St. Lucia... Ti Kaye Village.

[NeoDiver]

Ti kaye Village...

Well where should I start?

I started looking for a vacation spot in St. Lucia BWI and many choices were available. I needed a place with a good compromise between leisure and diving. Ant there it was… Ti Kaye Village… According to the fancy advertising they published on the net the place was exactly what we were looking for. They have their private beach with a wreck off within a short distance. The diving is reasonable, $50.00 Boat dive and $35.00 shore dive. Everything seamed to be pink and blue to me $2500.00 later. We showed up and the setting was as expected except the next day when I was ready to go dive they told m the dive boat does not pick up just one diver only. However the hotel could arrange a water taxi (for $100.00 round trip) for me to get to the boat if I wanted to dive. OUCH!!! not exactly what I expected! After a couple of hours I found a couple who wanted to go dive too so after some negotiating the boat was finally going to pick us up. Around 10am the boat showed up and backed up as far as 100’ from he beach and the captain waved at us as if we were taking too long to come to him. We basically had to swim to the boat with our gear. What a shame… The dive was actally nice but here is the deal about that place:

They advertise: In reality:

$35.00 shore dive. No shore dive because
on the island no one can
dive without a dive
master. And there’s
none at the
hotel.

$50.00 Boat dive. One tank dives are
$60.00 and two tank
dives are $88.00

See it for yourself. Go to http://www.tikaye.com/scuba/index.html read the advertisement. I got ripped off. 6 days in St. Lucia and only one dive just because the boat would not pick me up.

NeoDiver

 

[Natasha]

HI Neodiver:
So sorry to hear abut your experience in St. Lucia.
I read the advertisment.
Here it is :

Ti Kaye Resort can arrange dives with Dive Fair Helen Undersea Adventures, an affiliate of Neal Watson Undersea Adventures, and Scuba St. Lucia to offer some of the most exciting scuba diving in the Caribbean.
Underwater adventures include reef dives, two spectacular wrecks including the famous Lesleen M. wreck, and wall dives near the Pitons.

It says they can "arrange it". Did you pre buy a dive package with this dive op, and then not get it?
Or did you hope to arrange it when you went down there and it did not work out?

 

[Tim Ingersoll]

To anyone else considering St. Lucia. Consider either staying at Anse Chastanet or a villa near it. The dive op is one of the best in the Caribbean. I would not hesitate to dive with them again. You may pay a little more but, as in many things, you get what you pay for. I have also heard good things about the Hilton which is very near by.

Question for Neodiver: Did the $2,500 include air? What was the resort like?

 

[NeoDiver]

:rfish:

To answer your questions:

Natasha, I didn't buy a dive package because I thought their advertisement was clear enough for me to just buy dives from there. I also wanted to shore dive a couple of time which once there was not possible.
Tim, $2500.00 was the hotel and air fare. The hotel was nice enough but definitly not set up for diving. I will use the Chastanet next time.

Now the only two tank dive I could manage was very nice. One wall dive at the base of the Piton and the other was a reef/drift dive just north of Soufriere.

NeoDiver

 

[MikeJacobs]

We are honeymooning and staying at Ti Kaye then a Sandals resort later. Your post certainly saved us some frustration! I think they now have an "in-house" dive boat and will post when we return.

 

[jsavannah]

How was Tikaye, Mike?? Am thinking of staying there next year! Would appreciate any feedback since the posts seem older.

Thanks!

 

[hil71]

Neodiver - thanks for posting - from the website i too was under the impression that the "dive shop" was on site and intergrated into the resort - my plan was to stay there too!! Anse Chastenet is just too expensive for us - any other suggestions?

 

[jsavannah]

Neodiver - thanks for posting - from the website i too was under the impression that the "dive shop" was on site and intergrated into the resort - my plan was to stay there too!! Anse Chastenet is just too expensive for us - any other suggestions?

i think there is a dive shop on site now. looks like neodiver's post was from 2003. i'm wondering though if the resort is in a good location and worth staying at? the pictures make it look nice.

i agree, anse chastenet is too much for me as well. the other place i was considering was stonefield villas.

does anyone have feedback?

 

[hil71]

Duh!!!! i didnt look at the date! and didnt really read your post properly!! That will teach me !! All may not be lost then - i to would like to here of any recent reviews - will start a new post and see if anyone has anything to say!!

 

[LandLockedDiveGuy]

My wife and I just returned from St Lucia after honeymooning there. We stayed at Stonefield and thought it was great. The staff (in particular, the restaurant staff) were friendly and helpful and the villas were beautiful. The downside is that you'll need to take a shuttle or taxi to get just about anywhere. We rented a car and thought it was worth it, but that's a story in and of itself.