A rental car is a requisite for your stay, as the beach is a 10 minute drive, while golf and tennis are approximately 4 minutes away.

Things to Do:

Friday night is the night to go to Gros Inlet and the 'jump up'. There is street food, reggae music, lots of beer and dancing. Gros Inlet is a small village between the house and Rodney Bay that is very representative of the villages on the island. Even if you do not go to the 'jump up' then just go to the village anytime, have a beer or glass of wine, and sit and watch the locals go about their business.

A MUST drive is from Castries to Soufriere. It is a costal drive through rainforests and beautiful scenery. (Without stopping, the drives is about 2+ hours.) Your first stop on the way would be Marigot Bay, where Dr. Doolittle was filmed. It is lovely. You can leave your car at the bottom of the hill and take a little ferry over to the bay and have a beer or tea and take a swim. There is a hotel and restaurant there. Then continue down the main road, where you will see lovely views of the sea, until you come to Soufriere. You can have lunch at the Hummingbird Beach Resort that is at the bottom of the hill coming into Soufriere to the right before you continue into town. You can have a drink and lunch and enjoy the lovely views of the Pitons rising right out of the sea. After lunch you can walk on the beach and wander into town before heading back to Rodney Bay. There are a lot of resorts in this area high in the hills that you may want to visit.

The market in Castries is a must as it is very colorful and there are lots of goods to buy and food to purchase. On Saturdays, there is often live music. Otherwise, Castries is not very attractive and a typical third world city but the hills above with the colorful local houses are very picturesque. There is also duty free shopping at Point Seraphine. You will see a sign, on the right, as you drive into Castries. The cruise ships are in Castries several times a week.

There are several beaches worth going to though nothing like many Caribbean islands. One is the beach at the Sandals Hotel (all beaches in St. Lucia are public) and Reduit Beach at Rodney Bay. Another one is Smuggler's Cove located behind Club St. Lucia at Cap Estate on the Le Sport Road. They are small but nice. If you want to watch the sunset, other than at The Hummingbird House, then go to 'happy hour' at Spinnakers on Reduit Beach. If you choose to go to Sandals at sunset then when you walk on to the beach from the hotel take a right turn and walk as far as you can and you will see a little cafe jutting out on the coast. It is called Jambe de Bois. Come here instead of Sandals, have a glass of wine and enjoy yourselves in this very quaint and funky little joint. It is actually in Pigeon Point National Park.

For sports, there is scuba diving at Rodney Bay and Buddies Scuba is at Vigie Marina. The new 18-hole golf course at Cap Estate is finally finished. You will see signs for it while driving to Hummingbird House. There is tennis at Club St. Lucia. (You can have pedicures, facials and manicures here too.) The tennis courts are fabulous but you must have WHITE soled tennis shoes or they will not let you on to the courts. Ile Nastase used to play here as well as others. If you want to try a spa, Le Sport Spa is the place for you. It is only a 2-3 minute drive from Hummingbird House or a 15 minute walk. Instead of taking the turn off at the second roundabout to go towards the house when coming from Rodney Bay, go straight or more to the left and down and around a road until you come to Le Sport Spa. Otherwise, there are also jeep safaris as well as biking in the jungle and rainforest.

Mamiku Gardens, on the Atlantic side of the island, is another must. There are 12 acres of gardens with lovely, tropical plants and trees indigenous to St. Lucia.

Pigeon Island is nice for a little hike. This area is where the St. Lucia Jazz Festival takes place for two weeks every year during the beginning of May. You can get there by taking the turn off to Sandals Hotel, that is before the entrance to Cap Estate. The island is past the hotel at the end of the road.

Restaurants:

The food in St. Lucia is fair; not great by any means. Nevertheless, there are some restaurants worth visiting but do make reservations as the 'good ones' are few and far between. One favorite is the Coal Pot at Vigie Marina near Vigie Airport on the way to Castries. You must book here. The food is good and the atmosphere nice. Froggie Jacks is near it and is good, too. If you do not want to drive to these restaurants, you could drive to the Reduit Beach area, leave your car and hail a cab to take you to the Vigie Restaurants.

In the Rodney Bay area are Spinnakers and The Lime for a drink, lunch, or dinner. (The Lime has a disco for all of those night owls).

For good pizza try Key Largo. For local cuisine the Lime is fine. Razzmatazz has fairly good Indian food. The Charthouse in Rodney Bay is good for seafood and steaks.

If you want a very good but expensive meal, The Great House at Cap Estate is your place. It has good food and good views. Also, the restaurants at Le Sport are good especially the Japanese restaurant called Tao Restaurant.

There is a very good restaurant at Reduit Beach called Buzz that has great brunches on Sundays. The Italian restaurant, Castaways, is another option.

Personal Information:

We have found that mosquitos come and go as they please. There are times when they do not exist at all and other times when they are in abundance. There are various sprays that we use to spray the mosquito nets over the beds. We do this around 6:00 p.m. when they just start to come out. Also, a friend of ours, who was in Vietnam, recommended "Skin So Soft' by Avon. We put it on ourselves in the early evening and it helps tremendously. There are usually coils and various sprays at the house and if not then the local supermarket has everything. The Skin So Soft has to be brought from abroad. You can order it online.

It is usually nice to leave Greta, our housekeeper, a gratuity.