Questions about Cosol tours

[unavox]

We booked a private tour with Cosol in January and had a WONDERFUL time. Our driver was Cheyenne who was incredible. He was informative, talkative and all around awesome. We changed the tour around a little bit, went to some places, did not go to others and added places/things we wanted to see.

 

This tour was worth booking private. We had bunches of bananas and always something to drink when we wanted.

 

Enjoy St. Lucia, it is a beautiful island, with beautiful people. Cosol made our day!

 

As most of us are, we were leery of booking without the ship on this island. However, we arranged to be returned to the ship earlier than the normal tour and were accommodated!

[ddoc]

We had a terrific time. 31 of us in 3 vans toured this incredibly beautiful island! I would go back in a minute. Cosol is extremely sincere, knowledgeable and he does a great job on the tour as did his other 2 drivers. His attention to detail insured that every single one of our group had a good time. I do recommend Bonine because the roads are incredibly windy and some of the gals were feeling the hills. When we told Cosol, he stopped the vans and got fresh grapefruit which is a natural remedy for car sickness. The beach at Jalousie is too beautiful to be believed. I highly recommend his services. $45 is a great price for almost 5 hours of touring. You would never match that on any ship sponsored tour!!!!

[kcnn01]

dkbryan,

Our family (12 people) will be on the Serenade next December. We would love to know what tours you would recommend for the other islands. Thanks, Kcnn

[dkbryan]

kcnn01...let me give you a run down of what we did on our Serenade cruise and then you can decide if you might want to go that route.

 

You can see pics of each day on webshots.

 

St. Thomas...Godfrey's Tour. At $25 it was the cheapest tour we took. Saw some amazing scenery. He takes you shopping in the morning. There are probably 200 jewelry stores there, so if you want to shop, I would suggest opting for the 3 hour shopping tour. We went to Cokie Beach at the end of the day. It's not the prettiest beach, but we went for the snorkeling. Had a chance to see numerous fish including wrassses, feather dusters, and large urchins. The reef begins as soon as you walk into the waer.

 

St. Martin...went to Maho beach to watch the jets come in and take off. Warning...if you want to feel the jet wash, those standing by the fence had a better experience than those of us who stood on the beach. The jet wash picked up the sand and it felt as though we were being sandblasted.

 

Antigua...We did Eli's Eco Tour. Antigua is a beautiful place. Hell's Gate was very interesting as we opted to swim to this small island and walk across the natural bridge. However, I'm not sure that it is worth the steep price.

 

St. Lucia...We did Cosol's Tour and loved it. His tour was $45 per person and we felt that this was the best tour of the week. You definitely get your money's worth. At the end of the day he took our group (4 vans loaded with people) to Jalousie Resort where we had a chance to swim or snorkel. We only had about an hour there, but the snorkeling at the base of one of the Pitons was probably the best that I've ever experienced.

 

Barbados...went with Glory Tours. We had a chance to go to the Orchid Gardens and Animal Preserve. At the end of the day we snorkeled with the green sea turtles and hovered over a ship wreck. The group of 10 people that took this tour had become very close by this part of the cruise so we had a great time. We loved the tour but once again I'm not sure that the high cost was worth it.

 

Final words...my DW and I agree that we probably tried to do too much. We took 4 all day tours in 5 days, plus we ventured to Maho beach on the off day. If we had to do it all over again, we would probably pick just 3 tours. On the other days we might explore the port area and then just hand around the ship and relax.

 

I'm sure you'll have a great time.

[laceyjane]

Cosol's tour was the best we have ever done. He provides you with samples of the local food at many stops and this is all included in his price. At one stop he gives you warm bread and cheese (we were amazed at how large the bread was and it was absolutely delicious-all included in the price) we had bananas, johhny cakes, local cookies, fish cakes, samples of a local rum, he gave us unlimited rum punch, beer, and bottled water.

 

He paid for ALL admission prices to all the things we did on the island. Swimming and snorkeling at the base of the pitons was absolutely an incredible/amazing experience.

 

We all tipped Cosol very well because this was a fabulous tour and with all the food he provides for you, and all the stops he makes, and all the sights we got to see and experience, the price was absolutely fantastic!!!

 

You will really enjoy the tour with Cosol.

[dkbryan]

Let me add something here. Cosol is not simply a tour operator. During the tour you will come to understand that Cosol cares his island and he enjoys getting your to pump money into the St. Lucian economy. My wife bought some necklaces from some of the venders and Cosol thanked her for supporting the people. Even if you are not in Cosol's van during the tour, you will see him every time you stop. He goes out of his way to make sure you are taken care of.:)