Is St. Lucia Worth It? Who It's Actually Right For (and Who Should Pick Turks and Caicos)
The drive from Hewanorra airport to the resorts around Soufrière takes about an hour, most of it on a two-lane road winding through the hills. I bring that drive up with every client who tells me they want St. Lucia.
I bring it up because St. Lucia is one of my favorite islands to send people to. It's also the island I talk people out of most often, and both happen for the same reasons. Working out which group you're in is most of what I do on a first call about the Caribbean. It usually takes about ten minutes.
Who is St. Lucia actually right for?
St. Lucia is right for travelers who care more about the view from the room than the length of the beach.
The Pitons are two volcanic peaks rising straight out of the sea on the southwest coast, and they're a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The best properties on the island are built to face them. Each of Jade Mountain's 24 sanctuaries has a private infinity pool and an open fourth wall looking straight out at the view. You wake up and the Pitons are the first thing you see.
Before anyone books a sanctuary, I make sure they know there's no air conditioning, only fans, and a still night gets warm. Mosquitoes come in too, mostly around dusk, since one side of the room opens onto the hillside. Some couples love sleeping that close to the outdoors. Others spend the week wishing for a door.
It also suits people who get restless after two days on a lounger. You can hike Gros Piton with a local guide in the morning and snorkel the reef off Anse Chastanet after lunch. The Sulphur Springs and the rainforest are both a short drive from the southern resorts.
The clients who come back happiest are usually couples. Honeymooners, or a couple marking a 25th anniversary who want a week where nobody needs them.
Who should skip St. Lucia?
Skip it if your picture of the Caribbean is a long, flat, white-sand beach you can walk for an hour.
St. Lucia's beaches are coves. Several are excellent for swimming and snorkeling, but they're short and backed by steep hillside. A lot of the resorts on the southwest coast are built into that hillside too. That means stairs and golf cart shuttles, and walks that aren't easy for anyone with bad knees.
I'd also think twice for a family with young kids, or a multigenerational group with a wide range of mobility. An hour in a van after a morning of flying is a lot to ask of a five-year-old. And the southern resorts are spread out. You don't stroll to a different restaurant every night. You eat at your resort or you book a car.
None of that makes the island wrong. It makes it wrong for certain people, and those people are better off spending the same money in Turks and Caicos.
How long is the transfer from the airport?
Plan on about an hour by car from Hewanorra (UVF) to the resorts around Soufrière.
The helicopter cuts the trip to about six minutes in the air, plus a short drive from the helipad. What most people don't learn until they try to book it is that the shared flight needs at least four passengers before it's confirmed. If you want it guaranteed, you buy four seats each way, and a private transfer means buying six. The helicopters also fly only in daylight, so a late landing goes by road no matter what you paid for.
That's why I settle the transfer before I book the flights. It can change which flight you should take.
When is Turks and Caicos the better choice?
Turks and Caicos is the better choice when the beach is the point of the trip.
Grace Bay on Providenciales is the beach most people picture when they say "Caribbean." The sand is flat and pale and the water is calm, and many of the island's best resorts sit right on it. The airport is about 15 minutes away. You can land, check in and be in the water before you'd have cleared the hills in St. Lucia.
It's easier with kids, too. The restaurants along Grace Bay are close together, the water is gentle, and almost nothing on the island involves a hill. For a three-generation trip, that matters more than anything on a property fact sheet.
What you give up is scenery and variety. Providenciales is flat. There's no mountain to climb and no rainforest to drive into, and after a week some of my more active clients tell me they've run out of things to do.
How do the two islands compare?
St. Lucia | Turks and Caicos (Providenciales) | |
Airport to resort | About 60 minutes by car to Soufrière, or a 6-minute helicopter | About 15 minutes to Grace Bay |
Beaches | Short coves below steep hills | Long, flat white-sand beach |
Terrain | Mountainous, with many hillside resorts | Flat and walkable |
Best for | Couples and active travelers | Families and multigenerational groups |
Evenings | Mostly at your resort, or by car | Many restaurants close together on Grace Bay |
Where should you stay in St. Lucia?
It depends on whether you want the view or the beach, because most St. Lucia resorts make you pick one.
Jade Mountain is the one for the open-wall sanctuaries and the Piton view. Its sister resort, Anse Chastanet, sits below it on the beach and the reef.
Sugar Beach, A Viceroy Resort sits on the beach in the valley between the two Pitons, which is the closest you'll get to having both.
Ladera sits on a volcanic ridge between the two Pitons and is adults only. Every suite has an open wall and a heated private plunge pool, with a shuttle down to the beach. For a client who wants that view but won't give up air conditioning, La Petite Fleur comes with a closed fourth wall.
Not sure which island fits?
Tell me what a perfect day on this trip looks like, and I can usually tell you which island it is before we talk about a single property.
Alex Ziselman is the owner of A2Z Travel Design, an affiliate of Gifted Travel Network, a Virtuoso member agency.
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