Trip Report: St. Lucia
Visited in March 2025
This trip report is part of a four-part series. This is the third part and for a better understanding it is worth starting with the first article and going through the articles in chronological order.
The airport in St. Lucia (SLU) is one of the smallest I have ever seen. When you leave the airport, you basically see the waiting area before you get to the gates outside the airport. The Check-in area is located there as well. Inside the airport there is only security, passport control and the actual gate.
One of the first things you see when you leave the airport is a bar next to a beautiful beach. Contrary to what most people do when they arrive in a new country, I didn’t take a cab, but sat down in this bar, ordered something to drink and enjoyed the idyll for the next 30 minutes.
St. Lucia, along with Dominica, was the country I was most looking forward to on this trip. The reason for this are the Pitons, two striking volcanic peaks that look surreal and are the country’s main landmarks.
However, I wouldn’t see them until the next day. First, I had to get to my hotel or apartment. Since it was right next to the airport, I walked the 25 minutes instead of taking a taxi. The apartment turned out to be a no-frills place on a busy street. However, St. Lucia was so expensive in terms of accommodation that it was perfectly fine for one night. The room at the Seaview Apartment was clean and I was happy with it.
I had 1.5 days in St. Lucia and my plan was to spend the first afternoon on the beach and the second day to go on an island tour. There is relatively little to tell about the first part. The beach near the apartment was okay, the sea was pretty rough, but it was okay for 1-2 hours of swimming.
On the way back a local showed me a small bag with a white substance in it. The next day I found out that drugs have become an issue in St. Lucia. I also learned that St. Lucia is not super-safe, as you should not walk around alone after dark. And that became a problem for me a few hours later.
The reason for that was that there was no restaurant near my apartment. The owner of the apartment texted me that I could order food from Domino’s or KFC, both fast food chains I absolutely do not like. But after I while I thought I had no other choice and tried to order. Just to find out that both were not delivering food.
My “rescue” was the gas station next to the apartment, which had basic snacks such as potato chips, cake and so on. Not the dinner I was hoping to get, but better than nothing I guess. 🙂
The next morning, I was picked up by St. Lucia Best Experience Tours (Whatsapp: +1 758 285 3427) for a private island tour. I paid a hefty 180 USD for six hours. The Caribbean is damn expensive for solo travelers. A rental car would have been a bit cheaper, but not by much.
Over the next few hours, my guide Lloyd drove me to the south of the island. The places I chose were the Têt Paul Nature Trail, the drive-in volcano and the Toraille waterfall.
First, we stopped at a banana plantation on the side of the road, where I was offered a shot of banana rum and drank it on an empty stomach (it wasn’t too bad). I also tried banana ketchup and a BBQ sauce made from bananas. The ketchup tasted confusingly similar to tomato ketchup.
The road to the south was panoramic with some good viewpoints along the way where you can see the Pitons very well. But even without the Pitons, I found St. Lucia to be a beautiful island. St. Lucia is by the way not as small as you might think. It took almost two hours by car from the capital Castries, where my hotel was, to the Têt Paul Nature Trail.
The Têt Paul Nature Trail then delivered what it promised. It is an approximately 45-minute mini “hike”, which also has some very good viewpoints. You pay an entrance fee of USD 10 for the trail and are then provided with a guide.
My female guide turned out to be a bit annoying and grilled me for 45 minutes about my private life, wanted to know exactly why my relationship had recently ended and had some great recommendations on how I could find a new girlfriend or wife (she recommended some YouTube channel for this). I tried to ignore the babbling as best I could and enjoy the scenery.
It is also possible to climb the Pitons, but this is a tough hike lasting several hours. The Gros Piton is 771m high. At 743m, the Petit Piton is only slightly smaller and the more difficult of the two to summit.
Later I saw the Soufrière volcano. Fun fact: there are five or six volcanoes in the East Caribbean with this name. The volcano I climbed two days earlier in St. Vincent was already named like this. The name comes from French and means nothing other than “sulphur in the air”.
What makes the volcano in St. Lucia special is that it is a “drive-in” volcano. This means that you drive directly to the edge of the crater. There are also mud baths next door, which I skipped. Just like the Tet Paul Nature Trail, this volcano also had an entrance fee of 10 USD. This means that in St. Lucia you pay a fee to see almost every attraction.
At the last stop, the Toraille waterfall, I was spared this as there was no one at the ticket booth. If I remember correctly, it would have cost 3 USD. I doubt whether it was worth it. It is simply a small waterfall about six or seven meters high, absolutely nothing special.
In the afternoon I was back at my apartment, had lunch in the restaurant next door (which for some inexplicable reason is only open until 3pm). The food in the Caribbean was actually very good and consisted mostly of rice with beans, cooked bananas, meat and “ground provisions”, a mixture of starchy foods, sweet potatoes and plantains.
I left St. Lucia in the early evening for Dominica, my last country in the East Caribbean. Of course with a stop at the bar next to the airport. Country 184 was over and one more country left in the East Caribbean.
Although I had spent the least time of all the countries in St. Lucia (1.5 days), I liked the country very much. A very beautiful island, which also has excellent beaches. Therefore, St. Lucia offers the total package and if I am ever forced to spend a week or so on one of these Caribbean islands, my choice would be St. Lucia. For me, the best country in the East Caribbean.
Click here to find the trip reports of the 180+ other countries I have visited so far!
