Travel Journal: A Day In St. Lucia

If you were to describe a Caribbean island, you would probably say that it would consist of vibrant turquoise water and golden sand with luscious native plants and palms. That would certainly describe the beautiful St Lucia, but add mountains, a drive-in volcano and a waterfall surrounded by botanical gardens; St. Lucia has it all.

My husband and I were celebrating our anniversary on the Carnival Liberty cruise, and were excited about a new itinerary packed full of excursions at four different ports of call. We had been on several cruises to the Caribbean, but this itinerary sounded the most interesting and exotic out of them all. When we first arrived in St. Lucia on our cruise ship, I ran out to my balcony to get my first glimpse of the island. What first captured my eyes was the turquoise Caribbean sea. The island was so lush and full of plant life. You could see boats lined up along the coast and gorgeous beach houses all across the skyline. I was already in love, and I hadn’t even gotten off the ship.

We had booked tickets for excursions through the cruise line for most of our other ports of call, but we decided we’d wait and see what they had to offer at port in St. Lucia to get a better deal than what the ship was offering. We made our way down to the port near the shops and looked for a tour guide. There were several guides that tried to sell us tickets for boat rides to different places on the island, but the cons had outweighed the pros (an hour ride on an open boat with no shade didn’t sound like the best idea), and we were starting to wonder what we would end up doing. Finally, we came across a guide that told us about a tour that would take us to multiple attractions including Soufriere, which is the most popular city in St. Lucia. It was a significantly lower price than what the cruise ship offered. It was just what we were looking for, so we paid for our tickets and waited to leave on our boat.

Boat Tour

About 30 minutes later, we made our way to our two-level boat. I was anxious to sit at the top for a better view, so I rushed up to claim my seat. I knew it would make it so much easier to get good pictures and we’d have the best view. Our seats were situated in front of the captain, overlooking the view in front of us and the people that sat below. As we started to make our way into the Caribbean Sea, our captain told us that it would be an hour long boat ride. At first I wasn’t thrilled, but before long the beauty of the island captured my attention. To get to Soufriere, we would go along the coastline and have an opportunity to see what St. Lucia looked like away from the crowded tourist areas and shopping malls. As our captain began to tell us about the island and we realized we really did have the best seat on the boat. We got to ask him questions, which made it more interactive than a regular tour. He was happy to tell us about St. Lucia and had a very genuine demeanor. You could tell that he really enjoyed getting to tell people everything they wanted to know about the island.

As we continued our journey to Soufriere on the Caribbean Sea, I was so amazed at the beauty of St. Lucia. We saw multi-colored houses in little towns that looked like a painting I had seen before. I was thrilled to see a Sandals resort positioned in the mountains overlooking the sea. Before long, I started to notice unique shaped mountains in the distance ahead. I squinted my eyes to try to get a better view and pulled at my husband’s arm exclaiming that it had to be the Pitons. Slowly, but surely the Pitons came into view and our boat was almost right in front of them. At that point I’m pretty sure my jaw dropped, they were glorious. With the tallest peak of Gros Piton at 2,530 feet and Petit Piton at 2,438 feet, they were massive.

Soufriere

A large sign welcomed us with “Welcome to Soufriere” in front of us as our boat arrived at the dock. We boarded our taxi for a short ride to Diamond Falls Botanical Garden. Our guide told us that we would have 15 minutes to see a waterfall before heading to our next stop. Once we arrived, we made our way up a few stairs and entered an oasis of beautiful botanical gardens amidst the busy city of Soufriere. Up ahead, I could see Diamond Falls, the beautiful waterfall that the botanical garden was known for. Some of the people on our tour went for a swim in the waterfall, but we chose to take pictures instead.

Sulfur Springs

We boarded our taxi once again to travel to our last stop, Sulfur Springs, the world’s only drive-through volcano. We had no idea what to expect as we approached the valley of the rocky volcano. The mountains surrounding us looked normal, but on some sides you could see dark ash covering them. Once we arrived we went on a short hike with our group along a nature trail surrounded by lush native plants and we climbed a few stairs to where our tour guide showed us local fruit trees.

We went a little further up the incline path to a pavilion like structure where our guide stopped to show us the boiling springs of the volcano. We looked down in the valley of the mountains where there was a bare portion with several pools of boiling springs. The temperature was so hot that you could see the water jumping from the springs. Our guide told us that for our safety, they only allow us to view the springs from a platform overlooking them. She was very knowledgeable and explained to our group all the details about Sulfur Springs volcano and the surrounding area over the next 20 minutes. It was very interesting, and we enjoyed the views of the boiling springs below during our tour. Later on we headed back to our bus, traffic was heavy and it took a little while to get back to the dock, but we enjoyed the sights of the city along the way.

We left feeling very informed and amazed at everything we got to experience. This excursion exceeded our expectations by far. St. Lucia is an incredible island, and we will definitely be back to explore it again.