We had an awesome two days here. We came from the St. James Resort near Castries and from there we took a tour which covered mud baths, the volcano, and the waterfall. So while staying at Sapphire we relaxed and did the Botanical Gardens.

I highly recommend using Janus car service. They are really quick. Jamal the driver was awesome.
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Hummingbird beach and the beach club was a lot of fun. Highly recommend eating and drinking at the rum bar there. Martin was an awesome bartender.

Enjoy!!!

Michele & Larry (Canada)

May 5-12, 2019

What a fantastic week. There is so much to do around Soufriere that we decided not to venture more than 30 minutes away in any direction.

Highlights

• En Bas Saut Trail- we decided to take on Jefferson as our guide after he jumped off an ATV down hill and chased our car. Very enterprising 18 year old. He convinced us we weren’t too old to try a tarsan swing
• Gros Piton- you need to be fit for this trail. Our guide was lovely and slow o it was no problem. Bring a hiking pole if you have one
• Diamond Gardens – very relaxing and lovely for 1 hour- skip the mineral bath.
• New Jerusalem mineral baths – this was perfect (instead of Torille waterfall) There were only 2 others at New Jerusalem- would feel crowded if a tour bus showed up.
• Piton Falls and mineral baths- also perfect after a hike and is slow season with only a few others around
• Anse Chastanet – Kayak St. Lucia very professional tour.

 
Beaches

• Anse Mamin #1- we didn’t even go to Sugar beach as it sounds very resort dominated and the sand is imported
• Anse Chastanet – also great for diving and they have lockers for rent and non resort bathrooms. We just lay our towels down at the end of the beach
• Diving-

Tried both options and both world class

-Chester at Action Adventure at Soufriere Beach is a local guy running his own shop. We went back to the apartment with 3 lion fish that he speared.

Anse Chastanet Dive St. Lucia- very professional, great customer service, reef in wonderful condition- 5 star pad resort diving experience.

• Food- eroline has the best Basics.
• Bakery across is nice
• Fedos for a local meal is perfect.
• Zaka’s art – coffee and ice coffee
• Rubys was closed and reopening under a new name
• Orlandos- was lovely for a fancy dinner, they had live Jazz on Thursdays.

Saturday market- so much fruit and vegetables. Try the little red plums and regarding lime they were really hard to find this time of year. We asked a vendor and he slowly, reluctantly agreed to sell us a few hidden in his truck, harder than buying weed!!
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Lastly, thank you Janus and staff for the bread and fruit and basic supplies since our flight was so late. First Class Host!!!

We feel so lucky to have found this gem and to be the second guest at this villa. The Saba villa was paradise, the views are unbelievable.

The windows in every room really help you appreciate the view. Janus was a pleasure from booking the villa to up to the very last day. He answered any of our questions along the way as well as assisted us in setting up tours.

​Our first day at Saba we went to the local food market and bought some food we could easily make such as egg, bacon, cheese, bread, hamburgers etc.

Day 2- we decided to go on the ATV tour through the rain forest. Best time ever! We were able to see the beautiful landscape on this tour. We also took some great pictures by Mt. Gimme.

Day 3 – We started our tour at Tet PAUL NATURE TRAIL. This is a must. The views of the island were incredible. We also got to learn about the farm life in St. Lucia, which was very interesting. Bring sneakers for this trail. We then went to Sulphur Springs. Jamal our driver did a wonderful job explaining to us what to do.He then helped place the black mud on us and designed our bodies with mud to take really cool pictures. Lastly we went to torille waterfall. Jamal took some really good pictures of us 😊

Now we are just enjoying this villa and taking in this view before we leave, Janus, this house is breathtaking. We had a wonderful stay at this villa with great service. We look forward to coming back again.
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With love – Delaila & Christopher

Shoshana & Clayton

Honeymoon

St. Lucia Trip highlight:

• Tet Paul Nature Trail -awesome view of the Pitons!!
• Volcano and Sulphur springs
• Zaka café- try the ice coffee
• Dimond waterfall  and botanical gardens – if you go about 1 hour before the place closes, you may have to place all to yourself
• Ladera resort – Dasheen Restaurant- good food with amazing views 
• Mango tree restaurant – incredible view and great food!!
• Jade mountain resort for speculator- view and lunch worth the expense! 
• Gros Piton hike- im not a fan of hiking but I made it to the top so you can!!! 
• Rainforst spa at Sugar Beach- is such an awesome spa experience, the resort is annoying and pricey- about beach chairs - $50.00 per person -outrageous! But the sun was too intense so we had to pay for chairs – beach is great.
• Pitit peak, not a fan if the food but good service and much cheaper then a resort meal
• Anse Chastanet/mamin- okay beaches, not as great as other Caribbean beaches . resorts there also make you pay for resort chairs/huts – sugar beach is a bit better, however the reef for scuba diving is phenomenal! It’s a must do at anse chastanet! 
• Tet Paul nature trail- easy hike and awesome views. 
• Ladera resort -order the jerk chicken sandwich, my husband said it’s the best he’d hve and its only 15usd, we are going back again.
• Go to town for fresh coconut in the market, look for 1 or 2 trucks with coconut in the bed of the truck. Less than 1usd per coconut.

Download the entire map of st. lucia  using google map works offline and requires very minimal space on phone because island is so small.

• For snorkel /boat excursions, use johnny- hes awesome ad affordanble (usd$60 pp) hes on whatsapp –(758) 727-2081)
• Zip liningat rainforest adventure in the north – about 1 ½ hour from the Airbnb. A great way to see the island during the drive and a lot of fun. They have an aerial tram through the rainforest and a natural trail. 

 
* Our favorite restaurant is Hotel Chocolat Boucan!!- the food is absolutely delicious with creative infusion of chocolate in their dishes- must do!!1
 
Thanks Janus for an awesome stay and for your wonderful hospitality. We loved the fresh mangoes you brought us!! We look forward to coming again!!

We just returned from the rain forest home you suggested and had an amazing time. Probably the best thing we have done in our time in St. Lucia. Mango was a great guide and he took us to his farm after the hike and it was beautiful and we really enjoyed getting to see it.

If future guests enjoy hiking I would certainly recommend to them. And guests that come from the countryside like my wife and I would probably also enjoy the farm aspect and fresh food.

​Very good time and I thank you for recommending it. I have some very good pictures from the trip. 

JB 

So this trip for me was going to be a very different one compared to the previous 8 times I’ve come to St. Lucia.

​Previously always stayed at a resort. I decided to live less as a tourist and more as a local. Still not really a local, given this beautiful Villa I was staying in. Clean, well equipped and spacious, it was a lovely home for almost 2 weeks.

Having been on the island many times, I have made some friends here and my time was spent with them for the most part.

Worked out in the gym several times a week. Participated in the fit walk on May 1st- close to 10 miles, which felt mostly uphill. Im sure I was one of the few tourist there, so that was fun to be part of.

Spent one morning walking through the forest with a gentleman who knows the healing properties of many local plants. I am studying holistic nutrition so found this particularly interesting.

Though I didn’t initialize a lot of service offered by Janus and his team, they were responsive, prompt and extremely friendly.

I do hope to return to Soufriere and would definitely recommend Sargas though I will not miss walking up the hill any time soon :P 
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M.K. Edmonton, AB Canada