Overview to St Lucia: Travel Guide and Tourist Information
With its idyllic Caribbean setting, St Lucia has long been the playground of the jet set. But it’s not all plush villas, luxury yachts and swanky restaurants; it’s also an unpretentious place of tropical rainforests, unspoilt beaches, blue waters and a great international music festival.
A tiny volcanic island, St Lucia is noted for its natural beauty: green swathes of rainforest (particularly to the center and the south) are home to countless rare tropical plants and wildlife, meaning ecotourism tours and schemes have begun to take off in recent years.
Other rare natural treasures include the Qualibou Volcano, which belches out sulfur and steam. The Malgretout Waterfall (a little to the south of Soufriere), meanwhile, is a tumbling spring of water that falls onto the beach.
Offshore, the island is surrounded by some truly astonishing diving sites. Anse Chastanet, Anse La Raye and the famous Key Hole Pinnacles are all brimming with colorful fish and coral.
Beautiful beaches are everywhere (although the warm western side is generally preferred). As a result of the strong tradewinds that lick its coastline, there’s some great windsurfing and kite surfing, too.
Despite being the port of call for the many cruise ships that visit the island, the capital, Castries, is mostly a pleasantly sleepy place. But not during the month of May, when the St Lucia Jazz Festival – which is steadily gaining an international reputation – erupts into life.
Gorgeous sun-kissed beaches, marvelous diving, friendly people, an embarrassment of natural riches, music… It’s not hard to see why St Lucia has for so long been the playground of the rich and famous: it’s one of the definitive Caribbean paradise islands.
