This year, we decided relaxation was key for our summer vacation. Don’t get me wrong, we love a bucket list trip with a jammed-packed itinerary as much as the next person, but with busy work/school schedules, we felt like this was the perfect year to try out our first all-inclusive resort experience. Let me be the first to tell you, it did not disappoint. In this post, I will cover details related to St. Lucia and the Sandals Halcyon Beach Resort, as well as touch on a few features of the other two St. Lucia Sandals resorts.
Sandals Halcyon Beach Resort
Let's talk about the food.
Bayside: This is the buffet for daily breakfast and lunch with a rotating daily menu. Overall, pretty decent with lots of options! For dinner, it transforms into a French-style "Brasserie" that honestly did not impress us. If you choose to skip a place for dinner, this would be the one.
Soy: An unlimited sushi bar and a MUST-try if you like any form of sushi. It tasted so fresh and flavorful! And the dessert sushi was a pleasant surprise.
Kimonos: This Teppanyaki-style eatery cooked us up a fabulous meal right in front of our eyes. We had veggies, fried rice, shrimp, chicken, steak, mahi mahi, you name it! We were stuffed. This is a dining option at this resort that requires a reservation.
Kelly's Dockside: An over-the-ocean restaurant that serves seafood fused with classic Creole cooking. It is open for breakfast (no reservation required) and dinner (reservation required). The breakfast here is SO good. We ate here multiple times, and our favorite dishes (which we ordered each time) include the House Granola & Yogurt, Chia & Mango Parfait, Lemon Ricotta Pancakes, and Caramelized Coconut French Toast. For dinner, we all thoroughly enjoyed the Seafood Brochette and Mixed Grill. The Fried Crab Cake was also so flavorful. I highly recommend this restaurant for both breakfast and dinner! It was one of our favorite meals of the whole trip.
Isola: Pizza truck serving up personal pan pizzas daily for lunch. We enjoyed the jerk chicken and vesuvio salami ones the most!
Mario's: Italian eatery with an antipasti buffet to die for. Our main courses here were also good, maybe not quite our favorite of the trip, but the antipasti bar alone was enough to fill me up.
The Beach Bistro: While the views from this restaurant are stunning, the food wasn't our favorite, and the service was very slow. It is, however, the late-night dining option open until 2 am, so it hits the spot when the quesadilla craving hits.
Accommodations.
There are many room styles/layouts at Sandals Halcyon. The best part of this resort is that, because of the style of rooms and layout of the resort, it has a very "boutique" feel. Most rooms come with some form of "water feature," whether that is an individual soaking tub, private pool, or poolside location to the Crystal Lagoon. Since we were traveling with a group, we each had a different type of room and were located in different sections of the resort. Because this resort itself is not too large, it was not an issue to not be roomed right next to the rest of our party.
My husband and I stayed in a Beachfront Club Level Room with a Patio Tranquility Soaking Tub. The room itself was spacious and elegant, and we loved having our own private (essentially) hot tub right on our porch to enjoy in the evenings. The patio has curtains that can be drawn for added privacy. It was also so nice to be steps from the beach because we did not feel like we had to carry all our belongings with us; if we needed something, we were a quick walk to our room.
My parents stayed in a Club Level Crystal Lagoon Walkout Swim-up Room. This area features rooms right next to the Crystal Lagoon pool, which has famously become known as the "longest" pool in the Caribbean. This area feels like an entirely different resort as it is located off the beachfront and tucked away by itself. Because of this, it feels very private and less busy than the main pool area, making it an ideal place to relax and unwind. The rooms also feature a private porch with sofa loungers.
Other room styles available include a Honeymoon Butler Room with a private pool sanctuary, Shore House Butler suite with either a soaking tub or private pool, and Koko Rondoval Butler Villa with a private pool.
Overall, we loved both styles of rooms for different reasons, and depending on what type of vibe you are looking for, this resort definitely has a room style/location for everyone. The rooms themselves felt clean, modern, and spacious. We loved that this resort does not feature the typical "hotel" style building with multiple stories and rooms stacked on top of each other. This made it feel more exclusive, luxurious, and intimate. We also had a mini bar in our room always stocked with various soft drinks, water, wine, and beer.
Amenities.
I cannot express how truly "all-inclusive" our experience at Sandals was. From multiple pools and hot tubs, water sports, land activities, and excursions all included, we never felt restricted in what we could enjoy. This is perfect for the traveler who wants to do a little bit of everything, and nothing all at the same time.
Water sports: At the Halcyon, we could enjoy kayaks, Hobie cats, paddleboarding, wakeboarding, waterskiing, windsurfing, and tubing right off the beach. Most activities were available from 9 am to 4 pm, and they offered lessons for first-timers (no additional cost). Snorkeling was also available, which included snorkeling equipment to use right off the beach, but also included daily snorkeling excursions where they would take you out on the Sandals charter boat to various locations around the island that offered even better snorkeling. For our specific resort, the only snorkeling excursion that did cost extra was the Thursday half-day trip to the base of the Pitons, which was $70.00 USD pp. Every other day of the week,k they offered 2-3 hour snorkeling trips to locations a bit closer to the resort (location is dependent on the snorkeling conditions for that day). On our day, we went to Pigeon Island (near Sandals Grande St. Lucian) and went snorkeling there for about 45 minutes. If you prefer scuba diving, there are similar trips available for this as well. They also have scuba certification courses available at the resort (also included).
Land activities: There was no shortage of land activities at the Halcyon! They include table tennis, Pool tables, Shuffleboard, Beach Volleyball, Croquet, Pickleball, Tennis, Lawn Chess, and a shuttle to the Sandals Golf course (additional cost to play). There was also a 24hr fitness center with free weights, cardio machines, and fitness classes.
Entertainment: Having been to other all-inclusives where the nightly entertainment is a spectacle, this is where the Halcyon may not live up to that expectation. Most nights, there is a performer of some sort, but the shows typically last less than an hour, and it was not a grand event like at other resorts. One night, they threw a "Taste of St. Lucia" dinner with local flavors/dishes and featured a group of fire dancers that was quite impressive. However, if the shows/parties are particularly important for your all-inclusive vacation experience, this may not be the best resort for you.
Access to other resorts.
One thing that is SO nice about Sandals is that if you stay on an island that has more than one Sandals resort on it, you have essentially full access to the other resort and all of its amenities. In St. Lucia, there are three Sandals resorts: Halcyon Beach, Grande St. Lucian, and La Toc. Our resort, Halcyon Beach, is located between the other two, making it a great location to stay if you are also interested in visiting the other two resorts. Sandals offers a complimentary shuttle between the three resorts daily (essentially departing and returning every 2 hours from 11 am to 10 pm).
We chose to take this opportunity to visit Sandals Grande St. Lucian for a day, as it has the most restaurants and activities. This resort definitely felt larger and busier than Halcyon, which, for us, was fun for a day but ultimately made us even more thankful for the smaller, more relaxed vibe at Halcyon. We did enjoy the beach at Grande; it was clearer/calmer water and offered some good snorkeling just right off the beach. It was also worth the trip over for the incredible Crepes at Josephine's (we went multiple times in one day) and lunch at the Jerk Shack (authentic island cuisine that was sooo good). The Grande is also located right next to Pigeon Island (more on that down below), so we spent a few hours hiking to the top for incredible views. This is also where you can snorkel!
We did not make it over to La Toc, but it is the largest of the three resorts on St. Lucia and is built more on a mountain, so everyone we ran across said it definitely has the best views of the three resorts. I honestly think it is so fun that all three resorts in St. Lucia (located within 30 minutes of each other) have different vibes. This makes it easy to find one that fits exactly what you're looking for!
Let's talk about Sandals.
While I am definitely no Sandals expert, I do think spending a week getting to know how Sandals operates is valuable to hear from someone who is not trying to sell you a Sandals vacation package. There were three room levels available at Halcyon: Luxury, Club, and Butler levels. Luxury is the entry-level room, which still offers all of the amenities of the all-inclusive experience, but does not offer room service or include liquor in the in-room mini bar. We stayed in Club Level rooms, which meant our experience started differently right from when we arrived at the resort. There was a special "club lounge" where we checked in (in the air-conditioning) with complimentary rum punch and treats. This lounge also had a 24/7 self-serve espresso machine, and a concierge staff member always available to help us get dining reservations, sign us up for excursions (like the snorkeling and shopping tour), and really just take care of any problem that may have arisen. Also included in Club Level was room service from breakfast to 10 pm, which we ended up using several times. Because there were fewer restaurants at the Halcyon than at some of the other resorts, and their hours didn't always align with when we wanted to eat, we used room service more than we originally thought we would. Another Club level perk was liquor included in our in-room mini bar (rum, vodka, etc), but given that we were always steps from an open full-service bar, we never ended up using this.
Now, I can't speak to the Butler level from first-hand experience. Butler level means you have access to a private Butler via their personal cell number 24/7, and to my understanding, they take care of everything (dining reservations, excursions, everything). They will also reserve your pool/beach loungers for you in the morning, and deliver meals from resort restaurants to your room.
Overall, we were extremely satisfied with our Club Level room. We loved the elevated level of service that came with the Club Lounge concierge, and the extra amenities (especially room service) felt worth the value.
Now, let's talk about beautiful ST LUCIA
Getting there.
There is one international airport in St. Lucia, Hewanorra International Airport (UVF), located on the southern tip of the island. The main airports in the U.S. that offer service to UVF include ATL, CLT, BOS, JFK, EWR, PHL, and ORD. The St. Lucia airport itself is small, and customs was not complicated. In fact, St. Lucia offers the ability to fill out their customs form for each member of your party before arriving in St. Lucia. By doing this, you can bypass the main customs line and check in at their self-service kiosk. Once you scan your passport and take your picture, you can proceed to a special customs booth and get through screening much faster. I highly recommend taking advantage of this, as it saved us probably 30+ minutes and got us to our resort faster.
Transportation on the island.
Driving time to the popular northern resort areas (like Castries, Rodney Bay, etc.) is roughly 1 hour. There is one main WINDY road that connects the island. Sandals offers a complimentary shuttle service to and from the airport to your resort. It is important to keep in mind that if you are prone to motion sickness, this may not be the best option for you. Other transportation options from the airport to the resort areas include an ocean ferry and a helicopter, both of which incur a separate price. Additionally, you can rent a car and explore on your own, but beware that they do drive on the left-hand side of the road, and road conditions can be pretty poor in certain regions.
What not to miss.
The Pitons:
These iconic dormant mountain spires are some of the most impressive peaks I've seen. They are located off the southwestern coast near the town of Soufrière. You can view them from the sea, from various road outlooks in the area, hiking, or on helicopter tours. There are also several resorts in the area with views of them.
Experiences.
Snorkeling:
The crystal-clear waters off the coast of St. Lucia offer some great snorkeling experiences. We did two snorkel excursions during our stay. Our favorite place to snorkel was right at the base of the famous Pitons, which is actually off Sugar Beach. The water here was crystal clear, and the current was not too strong, so it was definitely beginner swimmer-friendly. We saw lots of colorful fish and some pretty coral formations, too. Our snorkeling excursion left from Castries and was about an hour boat ride to the snorkel location (this was also paired with our chocolate tour at Hotel Chocolat, so it made for a full day excursion). The second place we snorkeled was at Pigeon Island National Landmark. This location also had clear water, but the current was a bit stronger, and there weren't quite as many fish here as there was near the Pitons. We also saw SOO many sea urchins, so be careful when snorkeling here that you don't come into contact with their spines. If you are just planning one snorkel excursion in St. Lucia, I highly recommend snorkeling near the Pitons, as the locals told us it was the best place to see sea life.
Hotel Chocolat:
Project Chocolate is a working cacao farm owned by the famous Hotel Chocolat company. We LOVED our excursion here and making our own chocolate bar was a unanimousous favorite experience by our group on this trip. We did the "bean to bar experience" that started with a small tour of the farm and an explanation of how they raise their cacao beans. We then used a mortar and pestle to hand-grind our own cacao nibs into a chocolate bar and flavor it with a topping of our choice. Lunch was included and featured various cocoa-themed items, and we had some extra time for exploring/souvenir purchasing as well. For all my fellow chocolate lovers out there, this is a must-do excursion!
Pigeon Island:
Pigeon Island National Landmark is a protected natural/historic area located on the northern coast of St. Lucia. It is within walking distance of the Sandals Grande St. Lucian, but you can also rent a car or take a taxi. It was $10 USD pp for the entire day (you can go in and out of the park). It features two main peaks, Signal Peak and Fort Rodney, that both offer panoramic views of the St. Lucian Coast and Rodney Bay. Visitors can also explore the remnants of military buildings, including Fort Rodney, or take a stroll on one of the many nature trails. The park also connects to a sheltered beach that is ideal for swimming and snorkeling.
Castries and Castries Market:
Castries is the capital of St. Lucia and home to numerous shopping areas and restaurants. Here we visited the famous Castries Market, where we found our favorite souvenirs and got to explore more of the local culture. Keep in mind, they do not have card machines here, so you will need cash, but they did accept USD, so we didn't have to convert anything to the local currency beforehand.
Sulphur Springs in Soufriere:
This geothermal site is also located near the town of Soufrière and is widely known as the world's only "drive-through" volcano, because you can park and walk directly to the edge of the geothermal field. We focused our time at the Mud Baths and Hot Springs, where we covered ourselves with the volcanic mud and let its natural healing powers soak in, and then we rinsed off in the natural hot springs. It was definitely a unique experience, and the hot springs were the right temperature to soak in without feeling like you were boiling. However, I feel like 30 minutes max is a sufficient time to spend here because there are only 3-4 pools (all the same temperature) and not much else to do. There are showers for cleaning up afterwards, and be sure to bring a towel and a change of clothes.
Parting thoughts:
- St.Lucia is a must-visit island in the Caribbean if you love beautiful beaches, crystal clear water, and stunning mountain views
- Sandals in St. Lucia was incredible, and I would recommend the Halcyon to anyone (we loved our time at the resort)
- Hotel Chocolat and Project Chocolate was such a fun experience and a chocolate lover's perfect excursion
Final tips:
- Pack LOTS of sunscreen, more than you think you will need! The sun is brutal
- It does rain a lot in St. Lucia, but the showers are typically short-lasting. Check to see if your resort offers complimentary umbrellas, and possibly bring your own along
- Bring some bug spray if planning to be in the areas with more dense rainforest/vegetation
- Complete the online immigration form at home. This will save you time in the airport when you arrive
- Plan some fun excursions off the resort during your visit! St. Lucia has so much to offer
- St. Lucia is casual and laid back, so leave your stress at home!
