The first leg of our flight (about four hours) took us to Georgia where we spent the night at a Marriott. The next morning our second flight (another four hours) took us to the St. Lucia airport. We went through customs, gathered our bags and settles in for the 1.5 hour drive to Sandals (next time we’ll take a helicopter). We stopped along the way to take in some of the beautiful views of St. Lucia’s coast.

The Sandals Grande Resort is awesome. It’s a little dated in terms of decor, but nearly everything on the grounds is well groomed and beautiful. We opted for a private rondoval suite.

The rondoval was awesome- everything inside was immaculate. We had our own private patio with a plunge pool, jacuzzi, hammock, and outdoor shower. I was surprised at how functional and fun such a tiny pool ended up being. The beach was just a minute’s walk out from the rondoval. The fine white sand was peppered with beach chairs, cabanas and various trees. The water was a gorgeous blue and complemented by the mostly sunny skies.

We spent a lot of time lounging in our beach cabana, the plunge pool (it was fun to just float) and we played in the sea (I had forgotten how salty it is- yuck). The weather was nice the entire time. It rained a little, but it was always warm tropical rain that passed after only a few minutes.

The food at Sandals was good, but not great. They have eight different places to eat and I think we tried five of them (including the complimentary room service). One thing we noted was the small serving size of the meals, which was just fine with us. On our anniversary we tried Sandal’s premier dining experience at Gordon’s (which is at the end of a pier). It was excellent until they brought out the main entree (we ordered veal over risotto). It was huge and while it was okay, it was disappointing compared to the rest of our meal. But the atmosphere and company were excellent 🙂

I could have lounged and read for the whole trip but Fran is the adventurous sort. We went kayaking a couple of times and she wanted to climb the peaks on Pigeon Island. I obliged- it was a good hike with some great views. At one point St. Lucia was  fought over by the French and British and there were some cool military relics to look at and a lot of interesting history behind them.

The is the Sandals resort as seen from the top of the highest peak on Pigeon Island. If there had been a zip line down to the resort from the top it would have been perfect.

Our rondoval came with two butlers, Benedict and Clynns. They made dinner arrangements for us, booked our cabanas, brought us drinks and food and made sure we were having a great time. They even poured a bubble bath for us and decorated the room!
I haven’t been out of the country as an adult so it was cool to get a stamp on my passport!