Island safety

[1stItaly]

Cruising Caribbean in November, and first time to St. Lucia, Martinique and Barbados.  Have a heard some concerns from other crusiers about the safety on these Islands.  Wondering if anyone has encountered any trouble, or known of trouble happening recently.  I will be traveling with my adult daughter, just want to be safe.  We were advised to only take the cruise excursions, and to not go out on our own.  Thank you for any input you have.

[reedprincess]

On 8/18/2019 at 10:12 PM, 1stItaly said:

Cruising Caribbean in November, and first time to St. Lucia, Martinique and Barbados.  Have a heard some concerns from other crusiers about the safety on these Islands.  Wondering if anyone has encountered any trouble, or known of trouble happening recently.  I will be traveling with my adult daughter, just want to be safe.  We were advised to only take the cruise excursions, and to not go out on our own.  Thank you for any input you have.

Not sure when your hearing this info, or being advised towards inky ship tours - but as far as safety, etc goes for those three, they're among the safer countries in the Caribbean. All are Level 1 countries via US State Department, meaning the safest warning level - use normal precautions you would use anywhere.  Don't leave valuables unattended, be aware of surroundings, etc. 

Local tour operators are generally all safe and sound - there's been no reports in many years if any problems as far as safety, quality, etc of your operators here in St Lucia. While some may have an occasional off day (not quite as friendly or some equipment broken down) that happens with anyone - and the ship's tours are provided via a local operator, they just cost more than booking direct. And none of the local operators have been late returning guests in more than 15 years here in St Lucia (probably longer than that even). 

I'd suggest reading the State Department travel website for the countries, then research what you want to do, costs, suggested operators. TripAdvisor is another good source (sister site to CC). 

Spencer Ambrose, Cosol, Real St Lucia Experience, Serenity TVL, Island Man Taxi and Tours, GemXcursions, and so forth are all great.  

[1stItaly]

Thank you very much for your reply and info.  I did look up the US State dept. and found the same, that only normal precautions were advised as of a level 1.  Good to know.  

[Luv my furbaby]

I’m not a big fan of St Lucia. We were on a ship excursion years ago and people were coming up to the catamaran in kayaks and trying to climb on to sell stuff. I know it is a poor nation, but that is going a bit far. 

I just didn’t feel safe

[Eagle1970]

My wife and I stayed on one of the resorts a few years ago. One day we hired a car and went for a drive, that was probably the most dangerous bit as the driving was insane in places.  The waitress at dinner thought we were insane to rent a car but we survived.  We did have an interesting moment though in Castries when we took the wrong turn into a residential street and had to ask for directions to find our way out.  We definitely had an uneasy feeling there when the car was surrounded and we couldn’t move anymore, just as we were almost back to the main street.  Fortunately we had a suitable (bit of a guess at the time) amount of currency with us and whilst we were not mugged maybe it was not too far from it.

[albeeee]

Eagle1970, sorry this happened to you, same think happened to our family as well.

[Eagle1970]

Albeeee sorry also in return.  It was an interesting experience for sure, just took the edge off a stunning Island.  Hopefully these cases are few and far between?