Looking for a Land and Sea Combo Tour

[CruisinChic]

Can anyone recommend a good land and sea combo tour?  We would like one that sails from the cruise port to the Pitons and then transports you via bus to Sulphur Springs and other sites.  I found the Ultimate Land and Sea adventure from Feel Good Water Taxi and Tours, but the price they are quoting is very high for 2 adults and 2 kids ($500).  This tour seems to do everything we want, but surely there is another tour company offering it for a lower price.

 

https://www.feelgoodwatertaxiandtours.com/ultimate-land-and-sea-adventure

 

Thanks!

[helensobol]

Check out --Spencer Ambrose as they have a similar tour that is slightly less in cost.   Cosol also has a tour but it doesn't meet your requirement of sailing from the cruise port, it has just a small boat ride.

 

[pghsteelerfan]

I second Spencer Ambrose.  We've toured with them twice and I highly recommend them.   If you check out their website, they have a few different tours & the one you want to check out is "Spencer's Land, Sea and Beach Adventure".  We did this the last time we were in St. Lucia and we really enjoyed it.  We did the "Jalousie/Sugar Beach Break" the first time but wanted to see more of St. Lucia on our second visit.  For the land, sea, & beach adventure, you're taken directly from the ship, by speedboat, to Soufriere.  From there you'll get in air conditioned vans to see the major hi-lights (land part of the tour) which are all located around Soufriere.  Those are the drive-in volcano or mud baths; a scenic overlooks, Toraille Waterfall, banana plantation and all are located right around Soufriere.  From there you'll get back in the speedboat for a quick trip to Jalousie/Sugar Beach, the beach between the Pitons for about 2 hours.  The beach is gorgeous & great snorkeling if that's something that interests you.  For the return trip, you also go by speed boat & this is where you'll get the sea tour.  That includes several stops at landmarks and points of interests, including great views of the Pitons - great photo ops.  We were back at our ship by 3:30PM (back on board was 4:30), so we had plenty of time to browse the shops in the cruise center before boarding.  Unlimited beverages (water, diet coke, coke, Piton Beer, & rum punch) are provided and there is also a lunch provided.  We had lunch at the beach, but we were on a smaller tour (only ship in port the day we were there) and sometimes lunch is served while on the land tour. 

 

Edited January 31, 2019 by pghsteelerfan

[helensobol]

3 minutes ago, pghsteelerfan said:

I second Spencer Ambrose.   Unlimited beverages (water, diet coke, coke, Piton Beer, & rum punch) are provided and there is also a lunch provided.  We had lunch at the beach, but we were on a smaller tour (only ship in port the day we were there) and sometimes lunch is served while on the land tour. 

 

 

A quick question, 

 

- Lunch:  I read a lot of complains about the food not being enough and they offer snacks but none are given. Did you find yourself given enough food?   

 

- Drinks:  the website states you can drink only at the end when you snorkel.  is that the case? 

 

There is only 1 boat in port while we are there so I still keep debating between the 2. 

[pghsteelerfan]

3 minutes ago, helensobol said:

 

A quick question, 

 

- Lunch:  I read a lot of complains about the food not being enough and they offer snacks but none are given. Did you find yourself given enough food?   

 

- Drinks:  the website states you can drink only at the end when you snorkel.  is that the case? 

 

There is only 1 boat in port while we are there so I still keep debating between the 2. 

Lunch:  yes, plenty for us.  When we were there, the lunch included BBQ jerk chicken, green banana salad (really good, almost like potato salad); garden salad; rice; lentils (also very good), pasta in a sauce; and some root veggies (I remember Taro root was one of them, pretty good & tasted similar to a potato).  But I have seen others report that they didn't have enough, so maybe it depends on the individual or size of the tour.

 

Drinks:  just the beer & rum punch.  Every tour we've been on that involved snorkeling and alcoholic beverages, it was always snorkeling before alcohol.  They take the coolers in the vans and were passing out the water and pop/soda. 

 

When there is only one ship in port, the groups tend to be smaller.  On our tour, we were asked if we wanted seconds since they still had stuff left.  We were pretty full with what we had.  I'm attaching the picture of my plate:

 

 

[helensobol]

3 minutes ago, pghsteelerfan said:

Drinks:  just the beer & rum punch.  Every tour we've been on that involved snorkeling and alcoholic beverages, it was always snorkeling before alcohol.  They take the coolers in the vans and were passing out the water and pop/soda

 

Thanks for the info. This helped alot. 

 

It's funny every tour I have been on its been the opposite.. They encourage it.   I'm look at the land and sea tour so there is no 'snorkeling' potion.  Just the option at the beach w/lunch. 

[pghsteelerfan]

1 minute ago, helensobol said:

 

Thanks for the info. This helped alot. 

 

It's funny every tour I have been on its been the opposite.. They encourage it.   I'm look at the land and sea tour so there is no 'snorkeling' potion.  Just the option at the beach w/lunch. 

It's been a while since I've been on their site, but those of us wanting to snorkel were able to.  There are 2 sections of Jalousie/Sugar Beach, resort side and "tour" side.  The tour side has the free loungers under the trees (lots of natural shade).  There are palapas with loungers in the one sunny spot.  That side of the beach is right on the snorkeling side.  The other side is the resort side.  As for snorkeling, I think the people on the "Jalousie/Sugar Beach Break" have first dibs on snorkeling gear, but there was plenty to go around when we were there.  Just in case, we we brought our own snorkel gear since we saw mixed reports on whether we could or could not use the snorkel gear while on the land, sea, beach adventure.  But the day we were there, we'd have been able to use what Spencer provides. 

I did a review after our trip but some can see my pictures and others can't.  I used Photobucket as a host site, but never upgraded to their premium membership for 3rd party photo hosting (it was about $400 a year).  That review is in my signature and the part with Spencer's Land, Sea, Beach adventure starts on page 16, Post #399 (towards the bottom).  I have some snorkeling pictures.  You can also check out Mitsugirly's reviews, they did the beach break and she has the best snorkeling pictures I've seen of Jalousie Beach.  You should be able to get to her pictures from her signature. 

[helensobol]

19 hours ago, pghsteelerfan said:

I did a review after our trip but some can see my pictures and others can't.  I used Photobucket as a host site, but never upgraded to their premium membership for 3rd party photo hosting (it was about $400 a year).  That review is in my signature and the part with Spencer's Land, Sea, Beach adventure starts on page 16, Post #399 (towards the bottom).  I have some snorkeling pictures.  You can also check out Mitsugirly's reviews, they did the beach break and she has the best snorkeling pictures I've seen of Jalousie Beach.  You should be able to get to her pictures from her signature. 

 

I just went to your review.  It was outstanding and with some much details.     It appears we have similar thoughts about what to do as we are going to Pinel Island in St Martin and Sapphire Beach in St Thomas. 

 

Thanks again.   This is the reason I love this community,  great people helping each other out! 

 

[pghsteelerfan]

6 hours ago, helensobol said:

 

I just went to your review.  It was outstanding and with some much details.     It appears we have similar thoughts about what to do as we are going to Pinel Island in St Martin and Sapphire Beach in St Thomas. 

 

Thanks again.   This is the reason I love this community,  great people helping each other out! 

 

We sure do!  I loved both Pinel Island and Sapphire.  CC has been a big help to me & we've been able to see/do things we never would have known about otherwise.  I love CC for the same reasons.  🙂

Edited February 1, 2019 by pghsteelerfan

[CruisinChic]

Thank you so much for all the feedback!  I booked with Spencer Ambrose and we are looking forward to it!  

[pghsteelerfan]

7 hours ago, CruisinChic said:

Thank you so much for all the feedback!  I booked with Spencer Ambrose and we are looking forward to it!  

You're very welcome!  I hope you have a wonderful time - we love St. Lucia and can't wait to get back, hopefully soon. 

 

[SquishTheWhale]

We have done the Spencer Ambrose tour- it might actually have been my review you read (or one of the ones you read) on Tripadvisor from the concerns you mentioned. We were not offered any snacks on the tour and felt the website description was misleading in this aspect- we thought that we'd be given chances to sample fresh local food at different stops. However the only food we were given was lunch- according to their reply to my TR review this was the 'sample' of jerk chicken that was promised. We found the lunch on the very light side- one chicken drumstick per person and sides. Not the end of the world and I guess better for snorkelling if you're not full, but I think everyone on the tour could have eaten more. Drinks were offered out of a cooler but they ran out of water before the end of the beach break.

 

Now my complaints are over with, we did really enjoy this tour! The speedboat was great fun, we got to see the mud baths and waterfall and it felt like we were always one step ahead of the crowds. The snorkelling at Sugar beach is amazing and I'm so glad we got 2hrs there rather than the 1hr the land tours get. My tip would be to get a lounger in the shade- we were cooking by the end of the 2hrs and all the loungers get taken very quickly. After we arrived many more boat tours arrived and lots of people had to just stand around or sit on the sand.

[Bluenoser47]

On 1/31/2019 at 2:34 PM, pghsteelerfan said:

It's been a while since I've been on their site, but those of us wanting to snorkel were able to.  There are 2 sections of Jalousie/Sugar Beach, resort side and "tour" side.  The tour side has the free loungers under the trees (lots of natural shade).  There are palapas with loungers in the one sunny spot.  That side of the beach is right on the snorkeling side.  The other side is the resort side.  As for snorkeling, I think the people on the "Jalousie/Sugar Beach Break" have first dibs on snorkeling gear, but there was plenty to go around when we were there.  Just in case, we we brought our own snorkel gear since we saw mixed reports on whether we could or could not use the snorkel gear while on the land, sea, beach adventure.  But the day we were there, we'd have been able to use what Spencer provides. 

I did a review after our trip but some can see my pictures and others can't.  I used Photobucket as a host site, but never upgraded to their premium membership for 3rd party photo hosting (it was about $400 a year).  That review is in my signature and the part with Spencer's Land, Sea, Beach adventure starts on page 16, Post #399 (towards the bottom).  I have some snorkeling pictures.  You can also check out Mitsugirly's reviews, they did the beach break and she has the best snorkeling pictures I've seen of Jalousie Beach.  You should be able to get to her pictures from her signature. 

Hi

I was trying to find both your and mitsugirlys reviews and can not find either can you please post direct link?

I would love to see her pics you mentioned as well as both reviews

[pghsteelerfan]

17 hours ago, Bluenoser47 said:

Hi

I was trying to find both your and mitsugirlys reviews and can not find either can you please post direct link?

I would love to see her pics you mentioned as well as both reviews

We've done two tours with Spencer Ambrose while in St. Lucia.  The first was in May 2013 in which we did Spencer's "Jalousie/Sugar Beach Break" and the second time was in September 2015 when we did the "Land, Sea, and Beach Adventure" and I did reviews of both cruises, with a lot of pictures.  I'll attach the link to both of those reviews.  

 

The first one was the Valor review from May 2013.  The section on St. Lucia starts on Page 7 but the "Jalousie/Sugar Beach Break" section starts on Page 8, Post #187. 

 

The second was the Liberty review from September 2015.  The section on St. Lucia starts on Page 15, but the "Land, Sea, Beach Adventure" sections starts on Page 16, Post #399.

 

I included TONS of pictures of both tours in these reviews, including snorkeling pictures from Jalousie/Sugar Beach.  This is the best snorkeling I have seen out of the places we've snorkeled.  I should not that I've heard the snorkeling is great in Curacao, Bonnaire, Belize, and Roatan, but I've never snorkeled at any of those places. 

 

***If for some reason you can't see the pics in my review (some can see them, some can't), just post a reply and I'll get them to you somehow***

 

Carnival Valor review - May 2013 (we did the "Jalousie/Sugar Beach Break")

 

Carnival Liberty review - September 2015 (we did the "Land, Sea, & Beach Adventure", but still had a little over 2 hours at Jalousie/Sugar Beach)

 

 

[pghsteelerfan]

17 hours ago, Bluenoser47 said:

Hi

I was trying to find both your and mitsugirlys reviews and can not find either can you please post direct link?

I would love to see her pics you mentioned as well as both reviews

Here are the links to Mitsugirly's reviews from St. Lucia.  She just finished another review of Royal Caribbean's Freedom of the Seas in which St. Lucia was one of their stops, so she also has two reviews with tons of pictures from St. Lucia.  The first was her Carnival Fascination Review from 2016 where they did Spencer's "Jalousie/Sugar Beach Break".  They just did Spencer's "Land, Sea, & Beach Adventure" on this most recent cruise in April. 

 

Just found the links to both reviews and have attached them.  ALL of her pictures are spectacular and she's got some GREAT snorkeling pictures from Jalousie/Sugar Beach in both reviews. 

 

Link to Mitsugirly's Carnival Fascination review (August 2016), St. Lucia/Spencer's "Jalousie/Sugar Beach Break" starts on Page 27

 

Link to Mitsugirly's RCI Freedom of the Seas review (April 2019), St. Lucia/Spencer's "Land, Sea, & Beach Adventure" starts on Page 11

 

[mitsugirly]

Sorry, I'm just now seeing this...

 

Thanks for posting my review links ph! I do know those links seem to drop you off at the beginning of the review. So, those wanting just the Spencer Ambrose review, you can find both on my web site...

 

"Jalousie/Sugar Beach Break" link is here

 

"Land, Sea, & Beach Adventure" link is here

 

 

I highly recommend both!!! :)

[pghsteelerfan]

On 7/27/2019 at 3:56 PM, mitsugirly said:

Sorry, I'm just now seeing this...

 

Thanks for posting my review links ph! I do know those links seem to drop you off at the beginning of the review. So, those wanting just the Spencer Ambrose review, you can find both on my web site...

 

"Jalousie/Sugar Beach Break" link is here

 

"Land, Sea, & Beach Adventure" link is here

 

 

I highly recommend both!!! 🙂

You're quite welcome (I didn't think you'd mind)!  😊