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Vigie Beach: Just visited March 2017 & specifics listed here on how to get there!


geri
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I just returned from my cruise and went to Vigie Beach on our St. Lucia stop. Having now been there I wanted to provide a few key points to everyone else interested in going.

* The boardwalk has about 6 vendors and is very nice and clean. There are restrooms, chair rentals, food and picnic tables.

* The beach is sandy and soft. The water is very refreshing and with decent waves. (probably not a good beach for very young children)

* Directions for walking: It will take you 30 to 40 minutes to walk from the cruise port to the boardwalk area which is about 2 miles from exiting your ship.(Princess docks on the more northern dock & I saw Celebrity at the more southern dock.) Exit your cruise ship port area and head towards "John Compton Highway". Follow this highway north. There will be a sidewalk for you to use. When this road ends you will see the airport runway in front of you and on your left a school playground. Now turn right onto Seraphine road. Walk down this road, with the runway on your left, until you come to the roundabout. Follow the roundabout to the left. (fyi...if you need something from a grocery store there is one located at the south end of the roundabout). As you follow the roundabout left you'll now see the following....... on your right the "Rendevous Resort" entrance........ straight ahead you'll see a pathway opening towards the beach.......if you turn left you'll start walking Peninsular Road towards the airport entrance.

If you remain walking on Peninsular Road the airport runway will now be on your left and the cemetery on your right. Continue on this walk and you'll come to the Boardwalk area.

I chose instead to walk down the little pathway straight for the beach. As soon as you hit the beach turn left and walk along the beach (the water is on your right side) for 10 minutes and you'll come upon the boardwalk. It's a very nice soft sand beach to walk. You'll see some locals hanging out on it, but you'll also see quite a few guests of Rendevous Resort walking the beach for exercise (at least you'll see this in the morning).

* Directions for a cab ride: I can't tell you the cost as I did not use a cab, but a couple we met at the boardwalk told us they paid $10 each way. One thing you must do is explicitly tell the cab driver you want to go to "the Vigie Beach boardwalk, which is right across from the airport entrance". If you don't tell him these specifics you'll probably be dropped off at the previously mentioned pathway to the beach (which is right next to Rendevous Resort) that I used on my walk. If you get out of your cab here you'll have to walk 10 more minutes along the beach to get to the boardwalk. You might also want to ask the driver to return for you at a set time.

* DO NOT waste your time asking anyone at the St. Lucia port area for advice on getting to this beach. It's very obvious they want tourists spending money going on longer cab rides to the beaches that are over populated and filled with people trying to sell stuff. Out of curiosity on how this beach is being promoted by islanders we intentionally asked 5 different people (from the tourist info desk staff, to security guards , to gate keeper to shop keepers) and were met with everything from a vague "go over that way, turn right and turn left" to "this beach isn't recommended" to "you'll be mugged" to "there is nothing there for you" to "you can't walk in St. Lucia" etc. Even when we were very specific about the location and made it clear that we knew what was offered at the beach area the locals in the port area were very, very unhelpful. I repeat....very unhelpful and even negative. We were confident in where we were headed and how to get there, but sadly these encounters put the St. Lucia cruise ship port employees/workers in a very bad light. We've been to St. Lucia before and know the beauties of the island, but for someone visiting for the first time they will come away with a very negative feeling about the island if they have these same type of encounters.

 

We loved our day at Vigie Beach and we enjoyed our walk both to and from the beach! Hope this helps you to enjoy your day!

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Thanks so much for your post and directions. You are exactly right about the port people. Those were the exact responses we received when we inquired about Vigi beach the last time we were in St. Lucia. After talking to a few people at the port were decided to go back to the ship. We didn't think we could find it on our own and read that even taxi drivers dropped people at the wrong spot. I'm going to print out your instructions for our next trip. Thanks again.

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That is a good plan. When we were on Vigie beach I wandered over the the beach restaurant at Rendevous hoping to get a nice lunch. They serve only to their guests. Next time I will buy a day pass there. The people at the resort were very helpful in getting a cab for us to get back to the ship (we did not want to wait for the return of the cab that delivered us at Vigie.)

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  • 3 weeks later...

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