The Eco-Destination

St. Lucia’s natural beauty is legendary and the island has much to keep an eco traveler happy! St. Lucia Heritage Tours offer a wealth of information on all the activities on offer and allows you to quickly get a feel for things…

From rainforest canopy tours and gondola rides, to hiking trails, horse riding tours, jungle biking, birdwatching, dolphin & whale watching, Catamaran cruises, day trips to The Grenadines, jeep tours, and scuba diving & snorkeling, there’s plenty to do!

St. Lucia’s most magnificent natural features are Gros Piton and Petit Piton towering 2618 feet and 2438 feet respectively straight out of the sea. They are nail-bitingly steep, whether looking down from above or seemingly straight up from below. St. Lucia’s scenery is simply majestic.

The magnificent Pitons, with the town of
Soufrière in the foreground

Marigot Bay
Down at Sea Level St. Lucia is fortunate to possesses beautiful white sand beaches – many of the island’s volcanic neighbours do not. It also has some excellent natural harbours, the most famous of which is at Marigot Bay. Portions of the film Doctor Doolittle were filmed here – the bay is idyllic and one of the best natural harbours in the whole of the Caribbean. Well worth a visit, by boat or by car.
In St. Lucia’s rainforests lie many species of birds, insects, and to a lesser extent, reptiles and mammals. Some species are endemic to St. Lucia like the St. Lucia Parrot and the rare St. Lucia Whiptail lizard, found only on the Maria Islands Nature Reserve. The St. Lucia Parrot is an endangered species but thanks to work by the St. Lucia Parrot Project since 1992 the birds have made a gradual comeback and a great deal has been learned about the parrots’ breeding and feeding habits as well as their distribution throughout the island.

The St. Lucia Parrot
(painted by Christopher Cox).

The St. Lucia Whiptail
(painted by Christopher Cox).
Visitors to St. Lucia will be rewarded with hiking along rainforest trails, birdwatching, bathing in its freshwater streams and pools and even whale & dolphin watching. The St. Lucia National Trust over the years has been responsible for developing, managing and protecting St. Lucia’s premier natural and historic sites and offers organised tours to many of its Nature Reserves.

St.Lucia Jazz Festival

The St. Lucia Jazz Festival is now in its 12th year and has become an important event on the Caribbean musical calendar. Visitors from Europe, North America and the rest of the Caribbean make their way to St. Lucia to what has now become a week-long event. Many famous Jazz artists from around the globe have performed at the festival and BET (Black Entertainment Television) Jazz’s televised recordings have attracted wider attention across the hemisphere. The venues make the festival particularly special. One of the best venues is on the small peninsula of Pigeon Island National Landmark where the audience is seated on the lawns surrounding the stages. The atmosphere, with the backdrop of the Caribbean Sea and its warm orange sunsets, is hard to top.

Similarly, the intimate and truly beautiful setting of the Great House Theatre brings audiences closer in many ways to the artists than many, more modern but sterile venues ever could. The festival always kicks off with a warm up jam at a casual local venue, where the atmosphere is always informal and jovial. There are numerous other venues, mainly at hotels around the island, and they add pleasing changes of scenery to the performances.

All in all, the St. Lucia Jazz festival is always inspiring – whether it be talk about the finest performances, the venues, the personalities, the musical debates or just the plain silent admiration for the many stellar performances and it is often argued that the festival alone is reason enough for visiting St. Lucia.

Check the St. Lucia Jazz Festival website for details.

The Atlantic Rally For Cruisers

St. Lucia – The Atlantic Rally For Cruisers (ARC)
Sailing to St. Lucia is an unforgettable experience… the Arawaks could have told you 2000 years ago or, more recently, the Atlantic Rally for Cruisers (or ARC). Catamaran cruises and day trips to Martinique or The Grenadines nearby await you too and underline that to come all the way to St. Lucia and not get out on a boat at some point is daft, what with the scenery and all. St. Lucia has beautiful, picturesque and well-serviced marinas that attract boats from both sides of the Atlantic. The most notable wave of arrivals occurs annually in the form of the Atlantic Rally for Cruisers (or ARC), which takes place in December each year and involves some 150-170 boats making the 2,700 mile journey across the Atlantic form Gran Canaria, Las Palmas in the Canary Islands to Rodney Bay Marina in St. Lucia.
The boats leave Gran Canaria in the 3rd week of November and usually start arriving at Rodney Bay around the end of the first week of December. A hearty welcome and a whole host of specially arranged activities await them. It is the largest ocean-crossing event in the world and one cannot help but imagine how each crew must feel when they finally sight land – not unlike their European predecessors some 500 years earlier, one feels. Visit the ARC’s website for details.
As Admiral George Rodney could have told you back in 1780, Rodney Bay in St. Lucia is simply magnificent if you want to tie up your boat. Or launch attacks on unsuspecting French warships. Things are more peaceful now, though no less filled with activity. Rodney Bay Marina is one of the best full-service marinas in the Antilles with drydock services, same-day laundry, ice and refilling of propane gas plus a host of other amenities & services including ferry services, bars, restaurants, shops and a business centre. The Marina also has well-established links with marine specialists and guarantees the most competitive rates. You can even reserve a slip for your boat on their website…