St Lucia Private Island Tour

Overall, an outstanding tour. Neil, who was our driver, was super knowledgeable and helped give us prospective into the island and its endless beauty. He took us to the volcano, to see some waterfalls, gave us the option of going to the botanical gardens and all. Towards the end, we stopped at a local roadside stand for lunch. We ended up taking our lunch to go and got fish. When at the roadside stand, there were a plethora of sauces and rum available for purchase. I highly recommend sampling a variety. They are reasonably priced and quite tasty! To be frank, we are upset that we didn't buy more! The only thing that you need to note - all of the things that you go do/see cost money. Nothing is included. This includes the botanical gardens, the waterfall, the volcano, lunch, etc. Additionally, each place that you stop at to take pictures of this beautiful island have vendors trying to sell things. Everyone is VERY nice, so if you are not interested, no hard feelings, just be polite and say no. We didn't experience any vendor being offended that we said no. Saint Lucia was by far our favorite destination on our cruise, and I would recommend it 10x over. Oh, by the way, if you get motion sickness like I do, be sure to grab some medicine with you. There are a lot of turns, curves and hills along the way!

John was a wonderful driver ! Very patient and have good descriptions of the places we visited. Much better than going on a crowded tour.

A real opportunity to see the island and different communities. Guide was very accommodating. We were glad we did the tour.

Kevin was our driver and guide and he was excellent. He was very informative and drove very well on those twisty roads.

Our driver John did an outstanding job. He knew everything about the island as well as asked many guests about our country, USA. Would highly recommend the tour. My only issue was with the dispatcher with the cab company. He never responded to my 3 emails regarding where to meet our driver. Then when I was forced twice to call him directly he was very vague as to exact location

Jean was prompt, friendly, and very knowledgeable about the island. He was super accommodating to provide service to any options of interest to us. He sought to discover what kind of things we liked and tailored the tour accordingly. He took us to an amazing hike in a nature park near the Pitons which was not crowded with other tours. We would highly recommend using St Lucian Taxi and Tours.

My husband and I were picked up promptly at Sandals Grande Resort by Cherish. He was very professional and courteous. He asked us if there were specific sites we wanted to see, and I told him we were more interested in learning about the people and the island culture and history, rather than going to a mud bath or getting wet. We did not bring our bathing suits. The roads were bumpy and winding, but we really enjoyed the sites we visited. We first visited an old fort that had been occupied by the French and British, which has now been converted into a school. He then took us to some stops where there were vendors waiting, but they did not pressure us to buy anything, although we did buy a couple of souvenirs and tipped a man who played a song for us on his guitar. We stopped at a banana plantation and Cherish explained how bananas are farmed, then we stopped at a site where we tasted some wonderful flavored rums, jams, and sauces. We went to Tet Paul Nature Trail, which was a short hike (called the Stairway to Heaven) up to a beautiful overlook of both Pitons. Then we visited the waterfall, but we only watched others who were in the water and didn't go in ourselves. Cherish gladly took pictures of us at several sites along the way. We had a delicious lunch at a beach side restaurant with a lovely view. There was a choice of fish or baked chicken with several sides, including noodles, slaw, macaroni & cheese, white yam, fried plantains, rice and red beans. It was more than we could eat, but it was very good. Everyone we met was very friendly, and we enjoyed learning about the island. We enjoyed Cherish's company and conversation during the day. He was born and raised on the island, so he was very informative. He shared some fun stories about some of his adventures on the island, and we had a great day. I would recommend this private tour with Cherish.

So...first let me say our driver Cherish was great. He was personable, safe driver, had some cokes, water and piton beer for us. He stopped at the beginning at a store at our request to let us get a bite for breakfast. He was knowledgeable about the island and we got some pretty pictures before crowds of cruise passengers showed up. But beyond the beginning, we weren’t overly impressed. We didn’t have a set list of thing we had to do so he drove us to island highlights. Along the way we made several stops to “see & grab photos” but after the first couple they seemed to be pre-arranged tourist stops to get locals soliciting to buy from them or tip them for something. The vendors knew all the drivers that stopped so this is clearly “the route “ for everyone. Our confirmation email said a local lunch would be on the agenda for $10us. There was no menu to choose from confirming to us this was a set up thing for $10. The bill came, it was triple that (but they did honor the $10 when we questioned) and our driver’s meal was on the bill ( and he happened to walk away when the bill arrived - we pd for him but not even a thank you!) It was a nice day but I’d probably do a boat tour next time

Wonderful once we got to the pitons, and enjoyed other sites with great tour guide (Cherris). Somewhat problematic if you are starting in Pigeon Island as traffic is horrible.

The tour guide was knowledgeable and tailored the trip to what we most wanted to see. For instance, the vast majority of the pre-arranged tours do not include a trip to Diamond Falls Botanical Gardens, which we really wanted to see.