St. Lucia Babymoon 2011 - Touring

From St. Lucia

Day 4 and 5

We rented a car for Thursday and Friday to drive around and see the sites of the island.  We also rented some snorkel gear in hopes of seeing some reefs, coral, and fish along the beaches.  With our map, we headed south the first day to Soufriere, most known for the two large pitons that are the symbols of the island. 

It was the first time I had driven on the left hand side of the road, and the roads themselves were very curvy up and down the hills.  I managed just fine for the two days of driving and actually liked it after a while.  The route to Soufriere is especially winding and takes an hour and a half to drive there.  Once we arrived, we saw the botanical gardens and the Diamond waterfall. 

One of the nicest and most known resorts on the island is the Jalousie Plantation, centered between the two pitons. We ate lunch there on their private beach, then headed back toward Marigot Bay.  On the way back, we stopped at Ti Kaye Village and Anse Cochon beach for some snorkeling on their black sand beach. It was nice but not spectacular.  Since we are driving, we aren’t privy to the nicer snorkeling locations on the island that the boat tours have. 

We stopped a local grocery store on the way home to buy some food to cook for dinner.  Our villa has a full kitchen, but we did not want to buy a bunch of ingredients, so we opted for pork chops, broccoli, and a baked potato.  It worked out nicely. 

Day 5

We headed out mid morning to the northern part of the island, known mainly for its nicer resorts and more upscale shopping.  The town of Castries is the capital and we quickly drove through it and made our way to Pigeon Island National Park, where we spent the day on the beach there relaxing, snorkeling, and just enjoying the park.  A Sandals resort is right next to the park, so it is a nice location, albeit hard to find due to the lack of signs that appears to be a problem on the island. 

After a dessert at Marble Slab, we made our way down to Anse La Raye, a small fishing village where every Friday night, they have a seafood street festival complete with music, dancing, and a wonderful seafood variety of just about anything you can think of.  We had plates of crab cakes, shrimp, conch soup (a local dish), as well as several side items.  Great great food and a nice atmosphere that shouldn’t be missed by anyone on the island on a Friday night. 

Great two days of traveling at our pace.  Had we gone on a sailing tour, it would have been more scenic, but we would have had to be on their schedule.  With Jamie 30 weeks pregnant, we decided this was the best way to see the sites.  The next few days will be spent enjoying our villa and hanging around Marigot Bay.

St. Lucia Babymoon 2011

From St. Lucia

Day 1

Jamie and I used our skymiles to book a week in St. Lucia.  This will be our final vacation before the baby arrives.  We had wanted to go there for our honeymoon four years ago, but the price didn’t fit the budget at the time.  With the skymiles, we were able to book our flight then we found a villa to rent for the week at Marigot Bay.

Marigot Bay is the location for the 1960s movie Dr. Doolittle.  It is a beautiful sea green and blue bay on the western side of the island. 

The direct flight from Atlanta took us to the main airport on the southern side of the island.  For a steep government regulated taxi fee of $75, e can get to your resort or villa.  Only an hour ride, but the whole island is only 27 miles long and 14 miles wide.  Rough terrain and windy roads make driving a bit difficult, but natives navigate them with ease.

We were dropped off at the porter station and ferried across the small bay to our side.  We rode a little lift to the top of a small hill where our villa at the Oasis Marigot Ocean Cottage #3 waited us about 50 steps from the lift. 

The villa is complete with a king size bedroom, full size bath (shower a little finicky because it is operated through rain water), dining room, living room, and kitchen.  A huge balcony overlooks a plunge pool and the entire bay.  Wonderful tropical setting.  There are actually 4 rooms to this villa, but no one else is here this week, so we have all of the public places to ourselves. 

We ate a Doolittle’s restaurant just at the bottom of the lift the first night.  Good food, but a bit overpriced in our opinion.

No air conditioning in the villa which we thought would be a problem.  We requested an extra fan, so we had them set up in either the living room or the bedroom depending on where we were hanging out. 

Our taxi driver stopped at a grocery store for us before dropping us off, so we picked up some breakfast groceries for the week. Day 2 and 3 were spent mainly hanging around our villa or going over across the bay by the ferry to look around the small village.  We ate lunch in the villa and once ate at a place in the village. Dinner was at a place called JD’s, only reachable by ferry.