It's official. The honeymoon is over, and has been over for quite some time - and no not the honeymoon phase...that's never over (well according to my grandfather). But that doesn't mean I can't look back fondly at our time in St. Lucia.
I was thinking about what I would recommend and what I wouldn't from our entire trip (for those of you planning your own honeymoon or vacation to St. Lucia) and well, this is what I came up with. And this is obviously completely personal. Everybody likes different things, right?!
The Good
-The Accommodations - our villa was beautiful (part of the
) and I really had not one complaint about it.
-Private Dinner - this was, by far, the best meal and service we had our entire stay. It was part of our honeymoon package, and I must admit, it was much more than I was expecting. People came early, set up a beautiful table on our luxurious balcony. We had a private chef and server, who were both
extremely
nice. It really was exceptionally romantic and delicious, and after the meals we had been having, we thoroughly enjoyed it. There really is nothing like being waited on while watching the sunset over the ocean with your new husband. Cheesin', I know, but it's true.
-Scuba Diving - the scuba diving was
much
better than I was expecting. We really saw a lot of interesting things (some that I had never seen before), and we didn't have to travel too far by boat to get to the different dive locations. It was also nice because we got to see the beauty of the island (that somehow had been missing before) that everyone always talks about. We passed by one of the scenes filmed for Pirates of the Caribbean, and it really allows you to take in the mystery and beauty of such a place (not to mention it was totally cool seeing that scene after having just been there!). I would say, though, that if you are new to diving and a bit more on the anxious side, that perhaps this isn't the best place to go diving (and by that I mean go diving through the dive shop at the hotel). They are definitely a bit lackadaisical when it comes to safety.
-Zip-lining - this totally gets a 100% definitely do in my book, which is interesting considering 1) smelly equipment and 2) I never actually thought of zip-lining as possibly being that much fun, but it was! We honestly both loved it. It was a totally cool experience and totally worth doing, no matter where you are!
The Bad
-The Food - as much as we
really
wanted an all-inclusive trip, I'm afraid that the food suffers because of it. We were really dreading which restaurants to go to towards the end of the trip -- certainly nothing available that we were dying to eat. Being a vegetarian, most of my meals consisted of shredded lettuce (yes that's a salad), pizza, and french fries. And more french fries.
-The Beach - I was truly disappointed by the beach when we arrived at our hotel that first day. It was so, so tiny. So tiny in fact, that I kept looking around, swearing there had to be more somewhere, but there wasn't. The pictures of the hotel online were definitely a bit deceiving with this aspect. To say you couldn't go for a walk on the beach isn't an exaggeration. It would take a whole 90 seconds.
-The Sunset Sail - now this was part of our honeymoon package, so we didn't exactly pay for it, although we probably actually did in the price of the package, but anyway...this was NOT AT ALL what we were expecting. I was expecting a lovely quiet and romantic sail around parts of the island. I was actually really looking forward to it. It was, however, more like a booze cruise. Seriously. That boat had a dancing king and queen by the end of the sail (who were so excited they won!). Now this is all fine and dandy if this is what you want and yes maybe at some point it is, but not when you are expecting a peaceful, romantic sail. My drink was so strong, I couldn't even drink it, wondering the whole time how I could get rid of it. Ahhh lovely drunk dance competitions. Booze cruise, you weren't for me that night ;)
The Mediocre
-The Hotel - even though our villa itself was beautiful, the general atmosphere of the hotel was a whole lot of EHHHH. There really just wasn't a lot to do (and again some of that was because of the weather). You couldn't really walk anywhere, and when the weather wasn't great, the beach was out of the picture, so there was a lot of wondering what to do next.
-The Service - the service too was a bit ehhh. I mean everyone was nice, and we really didn't deal with any nasty people, but I guess you just expect a bit more at this type of resort. Friendly smiles go a long way if you know what I mean. I was also a bit turned off because as part of our honeymoon package, we had a lot of inclusions, which if we didn't constantly ask about them, we would have never received them.
-Horseback riding - we got enticed into horseback riding (along with our other activities) because of the crappy weather, but also because of being able to go into the ocean with your horse after the ride. Umm - yes please! I was super excited, got my underwater camera housing ready, and I was set. The ride itself was umm...slow? And on a random road - not necessarily your most scenic route. It was okay though, because hello ocean, here we come. Yea..not so much. I mean we definitely could go in the ocean with the horse, but only two horses could go in, and you basically took turns taking your pictures in the ocean on top of the horses (being dragged by one of the guides). I mean it was cool to be able to ride a horse bareback (which I had never done before), but other than that, I wouldn't really recommend it.
So that's it. Goodbye sweet honeymoon.
, I don't think we'll be seeing you again. I'm not even sure if we'll ever be seeing St. Lucia again. Beforehand, we were totally set on going back to where we went on our honeymoon for our one year anniversary, but that's definitely not going to happen. And it's not that we didn't have a great time - we always do - it's just I think there can be a better place and a better time.
Happy Tuesday Folks!
xo, Laura