Cosol Tour in St. Lucia

[BroncosFan2010]

Hi Mokaheena,

 

There were some samples of local foods that were provided by our tour guide, some were fish items, some were not. (this was the first time I have ever sampled actual sugar cane):) Those can easily be pointed out. There were a couple of roadside stands where we stopped for a short time to look around and take pictures, and there was a window where one could walk up and place an order for food, there were even picnic tables provided where you could sit down to eat something. The tour guide will help you with this as well. Hilery, if he is to be your guide, was very accommodating and will assist you with any such need. It might be reassuring to contact Cosol Tours and explain this prior to booking and explain this allergy to them in order that they can make arrangements for you, if that is necessary. They were extremely helpful to all of us on our tour. I just know that this can all be worked out for you, good luck and enjoy.

 

An ex-Michigander, ;)

 

Randy

 

 

Thank you so much for your reply! I am just waiting to hear back from Cosol, and then I will discuss this with him in hopes that it will not affect DH!

Was the cost of all food included? You said there was a place you could order food... was that extra for each individual?

Thanks for the help!

[Randy & Kathy]

Thank you so much for your reply! I am just waiting to hear back from Cosol, and then I will discuss this with him in hopes that it will not affect DH!

Was the cost of all food included? You said there was a place you could order food... was that extra for each individual?

Thanks for the help!

 

Hi again,

The food samples provided by the tour guide were included in the price of the tour, however any trip up to the window to order something to eat will come out of your pocket. I'm sure this will all work out OK.

Randy

[BroncosFan2010]

Thanks so much!

Now I have to convince DH.....:D:D

[youngestof9]

I'm not allergic to fish, but don't eat it at all and I wasn't hungry. They had bread balls and cakes and chicken bites. Then later you get this awesome hot bread with cheese, so I never felt hungry.

 

And absolutely bring snacks with you just in case, but we didn't feel hungry at all.

 

We did eat a regular breakfast in the Windjammer before we met the tour at 8:20 and that was perfect.

 

Enjoy!!

[2Fltravelers]

I am almost 100% sold on booking this tour, but I have one question that has not been answered anywhere on this thread.

My DH is allergic to fish. He can be around it, but just cannot eat it. Will he be okay on this trip? Will there be other things he can eat? I don't want him to be hungry all day!

 

The only fish that I recall were the fish balls and I never had one. There were about 20 other things to eat so I don't think anyone was hungry. Before that stop we stopped at a banana plantation where we each ate a banana so we were not that hungry when we stopped. The bread and cheese at the end were so filling that it was difficult to finish it. Having said that, I finished it because it was just about the most wonderful freshly baked bread I have ever tasted.

[Randy & Kathy]

Thanks so much!

Now I have to convince DH.....:D:D

 

I'm willing to bet that you will be able to do that. I know that my DW would just......um.......hmm........:o well, she would know what to do. In fact, I am thinking that a bunch of you went to wives school, there are so many of you who seem to all know those "special tactics".;):D

Say "Hi" for me to the Cosol Tour bunch, OK? :p

Randy

[BroncosFan2010]

Alright! He is convinced!!!! We are booked!

Thanks for all the help and answers to my questions!

[Randy & Kathy]

Alright! He is convinced!!!! We are booked!

Thanks for all the help and answers to my questions!

 

Let me look into my crystal ball. It's becoming clear now.......I see a fellow with a contented look upon his face, a wistful smile, and he seems to be slipping into a slumber. Ah yes, he is dozing off about now.

Congratulations....it worked.:D

You two will love going on this tour. Be sure to let us know how your experience turned out.

Randy

[sunsetbeachgal]

Upon returning home I just ate a banana, and it didn't taste anywhere as good as the yummy sweet bananas we sampled on Cosol's tour in St. Lucia. Ah, what wonderful memories!

 

Carole

[Randy & Kathy]

Upon returning home I just ate a banana, and it didn't taste anywhere as good as the yummy sweet bananas we sampled on Cosol's tour in St. Lucia. Ah, what wonderful memories!

 

Carole

 

Ain't it the truth. :p

 

Randy

[letsgoplaces]

I didn't see a mention of the huge table of fresh fruits on one of the stops. wondering if that's still available too? We took this tour last year and are taking it again in just over a week. It really was the best tour besides the Silvermoon that we have ever taken. Loved it. Not to mention the most amazing spiced rum punch I have ever had. As far as the bananas.....I don't really like bananas and yet I had TWO of the ones on this tour....they were SO TASTY and I had them BEFORE the rum punch so my tastebuds were not skewed ;). Even without the fish balls there was so much delicious food for us that by the time we got back to the ship we didn't even bother going down to dinner. It was a really fun tour and can't wait to go back again.

[2Fltravelers]

The only fresh fruit besides the bananas was when we stopped for the buffet. There was mango, coconut and perhaps some other fruit (can't remember). There was no other stop on our tour for fruit or anything else to eat except the bread and cheese in the afternoon. Have fun!!!

[Kikkycat]

One thing you mentioned does concern me. I know that many of the people there are financially poor so I have a question: as you were touring this island (and/or other Caribbean islands) did you see many skinny stray animals? I realize that may seem like a bizarre question but we recently returned from Acapulco and I was NOT prepared for seeing all of the homeless dogs and it really affected me.

 

Should I be prepared to see skinny animals if I take an island tour?

 

Thanks so much for your honest opinion b/c what you say will affect what we do on the islands.

 

I can't answer for St. Lucia as I am doing my advance research for that island (and Randy answered it well), but I did see many skinny dogs in Aruba. I was pleased in Old San Juan, PR to know there is an animal rescue league (saveasato)-sato is slang for street dog. And we saw one park with many many cats. We are cat people mostly but have done rescue work for both dogs and cats, and the cats in San Juan were clearly well taken care of. They were fed, spayed or neutered, one clearly had recently been taken to be groomed (he smelled "clean" like that, and he was a foofy long haired cat). Many were friendly but I didn't feel the need to bring any home with me! Thank God!

[swimmer_steph]

I can't answer for St. Lucia as I am doing my advance research for that island (and Randy answered it well), but I did see many skinny dogs in Aruba. I was pleased in Old San Juan, PR to know there is an animal rescue league (saveasato)-sato is slang for street dog. And we saw one park with many many cats. We are cat people mostly but have done rescue work for both dogs and cats, and the cats in San Juan were clearly well taken care of. They were fed, spayed or neutered, one clearly had recently been taken to be groomed (he smelled "clean" like that, and he was a foofy long haired cat). Many were friendly but I didn't feel the need to bring any home with me! Thank God!

 

This is valuable information. Thank you.

 

We have six adopted indoor cats, one rescued shelter dog, and I feed/take-care-of a feral cat colony, so knowing what to expect when it comes to animals is important to me.

 

We will fly to OSJ for this cruise so I'm happy to hear they have an animal welfare group, and a sincere thank you for the heads-up re: the cats in the park. I love to travel and I certainly understand different cultures; it's just being caught off-guard that troubled me so much about Acapulco.

 

BTW, I hope you don't mind if I steal "foofy" from you. ;) What a wonderful word!

 

If you are undecided about St. Lucia, I'll tell you that I did TONS of research and then booked w/Cosol. This island was the main reason we're taking this cruise - so St. Lucia was an important stop to me.

 

All of the best in your planning!

[Kikkycat]

Thanks Steph. We are pretty much decided on Cosol for St. Lucia thanks to this board. Our cruise is still a long ways away unfortunately.

 

BTW, if you go to saveasato.com you can see if you may be able to help fly a rescued dog to the States (to a mainland rescue group).

 

I didn't invent "foofy" so feel free to use it. The park we saw the cats is La Rogativa park. Here's what foofy looks like:

[Buckeye@sea]

Just back from a 1/29 COSOL tour, with a delightful guide named "Bumpy". This is a first class operator. Beautiful island, good food, great tour. Take a few $1.00 bills if you need to use a clean restroom along the way. No ... not for that reason ... local stops take the money and in return you have spotless modern facilities to use.

The tour is worth the $$$. Great sites, food and drink. Our group was well relaxed by the time we returned to ship :)

[ellbon]

one of the best tours i have ever taken was wirh him. plus the run helped. i would use him again.

[swimmer_steph]

Thanks Steph. We are pretty much decided on Cosol for St. Lucia thanks to this board. Our cruise is still a long ways away unfortunately.

 

BTW, if you go to saveasato.com you can see if you may be able to help fly a rescued dog to the States (to a mainland rescue group).

 

I didn't invent "foofy" so feel free to use it. The park we saw the cats is La Rogativa park. Here's what foofy looks like:

 

That's so cool; I'll check out their website.

 

Now, we will HAVE to visit La Rogativa. What a gorgeous cat! Yes, he/she is foofy & certainly doesn't appear to be starving or lacking for grooming.

 

One of the stops on this cruise will be St. Thomas and I learned about a group there that helps feral cats. We're going to visit them when we go to Magen's Bay.

 

I really appreciate the information and just to bring it back to St. Lucia (lest someone think we've hi-jacked this thread) I'll post a review of our tour when we return in May.

 

Thanks again!

[bozza]

Have just booked a B2B for Jan 2010 and was looking forward to St.Lucia and booking with Cosol, but daren't do it now owing to my terrible phobia of snakes (I didn't even like typing the word!) I wouldn't dare take the risk of seeing one, so it looks like shopping around the pier for us!.

It is no good anyone saying you can stay in the van because I would have to lay on the van floor in case one came near, sorry it sounds so stupid, but I have been like this since I was a child, many, many years ago and the fear has never receded.

[BopRN]

We are looking at tours of St. Lucia. I was all ready to book Cosul Tours until I came to the postings about the "water taxi". I have had spinal surgery in the past and have some mobility issues..."hoisting yourself up and into the boat" as one poster stated. Is this for real? Is there no other way to get into the boat? I can't imagine that after such a wonderful organized tour, this would be so primitive!

[Cruzan1214]

We are looking at tours of St. Lucia. I was all ready to book Cosul Tours until I came to the postings about the "water taxi". I have had spinal surgery in the past and have some mobility issues..."hoisting yourself up and into the boat" as one poster stated. Is this for real? Is there no other way to get into the boat? I can't imagine that after such a wonderful organized tour, this would be so primitive!

 

Our group of 6 took a tour with Spencer Ambrose the last week of January. He did a phenomenal job and with his tour you are able to be driven to the beach and spend about two hours there. Let me know if you have any other questions.

[dtowncruisers]

We just toured with Cosol last Thursday. He is truly an ambassador for St Lucia. His tours are so well organized, without being rigid. We were lucky to have Cosol for our driver and guide, and as we loaded the vans and went on our way he received word that two very late passengers had arrived at the pier. He checked with us and headed back to pick up the stragglers, and then we continued on our way without missing a beat.

The banana plantation stop was amazing, so much information and wonderful food too.

Our breakfast was fantastic; I am allergic to shellfish, and so am very cautious about unfamiliar food. Everyone is so kind and accommodating.

Claudia, the woman who cooked all the food, had some incredible peanut rum punch. Do not miss this-it was delicious!

Yes, bring a dollar for the potty!

 

About the snake---don't miss out on the tour because of this. Cosol asked if anyone had a fear of snakes and warned us to close our eyes as we went by---no one on our van wanted to stop so we didn't.

 

Getting in and out of the water taxi is not really a big deal. There are guides to help you and they take their time. Yes, you do have to get your feet wet, sit on the edge and just swing your legs over.

 

We loved this tour and would go back again!

Enjoy!

[lba2006]

Just got back...highly recommend Cosol tours...please note however, that the entrance fees to some of the parks has gone up so Cosol has had to raise the price of the tour to $65.

[holdon216]

Everyone seems to love Cosol tours. I think we will use them but can someone tell me are they vans or buses?? Is there a caravan of vans that travel together?? I also have heard mention of winding roads and someone feeling ill because of them. I am not the greatrest "car" travler. Are there lots of stops so i don't get the queezies??

TY

[fuzzywuzzy]

Just got back...highly recommend Cosol tours...please note however, that the entrance fees to some of the parks has gone up so Cosol has had to raise the price of the tour to $65.

 

This is far too high.....