Making St. Lucia a Caribbean Hot Spot

Can a slew of ultra-luxe hotels, more weekly direct flights, and government incentives “make” a high-end destination? On St. Lucia, ambitious investors are banking on it.

By Guy Saddy, Travel+Leisure

As we wander a densely thicketed path, sheltered from the sun by rows of bamboo with trunks as stout as baseball bats, one thought recurs: St. Lucia smells. It reeks, actually, like a carton of rotten eggs. This isn’t exactly unexpected, though, considering that our destination today is, well, a noxious pit. We cross a footbridge spanning a small stream and make our way up a hill until we reach a point directly overlooking a virtual moonscape. Qualibou, billed as the “world’s only drive-in volcano,” is an awesome sight. Steam rises from craters; pools of black liquid like vats of squid ink roil. Once, you could walk across the caldera, but not any longer. About 20 years ago, we’re told, a guide decided to demonstrate the integrity of the ground by jumping up and down on it. He fell through a hole of his own making, and when he was pulled out-alive, amazingly-he was horribly burned. “Some people,” says our guide, gesturing at the hissing earth, “believe there is a god sleeping in there.” Presumably, one who doesn’t suffer fools. Continue Reading

Taking Luxe to the Next Level on St. Lucia

cap-maison

A private rooftop pool at Cap Maison, at the north end of St. Lucia.

RETURNING to Cap Maison after dinner out one night, we stop by the front of the restaurant and ask whether there might be just one of those chocolate chip shortbreads that had greeted us, warm, when my husband and I arrived in our room a couple of days earlier. “Of course,” the waiter says, smiling, and waving us to the bar, where the bartender pours us glasses of wine while we listen to the waves crashing on the rocks 50 feet below us. Continue Reading

10 Caribbean islands with direct flights

:: The Sunday Times online ::

Whether you’re after family fun, a deserted sandy beach, a sunset or another glass of rum punch

Vincent Crump

Vincent Crump

The Caribbean should be like apple pie and custard - warm, just slightly spicy and utterly undemanding.

Ideally, holidays there involve nothing more strenuous than flying and flopping - and an easy flight, at that. You want to swap grey skies for blue seas in half a day, thanks. You don’t want to spend 18 hours clambering from jumbo jet to seaplane to motorboat to taxi, finally arriving at some tropical hideaway only to find that it’s still a 10-minute trudge from the beach. Continue Reading

A blissful break in the new St Lucia

:: From The Times Online ::

A blissful all-inclusive break in the new St Lucia

Jacqui MacDermott revisits the Caribbean island on an all-inclusive break and finds it almost as she left it 12 years ago

Mention St Lucia and, after the soft white beaches and bath-warm Caribbean, most visitors will name the Pitons, the two lushly forested peaks that are the island’s most famous landmark.

Lounging on a catamaran during a recent trip, 12 years since I last visited, I was happy to admire them again - still beautiful, still guarding the quaint jumble of brightly painted wooden buildings that make up the pretty town of Soufriere. Much has stayed the same on St Lucia. There is the signature laid-back friendliness, the sea is still as clear as glass, and fruit-sellers and rum shops dot the roadsides as they always have. Continue Reading

Prosperity - as storms ravage world housing

The credit crunch has put paid to property booms around the globe, right? No, not quite. While the US, UK and European property markets are in price freefall, the Caribbean, and in particular the holiday island of St Lucia, seems to be holding its own - for the time being at least.

“Property prices have remained robust throughout the financial crisis,” says Allen Chastanet, St Lucia’s minister for tourism. “The key is we didn’t have a boom to begin with, so building levels were at sustainable levels. Therefore, we’re not having a bust.

“The only price softening that has taken place has been reflective of the pound weakening against the dollar,” he adds, with reference to the fact that St Lucian property is priced in dollars. “Sellers have been willing to bend prices a bit for British buyers to reflect this currency shift.” Continue Reading