When we came across the Serrana Villa on Airbnb we decided on St. Lucia!

Thank you, Janus, for a fantastic stay in your gorgeous Villa! We wanted to travel somewhere warm and beautiful to celebrate our 30th birthdays, and when we came across the Serrana Villa on Airbnb we decided on St. Lucia! We spent 5 nights up in Gros Islet to explore the northern part of the island then moved down south to Soufriere to enjoy the mountain and jungle. On our way down to Soufriere we stopeed at the rum distillery in Roseau and hand lunch/explored Marigot Bay. 

Thursday- we drove down to sugar beach and snorkeled before our water taxi picked up to Anse Sevoigne Beach at the base of Gros Piton. We did a fantastic “castaway tour” with Paul Clifford at his Zion Lion Farm. Paul and his sister cooked us a fantastic coal pot BBQ lunch using freshly harvested produce from their farm. After lunch we hiked up to a mineral spring and Paul taught us about all the different jungle plants and their uses. Afterwards we enjoyed the beach, swam, and snorkeled. 

Friday – Morning we drove to Fond Gens Libre and started our Gros Piton Hike at 7am. It’s best to start as early as possible to avoid the heat. It was quite steep but definitely doable. Our hiking poles were a big help. We took a few short rests at the 1/4 , ½ and ¾ marks, then had snacks at the top. The guides weren’t allowing hikers to walk to the other viewpoint at the top due to all the rain, so we only had the southern view looking towards Vieux Fort. Round Trip took 3.5 hrs. after the hike we went to Martha’s Table for lunch (fish in creole sauce, lobster, breadfruit balls and fish cakes. It was one of our favorite meals of the trip. After lunch we hiked the Tet paul Nature Trail. It was a very short, easy trail compared to Gros Piton, but the views from Tet paul are much better. That evening we went to Ladera for drinks, appetizers ( to avoid cover charge), and watched the sunset between the pitons. Great views and great, but expensive , drinks. 

Saturday – we got a water taxi from Soufriere beach to Anse Chastanet. We heard the road to Anse Chastanet was very treacherous, and decided not to drive and possibly damage the rental car. 
(Sixt gave away our booked 4*4 car, ended up with a tiny compact chevy spark) We thought Anse Chastanet had the best snorkeling. We walked to Anse Mamin and had a good lunch at the resort’s beachside restaurant. (Burger, fish roti). That evening we had a NYE tasting menu and celebration at The Boucan Hotel Chocolat. 

Sunday – it rained most of the day, which we didn’t mind since we needed a recovery day from the NYE partying and the previous hikes. Later in the day we visited the sulpher springs/mudbaths. At 4pm the baths weren’t very crowded, so we got to relax in the baths for several hours and apply the skin-softening/exfoliating mud. We dined at Petit Peak for Dinner. A little pricey, but we enjoyed our meal. (Seafood soup, snapper, lamb curry). 

Monday- we visit the diamond botanical gardens/waterfall, and the Toraille waterfall before heading down to laborie for our final night of the trip. 

Overall it was an amazing trip filled with so many wonderful memories that will last us a lifetime. 

Jill & Eric 
Houston, TX