best excursions in St. Lucia

alaska3820

My Fiancé and I are going to St.Lucia for our honeymoon August 25 - September 3. He loves doing anything outdoors, especially sailing and hiking. I'm looking to find recommendations for excursions in St Lucia. We are staying at the Grande. I know there is catamaran tours, zip lining, snorkeling etc. Just looking for other people's experiences with the different companies and stuff. Also if there is anything at the reports ( any of the sandals in St Lucia) that is worth doing, let me know!

Thanks!

AprilH81

I've been twice on a cruise and St. Lucia is a lovely island.

The first time I went I went zip-lining with TreeTop Adventures.  It was about $60/person and included transportation to/from the cruise terminal.  The staff was awesome and I felt very safe in their van and while ziplining.  I highly recommend them.

The second time I went on an ocean/river kayak trip with Dive Fair Helen.  The kaying was HARD, especially in the ocean current, but we had a nice time.  My biggest complaint was that there was a lot of wasted time at check-in (one ink pen to be shared by 20 people to sign the waivers, long wait for the water taxi to come back and pick us up, etc.).  If you aren't in a hurry I would recommend them, but you may want to look around to see if there are other companies with better experiences out there.

One thing I wanted to do but haven't done yet is do a whale watching catamaran trip.  

themuffinman16

I had the time of my life in Stt. Lucia.  We went on a private catamaran tour, hiked the pitons and went scuba diving with a private company, and do not miss out on the zip line over the rainforest.  Best experience of my life

themuffinman16

If you want to tour the Island, take Joe Knows tours.  Tour guide took us to the Geothermal mud baths and swimming in the Diamond waterfalls and ziplining. Scuba Steve diving tours (scuba diving is scary, and with the right instructors, you have nothing to fear). The best restaurants we went to were the Rainforest Hidewaway and the Fire Grill and of of course, the amazing food at our hotel, The Calabash Cove.

kristingregwedding

We went in October.  Do the ziplining.  It was so much fun and I want to do it again! I also agree with the Joes Knows tour.  Again, SO much fun! We loved going into the mud bath, then going to the waterfalls... and not to mention the rum punch  We did a sunset catamaran tour.  It was nice, we were able to snorkel with them and had drinks/apps on the boat.  It was a nice, relaxing boat ride. 

xxBrittanyLB

We are going to be honeymooning there in November. A couple of my friends who went there for their honeymoons said, DO NOT HIKE THE PITONS. They said they LOVED and the view was beautiful. They are REALLY fit people however they said that the hike was ridiculously physical and they did it the second day they were there and were sore the WHOLE rest of their honeymoon. 

But I heard the waterfalls and sulfuric mud bathes were AWESOME! 

themuffinman16

You can hike the pitons, but you need to prepare yourself.  I did the stepmill (it's a conveyor belt of stairs) for 40 minutes a day for 2 months before our vacation.   I was a little stiff for the next day, but my muscles wear trained for the incline. I also did 15 minutes of intervals on the treadmill.  Intervals are when you do a couple minutes of walking and a couple minutes of running and alternate. This somewhat prepares your lungs. Although nothing prepares your lungs enough, because, along with the intense physical exertion,you are, also, dealing with 100% humidity. It was like breathing water.  In the end, the view was amazing, but yes, you totally need to be prepared.  My FI used to play basketball in college, and has not been in the same shape, since.  He could only make it halfway up the piton, and he struggled to make it that far.

delujm0

Some of the people i was there with (we went for a wedding) just took a boat ride to the Pitons to see them up close...it was more of a "snorkling and booze cruise" situation with lunch.  They absolutely loved it and said they'd do it again in a heartbeat.  I think the boat also stopped at some kind of mudbath/waterfall or something?  I didn't go, but you don't have to hike to Pitons to get to see them i guess.

 

If you're a runner/regular hiker, the hike won't be a problem - some of the other people we were with did it.  They said it was difficult, and took a while, but they weren't unreasonably sore or anything.  You are advised to hire a local guide to do it though.  it's not well marked enough to do on your own.