Where to stay in St Lucia?

[G&G]

My husband and I will be vacationing in St Lucia next January for 3 weeks, along with another couple. As the other couple are non-divers and prefer to be near a nice beach and variety of restaurants, they wish to stay in the Gros Islet/Rodney Bay area. We understand that the better diving is further south and would prefer a shorter travel time to dive. We hope to rent a 2 bedroom villa for our stay, but are trying to figure out what area we should be looking at to please us all. Can anyone with first-hand knowledge of St Lucia give us a recommendation? Thanks.

 

[editmojo]

We stayed at Sandals Halcyon which includes diving. The dives were short 30-35 min but Ok. No matter how experienced you will have to do a shallow check out dive.

Sandals has 3 properties on St Lucia. The Halcyon and Regency share a dock at the Castries harbor. You catch a shuttle to the dock then dive with the combined group. Varied between 7-12 divers of all skill ranges. Nice 35 foot boat. 30-50 min trips to the dive sites which are mostly on the south west side of the island.

The Grand by Rodney bay is the newest Sandals and has it's own dive boat. Probably long trips to the dive site but I think a better arrangement as you will probably be diving with the same divers and DM's the whole week. The Halcyon trips were almost always different DMs and dive groups.

The resorts are all very nice and have there own personallities. The Halcyon was small and intimate and I think had the best food. The Regency is on bluffs on the south side of Castries bay and was very hilly and spread out. The Grand was huge but very new.

My wife doesn't dive but she hardly missed me. So if you want to be pamperer and can deal with the less then optimal dive situation, give it a shot. If you are hard-core- max-bottom time then look elsewhere.

 

[catskill diver]

G & G . We are going to st. Lucia this August and trying a home-away type experience ( found on trip advisor ) we are staying with Blueskiesapartments you can find them on the web. So far Simon the owner has answered ALL of my questions extermly prompt and we cant wait to go. He has two apartments. If you contact me after August I can give you a close to your departure update. Catskill Diver