St. Lucia, February 2000

St. Lucia is a small island in the East Caribbean. It's roughly teardrop shaped and is 27 miles long and 14 miles wide. It was one of the islands that regularly changed hands between the British and the French. Eventually it became British in 1814 and remained in British hands until independence in 1979. It's still a member of the Commonwealth and the Queen remains the head of state.

The official language is English, though many of the locals also speak a patois when talking amongst themselves. It's allegedly based on French, but you'd never know. I only managed to pick out the words "allez" and "oui" during the whole two weeks. Apart from the French town names, the island has a decidedly British-Caribbean feel to it.

The currency of the island is the East Caribbean dollar. This is fixed to the US dollar at a rate of US$1 = EC$2.70. Most businesses will accept US dollars, but the rate varies. At the bank, you'll get a rate of 2.68. Other places seemed to vary between 2.60 - 2.65. Some places gave rates as low as 2.50, particularly for travellers' cheques. I just took along some US dollars I had left over from a previous trip and got the rest on my credit card. There was a ScotiaBank nearby with ATM machines that accepted Visa and Mastercard as well as some other types. All the prices in this report are given in EC dollars.

We were booked with JMC Holidays and were staying in Rodney Bay, which is the main tourist area. It's situated in the northeast of the island, north of the capital Castries. There are two airports in St Lucia. The airport in Castries is only suitable for smaller planes, so you can only fly there from neighbouring islands including Puerto Rico. The major airport is located right at the south of the island near the town of Vieux Fort.

The main roads aren't that bad by Caribbean standards. There are some potholes, but not excessively so. However, because of the mountainous nature of the island, there are a lot of bends, including some hairpins. The drive from the airport took over an hour and a half and the driver certainly wasn't hanging around. If you're thinking of hiring a car and driving yourself, beware of the large storm ditches by the sides of the road, and don't be surprised if people overtake on bends and rises where they can't see very well, or at all in some cases.

Rodney Bay itself is split into three main areas. There's a large marina full of floating gin palaces, which never seem to move. Then the other two areas are separated by the entrance to the marina. To the north is the local town of Gros Islet. A street party, called the jump-up, is held there every Friday which goes on into the early hours. To the south is Reduit Beach. There's a nice sandy beach and several hotels, bars and restaurants. A water taxi will take you across the channel for $3, though it doesn't run late. It's quite a long way around the marina if you go by land.

North of Gros Islet is Pigeon Island. This is now a national park and there are some ruins of an old colonial fort that can be visited. It's not actually an island anymore. Back in the seventies, they built a causeway and extended the beach for some tourist development that never happened. Recently one hotel has opened there, but it’s a bit isolated from the rest of the town.

Our hotel, the Rainbow, wasn't quite on the beach, though it was only about 50 yards away. We were booked on a room-only basis. We didn't want to go on an all-inclusive package because there are plenty of bars and restaurants in Reduit Beach and we didn't want to stay in our hotel all the time.

The hotel rooms was OK. It had a balcony, shower room and a television which had about 40 channels of rubbish with poor picture quality. Air-conditioning was available but you had to pay extra. It cost a hefty $26 a day, so we didn't bother. It wasn't that warm in the evenings anyway, so the fan was perfectly adequate. Apparently you could also get a fridge if you were very patient and paid another $26 a day.

The hotel has a small pool, which was a bit murky for the first half of our stay until they cleaned it. There's a restaurant. We ate there the first night because we couldn't be bothered to go anywhere else after our long flight, but we didn't go back. They served breakfast in the restaurant, but it was almost $20 for a continental breakfast and $38 for the full breakfast.

There was also a bar by the pool. They had happy hours every day from 5pm-7pm when you got two drinks for the price of one. Normally the prices were $15-16 for a cocktail and $7.50 for a small, 275ml, bottle of Piton beer. So we only drank there during happy hour. Charging the drinks to your room was the best idea, because they never had any change.

Some meals were served by the pool during the day and they also did a barbecue nights a couple of nights a week with entertainment such as steel drum music and jazz. We didn't try any of the barbecues, but we did try the a la carte breakfasts they served there. For about $16, you could get something like an omelette with toast or breakfast potatoes. So it wasn't cheap, but it should have been convenient. However, the service was hopeless. It wasn't just slow, it was very slow. You couldn't manage to have a small breakfast in less than 40 mins, even if you knew what you wanted without looking at the menu and even if you picked something, like an omelette or toast, that takes about 3 minutes to cook. One morning I waited 15 mins for them to bring me a cup of coffee. When it eventually arrived, all I got was a cup of coffee with no sugar and no milk. Then they disappeared to get that. I never managed to get a spoon to stir it with despite asking twice.

At times, I wondered if Basil Fawlty was running the catering. They would keep a pot of coffee on the side, but they wouldn't refill it, or start another one, until it actually ran out. Then it would take them 10 mins to make another pot. Quite why it takes 10 mins to make instant coffee, I don't know.

The breakfast situation really did annoy me, because I was getting up quite early to go diving and I wanted to have something to eat before I went. There wasn't really time to go anywhere else, but I didn't want to get up 40 mins earlier just to grab something to eat.

Fortunately there is a supermarket in Rodney, so we could get something for lunch. The tap water is safe to drink, though it's a bit chloriney, so we used to add Kool-Aid cordial to it. We had no problems with upset stomachs during our stay. For dinner, there are plenty of bars and restaurants in close proximity.

Eating out is not cheap. In a restaurant the main meals cost between $35-$50. There was a takeaway at the Lime which did local, creole food. For about $15 you could get a meal, which was good value if you liked the salad, rice and macaroni pie it came with. The Triangle Pub also did similarly priced food and there was a KFC. For less than $50, you could get a large pizza at one of the pizza places big enough for two. Just about every restaurant adds a 10% service charge, so no further tipping is required. Tipping is not expected in St. Lucia, though I'm sure they don't throw it back at you.

Drinks were also a lot more reasonable than the hotel. The cheapest place was the Triangle pub which charged just $3 for a bottle of Piton. However, they didn't do anything that didn't come in a can, apart from spirits, which were served in plastic cups. Quite a few people would come up and try and sell you things there, not all of them legal. So we tended to drink in the Lime, which was popular with locals, but didn't let in the various hawkers. The beer was a bit more expensive at $4 and the cocktails were $12. The staff were also very friendly.

The food itself held few surprises. Most menus featured steak, ribs, pork and lamb chops, as well as a lot of seafood. You seemed to get garlic bread with everything. Local specialities included lambi (conch) and meats cooked with jerk seasoning. I ordered the lambi a couple of times, but it was always sold out. The jerk chicken was especially hot if you ordered it at the Lime's takeaway. I think they water it down for the tourists in the restaurant.

I arranged my diving with Frogs Diving who have a shop at Windjammer Landing. I contacted them before I went out and then rang them when I arrived. In the e-mail they said that they would pick me up, but when I got there it seems as though they don’t pick up as far north as Rodney Bay. However, they will refund your taxi fare (about $25 each way) which really was more convenient anyway.

The boat leaves at 9am every morning. While I was there, they weren't diving on Sundays. They ask you to be there for 8.30am, which meant leaving the hotel before 8am on weekdays, because the traffic is terrible at that time in the morning.

I took all my own equipment, so I only used their tanks and weights. The tanks were the ubiquitous aluminium 80s, which in metric terms are approximately 11 litre tanks filled to about 200 bar. The only tank valves available are A-clamp. They don't do DIN at all, so make sure you take your adapters.

The boat they were using was called Stop Gap and wasn't that big. It could only take 6-7 divers plus the 2 crew. They do have a larger boat, but they were using it for some dredging job whilst I was there.

Most of the good diving in St. Lucia is in the south of the island. It would take about an hour and a half to get down to some of the best sites. Heavy showers were quite common, so we often got soaked going to or from the dive site. It wasn't the most comfortable boat I've ever been on. It did have a sun shade and they did provide cold water and sandwiches, so it was adequate.

On my first dive we went all the way down to the Pitons. Frogs have a small shop at the beach there next to the Hilton Jalousie. We were diving the wall at the base of Petit Piton. There were only 3 paying divers, myself and a couple of American guys, who were on a cruise. I was a bit worried when I saw they had brand new kit and the DM had to practically dress them, but they weren't too bad in the water, though their air consumption was on the high side.

The dive profile was supposed to be 40 mins with a maximum depth of 70 feet. All of the dives I did were only supposed to be 40 mins, except for my last one when we were allowed 50 mins as a bit of a "treat". I think 40 mins is too short. I came out of practically every dive with at least half a tank and so did a lot of other people. If we'd been allowed 50 mins, I think that would have been acceptable. The depth limits weren't really enforced, but the only way to get a longer time was to get in first and have a few more minutes before the DM joined you.

The dive was a good one. We dived along the wall and there were lots of small fish about and the coral was healthy. There were a couple of patches that were quite bare, which may have been due to the hurricane damage. Apparently there were a lot more barrel sponges before the hurricane. The visibility was 15-20m and the water temperature was 26C. My maximum depth was 24m and the total dive time was 41 mins.

After a very short surface interval of about 35 mins, we went to the north-east side of the base of Petit Piton and dived a site called Superman's Flight. The name implies that there's often a strong current there, but the water was virtually still that day. There were a lot more barrel sponges here as well as the usual tropicals, shrimps, crabs and a lobster.

On my second day's diving, we went to the north to Pigeon Island. It was quite windy that day, so there was quite a lot of chop. We were all thoroughly soaked before we got in the water. The viz wasn't as good as in the south at only 12m, but it was still a nice dive. The bottom was at 18m and there were boulders covered in corals and sponges. Under one boulder were a lot of spiny lobsters. I counted at least 17. My dive time for this dive was 48 mins.

Our second dive was at a site called Barrel Rock, though I have to say it looks nothing like a barrel. Perhaps it did 250 years ago. The underwater topology was much the same with the bottom at about 15m. We saw some more lobsters, cowfish and puffer fish.

Both dives were enjoyable and the more limited viz didn't really affect my enjoyment. There were still loads of fish and we got back at 12pm which made a nice change from the previous trip when we got back after 3pm.

The next dive I did was at Anse Cochon on the wreck of the Lesleen M. It was a freighter that was sunk deliberately in 1986. My maximum depth on this dive was 19.7m and my dive time was 44 mins with a safety stop. Initially we circled around the outside of the wreck. There was an enormous crab underneath the stern. It's probably the biggest one I've ever seen. Then went into the hold and up some ladders into the bridge. There were loads of fish including sergeant majors and night majors guarding the bright purple patches of their eggs. Towards the end of the dive we also saw a large barracuda.

The second dive was at Virgin's Cove. I didn't see any virgins, but it was a pleasant dive in about 15m of water amongst coral covered boulders. I saw my first turtle of the holiday as well a creole wrasse, parrotfish, morays, yet more lobsters and some spotted drums, which is an odd looking fish.

The next dive I did was back down at Petit Piton. It was as good as before and I managed to get a bit extra dive time with a profile of 45 mins to a maximum depth of 24m. The second dive was at a place called Fairyland. This was another wall though it became more broken up towards the end. I spent a fascinating couple of minutes watching a shrimp cleaning some fish.

The following day we went back to the Lesleen M. I was given the option to go somewhere else, but I'd enjoyed it the first time, so didn't mind going again. This time the crab had disappeared to be replaced by the biggest lobster I've ever seen. The second dive was in Anse Cochon. I jumped in first so I got a dive time of 50 mins with a maximum depth of 13.7m. The coral wasn't that great, but the fish life was good. There were lobsters, small morays hiding in the coral, a scorpion fish, more spotted drums and some grunts.

After a day's rest, my next dive was at a site called Coral Gardens. It was around the base on Grand Piton. The reef was good at the beginning of the dive, but it had started to get a bit bare towards the end. Again this was due to hurricane Lenny. My maximum depth was 26.4m this time, which was more than 15 feet deeper than I was supposed to go. When I looked down there were a couple of Germans about 5m deeper than me.

My last dive of the holiday was at Grand Caile which is near Soufriere. As it was my last dive, we were allowed to do a dive time of 52 mins. It was a nice dive, though perhaps not quite as good as some of the others. The maximum depth was about 15m.

I enjoyed my diving with Frogs. I would have enjoyed it more if I'd been allowed more bottom time. Considering how long it took us to get down to the sites in the south, I don't think another 10 mins dive time would have made much difference. I would also have preferred longer surface intervals. The average one was about 45 mins, which is a bit short. The dives were quite shallow, so the profiles were safe enough. If you do have an incident, the nearest decompression chamber is on Martinique. If you don't have the necessary paperwork to enter France, you have to go to Barbados which is about twice as far. Apparently the French won't let you in even if you're dying without the right paperwork.

However, at least Frogs do go down to the best sites in the south. Not all the other operators go that far, particularly those which operate from the all-inclusive hotels. Things would have been better with the other boat. The one we were using had a problem with the steering which meant that diving was cancelled on one day. I did get a 10% discount on all of my dives to compensate me, which I thought was pretty reasonable.

Apart from the diving. I didn't do an awful lot except laze around or stroll down the beach ignoring the drug pushers. Lots of tours are available, but they're all rather expensive. A lot of them involve going down the west coast in a boat. As I'd travelled down the coast 5 times whilst diving, I didn't really want to do one of those trips. So we decided to go on a trip to the rainforest.

We booked the trip on a Saturday, which meant it left much later because there's no rush hour traffic. However, we didn't get much of a lie-in because the hotel reception rang us up at 6am to inform us our taxi to Martinque had arrived.

The trip was in a 4 wheel drive vehicle which used to belong to the army. One person had cancelled at the last minute, but it was still quite crowded in the back. It took about two hours to get to Soufriere where we stopped for a drink. By then I was feeling quite sick sitting in the back.

Then we set off up some very bad roads/tracks up to the rainforest. The plan was to walk through the forest down to a waterfall and then back. The brochure did warn that it wasn't suitable for heavily pregnant women or people with heart conditions, but it actually turned out to be very hard work. Rather than a reasonably leisurely walk with time to look around, it was a 1.5 hour hike down to the waterfall. It was mostly downhill but, because it was very steep, it was still fairly tiring.

The waterfall wasn't that impressive. It was only about 10 feet high. There was a small pool just about big enough swim in, but the water was very cold. The trip back was shorter, though more uphill.

I thought that, for 2.5 hours of exertion, we saw very little. We didn't see a single animal and we only stopped a few times to talk about some of the trees. I would have preferred it to be much less rushed. I felt that I didn't really get a chance to look around.

Then we headed back to Soufriere and had lunch. The food was creole and quite nice. Lunch took up about 2 hours, which was far too long really. I would have much preferred to have used some of this time to take things more slowly in the rainforest.

After lunch, we climbed back in the 4wd and headed back to Rodney Bay. During the day we spent 4 hours travelling, 2 hours at lunch and probably only 2.5 hours in the rainforest. The cost was US$85, which I thought was expensive for what we got. I didn't find the trip that enjoyable. We would have been better off going off on the Martinique trip.

However, apart from this tour, I did enjoy my holiday in St Lucia. The diving was good, the food was good and perfectly safe and the people were friendly. The prices were too high though, especially in the restaurants and the service in some places was far too slow, especially considering how much you were paying.

The package holiday cost us less than £600 each for 14 nights. We booked quite early, and booking levels were low at the beginning of 2000, so we did get a discount from both the operator and the travel agents. I probably then spent about the same amount again on food, drink and the diving. Ideally I think I would prefer to go self-catering. With a kitchen and a fridge, you could cut the cost of lunch and breakfast, and more importantly, it would be far more convenient if you just wanted to grab a quick bite to eat before going out diving.

However, I'm not aware of any self-catering accommodation in a similar price range, so the Rainbow hotel would probably still be my choice if I were to go again, despite its faults. I think our decision not go to an all-inclusive hotel was the right one. I think I would have got quite bored staying in the hotel the whole time. It was far better to be able to choose where to go.