RCI's LAND & SEA SOUFRIERE Tour-A REVIEW!

[Smileeface]

We arrived in St. LUCIA on DAY 4 of our 7/19 - 7/26/09 AOS cruise. Of all the islands on our trip, ST. LUCIA was definitely my favorite as far as landscape and topography. St. Lucia is a volcanic island with several inactive volcano's and only one active volcano which last blew in the 1700's. It has banana plantations (their main export to the U.K.) a rainforest, beautiful mountains & the famous twin peaks, the Pitons covered in a wide range of palms, trees, shrubs, plants. It is very, very lush. Someone in our excursion said it looked like one of the Hawaiin islands.

We took the RCI Land & Sea tour to Souffriere for $89 per person for 7 hours. We met at 8:15am on the pier and started out close to 9:00am. The land portion lasted about 4 hrs from 9 to 1pm, and then we boarded a catamarran at 1:00pm eating a creole lunch onboard the catamarran and docking by our ship close to 3:30pm. It was a WONDERFUL excursion! Our tour guide, Samantha, gave us alot of information along the way, alot of details and tid-bits about the history, the culture, the agriculture, you name it. She was very thorough. The tour drives uphill winding and winding (and winding...) it's way. We made stops along the way for views of Mourne Fortune, Marigot Bay, the majestic Pitons, a fishing village. We only drove by the banana plantations as she explained all about it; we passed by the governor's mansion. We did not stop at any historic buildings, but we did stop and take a walking tour of the drive-through volcano & sulphur springs (which really stunk!) but was fun to see and hear about & waterfall. Then we went on a walking tour of the beautiful Botanical Gardens where Samantha guided us showing & describing all the beautiful foliage & flowers there were. We took pictures at a very pretty waterfall in there as well. There were several stops that had restrooms. One stop early on offered us a free sample of their passionfruit juice. Aside from that, we were not offered any complimentary drinks or snacks during the land portion as I've read they do on Cosol & Serenity. You had the opportunity to buy a drink or snack at the stops if you wished. This did not bother me, but I mention it because lunch was not served until close to 1:15pm on the catamarran, and by that time we were getting hungry. Once on the catamarran, we had plenty to eat and drink.

We boarded the catamarran at 1:00pm and were immediately served a creole lunch of salad, chicken, rice, beans, and 3 different types of banana/plantains with soda and water. We sailed right past the pitons on our left and what a beautiful sight it was! The entire catamarran ride was breathtaking, seeing the rugged coastline with beautiful romantic looking coves and hide-aways. You can see why this island is a prime honeymoon destination. There is no other better way to appreciate the beauty of St. Lucia's coastline than to catamarran by it. The wind, the occassional splash was exhilirating, and we all swayed a little to the island sounds they played for us. We sailed deep into Marigot Bay for a beautiful sea level view and then onto Anse Cochon for a 45 minute swim. Anse Cochon is a small beach cove, gorgeous, with black sand and cool, crystal clear water. In waist deep water you can see the wrinkles in your toes; all sandy bottom so no beach shoes needed. It was soooo pretty there--we loved it! Island vendors actually canoe over to try to make their sales or rent you snorkel equipment which was a little annoying, but funny at the same time. They hovered a little, but left you alone with a polite "no thanks". Snorkel equipment was not included in the excursion. We did not snorkel, but saw others in the corner areas doing so. Finally (sadly) it was time to sail out of Anse Cochon, and this is when they finally offered us their famous 160 proof rum punch. They had told us at the start that for safety reasons they would not offer it until after the swim; my husband and I had 3 servings each of it (delicious!) and I can well understand why! I was soooo mellow and loopy after those three they might well have had to jump in and save me from drowning . Also, with all the winding roads on land, I imagine that punch might not have worked well for some folks during the drive either ! The sail back lasted a total of about 2&1/2 hrs including the swim, and it was just incredibly beautiful & relaxing. What a way to spend the day! It was the perfect excursion and I highly recommend it. If you can, don't just do the land tour. The land & sea together is truly the perfect combination. I had looked at Serenity Tours which does the exact same tour for $95. I believe they will feed you more throughout the trip, give you more to taste & drink along the way (I think), BUT seeing how rugged the ride is, how isolated and remote some of the locations are, I couldn't get the risk factor out of my head. What if they get a flat tire or something happens with the boat? At least doing the excursion with RCI, you know the ship will wait for you if your tour is delayed. And they really did a top notch job; everyone on our tour was happy and singing their praises. Hope this helps!

[mslaabs]

Thanks for the review. I've been researching for our cruise next year and this provided me with some good information.

[alexkrn46]

Thanks for the excellent review

[MDSue]

Thanks for the great review. Can you tell me about how many people were on the catamaran? Did you feel crowded and was there shade available for those who wanted it.
We are going back to St. Lucia in the spring and I wanted to do a catamaran tour to the Pitons. The coastline is gorgeous. This tour sounds like somehting I would want to do.

[Smileeface]

Hi MDSue. There were two van loads of tourists that boarded the catamarran, so maybe close to 30 people, not much more. The catamarran was open at the front with that trampoline type material covering that whole front area. Then the middle to back had a roof with long bench seating. There was plenty of shaded area. We did not feel crowded at all. It was a GREAT trip!

[DGNY]

Thanks for this review. I'm actually hoping to do the Land & Sea tour that Herod offers (sounds very similar), but he needs a minimum of 10 people. So, I may not know if he'll be doing the tour until early next year (May cruise).

Perhaps this is a good back up option in case not enough people sign up.

[LovesToTravel47]

Thanks for the great review. We've already booked the land tour from RCI.