All Inclusive St. Lucia

alaska3820 · January 2014

Hi all!
My Fiance and I are looking to honeymoon in St. Lucia Aug 25-Sept 3. We definitely want to go to an All Inclusive resort, but all we have info on is the Sandals resorts. We are thinking about going to the Sandals Grande St. Lucian. Just wondering if anyone can recommend any other AI resorts in St. Lucia that would be good for a honeymoon.

Thanks!

Jells2dot0 · January 2014

What is your budget and where are you flying from? There are some other options, but some are a little pricey and some are more budget friendly.

clanager03 · January 2014

we are going to st lucia as well for our honeymoon we are going sandals just not sure which resort... just out of curiosity how come your thinking of doing another all inclusive resort instead of sandals. or is more just looking to see what else is out there

delujm0 · January 2014

I think that's the beginning of hurricane season...so i'd advise that if you decide to go to the Caribbean at that time of year you get trip insurance in case you have to cancel due to weather.

I just got back from St. Lucia. We stayed at Sandals La Toc but also visited the other properties. If i had to do it again, I'd stay at the Grande. They had the best beach. All of the water sports were available there. La Toc was a beautiful hotel, but the surf was too rough on the beach there (different part of the island than the Grande) to really swim. Also, at high tide there was almost no beach to speak of. It's more of a pool resort. You can travel between all three Sandals properties via free shuttle bus if you want to try restaurants or beaches/pools somewhere other than where you are staying.

I did a little research on other hotels in St. Lucia, but i thought Sandals was the best option - there aren't many other AI's but there are a few where two meals a day are included for example. Some of them looked really beautiful...and really expensive. We weren't ther elong enough to do any off-resort excursions unfortunataly (we were there specifically for out friends' wedding) but we would have loved to see the Pitons or go for a hike in the rainforest. All of that is available.

alaska3820 · January 2014

We are flying out of Albany and we are thinking about staying at the Grande. I was really just looking to see if anyone had any other recommendations from personal experience. I would hate to miss out on anything! We definitely want a nice beach, as well as adventure opportunities, so it sounds like we are choosing the right resort for us! Thanks everyone for your input

weeniedogs · January 2014

We just booked our honeymoon at the Grande for Oct 22-29! Very excited!

JessicaB387 · January 2014

We stayed at the Grande for our honeymoon this past November. It was awesome, I highly recommend it! We visited La Toc for dinner one night while we were there, and it was very nice as well, but we were glad we were staying at the Grande. I can give you a lot of info about our stay if you are interested or have questions!

moonmellyfish · January 2014

We're shopping St Lucia as well. So far, Sandals is the one to beat. We would be going mid November, and flying out of Miami.

weeniedogs · January 2014

@JessicaB387 It would be great to hear some information about your trip! From what I am hearing about the Grande, I am glad we decided to go with that resort over the other two! Cant wait for October to come around so the fiance and I can relax in paradise!

[Deleted User] · January 2014

We've been to Sandals Grande twice and love it. Extensive reviews and pics in the link "Our Website" above my siggy pic .

kristingregwedding · January 2014

We stayed at La Toc. We really enjoyed it! The surf was rough (I was knocked over and lost my sunglasses) but I am used to it living in MA! We never made it over the Grande, but heard really good things about it. My one piece of advice.. DO THE EXCURSIONS!!! We did three- catamaran sunset cruise, zip lining and Joes Knows. I highly suggest zip lining and Joes Knows! The catamaran was a great night time, relaxing excursion.

alaska3820 · January 2014

@JessicaB387 I would love to hear information about your experience! I've been doing research on the Grande lately and I'm so excited, I just can't wait to finally be there!!

JessicaB387 · January 2014

Sorry in advance this is so long! @weeniedogs @alaska3820

We stayed Nov 9 - 16th last year. The weather was really good, it was about 86 every day, mostly sunny but some periods of clouds too. I guess I heard November is the last month of their "rainy season," it rained maybe 2 days while we were there for about 5 minutes each and no one even bothered getting out of the pool. One other night it rained pretty heavy, maybe around 10pm but was totally cleared up by morning. We stayed in the Club Level room, which was perfect for us. It would be nice to stay in the private rondoval rooms since they include a private pool - but we could see them from our balcony and noticed that there is absolutely no view, since they are ground level and some of them are far back from the beach. We liked our room with balcony - we were on the 3rd floor and had an amazing view. One of our favorite parts was that the club level comes with free room service - something you don't get in the regular rooms. We got room service breakfast every morning and they come set it up for you on your balcony!

We also paid extra for the private car service from the airport (it comes free with the butler level) and this was SO worth it. The ride from the airport to the resort is long - about an hour and a half of windy roads. The island is gorgeous but there is basically one road that goes around it, through the rainforest and everything. Sometimes I get car sick and was really worried about it, but I was fine. The best part is that it gets you there way faster than the free shuttles - the shuttles stop at all of the other resorts to drop people off along the way, and have to wait at the airport to fill up. We had a private check in at the club lounge, and went back later to ask a question and the lounge was PACKED with people trying to check in from the shuttle.

If you want to hang out at the main pool during the day (what we did most days) you do have to go down early and reserve chairs with a towel - we didn't do this the first day and had a hard time finding chairs (especially if you want one with an umbrella). My husband would go down every morning around 9 and we were fine. The swim up bar is awesome, and there was music and entertainment every afternoon. It could be considered cheesy to some people, but I thought it was fun (example - Mr. Sexy Legs competition, Mr. Belly Flop competition, Pool Bingo, Pool Trivia). The beach is literally 3 steps from the pool, and is very nice. There are 2 person floats in the ocean to relax in, and a good swimming area. The ocean was like bath water!

The food is pretty good for an all inclusive, we ate at all of the restaurants except for the one that is only included for butler level. I am a VERY picky eater, but was able to find stuff to eat everywhere - and during the day they have pizza, crepes, ice cream cones, burgers, nachos etc. right next to the pool. The buffet for lunch was ok- nothing special I thought. The best meal we had, by far was the private candlelight dinner on the beach. A friend booked this for us as a wedding gift - you get to choose your own menu when you get there. This was definitely the best food we had (the waitress said it is a different chef than the rest of the resort) and the most romantic night. You have to pay extra but it is so worth it! One night we went to La Toc for dinner and ate at Kimono's. This was really good, and they give you SO much food! I wish that the shuttles between the resorts ran more often - there is a pretty strict schedule so you really have to plan your time if you want to travel between the resorts. La Toc was nice, but there wasn't much beach area that we could see, and the resort is HUGE. There are small shuttles that run between the main lobby/pool area, and some of the restaurants and rooms that are farther away. I didn't like that, I just thought it was too stretched out.

Finally - we did go on one excursion. This was probably my least favorite part sadly, but I think we just chose poorly. We booked it online before we got there, and by reading the descriptions on the website we just didn't know what we were picking, everything sounded the same to us so we just picked one. If we were going to go again, I would wait until we got there and go up to the desk they have right in the lobby for excursions and talk to the staff. Also, everyone raves about the Benny's excursion that you book with the guys on the beach - I think we would've enjoyed that more. We took a bus to the marina, where we boarded a catamaran for a 2 hour ride to Soufriere. Once there, we took a tour of the botanical garden and diamond waterfall, which was nice. Then, a bus ride to a local restaurant for a buffet lunch followed by a trip to the Sulphur Springs/mud baths in the drive-in volcano. Please be aware: either wear a black bathing suit, or an old bathing suit that you are prepared to throw away after going in the mud bath. I wasn’t aware of this and we both ruined a good bathing suit that day. It was a fun experience, but they really rushed us in and out and we didn’t get to enjoy it as much as we could’ve. Then we got back on the boat, where we were allowed to go snorkeling and swimming off the boat before the 2 hour ride back. We didn’t see anything but water and rocks during snorkeling, and the waves were big since it was in an area where there were a lot of boats, making it difficult to enjoy at times. I wish we had taken advantage of the snorkeling right at the resort but we didn’t realize it was there until too late. I really wish we had done more - maybe one of the excursions that lets you swim in the waterfall, or maybe one of the ones that goes to the banana plantation. At the end of the day, it was still awesome to see more of St. Lucia, it really is a gorgeous island.

I know this was super long, thanks for reading if anyone even makes it all the way to the bottom haha! I will try to see if I can post a few pictures.

xxBrittanyLB · February 2014

moonmellyfish said:

We're shopping St Lucia as well. So far, Sandals is the one to beat. We would be going mid November, and flying out of Miami.

When would you be going? We will be at La Toc November 9- 14.

moonmellyfish · February 2014

Our wedding is Nov 15, so we'll just miss you! I think we've decided on the Grande.

MaryC905 · February 2014

We booked Sandals Halcyon in St. Lucia for August 24-31. Our travel agent said that St. Lucia hasn't had hurricanes in a very long time which put my mind at ease because we are from Louisiana and hurricanes are a big concern around that time. We decided on Halcyon because the travel agent said it was a bit smaller and I guess more intimate for us. It is a little cheaper so we could afford a nicer room. The beach is supposed to beautiful and really calm as opposed to rougher beaches some others posted about. He had nothing bad to say about any of the Sandals Resorts and said you couldn't really go wrong, but he did suggest the Rendevous in St. Lucia to us as well. It was a bit more pricey but seemed very nice from the reviews and website! Really looking forward to being there!!

teetee143xo · March 2014

@MaryC905, we decided to go with Halcyon as well for the same reasons you did. I look forward to being June 23-30

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