair bit flexibility built in. You’ll get a private tour and will pay less than half what you might pay with a cruise line excursion.
The cost of a taxi ride is also mandated by the government and is $20 each way to and from Soufriere, so we figured we might as well get a tour for a similar price.
Our tour cost $45 each with a group of 5. The van seated 14-15 but i think it would be rare that they fill it all the way up. The price would be more per person with a smaller group, I imagine, as they asked me how many people were in our group before giving a price.
St Lucia operates equally in USD (for the benefit of tourists) and the Eastern Caribbean Dollar (XCD) at an exchange of around 2.7. Tourist attractions are priced in both and most places will accept either. But know that almost no one accepts credit card so ensure you have enough cash with you to get by. This caught us out and actually had to borrow money from our tour guide.
Take snacks with you because our driver didn’t take us to any lunch spots, yours might not either.
Fast Facts
Price of a beer: USD$2.50-$3.00
Currency: USD and Eastern Caribbean Dollar (XCD).
Local beer: Piton Lager
Local distillery: St Lucia Rum Distillery and Marigot Bay Distillery. Keep an eye out for delicious banana and coconut creme liqueurs.
Make sure to bring: old swimmers (I had some disclolouration on mine from the sulphur springs mud bath)
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Nice article. A bit of a sad situation with the tourist and the owner, but at least the rest of the tour went excellently. You mentioned a village that reminded you of Cinque Terre~ Was it Canaries or another?
It was another, probably half an hour south of canaries. Not sure what it was called. Thanks and glad you liked it :)
Thanks for answering & you’re welcome.
I hope to see some mentions of the USVI’s appeal for the history and nature buffs.
Thanks Angela. Keep an eye out on future posts because I did visit St Thomas (sadly only St. Thomas), and it was beautiful!