St. Lucia
Trip Report 2015
Chillin' in the Villa
(Winter Escape Part 3)
Chillin' in the Villa
(Winter Escape Part 3)
Sea & Land Trip to Soufrière
Many people visit St. Lucia for day trips from Caribbean cruises. Castries has a deep water port & we could see the near daily visits from these sea behemoths pass by in the sea from our veranda. They would moor offshore at night or arrive in the early morning & disgorge their passengers to waiting boat or van tours on the island. Then in the late afternoon, everybody would return to Castries & embark on their floating buffet to leave around sunset for the next island. The typical tours included one or more of: a peek at the Pitons, hike the Petit Piton, visit a plantation, snorkeling, drive through the volcano, see the botanical gardens, zip on the zip line etc etc. As independent travelers, this gave us a list of things we might want to avoid. I carefully sorted through the Trip Advisor reviews of this list to skip the corny & the lame. We also decided to pass on the swimming activities & mountain hiking . . . no . . . they just weren't in the cards for us either. The only things that remained were: see the Pitons from land & sea, walk the Tet Paul Trail & do the drive from Soufrière back to the north.
I researched private & group tours. The typical catamaran tours didn't appeal & one operator offering private tours rose to the surface. Smarty Tours. His TA reviews were stellar so I arranged a day trip with him.
Overall, our one day private ‘tour’ with Smarty was good. But it was really not a tour, just an arranged boat & a driver. We paid for our own attraction admission & lunch. $180pp. We also used him once to taxi into Rodney Bay & he was seemingly more expensive than others @ $20 US one way.
I told him what I wanted & he arranged a private water taxi to Soufriere. This was his self-described ‘Land & Sea Tour’. The boat man was a friendly Rasta named Ray who was filling in for the real boat guy. It was an ~18ft open boat with a 200hp motor painted in Jamaica ’colors’ that easily cruised the waves. We left Rodney Bay Marina & pickup up another young Rasta on Reduit Beach. Both smoked ganja quietly at each end of the boat at some point during our trip. Ray happily answered our questions on the resorts & communities that we passed. We had a nice slow meander through pretty Marigot Bay. The small boat let us get up close to everything.
Ray dropped us at the public dock at Sugar Beach between the Pitons & called Smarty who was 20 minutes out. When he arrived, he shuttled us to the Tet Paul Trail - twice as it turned out because we bailed the 1st time when a persistent shower rolled in. In between these visits we ventured down into Soufrière to Orlando’s for lunch. I had originally hoped for lunch at Dashene at the posh Ladera resort with its stunning views (and $25 pp gate fee) but they didn't respond to my request. Boucan at Hotel Chocolate was a wash as well since they don't open for lunch. So Orlando's it was.
Orlando's. My Trip Advisor review 5/5
And another one for the bizarre file. As we were driving away from the restaurant on the main drag of Soufrière, a naked man was walking down the street. And creating quite a stir amongst the shoppers & shopkeepers. Some crazy Rasta . . .
Back to Tet Paul & its stunning vistas. I have pinpointed it in the map above. Do NOT miss this easy hike if you go to St Lucia. The island views are breathtaking! Smarty was pushing for the Botanical Gardens & the volcano – with included video – but we demurred. He seemed disappointed but as above, I had read enough reviews on TA to call a pass on these mass tourist haunts. The drive back to the north was nice to do in the heat of the afternoon with the AC on. After a brief pit stop at the Rum Factory for some Forgotten Casks just as they were closing, we hit Castries at ‘cruise ship rush hour’ which took more than twenty minutes to transverse town in bumper to bumper traffic. We got back to our villa just before sundown. Smarty drove calmly & safely through our drive.
But boy, can that man talk. On some subjects – his marketing, traffic, motorcycles, building on a flood plain etc – he will go off on you & talk until your ears are ringing. He goes on long after you have given up with polite responses. But it’s his van so you have to listen . . .
An alternative: We also used Ernest Felix (Clearview Tourist Services) 1-758-719-0494. He was a great driver for airport transfers, general taxi service & he said he did island tours as well. And he didn’t go off on tirades . . .
I researched private & group tours. The typical catamaran tours didn't appeal & one operator offering private tours rose to the surface. Smarty Tours. His TA reviews were stellar so I arranged a day trip with him.
Overall, our one day private ‘tour’ with Smarty was good. But it was really not a tour, just an arranged boat & a driver. We paid for our own attraction admission & lunch. $180pp. We also used him once to taxi into Rodney Bay & he was seemingly more expensive than others @ $20 US one way.
I told him what I wanted & he arranged a private water taxi to Soufriere. This was his self-described ‘Land & Sea Tour’. The boat man was a friendly Rasta named Ray who was filling in for the real boat guy. It was an ~18ft open boat with a 200hp motor painted in Jamaica ’colors’ that easily cruised the waves. We left Rodney Bay Marina & pickup up another young Rasta on Reduit Beach. Both smoked ganja quietly at each end of the boat at some point during our trip. Ray happily answered our questions on the resorts & communities that we passed. We had a nice slow meander through pretty Marigot Bay. The small boat let us get up close to everything.
Ray dropped us at the public dock at Sugar Beach between the Pitons & called Smarty who was 20 minutes out. When he arrived, he shuttled us to the Tet Paul Trail - twice as it turned out because we bailed the 1st time when a persistent shower rolled in. In between these visits we ventured down into Soufrière to Orlando’s for lunch. I had originally hoped for lunch at Dashene at the posh Ladera resort with its stunning views (and $25 pp gate fee) but they didn't respond to my request. Boucan at Hotel Chocolate was a wash as well since they don't open for lunch. So Orlando's it was.
Orlando's. My Trip Advisor review 5/5
And another one for the bizarre file. As we were driving away from the restaurant on the main drag of Soufrière, a naked man was walking down the street. And creating quite a stir amongst the shoppers & shopkeepers. Some crazy Rasta . . .
Back to Tet Paul & its stunning vistas. I have pinpointed it in the map above. Do NOT miss this easy hike if you go to St Lucia. The island views are breathtaking! Smarty was pushing for the Botanical Gardens & the volcano – with included video – but we demurred. He seemed disappointed but as above, I had read enough reviews on TA to call a pass on these mass tourist haunts. The drive back to the north was nice to do in the heat of the afternoon with the AC on. After a brief pit stop at the Rum Factory for some Forgotten Casks just as they were closing, we hit Castries at ‘cruise ship rush hour’ which took more than twenty minutes to transverse town in bumper to bumper traffic. We got back to our villa just before sundown. Smarty drove calmly & safely through our drive.
But boy, can that man talk. On some subjects – his marketing, traffic, motorcycles, building on a flood plain etc – he will go off on you & talk until your ears are ringing. He goes on long after you have given up with polite responses. But it’s his van so you have to listen . . .
An alternative: We also used Ernest Felix (Clearview Tourist Services) 1-758-719-0494. He was a great driver for airport transfers, general taxi service & he said he did island tours as well. And he didn’t go off on tirades . . .