Our Norwegian Cruise Line Southern Caribbean Cruise from San Juan was a time to relax and chill out, we had a lot going on and wanted time with our friends Mike and Fran.
As we had been to a number of the islands, we chose to do a beach break and chill in Barbados, and for most of the ports, we would explore the port and chill.
The only excursion we booked was an independent tour in St Lucia, based on some message boards and online reviews on Trip Advisor.
Chuck found Cosol Tours who offered a full day tour that explored the island, the people, and the food. It looked pretty amazing and was reasonably priced.
From the beginning, they communicated well, shared all the details of the day, as well as pricing and meeting time and location. The cost was $75.00 per person, payable in US dollars at the end of the tour.
We met their Cosol Tours team right outside of the customs office, they split us up into small groups paired off with drivers. Somehow we lucked out, and our vehicle was just the four of us and our driver Adrian.
Adrian was pleasant and shared stories of the island, its history, and its people as we made our way across the island.
We stopped along the way at a banana plantation, saw several fishing villages, Marigot Bay where Doctor Doolittle was filmed. We saw the pitons and stopped to try some island treats.
They offered us local fish cakes, Johnny cakes, coconut cakes, and a variety of local fruits from the Island as well as having plenty of water, soft drinks, local beer, and local spiced rum.
We took a water taxi to Sugar Beach, which is located between the pitons for swimming and snorkeling. The rain on the ride over and part of the time we were on the beach made this the least enjoyable part of the day. In general, the location on the beach was pretty underwhelming.
We continued on to the only drive in volcano in the world and we were able to scrub ourselves in the warm volcanic sulphur baths. Surprisingly the water didn’t smell as strong as we expected. Our guide was great about making sure our things were safe and that we got some photos.
We rinsed off in the warm volcanic waters and made our way over to Toraille Waterfall where we washed off under the cascading water. The crowds were starting to stack up and it felt like we were a little rushed here.
We headed back to the venue where we tried local treats and they had AMAZING warm, fresh loaves of a dense local bread for each of us, they were spit and filled with a sharp cheese. I’m a bread and cheese junky so this made my day!
The tour shared a lot about this beautiful island, we met a lot of wonderful people and experiences a peek at their lives. It was well worth the cost.
This looks like such a relaxing and fun excursion. I’m glad the sulphur wasn’t too bad. We did a similar swim in the volcanic crater in Santorini and my bathing suit got stained. It was still super fun to do though and it looks like you guys had a blast!
It was a great trip with only one day on the island, we packed in a lot. Our guide made sure our suits got well rinsed or we would have had the same issues.
This sounds like an amazing day at port! Love finding tours that truly allow you to explore and experience part of the local culture. Especially on all of these island nations. I haven’t been to St. Lucia yet, but it is definitely on my list! 🙂
It was a really fun day. Being on a cruise ship we would not have seen most of these things on our own with just one day.
Looks like an interesting and fun filled day! Sulpher baths sounds really exotic! Would love to visit the place someday!
The sulfur baths were definitely different!
I LOVE St. Lucia. Its my favorite island and where I met my now ex-husband. He lived there. It is the only place that I will drink beer…piton beer is the best!
It was pretty, just wish we had time for a few more Pitons!
Looks like you made the right choice for your day tour of St Lucia with Cosol Tours. I like that they kept the groups really small and gave you a chance to try the local foods (the fish cakes and coconut cakes sound amazing by the way)! Taking a dip on volcanic waters and visiting a waterfall sound like a great way to spend a day!
We were pretty impressed- our guide was great, and they broke a much larger group up into smaller groups and multiple vehicles.
Such a perfect trip. I would love to visit St Lucia; it offers incredible scenery! I had no idea that Doctor Doolittle was filmed there!
The scenery was spectacular and we learned a lot. it was the perfect way to see the island with the one day we had available.
Oh I’m with you on the bread and cheese! Simple and tasty! The sulphuric baths look fun, but probably smell bad – were they super sulfer-y?
Mark is a HUGE bread and cheese junky, and it was terrific. Ya, the sulfur was pretty strong, we washed it off in a freezing cold waterfall. Overall, a really great experience.
Oh this looks like a truly wonderful tour in St. Lucia! I would really love to drive through that volcano and take the scrub bath. That would be a truly unique experience and I didn’t realize it’s the only one in the world! Very cool!
The sulfur bath was really different than anything we had done… the plunge in the waterfall afterward was FREEZING!
My sister visited on her honeymoon and raved about it. I hope to pay a visit to St. Lucia one day too – loved your post.
We wished we had more than just one day. We had a great time!