St Lucia Honeymoonin'
/We spent 10 days on St Lucia and let me tell you, those days FLEW by. The total flight time from Austin was about 8 hours, having one stop in Miami.
Flying in, we could see so much of the island and the gorgeous Pitons, which I knew we would later be hiking. The ocean was blue just like the photos. The buildings were colorful. Despite the airport being tiny and having a very “island feel”, everything was organized and went smoothly. We were able to quickly get on our shuttle with a few other guests to our resort, Grande St Lucian, a Sandals resort.
Things we did not know, but quickly learned:
-There is really only one way around the whole island.
-The roads are EXTREMELY windy.
-The roads are SINGLE lane, and sorta scary, lol.
-Christmas time is a VERY busy time for the island.
-St. Lucians drive like Nascar, so if you get car sick- sit in the front of the van!
-At night, there are frogs that sound like alarms. You have to learn how to tune them out, or else you won’t be able to sleep!
We made it to the hotel, 3 hours later, due to the holiday Island traffic. (that was a loooong windy drive!)
We arrived at nighttime so we didn’t get to see the true beauty of the resort until the morning.
Waking up and opening the curtains— OMG, the Island was beautiful!
We walked out from our ground level suite and headed to the pool. They were playing music (my favorite, reggae) which made me love this place even more.
Sandals was a gorgeous resort! So much to do, eat and drink. Restaurants of all different types of foods- Italian, Hibachi, Sushi, Steakhouse, you name it, they had it. Bars at almost every corner.
Our favorite drinks:
Rum Punch- the islands favorite.
Piton- the island beer… surprisingly good!
There were activities lined up all through out the day, in case you wanted to get up from your lounge chair and join. (Nick and I won the water balloon throwing contest one day!) They also had water sports- jet-skis, kayaks, wake boarding, skiing and sailing.
We opted one day to take a boat tour (4 hours) that took us around the coastline, showing us Marigot Bay (my favorite spot!), the waterfalls, and the sulfur baths. We had some home cooking at a little town of Sourfrie. On our cruise back, we had Chris Brown blasting while Rasta D (our tour guide) was pouring us stiff Rum Punch and shots of spiced rum, another island favorite. I highly recommend this tour.- Ride St Lucia. This tour was not through our hotel. It was only $145 and well worth it for a quick and fun way to see the island, without having to be in a car!
Things to note (and they will let you know this too!)
-Sulfer baths- they really really smell awful. Lol, this was a once in a lifetime experience. Just get in and do it. You’ll never forget it! It was really fun, once you get past the smell. :) DO NOT WEAR anything you care about because…. those clothes will forever smell. Lesson learned.
-You are safe.
-The food is good.
-Bring cash.
Hiking Gros Piton was Nick’s #1 thing he wanted to do. We had to wake up at 5:30 to catch a bus outside of our resort, for a 2ish hour drive to get to the south side of the island. My dumbass get on the transit bus (12ish seats) and sits in the very last row. Needless to say- I lasted about 30 minutes into the windy, hairpin turn drive, before I told Nick he needed to tell the driver to pull over before I barfed…. the driver came to a screeching halt and I barely made it to front of the transit to barf out the door. Thankfully there was a nurse on board who had anti-nausea meds. I then got royal treatment and got to sit in the very front. We finally made it to the trail entry. Two hours up… and about two hours down. This was not an easy hike.
Things to note:
-Bring water
-Eat something before/pack a snack for the top of the mountain (they don’t feed you until finish the hike)
-The roads are windy to get there, don’t sit in the back if you get car sick.
-The hike is 100% worth it. It is NOT easy though.
-Don’t drink the night before either… lol. Doing this slightly hungover with carsickness is not ideal.
The rest of the honeymoon, we went back to lounging, floating in the ocean and drinking our rum punch.
Oh, and we basically had our own personal photographer the whole trip.
10/10 would recommend St Lucia and our resort Grande St Lucian. The people were so kind, fun and friendly. Service was great. Food was great. Island was beautiful and tons of cool facts/history.
MUST PACK ITEMS LINKED BELOW:
