Saint Lucia in September?

[krissydt]

Hello,

My husband and I continue our search for a vacation spot for September and the deals in Saint Lucia are looking very attractive. Part of me wonders if the prices are good because of hurricane season.

Would anyone advise against going to Saint Lucia Sept 4 - 11? It is above the hurricane line so I am hesitant. If anyone has any info or feedback please let me know.

Second, I have read mixed reviews about the diving in Saint Lucia in general and read that it is key to go to the right area. We are considering staying at either the Rendezvous or LeSport. Both include diving in the all inclusive package;
- Rendezvous has no shore diving (they actually recommend against it saying it can be dangerous) but they have boat dives at a number of sites in the North part of the island
- LeSport has free shore dives and they are close to the castries

Does anyone have any recommendations as far as which resort has the best diving and / or which resort they would recommend overall? Should we risk September or wait for some time later in the year?

Thanks in advance!!!

 

[clipgoal234]

I have never posted on here but feel compelled to respond to this as I returned from St. Lucia only a few days ago.

We wound up staying at Le Sport for a week. We saw Rendezvous driving through and Le Sport seemed much nicer at a glance. The diving staff there is awesome and none of the resort staff members say "no" to any of your requests. I have not felt before like I would return to the same place twice, and I've traveled a lot. Le Sport was great, though, and I absolutely plan to go back. The facilities, rooms, staff, activities, drinks and food were amazing. Shore dives are included and occur at 1:45 every day. They also do shore night dives ($65) and boat trips to Soufriere ($60 ish, 40 minute boat ride). Equipment is included on all dives aside from wetsuits. If you bring your own, you can leave it in the dive shop hung up.

We went to St. Lucia as a compromise (I'm much more into diving than she is). I skimmed the boards here and asked everyone I could find about the diving there. The consensus, basically, was that it was nothing special. What you said about going to the right place is absolutely true, but there are some amazing sites to dive on. Big fish were completely absent on all dives, even in the marine park. No sharks, barracuda, big groupers. A lot of eagle rays in some places but basically the biggest fish to see were 2' snappers and large (2-3') puffers.

The reef at the resort is nice but nothing spectacular. The maximum depth is only about 25 ft. There is a large variety of fish species here and it's not unusual to see squid and several octopus on each dive. We saw about ten stingrays (southern) on a night dive. There is some nice coral and many nice sponges and formations but the best thing about the reef is really just it's accessibility. The other northern resorts bring boats here to dive as most don't have their own reef.

Supposedly there are other very nice northern reefs, but we did not dive on any of them.

We did about eight dives in Soufriere, which is the marine park. I have done diving in just about every part of the Caribbean and some of the southern Pacific, and I was very impressed. We dove at the base of the Petite Piton at a site called Superman's flight. Essentially, the mountain continues at about a 60 degree slope underwater from the surface to thousands of feet. The current pushes you along the reef at about a jogging speed. Coral and sponges cover every inch of the reef here as far as you can see and it is extremely healthy. I would absolutely recommend it and it was one of my favorite dives.

We also dove Keyhole Pinnacles. Again, a beautiful structure- underwater peaks down to about sixty feet on one side and down into the abyss on the other with extraordinary coral and sponge growth and heavy current. Another of my favorite dives.

Several other sites in the park were also beautiful.

If you want the spa, great food and a lot of activities, I would really recommend Le Sport. However, know that you are forty minutes from the really nice reefs.

Anse Chastinet is a resort in the marine park and is very close to the above sites. It also has a very nice little reef (but not better than Le Sport's) right off shore which we also dove on. I don't know much about it but asked one of our dive masters who used to work there and he echoed the above- Le Sport for activities, excursions, food and the spa. Anse Chastinet for location and diving. I have no idea if it's all inclusive.

Hope that helps..

 

[ColoDale]

I am not sure if you have made plans already but my wife and I have been to St. Lucia twice, ten years apart, once in August 1997 and once in November 2007.
The diving on the West side, north of the national marine park was, as said, nothing special. Mostly grey, flat and beaten down but we did find small things including seahorses. We did not do any shore diving and none was offered. Anse Chastanet I believe does offer shore diving.

The diving in the Anse Cochon area (marine park) was good. We dove North and South beach sites and the Daini Koyomaru wreck. Better coral and fishlife here than north of here. The wreck is upright in 2007 and fairly large (244 ft). I have read descriptions that it was sunk on its side but it was upright in 2007. There were some mild currents but staying close to the wreck makes it easier. The Lesleen M is also in this area but I did not get a chance to dive it. I have heard good things about this wreck.

The diving more to the south in the park and near Soufriere, Petit and Gros pitons was better yet. The coral was large and healthy. We generally saw nothing large but plenty of small stuff - balloon fish, lionfish, great numbers of trumpetfish, and other assorted smaller fish.
Sites we dove were Superman's Flight, Fairyland and Keyhole Pinnacles. The current at Superman's Flight was less than usual, Fairy land had very healthy coral and small fish and Keyhole was a bit grey and beat up but coming up on the peaks a few feet beneath the surface was cool.

Overall I was expecting more from St. Lucia diving. It's not bad but I was not thrilled by it. Most of our trip is was overcast and with light rain so the color wasn't that good however after looking at my photos with strobes, the color isn't abundant.

Now having said that, Hurricane Dean did pass closely by that previous August in 2007 and most likely did some damage to shallower locations and thus we saw less coral and more grey locations.

I found a site with contains the hurricane history for St. Lucia.
Saint Lucia hurricanes

There is a risk of storms and hurricanes but your guess is as good as mine. The hurricanes do start to trend upwards later in the year but that's not a hard and fast rule. We have missed hurricanes in the Caribbean by as few as 4 days but have never been in one. We've been lucky.
I would agree that prices are lower due to hurricane season. Adding any trip/hurricane insurance is not too expensive if you are inclined.

I hesitate to talk about hotels and resorts since accommodations, meals, and services are so unique to individual taste. If staying near Castries, the boat rides to southern sites are fairly long (40 - 50 minutes).

ps I have been trying to post St. Lucia photos in my SB gallery but the service is having issues currently.

 

[ColoDale]

The SB gallery is back up again and I have posted some St. Lucia Photos

 

[midas6t6]

From Scuba Diving magazine:

St. Lucia | Scuba Diving Magazine

St. Lucia in January - Beautiful Above and Below | Scuba Diving Magazine

 

[The_Ghost]

I went there for my honeymoon, stay at the sandels resort. The resort kinda sucked, but the island was beautifull. As for the diving I have mixed feelings, to me I felt screwed. I went diving everyday but like 2 days(was there a week). There was only about 5 of us max diving which was nice, but there was new people every time.

How sandels did it, was that we would dive twice in the morning then we would be done. They reserved the after noon diving for snorklers and the noobs(ones takign there resort classes)

So I got stuck diving the wreck dive like 3 times(max depth was like 70 ft). Then after the wreck they would alwasy go to this other spot. So I dove the same damn 2 spots for half of my honeymoon...totally pissed on that. I asked the captin to change the dive spot after the wreck but he said he couldn't due too how they ran things.

On the companion dive to the wreck it was neat, saw sea turtles and lobster everytime. Some other big fish. Lots of sea snakes. Saw some puffer fish, and some scorpion fish.

Some of the other dives was a wall dive which had some really cool looking coral.

I would have to say the diving was good, but due to the fact that the resort was kinda ****ty... would say don't expect big things from st lucia.

Because they went out diving at 8am, you beat all the other resorts out to the dive spots so we never had to worry about more then 5 ppl at the location. When we went back to the resort you could see the other dive boats coming over to anchor in.

I went in may, which was supposed to between hurricane season and the tourist rush. visablity was great. 100ft+ Saw some 6ft barracuda on the wreck dive. It only rained once for 5 mins, other then that sunny all day everyday.

There was supposed to be 2 great dive spots near the pitons, but due to some ass who said hey lets do the wreck dive again the captin chagned it's mind and went there.


I met this other couple in st lucia and theres a resort called body holiday. I guess if you stay for at least so many days you get a free spa treatment everyday, so if your wife/gf didnt' want to dive she could go get a spa treatment. They said they resort was all inclusive and that includes diving. Never really looked into it though. One of the guest from the sandels went over there and said it blew sandels out of the water.

 

[NLFD163]

ghost,
if you dont mind me asking which resort did you stay at on st lucia, and why did it suck. i am booked to go to st lucia on my honeymoon in december.
thanks for any info and tips.

 

[The_Ghost]

Stayed at the st lucia grande.

All 3 of the st lucia resorts have something to offer. Grande had the most people, as in every night there was something going on and alwasy lots of people in the pool. Not enough to crowd, but at least from what I saw from the other resorts it was like 4 times as many. I think all the young people stayed at grande and all the older people stayed at the other ones.

The regency was more refined? HAd a huge chandelier over their dining area and since the hotel was on a huge cliff almost all the dinning was over the ocean VERY cool and romantic for the ladies.

Lots of the food places served really small portions of food, which is fine. I just wish I knew in advance so I could haeorded double of whatever I Was getting. When we arived at 10pm, there was only one place open and I wasn't too hungry but wanted something before I went to bed. Wanted some mozzarella sticks burger and fries. For mozzarella sticks I only got 2....WTF Then came out the burger and fries. 10 mins later.

Next day at one of there other places to eat, I got some kind of roll up sandwich and some nachos. Would have been fine, but the roll up was half a sandwich. Like if you order a roll up at applebees or TGIF you get two roll up pieces....yea only got one. So I'm like ok I'll order something else to take back to the room.....I understand I was in the carrabian, and service is slow... but does it really take an hour for a damn hamburger? I think one time I ordered one and just left since they hit the our mark and I was like **** it I think I have some snacks in my room.


I'm sorry if I'm doing this all over the place, it's been a year. Trying to remember all the **** I went through. Since our plane schedule was all ****ed up too.

When we got there, they had a system to check you in, give your keys and get you your bags. That was great, then they manager pulled some girl and was like here is bla bla bla go show them to their rooms. This other girl was like ok walked 10 ft till the mangaer walked away and was liek hold on guys. Got some security guard and was like these guys need to go to room 6602. They guy had no ****in clue where he was going. Wrote the rm number on his arm with a marker next to 4 other numbers and she had to explain where the room was located 3 times. He got us to the right building, and was like ok we need to go to the 3rd floor. Went up there, rm numbers were 3603 3605...etc. I could tell that the first number of the rm number was the floor. The guy was like **** I'm lost. I told him I think we need to go up to the 6th floor. He goes oh oops I was reading the wrong number. I felt sorry for the guy since it was that other bitchs job to take us to the room. I talked to another couple and I guess some lady took them to their room and they showed them how to use all the light switchs and talked to them about the resort...yea we didnt' get none of that. Just heres your room. Our room was supposed to overlook the ocean, all it did was overlook the workers parkign lot. Went down to bitch, said sorry hotel is booked solid nothing we can do.

 

[The_Ghost]

Also if you do go DON'T TIP, it's included. They will still act like you should just to see if you will. Carry cash, since theres not really any atms close buy. There is one day that people come buy with hand made stuff that is nice, but I didn't have any cash on me since my travel agent said there would be a few atms close by..she was wrong.

There are people that show up on the edge of the beach to try and get you to give them money to go on their excusions besides useing the hotels. I hear thats cheaper, but you need to do some research since some people do that and just take your money and run. So if you want to avoid the hotels overly priced trips, just book a head with whatever you want to do. I wanted to do the rum taste testing, but not enough ppl booked it so it was canceled. Wasn't notified till that morning, which sucked becuase it was booked at noon and was told at 10am. So then I couldn't dive since they left at 8am, and all the other trips left at 9. Had nothing to do that day but sit around and drink and the pool. Which is fine, but I would rather been out divign or something.

The chairmans rum is amazing that comes from st luica. I got the 3 in 1 bottle of rum they sell at the resort and the chairmans is amazing.


I booked a trip to fiji mantingi island for less then what I paid to go to st lucia. Not sure how much you had your heart set on st lucia, but I had a friend just come back from fiji for 10 nights. only paid 7. He stayed at the island where the captil is located.

Let me know if you have a better experience then I did.
Any specific questions just let me know I will try my best to answer them.

 

[ColoDale]

The Ghost
Sorry to hear you didn’t get to dive further south as the diving is better there than northern sites. I am not sure why the boats repeated sites. Sounds like you had service issues topside as well. Were there different boats/captains or run out of different locations (Grande versus Castries port)?

I stayed at St. Lucia Regency (La Toc bay) in 1997 and 2007. The first trip I was a new diver and could not appreciate the diving. I went back to do it right so to speak. The first trip they would pick up off the beach but the second trip we all had to shuttle to Castries’ port (Cruise ships stop here). In 2007 divers from the Grande would also arrive here to share the boat although I understand they also had a boat out of that resort but they did not take them far south due to fuel costs.
The 2007 trip had 12-18 divers on the boats generally separated into 3 groups. These were the morning dives for the certified divers. The afternoon trips were for certifying divers, new divers and snorkelers.
We did not repeat sites in Nov 2007 and since it was rainy and overcast the vis was down a bit.
I have been to Sandals four times and the hook is that diving is included. In my mind I am deducting the outside diving cost from the trip cost to see if it’s worth it. Sandals has nice, new, well maintained boats and are very safety conscious. The problem is the regimen. Short dives, follow the leader, being treated like I don’t know what I am doing is a bit much for me. I bailed on Sandals diving in Exuma because of it and went with a local dive op. Not sure if I will use their dive op again.

For background (and for NLFD163’s benefit as well though I don’t know the destination resort in St. Lucia),
The Regency, between 1997 and 2007, expanded significantly. The place is huge now and in 2007 my wife and I noticed significant changes in service. We think there simply wasn’t enough staff and they looked tired. Service was slower as well. I can’t say what it is now. Having been around mostly the Caribbean and a bit in the Pacific (non-Sandals) I notice on repeat visits that the service increases or decreases periodically and I never know until I get there. Maybe the same occurred at the Grande.
Tipping except for pre-arranged butler service should not be done as it is included although, as The Ghost said, I did get the impression from a few staff that they wanted tips but nothing was ever said. If I had received exceptional service from particular staff and had been inclined, I might have gone through their management at the end of the week for tips. That did not happen in St. Lucia.
I always thought the Grande attracted the older crowd. I can’t remember the name of the hotel it was before Sandals purchased it but we looked at it and the prices were higher than Regency at the time. The Regency in 2007 had primarily 30’s and 40’s crowd but in Aug 1997 it was much younger honeymooners (20’s). I think it depends on the time of year. I can’t comment on Halcyon. I believe you can travel to the other resorts for dinners or services - Stay at one, play at three was their marketing.
If you want more info on Sandals St. Lucia resorts (not diving as SB would be the place) then I would go to Tripadvisor.
St. Lucia (especially around Soufriere and the Pitons - Gros and Petit) is a beautiful area. Try to do excursions (jungle, volcano, fishing, etc.) and duty free shopping at the port right before or after the cruise ships and the straw market in town (again avoiding cruise ships). You might need some sort of airline ticket or passport for duty free - I can’t remember. I would do a little research on excursion companies and take the contact info with you. You don’t have to book through the hotel. Prices might be higher though at the last minute this way.

I did stay in Fiji at Matangi Island in 2006 (if that is what is referenced). This is another flight (or two) away from the main island (Viti Levu and capital Nadi). The total cost there was still more than we paid in St. Lucia per day. However I can’t say what room category or seasonal rates The Ghost had in St. Lucia. It does make a difference. Our St. Lucia trips were Aug and Nov when many people choose not to go due to hurricane season. There are much cheaper places in Fiji than Matangi, like Beqa Lagoon or those on Viti Levu itself but access to diving has to be considered for the latter. I prefer the area around Teveuni. I do echo what The Ghost said, Fiji is a cheaper place to go comparatively, it just takes a lot longer to get to than St. Lucia from the U.S. If I had to choose, I would choose Fiji.

I do have some St. Lucia and Fiji UW photos in my SB gallery if interested.