St Lucia Essential Guide: What to Do, Safety, Tips & Tricks

[Music] want to know what to do in st lucia don't worry we've got you [Music] covered in this video we're going to give you some ideas about what you can do when you get bored with your fabulous st lucia hotel and need to wander out along with some practical travel tips let's go the next two sections will cover some practical travel tips and some fun things to do in st lucia but this next bit comes with a disclaimer we did a lot of work and are confident in our hotel recommendations that's what we're really good at travel tips aren't our specialty these are just things we gleaned while in st lucia with a large dose of subjectivity added in these next parts don't pretend to be exhaustive and probably contain some inaccurate information so you might want to do a bit more homework before you hop on that flight to st lucia [Music] here are some things you might want to do hiking would be my go-to activity in st lucia there are great hiking trails especially on the south end around the world heritage pitons the area around the pitons is protected as well as the coral reefs with 168 species of fish if there's one must do on saint lucia hike the gross or petite piton it's not easy our guide told us only 60 to 70 percent of people make it to the top there's a trail the whole way and rope railings for the really steep bits it's not serious mountaineering but it's not easy either the walk-up can take 45 minutes to an hour and a half depending on what shape you're in or how much you drank last night and it's always faster if you quit halfway through anyway if you make it to the top the views are great and here's a pro tip our hotel ripped us off i think i'm not recommending the hotel that ripped us off but that's because of interior design crimes not the being ripped off part anyway we paid 400 bucks for four people to go on a tour of gross bhutan this included a 10-minute taxi ride a pathetic bag of food and a guide once we got there the guides work for the pitons park service not the hotel so if you decide to organize the outing yourself you're still required to pay the thirty dollars per person so if you can arrange your own taxi and pay the guides directly you're probably looking at 150 to 180 us dollars for a group of four versus the 400 that we paid from what i can tell from a trip advisor forum some people say a guide is mandatory some say it's not so i'm not sure but tripadvisor is always my go-to site for contradictory information don't forget to bring plenty of water and try to go around seven or eight in the morning when it's cooler and note dogs are not allowed on the trail getting there hiking the round trip maybe a quick lunch should take about half a day assuming you're coming from the south end of the island if you want something more mellow there's the ted paul trail that has views of both pitons if you want more info on that there's a link below to the alltrails.com site for this walk alltrails.com is a great resource for hiking [Music] on the south end of the island you'll also find the drive-in volcano honestly i was disappointed i was expecting something spectacular and got a bit of a marscape with sulfur fumes anyway you be the judge and right before the volcano is the sulfur springs and mud baths twofer they charge a nominal fee it's not really my scene but people look to be having fun in terms of waterfalls there's one near the volcano called superman falls but my driver said this one is better i wonder if it was just a coincidence that we stopped on the way and dropped off a package at his brother's house then there's snorkeling and diving some pretty good diving off antsy koshan beach see our review of tekai resort for a bit more info on that and we also snorkeled when we were at the cat maison resort and that was nice i'm sure there are other great diving venues but i'm trying to stick to stuff i actually experienced how about touring a cacao plantation i enjoyed my tour of the chocolate plantation at project chocolat the fondue resort also does a cacao plantation tour but my guess is project chocolate is better not only do you get to learn how cacao is grown harvested and turned into chocolate you also get to make your own chocolate with the bonus of taking a walk through the plantation and learning about some of the local flora then you can skip the diamond falls botanical gardens unless you're really into plants this is my last things to do or in this case things not to do tip for st lucia this doesn't seem to me like a place where you want to hang out in the cities much we drove through the capital of castries this is where the massive cruise ship stock it didn't look great and you run the risk of being swamped by the fanny pack and crocs crowd i did check out zufrar which is in the major town in the south and i was ready to leave after about 10 minutes rodney bay is in the north it's more modern but doesn't have much charm but at least it does have a decent variety of restaurants [Music] so when should you go december to april or high season the weather's good but also expect to pay the most for hotels then march and april are the driest and sunniest rainy seasons june to november and hurricanes are most likely in september and october when i'm sure you can score a great deal but with some risk diving is good most of the year with water temperatures between 78 and 82 fahrenheit or 26 to 28 degrees c the water felt perfect to me in december and january here's a map of the resorts we're recommending if you're going to stay in one place there's not a huge difference between the airport probably 45 minutes to an hour for the hotels on the southwest side where the pitons are and more like 90 minutes for the central and north end of the island but if you want to change hotels from north to south or vice versa allow at least a one and a half to two hours to get there there's also a water taxi option from the airport to many of the resorts we didn't do it but i can't help wondering if it would have been more relaxing and more fun than taking the curvy bumpy car ride i'd only consider this if you're going to the north end of the island i doubt you'll save time or money but maybe you'll have more fun and see more of the island the currency is the east caribbean dollar used in all these countries people were happy to take usd or ecd and my guess is euros or british pounds would be okay too but i don't know that for sure most hotel bills will be in usd in terms of electricity it's 240 volts and they use uk standard plugs like this some but not all the hotels also have u.s style sockets but usually not many in terms of safety according to the uk government most visits are trouble free my family and i felt safe but we didn't hang out in the cities much use common sense as you would in any unfamiliar situation worldnomads.com says crime rates are low but if you want to dig into that a bit there's a link below to their article [Music] probably the biggest risk you take is driving or being driven on the windy road with drivers who have not changed their tires in a while cars sliding backwards on a steep hill is a saint lucia thing when it rains it happened to us so try to make sure you're with a good driver who has some tread left four-wheel drive is always a good option if you're going far i'd also advise not walking on the roads at night sidewalks are not really a st lucian thing either in terms of driving st lucia is part of the british commonwealth so they drive on the left side renting a car is also an option for you i loved st lucia the only thing that's missing is a vibrant foodie scene but they more than make up for it with a welcoming rastafarian vibe some fun excursions and some great beaches pick your resort wisely if you want even more information about st lucia we've put together a free pdf available on our website here with a bit more detail like a map of all our hotel racks with drive times from the international airport a list of transportation services and a few more practical travel tips remember we're supported by our viewers not the hotels we review so help us out by smashing that like button and why not subscribe [Music] you

Channel: Swank Guide

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Keywords: st lucia travel guide, st lucia, saint lucia, travel, st lucia vacation, saint lucia travel, travel vlog, travel guide, st. lucia travel, st. lucia, st lucia resorts, things to do in st lucia, all inclusive st lucia, st. lucia travel guide, what to do in st lucia, best hotels in st lucia, st lucia hotels, hotel st lucia, hotels in saint lucia, st lucia trip, things to do in saint lucia, st lucia holiday, hotel review, hotel video, resort video, swank guide

Id: xF_WRlhJmyc

Length: 10min 7sec (607 seconds)

Published: Thu Mar 31 2022