custom tour recommendations?

[swelch]

I want to do a land and sea tour so badly, but we have two people in our group who are prone to car-sickness. I am wondering if it's possible to book a tour that is not so lengthy and car-ride intensive and still hit the top spots? And if that is possible, what would be your recommendations? I love local cuisine and culture first and foremost, secondly sites such as Pitons and waterfall with a short swim and possibly volcano, and lastly snorkeling and swimming. We do love those stops as well, but we have a few people who wouldn't necessarily swim but relax on beach instead. If we take the ship's 7 hour excursion, are they large busses and would that perhaps alleviate the motion sickness problem? What is the lunch like on the ship's excursion, I wonder? Thanks for any and all advice!

[Colorado Kat]

The Pitons are spectacular, but quite a distance from the dock.

The island roads are twisty and turny.

 

How about boat rides? I think one tour company does a boat ride both directions.

[reedprincess]

No - the tours are not large buses with lots of people - our roads are small and narrow and cannot accommodate large buses - most of them are mini-van type vehicles, up to 14 passengers.

It is easy to book a tour that is by sea both ways on a catamaran or speed boat. You can look at Spencer Ambrose, Bateau Mygo, Carnival (not the cruise line!), Endless Summer, SeeSpray cruises. all of these do similar tours that are down the West coast to Soufriere to see the Pitons, volcano, perhaps botanical gardens and waterfall, lunch, swimming/snorkeling/beach time between the Pitons or at Anse Chastenet and back up to the port. Worth taking a look at those. They all are very familiar with the cruise times and getting guests back in plenty of time. A quick Google search will bring up their webpages.

Enjoy!

[Colorado Kat]

We had a tour with Spencer Ambrose, and he was a delightful man. Very considerate of his guests.

 

I would check out a custom tour with his company.

 

What is the age range of people in your group? Level of fitness? Ask about climbing into boats for the tour you book.

[huskyjoe]

Last week on AOS and in St Lucia we went horseback riding with Island Riders...Bano is the tour guide's name...best island experience I ever had!

[swelch]

I emailed Cosol because of their extremely high rating on these boards. They told me they could do a tour tailored to my needs. Many of the people in my group want to do the aerial tram. Not so thrilled myself. He gave me a great price quote for a ride for us all to the tram (we pay our own tram rides) and then a two hour tour with boat ride for snorkeling, someplace for lunch. Here is the kicker: the website for the aerial tram ride specifically says cruise ship people cannot book tickets online. What is this all about? How do they know I am on a ship? So I am forced to book an overpriced ship's tour?

[swelch]

Oops! I misunderstood. Cosol tours couldn't take us on the aerial tram. We have to book that through the ship. But they COULD tailor a tour that would fit our needs in addition o the ship's tour!! Point is, they were very helpful and responsive in trying to meet our needs! Great customer service!

[CuplACruzrs]

I just posted this on another thread. To say that these roads are twisty is an understatement. The drivers are very good though. We were never jerked around or felt in any danger. Does your friend do better in the front seat? If so, that may work if you let the driver know.

 

We just returned from a great cruise which included a visit to St Lucia. I booked with Cosol Tours after reading the great reports on CC and another site that advises you about Trips. (can I say that??)

 

We had a fabulous 5 1/2 hour tour in an air conditioned van with 12 people. Our tour host, Ben, stopped all along the way for photos. Very unlike the Carnival sponsored tour the day before on St Maarten where we only saw things out the bus window (very boring and it's called the Explorer I will say the ferry ride across the bay was great on that tour).

 

I emailed Cosol on Thursday Feb 2nd for our Feb 11th tour and received a very quick return email.

 

One of the stops they make is for a snack. They call it a snack! There were 4 tables of local foods set up that you could sample. They had fresh coconut, coconut candy, tamarind candy, passion fruit, fried fish and chicken with banana ketchup (yes, you must try the banana ketchup it's excellent), gingerbread cake, mango, pineapple, and so much more I can even remember it all and everything was great.

 

We went to Sulphur Springs, the waterfall, drove through two fishing villages on the way, went to Jalousie Beach which is between the Pitons and stayed for an hour. Not being beach people we were a little concerned about this but the hour went very quickly.

 

Of course, you had all the free water, beer, coke, or rum punch you could drink.

 

Everywhere they took us was very clean and the people were fantastic. On the way back to the ship they stopped and picked up a styrofoam container. Then the driver gets back in the van and we travel farther and he stops at a bakery and comes out with "chunks" of bread that were about the size of a turkey drumstick, that were right out of the oven, and sliced almost through. Then he passed the styrofoam container that was full of sliced cheese that you put between the bread. AWESOME!!! The heat from the bread melts the cheese and it was the best.

 

By all means, feel safe booking with Cosol. We were concerned as we came down the mountains and hit a traffic jam. We were stopped! We all knew the ship does not wait for passengers who are not on ship sanctioned tours but we were somewhat relieved by the fact that we knew there were ship tours behind us on the road. Our driver was on the phone right away talking with "headquarters" and his excellent knowledge of the back roads got us out of the heavy traffic and back to the port with about 30 minutes to spare for a little shopping at the port.

 

Enjoy St. Lucia. It is a beautiful island and Cosol Tours is very reputable

[seamonkey]

We went on a tour with

 

Smarty Tours.

 

He worked on ships and now has a touring St.Lucia company.

 

http://www.smartytourstlucia.com/photo_gallery.html

 

http://www.smartytourstlucia.com/services.html

 

http://www.smartytourstlucia.com/contactus.html