Saint Lucia was a beautiful tropical island with plenty to offer for all types of tourists. It was the definition of paradise. We stayed in Saint Lucia for 7 nights and had a truly incredible experience.
Hotel
During our stay we stayed at the St Lucian by Rex Resort on an all inclusive board in a sea view room. The hotel is located in Rodney Bay with its own landscaped gardens on Reduit Beach – currently known the island’s best beach with its fine light sands and picturesque views. The hotel has two restaurants, Mariners Restaurant is used throughout the day for buffet style breakfast, lunch and dinner overlooking Reduit beach. Whilst the Oriental Restaurant is more exquisite and only open for dinner. You had to pay for this restaurant, even on an all inclusive board. There is also a cocktail lounge and piano bar where the live entertainment takes place. The food was out of this world, with a different theme every night – from a BBQ to an English Sunday roast to local Caribbean cuisine. There is a dress code to adhere for evening meals – smart/casual. Shorts are prohibited.
The staff that worked here made our stay unforgettable. They were a great team delivering amazing customer service. They made us feel so welcome, and were always there on hand if you needed them for anything. Everyone was so friendly, making sure our stay was perfect from start to finish. We spoke to a few other guests and found out that most of them were frequent visitors to this resort due to the staff. If you read the reviews on Tripadvisor, most of them are solely about the service the staff provide and how they make the experience so special.
The location of the resort was perfect, as mentioned previously it is situated on Reduit Beach. The picturesque views were phenomenal with Pigeon Island in the distant background. A few minutes drive away is the famous Marigot Bay that has been frequently used as a filming site, as well as being home to the original Black Pearl from The Pirates of the Caribbean. Gros Islet is also a few minutes away by car, this is where the weekly street festival is held every Friday.
The resort itself was large and spacious, with plenty to offer. There was a small swimming pool accompanied by a jacuzzi, mostly used by families. The hotel has its own gardens with various beautiful plants and flowers with a pathway leading to it’s sister hotel, Pavillion by Rex Resorts. Guests are welcome in this hotel, but for a fee.
Excursions
We were appointed a holiday rep that helped us book all of our excursions for the duration of our stay. Although we were only in St Lucia for 7 days, we booked 3 excursions spread out evenly over the week. We booked to go zip lining in the rainforest, an excursion to Soufriere via jeep and boat and horseriding on the beach. We also spent the day at Pigeon Island, but we navigated the national park on our own rather than with a guide. Which was a contrast to the other excursions. All were amazing, once in a lifetime experiences. If you want to read more, click on the hyperlinks above.
Locals
Everyone, and I mean everyone is so friendly in St Lucia. From cleaners to tour guides and even tourists!! (As you know, tourists aren’t usually too friendly with other tourists. But in St Lucia it was like the polar opposite. I suppose the general way of life out there rubs off on you). Everyone wants to make sure that you are having a great time in their country, they go out of their way to ensure you are happy and having the best possible experience. Even the vendors on the beach, would sit and have a chat with you or simply leave you alone if you don’t want to buy their goods. In other countries we’ve been to vendors are really pushy and don’t leave us alone.
– One day whilst I was getting my hair braided, Elle was waiting outside on the beach and one of the vendors was sat talking with her for over an hour. He made her a dolphin necklace made out of a piece of wood right in front of her, and gave it to her for free!!
St Lucia is a natural paradise filled with once in a life time opportunities and unforgettable people. We plan to visit St Lucia again at some point in the future, and we wish to stay at the same resort, and find new excursions for new experiences in this wonderful country.
Thank you St Lucia, you were amazing, until the next time…
Elbitravels x
On Wednesday Elle and I embarked on a full day excursion to Soufriere which is situated in the west side of the island. We began the tour bright and early in the morning, with an 8am start. We were picked up from our hotel in an open topped safari Jeep and began travelling down the coastline en route to Soufriere. Along the way our tour guide, Randy, blessed us with his knowledge and incredible facts about the island and its landscapes. After around 40 minutes, we came to our first pit stop. Fresh fruit tasting. Which had been picked the very same day, the fruit was so ripe and juicy. Definitely the best way to eat it! Back to the Jeep, we kept travelling south when we reached a small fishing village. Here, 
we stopped for freshly caught fish tasting. Elle and I aren’t the biggest fans of fish, but we did give it a go. We were pleasantly surprised with the flavours. It was the first time Elle had tried red snapper!
waterfalls. But, not only did we get to take photographs, we were able to swim in the pool whilst Randy took photographs for us. The water was ice cold, the floor was filled with uncomfortable stones and the pressure of the waterfall hitting your back was so strong. An experience we will never forget.
waterfall stand out is that its waters are laced with minerals as its stream emanated from rainwater mixed with volcanism giving the falls a rather colorful appearance that seems to change often. The waterfall is 17 metres high, and is constantly changing colour due to the intake of minerals varying at different times of the year. You used to be able to swim in the pool, but due to the most recent hurricane it has become a health and safety hazard and you’re only allowed to take pictures.
Back to the jeep, it was only a short drive to our next stop. The Caribbean’s only drive-in
you’re out, it’s amazing what this natural remedy does to your skin. Once your dried off and fully clothed, we headed up to the volcano, and I must say, the smell was absolutely horrendous. Smelt like 300 year old rotten eggs! However, we found out that if the smell disappeared and you no longer saw the smoke, then there would be mass panic, as this means the active volcano is building up pressure which would lead to an explosion.
Leaving behind our new experience, we headed onto our next destination… The Catamaran! We were absolutely in awe throughout the final part of our excursion. Setting off right underneath the Pitons we managed to get some beautiful views! Leaving the port we headed off into the open sea. Making a brief stop to allow some snorkeling, we dived in and what amazing sea life! Being in open water, we were able to see schools’ of many different fishes, Abi also catching sight of a sea snake, which I am very jealous of as I’d swam off following some multicoloured fish! Gutted!
movies, including the original Dr Doolittle film! Doing a 360 turn, we began our journey back into the Marina port where we ended
We were picked up from our hotel at 8.25am, after a short scenic drive we arrived at the rainforest around 9am… Upon arrival, we were welcomed by Trisha and Jeffory who were our guides for the adventure. We also met Tara and Ian, another couple who were on their honeymoon and looking to do something rather eccentric so this excursion was ideal! 
Elle and Tara fly down, the nerves were flowing through me, being afraid of heights was something that I’d have to overcome… However, once being linked up to the wire and taking an imaginary seat, off I flew down the line. Simply wonderful. Yes, I did look down but it was only to my own surprise, due to being within the trees, it actually didn’t look too far down, despite being over 300ft in the air. We took around 7 or 8 zip-lines winding through the forest, learning about the different plantation, trees and wildlife along the way.
other short hike in front of one of the tallest trees there, a gigantic chestnut tree. No photo nor video could capture the heights which we were at and finally landing on our feet still didn’t feel as if we were quite on the ground floor! Taking the gondola back down to sea level, we experienced some views which were out of this world. Although the sky wasn’t clear enough, from the top you can see the neighbouring island Martinique on a clear day. Despite this, we still managed to see the Atlantic ocean from our height and with a 40x optical zoom camera Abi also managed to get some footage which was invisible to the naked eye! Throughout our zip-lining experience Abi also managed to get some excellent GoPro action videos from up in the air, credit to Jeffory for being able to provide the correct clip-on attachment to the safety hat, otherwise we’d have had to of said goodbye to the GoPro for our first adventure!
Arriving back on flat terrain we quickly found our feet again after settling with a passion-fruit punch and browsing the gift shop. We were picked up shortly after and arrived back at our hotel. We grabbed a quick lunch which consisted of vegetable pizza, cheese toasties and rice (the combinations which all-inclusive allows!) Shortly after we grabbed our snorkels and headed down to the beach to top up our tan and had a dip in the sea. This was the first time we actually managed to snorkel properly.
elbitravels.wordpress.com 