Any recommendations for an excursion in St Lucia?

[drogerm]

I posted this on #37 within this chain, here is the info repasted for you. I have done this twice with Junior and he is amazing once in April 2007, again just this past November. My personal opinion is to see St. Lucia by boat due to the way the roads are in St. Lucia long and winding. I hate being crammed in those hot small vans.

 

Here is what I do in St. Lucia, I have done it twice. I just copy pasted this from my cruise review just posted:

 

St. Lucia: We do not book excursions at this port while there are many to do. We are adventurous so when we were here in April, we booked with a man named JUNIOR when we arrive right off the ship under the covered area where the tourism board has St. Lucia materials available about the island. JUNIOR'S excursion is $55 a person and includes the following: power boat ride (with shade) which goes up the gorgeous coast of St. Lucia on the way to the famous Pitons. You can email or call him in advance at the following contact information - Synergy Charters, Junior, Telephone 1-758-715-3484, Email - synergycharter@hotmail.com. The powerboat ride goes up the coast and they will stop to let you see the villages, they go into the coves, we got to see Marigot Bay up close, Anse Cochon which is where the Tikaye Resort is and then you also visit Anse Chastanet which is where the Anse Chastanet resort is (http://www.ansechastanet.com/). After stopping by those areas, we stop at the town of Soufriere - home to the Drive in Volanco and the Torialle Waterfalls. These are the two places all the cruise ship excursions take you to. Admission into these two parks is included. When you get off the power boat, you load into vans and they take our up the scenic drive to the Drive in Sulfur Volanco and the Torialle Waterfalls. We stay at each location for somewhere between 30-45 minutes give or take. After visiting those sites, you head back to the power boat. When back on the boat, you are taken to Anse Cochon which was visited earlier in the day but this time they let you off and you get to enjoy the beach (sand is almost black from the volcanoes), restaurant, water sports and beach. This beach has phenomenal snorkeling. When we were here last in April 2007, they took us to the other beach referenced above, Anse Chastanet, snorkeling is great too - both beaches are amazing. After an hour to an hour and a half at the beach you head back to port. They ensure you are back with at least an hour or hour and a half to spare. I HIGHLY recommend this excursion with JUNIOR.

 

If you want to view photos, I posted many from the excursion on the photos section of this website, just type in St. Lucia and you can see how through this excursion is.

 

Hope this helps if you want a tour of St. Lucia by boat (our preference).

 

Nevermind, I found all my answers in another thread!

[yellowbird23]

I was fortunate enough to find "Henry's Taxi" in St. Lucia right at the dock and was not disappointed at all. He was the safest driver and we saw quite a lot of the island from his point of view of what should be seen.

[BeadBabe]

Hi everyone

Long overdue review...but I can't help but post now anyway.

If you want to see St. Lucia the way no one else will show you then call Monrose of Monrosetaxi dot com.

He was courteous, informative, charming, knowledgeable and FUNNY as all get out.

He met us right at the pier, had a very comfortable vehicle with A/C and made us feel like royalty. He will customize a full day tour for you with the places YOU want to see in mind. Or he'll create one for you. He stopped when we wanted to stop, avoided the crowded tourist’s places and let us set the pace. If we were having fun, we stayed longer...when we had seen enough of something, off we went!

Be SURE to tell him to take you to see Bernadine for some homemade spiced rum, and tell her the BeadBabe says hello! Another must, is to coax him into taking you in his secret neighborhood and score some local bread.

At the time of our trip (Christmas) his day tour was $50 per person. Lunch for the 4 of us was about $40 INCLUDING drinks. Plus tip of course.

Tell Monrose the BeadBabe says hello and we'll see him again! :D

[hi2you]

Sorry to hear that you had a bad tour with Cosol. Our tour last week was one of the best tours we have ever taken in all of our years of cruising. He delivered everything listed on his web site and more. We were in a new 9 passenger air conditioned van driven by Cosol. Everyone in the van was a passenger on the same ship, and everyone was in a good, fun mood.

 

St Lucia is a very hilly island, and any tour of the island will take you up and down some steep terrain. It is unavoidable. At almost every stop, we were able to sample many local delicacies. Cosol also provided soft drinks, water, rum punch and beer at almost every stop.

 

Prior to the tour, Cosol and his drivers confirmed the ship departure time with us, and promised to have us back in port in plenty of time. We arrived with an hour to spare. This gave us a bit of time to browse through some of the shops at the pier.

 

I would highly recommend this tour to anyone who wants to get a good feel of the flavor of the island.:)

I totally agree-the Cosol tour was fabulous. It certainly didn't seem crowded to us-especially compared to if you had booked through the cruise line. It was an amazing time. Brian, in our van, found out that the other van was getting more access to the drinks then us, so it was mentioned to our driver, and withing minutes a stop was made, we met up with the red van and people were given drinks. our driver Baptiste was great, funny, and knowledgeable. He took care of us. I would do it again and again.

[cruisintwinsmom]

I totally agree-the Cosol tour was fabulous. It certainly didn't seem crowded to us-especially compared to if you had booked through the cruise line. It was an amazing time. Brian, in our van, found out that the other van was getting more access to the drinks then us, so it was mentioned to our driver, and withing minutes a stop was made, we met up with the red van and people were given drinks. our driver Baptiste was great, funny, and knowledgeable. He took care of us. I would do it again and again.

 

 

We also did Cosol last month and eventhough there were 4 vans, it didn't seem like there were that many people. If fact, it seemed like there were only our group of 13. We had Bumpy and he was great.

[mrspaper]

vm9592

would you mind re-posting the e mail address using words, so they don't block it out

thanx

linda

[gracieluwho]

I totally agree with booking your tour through Cosol. We just got back a couple of weeks ago. Cosol's tour was the highlight of our vacation. He was an excellent tour guide. We hit all the major spots of the island and it is a beautiful place. You won't regret it.

[hcrmt]

Just returned from St Lucia on AOS last week and we did the horseback tour (independently booked via internet) through Atlantic Shores stables. You will see the island in a way very few get to see it. We did the 4 hour tour including lunch and taxi for $100 pp. Quite expensive, but definitley worth it. It was just dh, dd, and ds (ages 10 and 7) as no one else was booked for that day! Private land owned by guides family...lots of pasture land and GREAT veiws of the Atlantic coastline from the tops of the cliffs then down to several beaches. We stopped on one beach and had lunch of freshly grilled chicken and tuna. The food was good and very fresh. There was even a native with the steel drums set up for our entertainment. We stayed there for about an hour and the kids got to swim for a while there before saddling up and heading back. Great trip and views! Highly recommended.

:cool:

[sailingaway12]

We did the zipline and fun at the beach tour which we booked through serenity vacations and tours and the day couldn't have gone better. After zipping our lives away we got some local bread seemed to be roasted and BBQ chicken at the zipline place with the st.lucian beer (PIton) after which we went to a beach called pigeon island. (away from the cruise crowd) There we got a cooler of drinks and our local meal that was requested. At pigeon island there was a fanastic viewfrom the top. It's a 10 min hike not strenious. Then we enjoyed the water for the rest of the afternoon til it was time to return to our ship. Our ambassador Sherma was with us throughout to ensure that all went well. I will recommend them to everyone.

[bommarkm]

Just wanted to let everyone know that we just got back from AOS and did Cosol's tour in St. Lucia. The tour was incredible. Cosol was a blast and I could not have imagined a better tour than his!! I would definitely recommend him. :D

[lifeonthewater]

what is Nash's web site?

[drmint]

I just got back from a cruise on the Carnival Miracle. I used Herrods Tours on St Lucia. I got a group of 10 ( I got people from my roll call) for his land & sea tour. It was fabulous. We did the van tour first then after a beautiful lunch we got on a motor boat and went to the beach for snorkeling and swim time. Then the motor boat took us back to the port. I loved not being in a van both ways. http://www.herodsislandtours.com/land_sea_safari_tour.html

 

De

[red zebra]

Not long back, 15 of us went with Herod, one word - brilliant :D

[drmint]

Not long back, 15 of us went with Herod, one word - brilliant :D

 

Red Zebra, I couldn't agree more. Did you do land & sea?

 

De

[Sillenasus]

Hi there,

As one of the Oceans 15 group ( including Red Zebra ! ), we did do the Herod's Land & Sea excursion, and it was as Red Zebra said totally brilliant !! In particular the boat ride at the end of the day was really good fun, though my bottom may not agree !

We would heartily recommend Herod, he was the perfect guide and kept us refreshed and informed throughout our day with him.

The only drawback is that we are now back home and had snow at the weekend :( ! Ugh ! Wish we were back in the warm Caribbean weather !

[red zebra]

De

 

agree with S, best $70 we spent in the 2 weeks, the speedboat ride back to the quayside was worth the money alone :D