Looking for a peaceful, quiet place to unwind on holiday? Look no further, this place has it all, with the bonus of relatively few tourists.
It’s hard to find a nice international vacation destination with very few tourists, especially if you’re looking for a warm and sunny place to visit. That’s not even taking into account the price of flights and places to stay in another country. Many countries require you to exchange your money for local currency as well. Not to mention the difficulty of choosing what type of vacation spot you and your family may want to experience, whether it be a beachy vacation, a hiking type of vacation, a walking around the city vacation, or a theme park kind of vacation. All these factors can make planning for a vacation so difficult, but there’s one country that actually checks all the boxes for a perfect vacation. Introducing the Carribean island of St. Lucia.
Background
Not many people have heard of St. Lucia, and that included me a few years ago. I was looking for a quiet, beachy place to travel to that wouldn’t be too expensive. After hours of searching, I came across St. Lucia and the more and more I read about it, the more and more I fell in love with it. To this date, I still consider St. Lucia as my favorite vacation destination that I’ve ever been to.
The number of things you can do from going to the beach, to hiking, to going to a rainforest, to making your own chocolate is just unbelievable and the views are just so breathtaking. I can honestly say that St. Lucia is perhaps the perfect vacation spot to visit abroad for a week. I visited the island in July 2022, but locals would tell me that most people like to visit the island in January and February when it’s sunny all the time.
When I visited, I was lucky enough that when I went to St. Lucia it only rained twice, and they were quick showers of about 5 or 10 minutes in the early morning or late night. If you do end up visiting the island, make sure not to go between August-November, which is the island’s rainy and hurricane season.
The Capital
Castries is the capital of St. Lucia. It’s the part of the island where most tourists decide to stay, and rightfully so if it’s the first time visiting the island. I stayed there when I visited the island, and it felt safe in the places that tourists visit. There are many things close by to Castries, such as the beaches and the meeting points for tours. Since the city is all the way to the north-western part of the island, it can be a decent drive to some of the better beaches and popular attractions. The airport in St. Lucia is actually all the way down south in Vieux Fort, which is about 2 hours from Castries.
I would strongly suggest not renting a car; it is absolutely crazy in some parts to drive on the road. I don’t know how I would’ve survived driving all the crazy turns and hills that the island has. If you really want to enjoy yourself stress free, hire a taxi to drive you around and definitely book tours that will include transportation to the parts of the island you will be exploring. Trust me when I say this!
Cuisine
One of the great things about St. Lucia, and many Carribean countries, is that businesses and people prefer to take USD rather than their local currency. It makes life so much easier since you don’t need to be exchanging currencies.
There are plenty of nice restaurants surrounding the beach areas, from local cuisine to Pizza Huts to Asian cuisine, you name it. I would recommend asking your tour guides or taxi drivers for food recommendations, they definitely know the best spots and they’ll give you places to eat with some nice views and chill vibes.
One of the best places I ate at was near Reduit beach, a local restaurant with local cuisine. That entire block in front of the beach has many food options, perfect for a post beach day. Castries also has some pretty neat restaurants that you probably won’t find online. Again, I highly recommend speaking to the locals to find out the best places to eat.
Budget
In terms of prices, I ended up spending about $550 for my flights to St. Lucia and back to NY. I ended up staying at an Airbnb cabin for $89 a night as well, and the cabin came with a really nice driver who made my life so much easier. He picked me up from the cabin to drive me to wherever I needed to go every day and was always super kind to bring me takeout for dinner if I was tired to go out to eat.
The tours I booked were only about $300 in total for five tours that I did that included transportation and lunch (sometimes drinks too). Taxis weren’t crazy either, I probably spent only $200 for the week, mainly for the transportation from the airport to Castries and back. I was able to afford this and feel like I had gotten a bargain at the age of 20, so I think most people can definitely travel here and walk away feeling the same way.
I’m always on the lookout for the least known places to travel to, because it feels nice to experience something that not many people have experienced. As I mentioned earlier, St. Lucia still ranks as my favorite vacation spot for the amazing views and all the things you can do. I will cover the many activities there is to do in depth in another post, but I highly encourage you to visit St. Lucia. It is budget friendly, fun, beautiful, and it will not disappoint; I can promise you that.
