St. Lucia - April 2011

View of Pitons

Shawna's dream honeymoon was always to sit her butt on the beach for a week.  Since our honeymoon was hiking the Inca trail, she decided that at least her 40th birthday trip could be her dream holiday.  So, us and some of the Raleigh crew (John/JoAnna, Phil/Joyce, and Kim/Jonathan) headed to a week in paradise in St. Lucia.

Accommodation:

Sandals Grande St Lucian

We decided to try our first all-inclusive resort - Sandals Grande St Lucian - and also tried to get our money's worth through eating and drinking them out of house and home.  We are not sure if were were able to bankrupt the place, but we do know that four of us came home with 22 extra pounds - and that was not carried in our luggage!  The resort was really well done - a nice open-air lobby, a cool, large pool area, and several restaurants including a British Pub that I think we made it to at least once a day.  The resort includes all meals and activities (including golf), with the exception of tours and the spa.  There are also two other Sandals resorts on the island that you can use visit by taking the resort shuttle bus.

Activities:
John, JoAnna, Shawna, and Keith all arrived on the same flight on Sunday (courtesy of British Airways credit card miles where we each earned 100,000 miles by signing up and spending $3K!).  We had an overnight in Miami (at the Hyatt Place for free, of course) - where we stopped by our favorite dive Cuban diner for some quatro leches (which is seriously better than tres leches!).  Kim and Jonathan had arrived one day before us and Phil and Joyce arrived the same day as us but later in the evening.

We surprised John and JoAnna with a 15 minute helicopter flight from the airport to the resort - this cut off a bit of time and was a fun way to see the island.  It was rough to see the destruction of parts of the island by Hurricane Tomas which had hit on Halloween 2010 and destroyed property and roads, and several people had died. 

The primary activity for the week was sitting on our butt by the pool.  However, we did add a few activities so that we could say we saw SOME of the island. 

Hike Up Gros Piton

On the first full day on the island, we had a guide take John, JoAnna, Keith, Shawna, and Jonathan to hike the Gros Piton.  At about 2600 feet, it was a 2K hike up that was fairly strenuous since the trail had very few switchbacks and was mostly steep with lots of steps.  And, with the heat and lack of previous exercise, it was an even tougher walk.  However, the view at the top was just fantastic and worth the sweat (and almost tears)!

The next day we went with the full group on a tour of the island, actually driving some of the same places we did on the way to the hike the previous day.  We went with Cosol Tours which is owned by a fairly young local man who seemed to know quite a few of the woman on the island!  He showed up in his van, equipped with water, beer and 'jungle juice' for the day!  We knew right then we were in for a treat!  One sip of the jungle juice, however, could put hair on your chest so some of us had to water it down.  On the tour, we saw most of the western side of the island, driving by Marigot Bay, Anse La Raye and a banana plantation and visiting the sulphur springs and a beautiful botanical garden.  Cosol also stopped along the way to get us some delicious, warm, homemade bread and we stopped at his "Monday girl's" house to snack on a few local treats.  The tour was well worth while and Cosol was a hoot and a great tour guide!

Sunset Cruise

Shawna and Keith treated the rest of the gang to a sunset sail on Wednesday evening.  The cruise provided drinks and snacks and sailed for about 2 hours along the coast.  It was a little overcast so we did not see too much of a sunset but we certainly took advantage of the drinks, danced on the boat and soaked in the scenery.  Being 8 of us in the group, we were a little loud and probably ruined the 'romantic sail' that some of the honeymooners were trying to experience!

We deemed Thursday "Beach Activity Day" where we rented jet skis, sailed and hung out on the trampolines that were anchored in the water.  The sailing and jet skiing were both quite fun.  And, it was fun practicing synchronized jumping off of the trampolines and watching JoAnna try to deliver 4 drinks in the ocean to us!

Pool at Sandals Resort

The rest of the trip was spent lying by the pool, reading our books/kindles, and drinking BBCs (Banana/Baileys/Coconut - quite possibly the most calories one could push into a glass), pina coladas, daiquiris and beer.

Kim and Jonathan left us on the Thursday to fly home.  Phil and Joyce left on the Monday.  John, JoAnna, Keith and Shawna also flew home on the Monday on the same flight.  The flight was supposed to be St Lucia-Miami-NYC-Raleigh with a 6 hour overnight layover in NYC - but we ran to a gate in Miami and were able to fly last minute standby directly to Raleigh allowing us to make it home the same day - outstanding!

In the end, Keith agreed that relaxing holidays are definitely slammin' so we are looking forward to planning future vacations in the Caribbean!

Restaurants:

At the Sandals Grande St Lucian, we pretty much tried most of the restaurants they had:

• Bayside Restaurant - had great buffets at lunch and ala carte dinners.
• Toscanini's - nice Italian restaurant but don't go here if you plan on being loud (it's a little stuffy)!  Joanna almost got us kicked out!
• Barefoot by the Sea - great meals served outside on picnic tables on the sand.
• Olde London Pub - pub grub and great for late night snacks.
• Josephine's - good desserts and ice cream.
• Beach Bistro - good spot for lunch.

We also went to a couple of restaurants at the other two Sandals resorts:

• Neputune's Restaurant @ Sandals Regency La Toc - great seafood served in an open air restaurant with views of the ocean.
• The Pier Restaurant @ Sandals Halcyon Beach - also great seafood served in a Caribbean style restaurant located on a pier on the ocean.



Dinner at The Pier

Dinner at Barefoot by the Sea

More Photos of This Trip: