It’s no secret that Michael and I love to travel. We’ve been fortunate enough to go on about one big trip a year since we started dating and it’s always been one of those things we work hard to be able to do. Because of this we do end up giving a lot of advice and recommendations to friends and family on places to visit and things to do in those areas. I absolutely love discussing travel plans whether it be me or someone I know going on a trip and thoroughly enjoy the planning process. Sometimes I even think I enjoy planning them more than the trip itself…ha! As part of this blog I’d love to share about those travel experiences and offer recommendations.
I probably get the most questions on St. Lucia since it’s a very popular honeymoon destination. We did a lot of research on different places to visit for our honeymoon but ultimately chose St. Lucia because we’d heard things from other couples, it offered lots of activities vs. just hanging on the beach, and it was fairly easy to get to quickly so we could enjoy the full week. Overall we loved our decision and thought the island was beautiful and people were so nice. It certainly feels remote but we liked the feeling of getting away from it all.
Like usual I did a ton of research on resorts and ultimately we decided to split our time between Sugar Beach and Ladera. We have always preferred more boutique hotels vs. larger all inclusive resorts so we decided against the Sandals options even though there are three sandals on the island.
We knew we wanted to try one of the three wall rooms since they are popular in St. Lucia where you stay in an open air room in the rain forest. We thought about doing Jade Mountain which is one of the most highly rated resorts in the Caribbean but decided on Ladera since we were already splurging on Sugar Beach and it offered a similar experience for a much better price. There are certainly pros and cons to the three wall room but ultimately we were really happy we decided to stay there. Pros: A unique experience outside of the normal honeymoon experience (our photos were awesome), amazing views, the feeling of being right in nature. Cons: It’s noisy at night since you can hear bugs and crickets – this bothered me a little but I got used to it by the second night, it’s very unplugged – so no TV’s in the room, it’s a “sleepier” resort – so while they offer some entertainment most people headed to their rooms fairly early. We didn’t end up doing their food/drink included option and tried out a few other restaurants near by. The Hotel Chocolate restaurant was amazing right across the street! Overall I would highly recommend Ladera but staying there only 1-3 nights of your trip before switching to another resort. It’s amazing but it was nice switching to something different about a few nights.
Next we moved down the mountain to Sugar Beach and it’s hands down one of the best resorts I’ve stayed in! The whole place looks like a pottery barn magazine and the service was some of the best I’ve received. Most of the houses come with a butler that will get you whatever you want and our room had a huge patio with a hot tub. The room was so nice and modern and it was a nice switch from our unplugged rain forest experience before. The beach is also gorgeous and gets the name”sugar beach” because of the beautiful white sand. The resort offers a few dinning options and we decided to do the food inclusive package and were glad we did since everything was pretty expensive.
One of my favorite aspects was on the beach they offered super nice lounge chairs and you just raised your flag when you needed anything. The staff treated you like royalty and would get you anything you needed really quickly. The spa was also amazing – you get your massage in your own little tiki hut which was cool. The resort also offers some daytime and nightly activities like a beach barbecue, white party, fitness classes, etc.
The whole experience felt very romantic, private, and special for us and we were so happy we picked this resort. I won’t lie it’s expensive….but for a honeymoon it felt worth the investment. There were some honeymooners there but it wasn’t full of them like I hear Sandals is.
In addition to some resort activities we also did a few other excursions through a guy we met on the beach. We met a few other honeymooning couples at Ladera and ended up doing a “Soufriere Tour” with them which included zip lining, waterfalls, mud baths, and a stop for rum punch at the guides house in the city (a little scary at first but he seemed safe). Later in the week we met back up with the couples to do a sunset boat ride over to their Friday fish fry in the town which was cool to experience something local.
Overall we loved St. Lucia and our honeymoon and hope to go back at some point. If we do go we’ve talked about staying at Sugar Beach again and then also trying out Jade Mountain.