With miles of easily accessible sandy beaches, St Lucia is perfect for watersports . Larger resort hotels often have their own watersports facilities, usually snorkelling, scuba diving, sea kayaking, windsurfing and sailing on small, single-sail one- or two-person Sunfish boats. Some places also have their own yachts , often catamarans, for sunset and snorkelling excursions, as well as fishing trips. Except at all-inclusives, non-guests can usually use in-hotel facilities - for a fee, of course.
Diving
St Lucia's
diving is not as highly regarded as the region's more pristine scuba environments, such as Saba or Bonaire. Visibility is generally fair, but rivers spilling into the ocean at places such as Soufrière and Vieux Fort bays can muddy the vistas. Still, many of the reefs - particularly in the south around the base of the Pitons - are excellent dive sites, and there are several submerged wrecks to explore. The island also offers up plenty of good certification programmes. If you're a serious enthusiast, it might be worth looking into packages offered by hotels such as
Anse Chastanet , which bundle flights, accommodation and a specified number of dives at ostensibly discounted rates.
Watersports operators
Buddies Scuba Vigie Marina, Castries tel 758/452-5288 or 450-8406. Scuba and snorkelling.
Club Mistral Anse de Sable, Vieux Fort tel 49/881-909601-1 in Germany, . Windsurfing.
Dive Fair Helen Choc Bay, Vigie Marina and Anse Cochon tel 758/451-7716 or 451-7710, . Scuba.
Dolphin Divers Rodney Bay tel 758/452-9485. Scuba and snorkelling.
Frog's Diving The Still Plantation and Beach Resort , Soufrière tel 758/450-8831; Windjammer Landing , Labrellotte Bay tel 758/452-0913. Scuba, snorkelling, water-skiing, banana boat rides, windsurfing, kayaking and sailing.
Marigot Dive Resort Marigot Bay tel 758/451-4974, . Scuba, sailing, windsurfing, snorkelling, kayaking.
Rosemond Trench Divers Marigot Bay tel 758/451-4761. Scuba, snorkelling, paddle-boating and Sunfish sailing boats.
Scuba St Lucia Anse Chastanet , Soufrière tel 758/459-7755, . Scuba and snorkelling.
Snorkelling
Snorkelling is particularly good around the island's southwestern fringes, where the Soufrière Marine Management Area (tel 758/459-5500, ) hugs the shoreline for nearly seven miles. The reefs here are pristine by most standards, and the area is set aside as a protected area for fishing and recreational use; the nominal dive fee (US$4 per day or US$12 per year) goes toward the park's upkeep.
Boat trips
Gliding up and down St Lucia's accessible and calm west coast, sightseeing and party boats (usually customized catamarans) offer an alternative way to see the bays and interior mountain peaks. Most excursions include stops for snorkelling and swimming, or a visit to a coastal village (probably Soufrière or Marigot Bay) as well as lunch and drinks. Just bear in mind that as the boats are often crowded with rowdy revellers taking advantage of the free-flowing rum, the trip may not be the quiet cruise you might anticipate; if you're looking for a more sedate excursion, say so when you book. One of the best cruise operators is Endless Summer Cruises (tel 758/450-8651), which runs full- and half-day tours out of Rodney Bay to Soufrière's sulphur springs and Diamond Falls, or to the Pitons, with stops at beaches around Anse Cochon for swimming and snorkelling, as well as sightseeing at Marigot Bay.
Jungle biking
Jungle biking is one of St Lucia's most recent adventure sports, accessible only by boat from the beach at Anse Chastanet. Set in an old sugar plantation just inland from Anse Mamin, Bike St Lucia (tel 758/459-7755, ) has cut trails suitable for all abilities, and you can expect to see anything from eighteenth century colonial ruins and swimming holes to hundreds of fruit trees along your chosen trail.
Hiking
Hiking through St Lucia's central rainforests and preserves is the best way to experience the island's fabulously beautiful interior ; despite being laced by walkable trails, the mountains often go unexplored by beach devotees. You don't necessarily need guides for many of the hikes (though hiring one will help to identify local flora and fauna), but you do need advance permission and an inexpensive permit from the Forestry and Lands Department to enter protected areas such as the Edmund Forest Reserve and the Barre de L'Isle area.
