Ship Excursions in St. Lucia

[NoVa Mimi]

I would love to get information about ship excursions in St. Lucia. We've decided to go ahead and do a ship excursion there and I'm interested in the Catamaran to Fond Doux Estate. We're looking for a sea trip to the Pitons and Marigot. I don't recall ever reading anything about this particular excursion. If anyone has any experience with this tour, I'd love to find out about it, and also to see if it is crowded. Also, if there are any other sea based excursions that really stand out, I'd love to hear about those as well. Thank you!

[zeldajanuary]

I took a wonderful excursion in St. Lucia several years back, do not even remember the line, but it sounds like what you wnat. Took a bus up into the mountains, through a fishing village for shopping, to the sulfur volcano, overlooked Marigot Bay, to a restored sugar plantation for lunch then ended up down the coast at Soufierie.

Then, we got on a catamaran and sailed back to the ship, complete with rum punches.

Took all day, but since I had been there before and seen the pier mall and downtown, I truly enjoyed it.

[jules71]

We did the ship excursion, "Land and Sea to Soufriere," in September 03. We had seen a lot of posts both positive and negative about it, but really wanted to see a lot of the island and this seemed like the best way. We loved it! We had a small air-conditioned bus that took us the land portion stopping several times along the way for photos. Some that I remember overlooking Marigot Bay, a fishing village, the drive-in volcano, and a planatation for lunch. We had wonderful views of the Pitons, banana plantations, wildlife -- we stopped to see a very big snake! Our tour guide was very knowledgable. And I loved the sail back to Castries, we stopped and snorkeled and got to see firsthand some of the beautiful areas that we had seen from up above on the way there. The trip is 7 1/2 hours long, but I never felt bored or tired. There were four of us and we all enjoyed it. If you do it, try to do the bus portion first. We met a few people who had done it the other way around and didn't like it as well.

[dexter]

Can't remember the name of the cruise, but I think it was simply "boat cruise to Pitons". Or "shore cruise to Pitons". It was very inexpensive and it was a very comfortable two deck boat that cruised just off shore to the Pitons and then returned just along the beach so you could get a good view of the land.

They served free rum punch and soft drinks and a great local beer called "Piton". This was relaxing and fun.

[NoVa Mimi]

Thank you all very much! I had been hesitant about the land and sea, but it does sound nice. I had wanted to do just the sea part, but I see from your post Jules that one can really get to see the land and some beautiful sights from that portion. I really appreciate all thoughts and opinions, so if anyone has anything to add, please do so! Thanks!

[mwsrccl]

I also did the Land and Sea last year and loved it, but we did the boat cruise first and it wore out most in our group, so a lot of people on the bus tour was falling asleep! It is a very long tour. The only negative was the restaurant manager where they take you too. When we first came in she was very rude to us, so we complained to our guide and she talked to her and everything was okay from then on out.