St. Lucia - scuba
- Thread starter Marina
- Start date
Please register or login
Welcome to ScubaBoard, the world's largest scuba diving community. Registration is not required to read the forums, but we encourage you to join. Joining has its benefits and enables you to participate in the discussions.
Benefits of registering include
- Ability to post and comment on topics and discussions.
- A Free photo gallery to share your dive photos with the world.
- You can make this box go away
- Messages
- 5,721
- Reaction score
- 472
Hi marina,
Here's my last trip report:
"Popular with divers is Anse Chastenet, a pretty property with nice rooms, although the facilities can be crowded and service indifferent. Best if you like food with a Caribbean island take on French cuisine. The on site shop, Scuba St. Lucia, is well positioned for diving, being on the south of the island where most of the good diving takes place (e.g., Anse Chastenet Reef, Pitons). Also some dive sites to the west. There are a marine park, walls, wrecks & night dives. Area is badly overfished, even in protected marine park, so no clouds of them, but some sparsely distributed neat small things. This is not world-class diving, but not unpleasant.
Do be aware that Anse runs a large operation, so you may well have full boats of mixed experience divers, including newbies/novices. This means all divers, including the more experienced, will pretty much be held to the activities of the least common denominator on the boat. As for cost, it is bit pricely, but there are plenty of far more expensive places to stay, such as the new Hilton down by the Anse, or some of the upscale resorts in the far north. The Hilton is very, very luxurious, however, and has a good dive op, Frog's, on site.
If you want something smaller & more flexible, I highly recommend Resmond's Trench Diving [NOTE: My man Rosemond Clery reportedly seriously hurt his back last year & the op was closed.] Try Andre Omer's op, Dive Fair Helen out of Vigie Marina near Castres. DFH is an old, local term for St. Lucia & the natives will get a kick out of it if your use it. Also like Frog's, which has a shop at the Hilton & another up north in Castres.
See as much of the island as you can. There is some lovely hiking around the foothills of the Pitons, but use insect repellent & if you go deep take tick precautions."
Go and have fun.
DocVikingo
Here's my last trip report:
"Popular with divers is Anse Chastenet, a pretty property with nice rooms, although the facilities can be crowded and service indifferent. Best if you like food with a Caribbean island take on French cuisine. The on site shop, Scuba St. Lucia, is well positioned for diving, being on the south of the island where most of the good diving takes place (e.g., Anse Chastenet Reef, Pitons). Also some dive sites to the west. There are a marine park, walls, wrecks & night dives. Area is badly overfished, even in protected marine park, so no clouds of them, but some sparsely distributed neat small things. This is not world-class diving, but not unpleasant.
Do be aware that Anse runs a large operation, so you may well have full boats of mixed experience divers, including newbies/novices. This means all divers, including the more experienced, will pretty much be held to the activities of the least common denominator on the boat. As for cost, it is bit pricely, but there are plenty of far more expensive places to stay, such as the new Hilton down by the Anse, or some of the upscale resorts in the far north. The Hilton is very, very luxurious, however, and has a good dive op, Frog's, on site.
If you want something smaller & more flexible, I highly recommend Resmond's Trench Diving [NOTE: My man Rosemond Clery reportedly seriously hurt his back last year & the op was closed.] Try Andre Omer's op, Dive Fair Helen out of Vigie Marina near Castres. DFH is an old, local term for St. Lucia & the natives will get a kick out of it if your use it. Also like Frog's, which has a shop at the Hilton & another up north in Castres.
See as much of the island as you can. There is some lovely hiking around the foothills of the Pitons, but use insect repellent & if you go deep take tick precautions."
Go and have fun.
DocVikingo
Natasha
Contributor
Hi Marina,
Welcome to the board. I have only dove in St. Lucia once, but I loved it. I saw my first octopus and seahorse in St. Lucia.
You didn't say where you are staying. We dove with LeSport, which had shore diving and boat diving. The staff was great, and it was the divemaster then pointed out the seahorse. She knew right where it was! I also saw Sandals Golf Resort while I was there. Their boats looked fine, and so did their staff. And the scuba is included in the price if you're staying there.
:sunny:
Welcome to the board. I have only dove in St. Lucia once, but I loved it. I saw my first octopus and seahorse in St. Lucia.
You didn't say where you are staying. We dove with LeSport, which had shore diving and boat diving. The staff was great, and it was the divemaster then pointed out the seahorse. She knew right where it was! I also saw Sandals Golf Resort while I was there. Their boats looked fine, and so did their staff. And the scuba is included in the price if you're staying there.
:sunny:
Thanks for promt answers! We are staying at Windham- the most "not-scuba diving " way of lodging - all inclusive.But that is the only way I can manage - for me it is like an ICU on a beach and under the sea...I don't have to think about feeding always hungry males in our family and there is no planning involved... Though - you get the most everage stuff. I was always wondering if it is possible to see sea horses somewhere, but saw only their close relatives (trumpets etc.) - now I have a goal for St.Lucia! Sea horses are my role model (males stay put and pregnant, and females wonder around visiting their mates every morning for a dance! What a life!). Is there dicent snorkling off shore? And I never did an off shore diving - will try this time! Heard on NPR the other day that St.Lucia significantly improved the problem with overfishing - will see. Can't wait - it is getting cold in Chicago!
My wife and I spent our honeymoon at Rendezvous at St. Lucia. We were not divers at the time so all we did was snorkel. We snorkelled at Le Sport on the North end of the island the snorkelling was pretty good and the beach and resort were very nice. The beach was "swim suit top optional" which added to the scenery. 
We also snorkelled on a rainforest/snorkelling tour, which we really enjoyed. I don't know exactly where they took us to snorkel. It was a beach away from the resorts. We asked around for the best snorkelling on the island and all the taxi drivers that worked for our resort said that their sister resort (le Sport) was the best. When we asked people whose opinion wasn't biased (like the freelance taxi drivers), they all said Anse Chastenet was the best and they were right. Anse Chastenet has alot of coral that is near the beach and in water that is in 25' or less.
There are no good roads to get to Anse Chastenet by land, however, there is a road that can get you there. All the resort taxi drivers will say you can't get there by land because they don't want to take you there. We found a freelance taxi driver who didn't work for the resort who told us about the road and he took us there. We call him the rogue taxi driver because he(and other taxi drivers who didn't work for the resort) would hang out behind the watersports shed and meet there fares there instead of the designated taxi area. His name was Edwin and he was an excellent guide. He not only drove us to Anse Chastenet on the only road that takes you there(which was a bumpy dirt road that was on the side of a mountain and took about an hour to get there), but he also took us snorkelling and pointed out the cool things to see(underwater as well as above). When we got there, he asked us if we needed gear as he opened his trunk and pulled out fins, masks, and snorkels. We told him we had our own gear. I asked him when he would pick us up (we figured he was only there taxi us around). He pulled out his set of gear and said,"I'm snorkelling, too" He snorkelled with us and then washed our gear in the resort's fresh water tub for scuba gear while we took a break. We weren't staying at that resort so we just kind of tried to look like we belonged there while we were hanging out on the beach. Actually the resort land was private (including where we parked), but the local government passed a law that makes all the beaches open to all people . The law is to insure that the resorts don't buy up all the best beaches and then deny access to the locals. After a day of snorkelling, he drove us back to our resort, but only after he drove us to a place where he could take a picture of us standing in front of the Pitons with our camera. We paid him $100 when he dropped us off at our resort seein' as how we had used his services all day. Edwin was an excellent taxi driver! It was like having our own personal tour guide of the Island!
I see you are leaving tomorrow. I'm at work right now, but when I get home this evening, I'll post Edwin's name, number, and taxi license number.. (he owns his own taxi and is in business for himself...I kept his business card). He was the taxi driver who picked us up from the airport, that's how I got his card. It was quite a while ago, so I don't know if his number is the same or even if he is still there, but if he is, and you all want a personal guide for a day, he would be an excellent choice!
Have a great time!
We also snorkelled on a rainforest/snorkelling tour, which we really enjoyed. I don't know exactly where they took us to snorkel. It was a beach away from the resorts. We asked around for the best snorkelling on the island and all the taxi drivers that worked for our resort said that their sister resort (le Sport) was the best. When we asked people whose opinion wasn't biased (like the freelance taxi drivers), they all said Anse Chastenet was the best and they were right. Anse Chastenet has alot of coral that is near the beach and in water that is in 25' or less.There are no good roads to get to Anse Chastenet by land, however, there is a road that can get you there. All the resort taxi drivers will say you can't get there by land because they don't want to take you there. We found a freelance taxi driver who didn't work for the resort who told us about the road and he took us there. We call him the rogue taxi driver
because he(and other taxi drivers who didn't work for the resort) would hang out behind the watersports shed and meet there fares there instead of the designated taxi area. His name was Edwin and he was an excellent guide. He not only drove us to Anse Chastenet on the only road that takes you there(which was a bumpy dirt road that was on the side of a mountain and took about an hour to get there), but he also took us snorkelling and pointed out the cool things to see(underwater as well as above). When we got there, he asked us if we needed gear as he opened his trunk and pulled out fins, masks, and snorkels. We told him we had our own gear. I asked him when he would pick us up (we figured he was only there taxi us around). He pulled out his set of gear and said,"I'm snorkelling, too" He snorkelled with us and then washed our gear in the resort's fresh water tub for scuba gear while we took a break. We weren't staying at that resort so we just kind of tried to look like we belonged there while we were hanging out on the beach. Actually the resort land was private (including where we parked), but the local government passed a law that makes all the beaches open to all people . The law is to insure that the resorts don't buy up all the best beaches and then deny access to the locals. After a day of snorkelling, he drove us back to our resort, but only after he drove us to a place where he could take a picture of us standing in front of the Pitons with our camera. We paid him $100 when he dropped us off at our resort seein' as how we had used his services all day. Edwin was an excellent taxi driver! It was like having our own personal tour guide of the Island! I see you are leaving tomorrow. I'm at work right now, but when I get home this evening, I'll post Edwin's name, number, and taxi license number.. (he owns his own taxi and is in business for himself...I kept his business card). He was the taxi driver who picked us up from the airport, that's how I got his card. It was quite a while ago, so I don't know if his number is the same or even if he is still there, but if he is, and you all want a personal guide for a day, he would be an excellent choice!
Have a great time!
michaelkuznet
Registered
hey all- marina's son here
We dove with Dive Fair Helen this time, as opposed to Scuba St Lucia.
Most of the resorts will try and send you to Dive Fair Helen.
The boat is big, which is nice, but the trip will be long, so even if you are not normally prone to seasickness, get some medication!
Our resort was Wyhndam (sp?) and we had to make three or four different pick ups, thus bringing the total time on deck to about an hour, hour and a half. I am not usually too bad on boats, but i was "feedin the fishies", as per the russian saying.
The area was tremendously over fished
however, it seemed like there was very little pollution and such, so, while most of the fish we saw were in the fish market downtown, there were many magnificent corals and sponges, which i understand are much more delicate and respond more to pollution and temprature (sp) change. Keep an eye out for the flourescent purple sponges, they are really cool.
Supposedly, there are sea horses in St Lucia, and some of the people on boat claimed to have seen them, but we had no luck.(maybe it was because we were the second group at the wreck, and there were about twenty of us on one site) Just FYI the seahorses are mostly spotted around the wreck which is about 65' down.
Unfortunately, the dive fair helen and whyndham dive program seems to be disorganized, and it seems like half of the people do not know what is going on. For example, on our last day of diving, half of the group was told that the bus was leaving at twenty two, and half was told that the bus was leaving twenty after. the bus left at half past, leaving us and our half of our group staying on the bus for fifty minutes
overall, scuba diving at st lucia was different because there were less fish, more sponges and corals, and the boat ride was often difficult.
hope this helps if anybody travels to st lucia
talk to you all next year
MK
We dove with Dive Fair Helen this time, as opposed to Scuba St Lucia.
Most of the resorts will try and send you to Dive Fair Helen.
The boat is big, which is nice, but the trip will be long, so even if you are not normally prone to seasickness, get some medication!
Our resort was Wyhndam (sp?) and we had to make three or four different pick ups, thus bringing the total time on deck to about an hour, hour and a half. I am not usually too bad on boats, but i was "feedin the fishies", as per the russian saying.
The area was tremendously over fished
however, it seemed like there was very little pollution and such, so, while most of the fish we saw were in the fish market downtown, there were many magnificent corals and sponges, which i understand are much more delicate and respond more to pollution and temprature (sp) change. Keep an eye out for the flourescent purple sponges, they are really cool.
Supposedly, there are sea horses in St Lucia, and some of the people on boat claimed to have seen them, but we had no luck.(maybe it was because we were the second group at the wreck, and there were about twenty of us on one site
) Just FYI the seahorses are mostly spotted around the wreck which is about 65' down. Unfortunately, the dive fair helen and whyndham dive program seems to be disorganized, and it seems like half of the people do not know what is going on. For example, on our last day of diving, half of the group was told that the bus was leaving at twenty two, and half was told that the bus was leaving twenty after. the bus left at half past, leaving us and our half of our group staying on the bus for fifty minutes
overall, scuba diving at st lucia was different because there were less fish, more sponges and corals, and the boat ride was often difficult.
hope this helps if anybody travels to st lucia
talk to you all next year
MK
Similar threads
