Dive Travel - Caribbean - St. Lucia

On trip to St Lucia we stayed at the Sandals Halcyon. This was our first experience of an all inclusive resort and it was awesome from a hotel/resort perspective. In St Lucia there are 3 Sandals Resorts and the facilities of all the resorts are available for use. This gives you a choice of 15 different restuarants with numerous bars and night clubs. Sandals provide transport between the resorts with buses running every hour. The downside is we spent a large portion of our holiday traveling in buses. We found the food awesome and the people friendly and helpful. All in all a good option as the scuba diving is also inclusive.

On the downside the scuba diving was slightly disorganised. Once we actually launched the boat all was good but we were a little slow in getting off the dock each morning. Also if you're an avid scuba diver planning a dive holiday perhaps not the best option. The dive sites offered are generally very easy sites and dive times are usually kept below 40 minutes regardless of depth.

St Lucia itself is really beautiful and the people are all really friendly. We took a private tour with a guy called Joe; none of the Sandals Tours suited us. Joe was awesome and does whatever you want; a trip to the volcano or botanical gardens or for a hike up the Pitons for the more adventurous. We had an awesome day and would recommend using him (Joe Knows Tours: Cell: (758) 717-1893, Home: (758) 450-3847).

We would definately recommend visiting St Lucia if you can it is a great travel destination. If you enjoy diving but it is not the focus of your holiday then Sandals is a great resort to stay in. The majority of the people on the boat loved it and you do get to experience the diving St Lucia has to offer. We dived a few walls, some reefs and a wreck. However if diving is the focus of your vacation and you wish to experience the more challenging dive sites and have longer dive times with more personal service then look to stay somewhere else. Tikaye Village Resort is an option and friends had great diving with them. They are also closer to the dive sites although a little slow with correspondance.