1. Castries Central Market
Castries market is a hive of activity, especially when a cruise ship is in town.
It’s a wonderful place to shop for tropical fruits and vegetables, as well as a staggering array of spices, including enormous chunks of cinnamon bark and shiny brown nutmegs, traditional coal pots and other souvenirs.
2.Rodney Bay
Rodney Bay is St Lucia’s tourist and beach holiday hub and is a hive of activity with many hotels, restaurants and shops.
Its picturesque crescent-shaped Reduit Beach of glittering white sand is one of the island’s most popular stretches, and it is enclosed to the north by Pigeon Island National Landmark for walks and views.
3. Marigot Bay
Lush hillsides plunge to the pretty palm-fringed beach, and yachts bob on the blue waters of this beautiful bay.
The harbour is so deep and sheltered that the British fleet supposedly hid here from the French by covering their masts with palm fronds. Water taxis ferry people across to restaurants and hotels on the opposite side.
4. Diamond Falls Botanical Gardens and Mineral Baths
Part of St Lucia’s Soufrière Estate, the attractions here are beautiful tropical gardens planted among coconut, cocoa and red cedar trees, a dramatic waterfall coloured by mineral deposits.
There’s a healing mineral hot spring baths originally built for the troops of King Louis XVI of France, and a restaurant in an 18th-century sugar mill.
5. The Pitons
When you hear the words ‘St Lucia’, an image of the Pitons will most likely spring to mind; the twin volcanic peaks are the most photographed landmark on the island.
Rising like skyscrapers out of the sea, the ancient forest-clad plugs are a majestic backdrop for the charming town of Soufrière.
