St. Lucia Trip Recap + Travel Tips

Hello friends!

My husband and I just got back from a glorious nine day vacation to St. Lucia. Since he's in grad school right now, he has things like spring break (cue the jealousy!), so we decided to take advantage of it and escape to the warmth of the Caribbean with two other couples. We had never traveled internationally with friends, and I'm happy to report that we all had a blast together. We even made matching tees (oh yes we did!). It was the perfect mix of restful and active - we spent countless hours hanging out by the pool, but made sure to spend a few days exploring the island on day trips as well.

Since I've already had several friends and family ask about our trip, I figured it would be fun to recount our trip, hit some highlights, and pass along a few tips and recommendations. If you're planning a trip to St. Lucia any time soon, I hope this information will be helpful! Feel free to ask me any specific questions via email or Facebook as well if you'd like. This post will be a long one, so pin it for later reference or grab a cup of coffee and pull up a chair!

WHERE WE STAYED:

With six of us in our group, we decided to rent a villa instead of staying at a resort. We all agreed this was one of our best decisions of the trip! We rented a gorgeous seven bedroom house with a pool at the very top of a hill on the northern tip of the island in an area called Cap Estate. The views were unbelievable! Now you may be asking why did you rent a seven bedroom house if you only needed three bedrooms?! Well it turns out that many villas will "close off" the bedrooms you don't use and rent out only the ones you need at a lower cost. The awesome part about renting a larger house is that you still get all the amenities and the common space of a bigger villa without paying the higher cost.

Also, the price of many villas (including ours) includes a housekeeper, cook and groundskeeper, so it's almost like having your own private resort. We felt so spoiled all week! Having a cook was amazing. We sat down and planned the meals with her at the beginning of the week and all we had to do was the grocery shopping. She did the rest. We ate at the villa for nearly every meal and it worked out perfectly for us. It was much more cost-effective than paying the high prices at restaurants around the island and it meant more time for relaxing since we didn't have to drive anywhere for meals. If going out to eat is a priority for you, make sure to pick a location with easy access to restaurants though :).

Our villa was run by a local property management company and the representative from the company was extremely helpful when it came to coordinating things like our hike (see below) and one of our day trips. She was always available by phone and email if we needed anything during the course of the week. Again, having this service made our villa feel like a mini resort - a huge plus!

With the villa facing west, we made sure we were "home" for the sunsets every night to catch views like these!

WHAT WE DID:

We chose to alternate days between hanging out at the villa with low-key activities and day-long excursions. This worked well for us so that we got to explore and be active some days, and be totally lazy on the others. Our excursions included two full-day tours organized through local companies and one day-long hike of one of the Gros Piton mountain. Here's some more information about those...

"Tout Bagay"Tour with Seaspray Cruises

This tour took us on a two hour catamaran ride down the west coast of the island from Rodney Bay to Soufriere. It was beautiful, but a longer ride and a more crowded boat than we expected! There were about 50 people on the tour. Once we got to Soufriere, we were divided into groups and shuttled up into the hills to see a waterfall, take a dip into a sulfur spring mud bath, tour a sugar mill/plantation, and eat lunch. The waterfall and sulfur spring were a little disappointing to be honest. They were a little over-touristy and the sulfur spring mud bath was pretty small. Both were pretty glimpses into some of the natural beauty of the island though! After that we got back on the catamaran and sailed back up the coast with a stop for snorkeling on the way. They provided the gear and we had a blast swimming around with the pretty tropical fish! Overall, it was money well spent to see and do a lot in one day. I'd recommend it.

Waterfall

Sulfur springs mud bath

View from the old sugar mill and plantation

Marigot Bay

Rainforest Spa Day at Sugar Beach with Carnival Sailing

First of all, this day had incredible potential to be super relaxing, but it ended up being a total, utter, logistical nightmare. The idea was to sail via catamaran from Castries to one of the loveliest resorts on the island called Sugar Beach (look it up...it's amazing). The girls would have spa treatments while the boys did water sports, we'd have lunch together, and then hang out on the beach for a couple of hours before sailing back at sunset. Sounds idyllic, right? Well the sailing company did all the scheduling incorrectly (along with some false advertising about the sunset cruise), so we spent most of the day trying to work things out with the cruise company and get everything we paid for. It was not the relaxing day we planned! I will say though - if the cruise company can hammer out the kinks in scheduling this day, I'd do it again in a heartbeat. Once we actually got to do the things we signed up for, it was wonderful. And I can't say enough good things about the staff at Sugar Beach. They bent over backwards to help us out after they realized how badly the sailing company messed up. Yikes!

Our group on the catamaran with the Gros and Petit Pitons in the background

The Pitons

Me and my hubby on the catamaran

Hike Up the Gros Piton

Our biggest accomplishment was hiking the 2,000 foot peak in Soufriere called the Gros Piton. It's a UNESCO World Heritage Site. You are required to have a guide (you don't want to go without one, trust me!) and our guide, Francis, was wonderful. He chatted with us during the "moderate to strenuous" hike, educating us about St. Lucia, the Gros Piton and life in general. He even took us to a "secret" lookout point at the top that was by far the best view from the summit. We were wiped at the end of the hike, but it's definitely a must-do if you go to St. Lucia.

View of the Pitons from a lookout point on the drive to the hike

We made it to the top of the Gros Piton! (Those are our matching tees, by the way)

Beaches

St. Lucia is a volcanic island, so the beaches are generally small stretches scattered all around the island. The west coast is on the Caribbean Sea and most beach-front resorts are on that side of the island because the waters are calm and the beaches are pretty nice. The east coast is on the Atlantic Ocean and is much wilder and less developed. Some of the beaches can be challenging to get to due to road conditions, but they're all open to the public - even if there's a resort there. That's good news/bad news. It was great for us since we were staying in a villa - we could drive to any beach and explore - but it's also bad because beaches can get crowded and there are lots of locals trying to sell you things. If I was staying at one of the resorts and hoping for privacy, this would not be the place I'd choose! If that's your hope as well and you're looking for a resort, your best bet is to stay at one that's more isolated and difficult to access. We didn't end up spending a ton of time at beaches, but if you're curious about specifics, please ask and I can probably give you some advice!

Pigeon Island Beach

Reduit Beach

Plantation (Cas en Bas) Beach

GETTING THERE:

We flew non-stop via Jet Blue from JFK to St. Lucia. The flight is a little over four hours and we arrived in the early afternoon. It was a very easy trip!

Also something to note about passports and St. Lucia: your passport expiration date MUST BE at least six months away from your return date in order to travel there. In other words, the expiration date isn't really an expiration date for some countries. One of our friends ran into this issue (thankfully before we left), and had a crazy time getting his passport renewed last minute.

GETTING AROUND:

We read terrible reviews about renting a car and driving in St. Lucia due to the hilly terrain, narrow roads, lack of guardrails, crazy drivers and the fact that you drive on the opposite side of the road. Needless to say, we were concerned! Many people avoid renting cars due to these concerns, but since we had six people and were staying at a villa off the beaten path, we didn't really see an alternative so we risked it. I'm happy to report that we had no issues and having a car gave us major flexibility to come and go as we pleased each day. You have to be cautious of course, but it really wasn't any worse than driving in Philadelphia in my opinion!

One thing about travel time: even though it's small island and you'd expect to go from one end of the island to the other in no time, the roads are very windy most of the time and so it actually takes about two hours to go from the north to the south end. No one enjoys riding in a car under those circumstances for very long!

If you book any day trips/tours, the cost generally includes a shuttle from wherever you're staying though, and we took advantage of that a couple of times for our excursions. Taxis are also available on the island, but we didn't use them so I don't know what the pricing is like.

CLOSING THOUGHTS:

Overall, we had an incredible trip. St. Lucia is a wonderful getaway spot for a week and I wish we were still there! It was the perfect place to rest and recharge after a long, cold, busy winter for everyone in our group. We deepened our friendships, disconnected from the constant pull of technology, played, and let ourselves be pampered a bit. Being back now, I realize how important it is to do that regularly given the crazy busy lives we lead. I'm so thankful for our time away!

Our last moments at our villa - we weren't ready to leave!

Looking for more posts like this? Check out my posts on our trips to Paris (part 1, part 2 and tips & tricks) and St. Barth (part 1 & part 2)!

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St. Barth Vacation {Part 1}

Happy Tuesday! As I mentioned yesterday, C and I just got back from an amazing ten day vacation with my parents, brother and sister-in-law in St. Barth (St. Barthelemy), which is a tiny, very hilly, gorgeous island in the middle of the Caribbean. Before the memories (and my slightly tanner skin) start to fade, I wanted to take some time to share a few photos of our time there for the next couple of days, so please excuse my slight detour away from my normal types of posts. I don't want to forget what our time was like there!

Today I want to share some favorite highlights from the trip, and tomorrow I'll show you a few photos of the pretty villa we stayed in and a few other homes and sites around the island. Here we go!

We arrived on the evening of December 26th after a long day of travel. I couldn't. wait. to get there and leave the winter weather behind! We stayed in an area called Vitet in a villa near the top of a steep hill (hills in St. Barth are no joke!). It was dark by the time we got there, so we couldn't see much, but the next morning when we looked out from the villa's deck area, we were greeted with the most gorgeous views: rolling green hills dotted with red and white roofs and a beach/lagoon area called Grand Cul-de-Sac. Breathtaking. I spend a lot of time just taking in this view:

We spend the first day hanging out, reading, and resting. It was just what I think we all needed after a very busy season from Thanksgiving to Christmas.

The most exciting moment of the day (don't worry, I won't be giving a play by play of each day of the entire trip...but I do have to tell this story!) came when we picked up our dinner for that night - freshly-caught lobster! And I mean fresh. When went down to a mini seafood market near our house and asked for two lobsters, and the guy hopped on a moped, went down to his lobster pots at the end of the road and brought us back two spiny lobsters. He put them in a plastic bag and handed them to us. It was a hilarious sequence of events.

I think we had a little too much fun with these guys while they were still alive (RIP little lobsters...you were quite tasty). We woke my mom up from her nap with them (yep, we're that mature) and tried our best to hold them up in the air for photos while they flapped that tails at us. They're called spiny lobsters for a reason, and they are sharp! Yikes!

We certainly had our fill of fun adventures the following days. I'll start with one of my favorite lunches we had at a restaurant called Do Brazil at Shell Beach. We ate in a little cabana with our toes in the sand and then hunted for pretty shells on the beach, which is one of my favorite things to do at the beach. I brought a bunch back from there and have plans for a fun way to commemorate our trip with them. Details to come!

So many shells! I guess that's why they call it Shell Beach, huh?

Speaking of beaches, there are just over a dozen on the island and we thoroughly enjoyed going to nearly all of them. Each one is unique, and each is almost overwhelmingly beautiful with its white sand and turquoise water. Some, such as Grand Cul-de-Sac (the one we can see from our villa) are great for water sports because they're calm, shallow and protected from major waves, others are wild and windy making them perfect for surfing, boogie boarding and body surfing and others are just great for hanging out and reading a book while trying not to get toasted by the strong sun.

Here we are at Gouverneur beach - can you tell how excited we were to jump in? :) 

I couldn't get over how green the island was. It was like we were in the hills of Scotland, but with pretty beaches and perfect sunny days, ha!

I pretty much lived in my bathing suit and this pink cover up every day - what a change from the down jackets, hats and scarves I was sporting at home! I highly recommend a beach vacation this time of year :). It's good for the soul.

Here we were at St. Jean beach...

The St. Jean beach area also has some of the best shopping on the island, especially beachwear. Oh, and here's a fun fact: the runway of the St. Barth airport (which is so short it can only have little 10 seater prop planes land there) runs straight out to the beach...and therefore the water. It's reportedly the third most dangerous airport in the world, and after seeing a number of planes land and take off there (including one we were on!), I think I believe it. 

No zoom here. This is how short it is/how close we could get to the runway on the beach!

We spent a couple of days playing in the calm waters at Grand Cul-de-Sac trying our best to learn how to do things like windsurf and stand up paddle board. I think all of us would say that our skills could use a little bit of work. There were some ridiculously talented water sports-loving people there!

If you made me pick my two favorite beaches, I think I'd have to go with Saline and Colombier. My mom has the photos of Saline on her camera, but I snapped this one of the path to the beach as we were leaving. I love the painted tile sign. They have these at all the beaches on the island. There's a short hike over a rocky hill to get to Saline, but no need for running shoes or anything. I thought it had the best waves for body surfing and boogie boarding. Warning though - this beach is also historically known as the nude beach, so watch out, haha! I most definitely caught a few glimpses. You've gotta have serious confidence to do that, yikes! No thanks.

Colombier is on only accessible by a fairly significant hike, but MAN is it worth it. We wore out bathing suits and running shoes, and that was definitely the right choice :). The sunset was spectacular, water was lovely, and it had amazing views along the way. It's also a popular place for people to anchor their yachts (St. Barth attracts a lot of those), which was fun to see.

Told you I lived in that pink cover up!

Hikes were definitely a fun part of our trip. In addition to the hike to Colombier beach, we also LOVED hiking and exploring the Toiny point area. It really felt like we were in the hills of Scotland or something there. There were windy, rocky cliffs, amazing water views, and lots of places to explore.

My other favorite hike was to a natural pool called the "Washing Machine." You get a little bit of everything on this hike - rocky beach, rolling hills, steep cliffs, booming waves, and then at the end, a pool! Watch out for sea urchins though. Those spiny little black things are all over the rocks there. We had to be really careful when swam around.

Alright, I think it's time to wrap this up for today...so many photos! I'll pick back up tomorrow with some others of our villa and a few fun sights!

If you have any plans to go to St. Barth, feel free to ask me questions. I'm no expert, but we explored a TON and I feel like I got to know the island pretty well since it's so small :). Can I go back now?

August Project Round-Up

***Today is the last day to enter the house number sign giveaway from Ramsign. Go to this post to enter. All you have to do is click one button for an automatic entry!***

I can't believe September is here! August was a whirlwind - we were out of town literally every weekend this month, including Labor Day weekend, so I can't wait to have a few weekends at home to get my head on straight (i.e. actually clean our apartment among many other things! :) ). Did anyone else have a month like that? Since we were out of town so much, I didn't get to work on many "big" projects last month, but I've got a bunch of ideas swirling around in my head, so I'm hoping to tackle a few of them soon now that things have calmed down a bit.

Before August is distant memory though, I wanted to take a look back at some favorite posts from the past month. If you missed anything, this is a great way to catch up!

I've been loving coral this summer, and couldn't resist including that color in the stool makeover I did for my parents at their river house. The coral and white looks so crisp together! Talk about the power of paint. Oh, and a cute dog doesn't hurt either.

I continued my quest to define my style - this month in the kitchen and the bedroom. I'm pretty set on the style of my kitchen (classic white), but I'm a little more torn on what I want the look and "feel" of my bedroom to be. Head on over here to weigh in on my dilemma.

A super fun series I did this month was "5 Days of Book Page Crafts." The most popular of the five were the garland and the wreath - were those your favorites or did you like one of the others? I've made it easy to follow the series if you'd like to go back and see all the tutorials. At the bottom of each post, starting with Day 1, there's a link you can click to go to the next project in the series.

I love finding new uses for old things (see: book pages above), and the twig and paper flag centerpiece I made last week out of an old newspaper fits nicely into that category. Another thing I love? Simple, quick projects that have a big impact. This one is that too. Have a party, bridal shower or birthday party coming up? Boom. Centerpiece. Done. In about ten minutes. 

Annnd lastly, after we took our awesome trip to California (hitting up LA, Route 1, San Francisco and Napa Valley), I shared a post about my favorite packing tips. I managed to squish eight days worth of stuff into a carry on because I despise paying for checked baggage...and I hate waiting at baggage claim. Go ahead and call me a penny pincher and impatient. I'm ok with that :). If you want to see how I did it, head on over here.

How was your month of August? Are you as sad as I am that summer is "over" (even though the weather strongly goes against that notion in DC right now)? I'm slowly coming around to the idea of fall, which I love, but I am a summer girl all the way. Le sigh. I will say that I am SO GLAD football is back though. Don't even try to talk to me when my Tigers (of the Auburn variety) are playing. If you need me, you'll find me screaming at the TV :).