St Lucia island tour

We are going on a Southern Carribean cruise the first of November. Would like to get a tour of St. Lucia while on the island. Looking for a tour where we will not be packed in a cruise bus. Any suggestions of a reliable company?

Cosol Tours. One of the very best tours I have EVER been on and we have traveled all over the world! Lots of great reviews here on Cruise Critic and also on Tripadvisor.com. Just do a search on Google and the web site will come up. Price is $65. per person. A REALLY terrific tour and you get nice and clost to the Pitons at a beach right between them!! I see they have even added a boat tour by them since I took the tour in 2008. We will be going on this tour again in December!

Another vote for Cosol! One of the best excursions we have ever taken. He has several drivers so you may not ride with Cosol himself but his drivers are all very proud of their country and they will give you a fantastic tour. All the tour vans will stay together and Cosol will check on each group at every stop. Don't pass up on any of the food, it was all delicious!

I've only done cheapskate barter-on-the-pier with taxi drivers.:rolleyes:

A great experience and super value.

So I can't add my vote for Cosul.

But I've seen the name mentioned many many times on cc and on other cruise sites, and always in high praise.:)

BTW, cruise tours use similar vehicles - the island's roads are unsuitable for larger vehicles. But, as usual with cruiseline excursions, certainly neither best value nor as flexible as a private tour.

At the end of the tour, get the driver to drop you at a beach. Probably no extra charge to drop you at Choc beach (idyllic palm-fringed beach, few tourists or locals, just one bar). Or go a few miles further to Reduit beach in Rodney Bay (tourist beach, all the facilities & toys). Driver can fix for you to be collected later.

John Bull :)

Cosol does a very good tour - have toured with him twice.

I have done this tour with Frank Taxi toursand Serenity tours and am now booked with Cosol for next month. On the first two tours we had a great time but everytime we saw Cosol's vans those people had more fun and more interaction with their driver. So we are very excited to go with Cosol this time around. The island tour is to die for and on Cosol's tour you get to go to Jalousie beach by the Pitons for one hour.

Have fun...

Thanks for all the feedback. I will set up a tour with him

Cosol's tour is in our top 3 ever tours. We are going back to St. Lucia just to do it again. Can't wait to taxi over to beach by the :)Pitons

Just wanted to mention that you should bring snorkeling gear with you if you visit the beach between the Pitons (Jalousie beach I think?). We did not bring ours and read later that it is fantastic. Very sorry we missed it.

Enjoy, you can't go wrong with Cosol!

Another vote for Cosol! I would love to do his tour again, but we didn't have quite enough time at Jalousie, so we are going straight there next time around.

I would highly reccomend Spencer Ambrose tours. He is oooo awesome. You can find reviews about him on this board! We tour with him again in September!

Been on Cosol's tour twice, great, great tour. Would highly recommend to anyone

I would highly reccomend Spencer Ambrose tours. He is oooo awesome. You can find reviews about him on this board! We tour with him again in September!

I enjoyed Spencer Ambrose's tour as well. You might want to compare the two (SA versus Cosol) The merchants on the side of the road are awful ... but you can't avoid them as they know where the guides stop for photo ops.

We are looking at Spencer Tour for our trip in January. Can you tell me more about it? We are debating whether to take just a land tour or land/sea. When you do the boat portion, do you get to see the "high-end estates"?

After reading this thread about Cosol Tours, I took a look at the website and it does look awesome. We'll be in St Lucia in mid-February on Princess and have only taken ship tours before, but this one sounds much better than the ship tours offered.

Question 1: on the website it appears to be a standard tour for $65, and it describes briefly where you visit, etc. However, wondering if the beach you visit to swim is the one between the Pitons? That sounds great if it is.

Question 2: if there are only the 2 of us, will they combine our tour with others from the ship, to make a fuller tour? I don't mind this at all and having a few others around would probably add to the fun, but wondering if this is just something they would do automatically or if we should mention that we wouldn't mind sharing our tour with others?

Thanks for any feedback!

bruno

are you on the emerald on nov 6?

what is the tour you are doing - boat or by car

carol

We have booked a tour with Spencer Ambrose "Beach Break Tour" in Feb.

Takes you by speed boat along the coast and stops at one beach along the way and ends up at Jalouise Beach where you can swim or snorkel for quite awhile. He provides pop, water, beer and rum punch and a lunch when you arrive at Jalouise. I choose Spencer from the reviews and didn't wan't a land tour along with the beach tour. Also, I did not see where Cosol had this tour to offer. Spencer has received great reviews. All e-mails that I have sent him with questions he has responded back quickly.

We have booked a tour with Spencer Ambrose "Beach Break Tour" in Feb.

Takes you by speed boat along the coast and stops at one beach along the way and ends up at Jalouise Beach where you can swim or snorkel for quite awhile. He provides pop, water, beer and rum punch and a lunch when you arrive at Jalouise. I choose Spencer from the reviews and didn't wan't a land tour along with the beach tour. Also, I did not see where Cosol had this tour to offer. Spencer has received great reviews. All e-mails that I have sent him with questions he has responded back quickly.

How much does that cost?

I believe it is 80.00 per person. No up front deposit.

After reading this thread about Cosol Tours, I took a look at the website and it does look awesome. We'll be in St Lucia in mid-February on Princess and have only taken ship tours before, but this one sounds much better than the ship tours offered.

 

Question 1: on the website it appears to be a standard tour for $65, and it describes briefly where you visit, etc. However, wondering if the beach you visit to swim is the one between the Pitons? That sounds great if it is.

 

Question 2: if there are only the 2 of us, will they combine our tour with others from the ship, to make a fuller tour? I don't mind this at all and having a few others around would probably add to the fun, but wondering if this is just something they would do automatically or if we should mention that we wouldn't mind sharing our tour with others?

 

Thanks for any feedback!

Been on Cosol's tours 2x - most recently Oct. 21. Had a great time. The beach is the one between the Pitons. Can swim, and also has a snorkeling area. Cosol generally gets 3 -4 vans filled, with 8 - 10 people. He will add you with others (that's what we did the first time). Great drivers, lots of information, lots of great scenery. Be sure to have a camera - pictures to remember for a lifetime. Had Cosol himself as our driver this time. Great man, and he keeps an eye out for all of his customers.

My aunt and I were recently in St. Lucia and went on a tour with a man named Jitan at http://www.jitantours.com Jitan was extremely friendly, his van was clean, his driver very knowledgeable, and they stopped many places, both for pictures and for us to sample the food! Great experience all around and at a great price. :)

Does Cosol tour hit a beach ? It doesnt say anything about that on the website.

On the Cosol tour is there time to snorkel?

We are just back from the Maasdam and used Frank for the third time ( 2005 and 2008 ). Contacted him by email and he confirmed promptly with price and time. We had an elderly couple with us and he was very accomodating for them. Saw all we wanted to see, had a wonderful lunch, and were back at the pier with plenty of time to shop. All for $40 a person.

Can't say enough good things about Frank and we will use him again on our next trip to St. Lucia.

We are just back from the Maasdam and used Frank for the third time ( 2005 and 2008 ). Contacted him by email and he confirmed promptly with price and time. We had an elderly couple with us and he was very accomodating for them. Saw all we wanted to see, had a wonderful lunch, and were back at the pier with plenty of time to shop. All for $40 a person.

 

Can't say enough good things about Frank and we will use him again on our next trip to St. Lucia.

Does he have a website or phone number? Thanks!