Guest Post: Vacationing in St. Lucia

First things first, I am so excited to be guest blogging for Tracy! Usually you can find me blogging over as Jax at The Roaring Twenties from Tulsa, OK.  :) I've been following Tracy since before she got married to TL, which is crazy to think about! :) Anyhoo, I consider her one of my best blogging friends and am thrilled to be guest blogging...

Tracy asked me to blog about my favorite vacation spot and I am going to have to work hard to keep this blog concise b/c I could go on and on about this place and how much I loved it- St. Lucia!


My boyfriend, Eric, and I went to Maui last fall and while it was definitely an extremely close call, I think I'm going to go with St. Lucia if I can only pick one...

Eric and I traveled to St. Lucia in the summer of 2009 and actually stayed three places during our trip. I know that sounds kinda bizarre, but we were conflicted between two hotels, so we opted to just stay in both! And then, we found one in another area of the island and thought "why not just stay in every part of the island?!" :)

On Jalousie Beach in St. Lucia 2009 :)

So, why was St. Lucia my favorite? The culture is absolutely outstanding. They understand tourism is their main export and are so happy to have people visit! The school children wave, locals are kind, taxi drivers are the best tour guides, and crime is practically nonexistent. The island is an absolutely unspoiled beauty that maintains its culture, but has an appropriate (but not overwhelming) amount of hotels/resorts, restaurants, and things to do. I dunno about you, but I HAVE to have things to do. Sitting on a beach is awesome for a couple days, but I love exploring on vacations, too!

Waterfalls, lush pitons, picturesque beaches, a fabulous local fish-fry-turned-dance-party in the streets, an infamous bay, banana plantations, and the most amazing sunset you'll ever see... all within reach in St. Lucia!

little fishing village in St. Lucia 

I'm starting to write a novel and I haven't even told you where we stayed. We started at Coco Palm in Rodney Bay, then moved to Discovery at Marigot Bay, and finished our trip at the newly restored Jalousie Plantation. I'll link my blog posts below, but as a snippet, Discovery at Marigot Bay and Jalousie were our favorites, but we definitely loved all three... While the beach was a little smaller at Marigot, we didn't mind. The hotel was absolutely outstanding. The service was top notch, the views from our balcony were breathtaking; the small yachts and sailboats lining the dock were gorgeous. We met some amazing people traveling the world by boat-even a couple from Oklahoma! :) Oh and the local rum they greeted us with upon check-in was pretty amazing too... Just sayin... ;)

Sitting on our balcony at Discovery at Marigot Bay 

....and this was our view while we sipped our local rum on our balcony :)

We ended up staying in one of Jalousie's newly-remodeled villas. It was the quintessential modern beach villa-indoor shower, outdoor shower, romantic clawfoot tub, white linens, gorgeous deck overlooking the ocean from the mountain...oh and an awesome private plunge pool. :) We lucked into the villa and I am SO glad we did. And the beach was probably the most beautiful place I've ever seen-nestled in between the two lush green pitons...

We were really excited about the villa...haha.. (Yes, we act like this regularly. It is what it is)

Eric soaking in our villa's plunge pool

Like I said, this year, Eric and I went to Maui, which is one of the most beautiful places I have EVER been and I want to go back so badly. But, it would be a lie to say we didn't pick Maui based on the good things we found in St. Lucia-the terrain, the beaches, and the natural beauty. So, really... Maui was amazing but we may have never gone had we not first fell in love with St. Lucia. :) 

Sunset at Ladera's restaurant (hotel up in the mountains above Jalousie beach)

Okay, to stop my rambling, here's a link to my post with my St. Lucia trip posts all linked to it. :) Feel free to email me if you have any questions about St. Lucia! :) As an aside, posting all these photos made me want a tan...badly....haha.. :) Thanks for reading, friends!