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Lesser AntillesRanging from the Leeward Islands in the north (Virgin Islands, St. Martin, St. Croix etc.). to the Windward Islands in the south (Martinique, St. Lucia, Dominica, Grenada etc.). Let's not forget Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago.
We have the opportunity to go to one or the other, but not both this fall. Anyone have any general experience with either place? I hear St. Lucia is prettier, but the diving is better in Antigua.
hey oring, i'm still trying to figure out how to insert a link to another thread, but if you go to the search function, and search for my name, my only other post is about st. lucia and my trip at the end of last year
peace
MK
I went to St. Lucia last July for my honeymoon. I was very disappointed. If I had to do it over again, I would not have went there. Diving there is not good. Never been to Antigua though.
-Amber
Well, for one, the water was dirty looking. I swam in it anyway and then I dove in it and the dive sucked. Didn't see anything really and the visibility was not good at all. I pretty much stayed on the resort most of the time because there was nothing else to do! We hired a driver to take us to the volcano, botanical park, and the pitons. I could have lived my life without seeing all three. Nothing spectacular.
And a major thing that bugged me was everywhere, even on the beach of our resort, we'd get natives coming up to us and asking if we were american. We'd say yes then we'd get a hard luck story and would be asked for "ten u.s dollars". That got old in a hurry. Some wouldn't even give us a hard luck story. They would just ask for ten bucks. Ten must be the magic number down there. One of the other resort stayers tried to give one guy five dollars. And he refused! He said "No, ten U.S. dollars!" They almost got in a fight right there and that was a little scary.
For the most part, the people there sucked. AFter our venture off the resort, we decided to stay there and not go anywhere else. The resort staff were good friendly people. I guess after you leave civilization people get nutty. So we stayed on our resort's beach most of the time.
I was told about some black sand beach that was there. Well we never found it. So that was disappointing because the other beaches weren't pretty at all.
The food was horrendous. I think I lost ten or fifteen pounds. I was glad to come home and have a big fat Sonic cheeseburger!! Also they don't have a lot of fruit on the island (except bananas). So any mixed drink you ask for will be made with yucky syrup. The only food that I really enjoyed was the chocolate desserts the resort would cook up. They have a lot of chocolate down on that island....so anything chocolate is great. But as for the regular food....it's disgusting. Goat cheese, lamb, duck...stuff like that.....I had a steak down there and that had a wang to it. I live in Oklahoma so I know what a good steak should taste like!:upset:
Anyway, if I had to do over, I would have spent my honeymoon elsewhere.
We had a totally different -- positive -- St. Lucia experience ...
We went to Sandals St. Lucia in 1998 and had a wonderful time ... and it wasn't our honeymoon. There are two Sandals resorts on the island and if you are going for a honeymoon, I suggest you go to the smaller one (which is the one we chose, I believe it is Halcyon). They only have 120 or so rooms, and no children allowed at this one -- so it is a good choice for honeymooners. The landscaping is gorgeous, with hammocks or shaded lounges scattered among the trees, a lovely wedding gazebo, and very nice accommodations. We had a standard room, but some people we met had upgraded to one of the "garden" rooms, which are a bit more private.
We dove each morning on the a.m. dive, and each dive was a new adventure. It was our first tropical dive, having just finished our certification dives in Monterey and Lake Tahoe, so we found it incredible. The reserve by Anse Chastanet (probably misspelled that) was so fish-laden that I probably got whiplash looking from side to side. We dove several wrecks that didn't have a lot of fish on them, but there were enough to keep us busy. We also did our first ever night dive, and I vividly recall two sensations: rolling over on my back and looking up through 35 feet of water and seeing the stars (incredibly CLEAR water); and the second was when a small porcupine fish swam up to me and just settled softly on my hand. Incredible. The average boat ride was probably about 30 minutes, some a little longer, some a little shorter. We were there in November, so the rains came almost every day, but were brief and helped to cool things a bit. Lovely tropical flowers almost everywhere you looked.
That Sandals resort has 3-4 restaurants -- one called The Pier that is exactly that, and only serves dinner. They also have a continental style restaurant that serves all three meals, and then a "fancier" Italian, plus the usual snack bar. All meals and drinks included in the package. Two pools -- one "quiet" and one for the usual games, etc. You can also go to the other Sandals resort -- I think they have a shuttle -- it is much larger (I think 300+ rooms) and quite a few more restaurants -- also a golf course. The beach wasn't much by the resort, but all the water sports, including scuba, were included in the price -- except for the night dive (I think it was $45 extra and there were only 4 of us on that one). Since we went on the a.m. boat (which left pretty early), we usually only had around 5-6 divers versus the afternoon boat which was always full. The dive masters were all friendly, fun, and pointed out interesting critters.
We did a tour of the island and found it very interesting. We like to explore, and the others on the tour were a lot of fun as well. We did hear that the natives could be a bit demanding and nasty. Having said that, we only saw two walking the Sandals beach area during our week at Sandals, and they didn't bother anyone, just walked by. We saw many more on the one day we toured, and they were are friendly. And the resort staff is incredible -- if Estelle is still working the little grill, by your second day, she'll remember your name.
I'd go back again, but probably only to Sandals. And, as you can see, our experience was totally different than others.
Margaret
Last edited by sactomags; July 9th, 2002 at 12:11 PM..
St. Lucia
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