We are looking to travel to St. Lucia in September 2013. We would appreciate any input on the following: 1. does all shore diving need to be done with a DM? 2. Has anyone stayed at Anse Chastanet? Is it a nice resort for topside activities as well as diving? 3. Are there any shark dives in St. Lucia? Thanks for your input!
st. lucia questions
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manni-yunk
Contributor
Not sure about the shore diving - I did all boat diving and although it wasnt GREAT - it was much better than I expected.
No shark dives. There are sharks, according to the locals - but they are further out than most dive ops will run. There is one reef that isnt dove, for some unknow reason, that is supposed to have sharks sometimes - but not often.
No shark dives. There are sharks, according to the locals - but they are further out than most dive ops will run. There is one reef that isnt dove, for some unknow reason, that is supposed to have sharks sometimes - but not often.
00wabbit
Contributor
Didn't stay at anse chastanet but our dive boat stopped there after the pitons dive to pick up some seasick passengers that want to go to shore. It's a beautiful resort nestled right at the base of the pitons. I would stay there if I could afford it. They have a nice black sand beach and tiki bar right on the beach. I think there were some kayaks too but I don't remember.
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I lived there and was a dive instructor there for a year. No guide was required for shore diving at Anse Chastenet. The only shark I saw there in a year was one in a fish trap on Anse La Raye Wall. Anse Chastenet is the only resort that offers great shore diving.
I was at Ti Kaye. You can dive from the jetty and from the shore on Anse Cochon, boat are great dives and there are seahorses and some interesting small stuff
The best wreck of St Lucia is also there in that bay, only inconvenient the steps to go and and down the resort
check out the video [youtubehq]eoC0BOm4TA8[/youtubehq] most of the small stuff is from the dive at Ti Kaye
I would say Anse Chastanet, Anse Cochon and the dives in between are much better than the pitons where you hardly see a fish
The best wreck of St Lucia is also there in that bay, only inconvenient the steps to go and and down the resort
check out the video [youtubehq]eoC0BOm4TA8[/youtubehq] most of the small stuff is from the dive at Ti Kaye
I would say Anse Chastanet, Anse Cochon and the dives in between are much better than the pitons where you hardly see a fish
crayolabarb
Registered
To put in my 2cents worth, diving "Superman's Flight", from the base of the Pitons, "flying" at various depths between the walls of a deep canyon covered in hard and soft corals, was one of my favorite Caribbean dives.
I Loved St. Lucia- such a beautiful island. At the time while it seemed unspoiled by the cruise ships (probably 12 yrs ago),however, we did find that the residents other than those who worked at our hotel (who could not have been nicer and more professional) were not welcoming at all. Examples: We'd be in line at a grocery and be ignored as locals behind us were waited on until we were respectfully and kindly, more assertive. Also, driving our rental car through Soufriere was nerve wracking turning into frightening- as men would physically stop us, jumping in front of our car, and only let us by if we paid them to "lead" us out of town. When we gave a man the only coins we had, he threw them back into our car in anger. This is the only reason we have not returned to this beautiful island. I hope that the new developments we saw at Margot bay and the east side of the island, is helping the economy, creating jobs for the residents, so that they are able to make a good living and hopefully welcome tourists.
I Loved St. Lucia- such a beautiful island. At the time while it seemed unspoiled by the cruise ships (probably 12 yrs ago),however, we did find that the residents other than those who worked at our hotel (who could not have been nicer and more professional) were not welcoming at all. Examples: We'd be in line at a grocery and be ignored as locals behind us were waited on until we were respectfully and kindly, more assertive. Also, driving our rental car through Soufriere was nerve wracking turning into frightening- as men would physically stop us, jumping in front of our car, and only let us by if we paid them to "lead" us out of town. When we gave a man the only coins we had, he threw them back into our car in anger. This is the only reason we have not returned to this beautiful island. I hope that the new developments we saw at Margot bay and the east side of the island, is helping the economy, creating jobs for the residents, so that they are able to make a good living and hopefully welcome tourists.
CaliDenna
Contributor
We took a group to Anse Chastanet in 2011. The resort was amazing! The customer service is over the top. We had an all meal plan and the food was incredible. They have several restaurants at the resort and instead of going to each one, we wound up in our favorite logistical location above the bar where they have live music every night. What they did for us was to bring us menus from each restaurant and we all ordered off of whichever one we wanted.
It has beautiful drift dives and the dive shop and staff is superb! We had a dedicated boat for us for the week with the same crew and with VIP service. All we had to do is take our personal non-dive stuff off the boat at the end of diving, they did all the rest! We consider Xavier, Andy and Nicholi permanent members of our dive tribe now
Bernd is the manager of the dive ops and he made our week just perfect. He said whatever you want to do, go, let me know. if anything at the resort isn't right let me know. We wanted to zip line on one day, no problem. He set it up so that they took us by boat (usually it's by bus) to the zipline; picked us up by boat with lunch and then took us off to afternoon dives. We wanted to go into town one day so he set it up to be a long surface interval instead of rushing off in the afternoon after diving. One of our surface intervals was lunch at their private beach accessible by their boat. There is a a BBQ lunch place where we could order what we wanted. We didn't leave the resort much at all because everyone loved the food and activities at the resort so can't really speak to outside activities. Anse had sailboats you could use, a beautiful beach, and snorkeling and off shore diving. They also do a Manager's Rum Punch Party at the beach restaurant for all guests on Friday that is really really nice. Bernd also arranged a private cocktail party for our group as a way of the dive shop and staff saying thank you.
The rooms are all nestled into the mountainside and are spacious, private and really nice atmosphere. I had read about issues with bugs and had brought along mosquito coils, bug spray, etc. No need to, Anse thinks of everything and the room is stocked with it. Didn't really notice many though.
We were all quite leery about the stairs before we went after reading about them (there ARE 100+ down to the dive boats) but you are not constantly running up and down them. We all agreed at the end of the week though that we were very glad about them....after the amazing food we were served for breakfast, lunch and dinner if it had not been for those stairs we would have all gained 20 pounds Also, a little known fact it seems but there is a van that you walk inland on the path between the beach bar and the restrooms where there is a bench where a van will pick you up and deliver you to your doorstep. If it's not there in a couple of minutes, the bar staff notice and call it for you. You can also call and have it bring you down the hill.
A note about the town, Soufriere. We went there on our surface interval and Nicholi (from our boat crew) volunteered to be a guide. He walked us through the town and basically gave us a guided tour of the entire town as well as telling us the best places to buy different stuff at and then we took off in our own directions. We all found the locals to be very friendly and curious. We felt totally safe. A couple of us ladies took the water ferry from Anse back a couple of times for quick shopping trips.
Our group will definitely go back to Anse one day, it was one of the best trips that we've done!
It has beautiful drift dives and the dive shop and staff is superb! We had a dedicated boat for us for the week with the same crew and with VIP service. All we had to do is take our personal non-dive stuff off the boat at the end of diving, they did all the rest! We consider Xavier, Andy and Nicholi permanent members of our dive tribe now
Bernd is the manager of the dive ops and he made our week just perfect. He said whatever you want to do, go, let me know. if anything at the resort isn't right let me know. We wanted to zip line on one day, no problem. He set it up so that they took us by boat (usually it's by bus) to the zipline; picked us up by boat with lunch and then took us off to afternoon dives. We wanted to go into town one day so he set it up to be a long surface interval instead of rushing off in the afternoon after diving. One of our surface intervals was lunch at their private beach accessible by their boat. There is a a BBQ lunch place where we could order what we wanted. We didn't leave the resort much at all because everyone loved the food and activities at the resort so can't really speak to outside activities. Anse had sailboats you could use, a beautiful beach, and snorkeling and off shore diving. They also do a Manager's Rum Punch Party at the beach restaurant for all guests on Friday that is really really nice. Bernd also arranged a private cocktail party for our group as a way of the dive shop and staff saying thank you.
The rooms are all nestled into the mountainside and are spacious, private and really nice atmosphere. I had read about issues with bugs and had brought along mosquito coils, bug spray, etc. No need to, Anse thinks of everything and the room is stocked with it. Didn't really notice many though.
We were all quite leery about the stairs before we went after reading about them (there ARE 100+ down to the dive boats) but you are not constantly running up and down them. We all agreed at the end of the week though that we were very glad about them....after the amazing food we were served for breakfast, lunch and dinner if it had not been for those stairs we would have all gained 20 pounds
Also, a little known fact it seems but there is a van that you walk inland on the path between the beach bar and the restrooms where there is a bench where a van will pick you up and deliver you to your doorstep. If it's not there in a couple of minutes, the bar staff notice and call it for you. You can also call and have it bring you down the hill.A note about the town, Soufriere. We went there on our surface interval and Nicholi (from our boat crew) volunteered to be a guide. He walked us through the town and basically gave us a guided tour of the entire town as well as telling us the best places to buy different stuff at and then we took off in our own directions. We all found the locals to be very friendly and curious. We felt totally safe. A couple of us ladies took the water ferry from Anse back a couple of times for quick shopping trips.
Our group will definitely go back to Anse one day, it was one of the best trips that we've done!
drrich2
Contributor
CaliDenna:
Sounds like you had a great trip; very glad to hear it. Reading your very positive review, the cynic in me wondered how much of the service you received might've been impacted by traveling as a group - one that was collectively spending a lot of money, might come back, might spread very positive word-of-mouth back home and bring in more business, etc...? Especially if your group trip was arranged via a dive shop or instructor; making that type of customer very happy can lead to lucrative repeat business.
Now, if, say, a couple of divers to a quartet who may never return get that sort of service, that would be impressive.
Richard.
Sounds like you had a great trip; very glad to hear it. Reading your very positive review, the cynic in me wondered how much of the service you received might've been impacted by traveling as a group - one that was collectively spending a lot of money, might come back, might spread very positive word-of-mouth back home and bring in more business, etc...? Especially if your group trip was arranged via a dive shop or instructor; making that type of customer very happy can lead to lucrative repeat business.
Now, if, say, a couple of divers to a quartet who may never return get that sort of service, that would be impressive.
Richard.
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