Even though we were only in St Lucia for a week and wanted to relax, I still wanted to see some of the island. But I had read that traffic can be quite awful and when tours say you'll be driving for an hour, it's often double... sometimes even more. Not fun.
I also knew I wanted to see St Lucia's famous Pitons in person (which are actually volcanic plugs, not mountains, per se). And I remembered from having eaten at Hotel Chocolat's Rabot 1745 restaurant in London that they have a presence on the island, so that seemed like a fun thing to do as well. Turns out the
Chocolate Decadence tour ticked all my boxes, plus more. I booked online, but Island Routes had a desk at our resort (Sandals Halcyon Beach). It's a full day out - we started at 9am and got back to the resort around 7.15pm - and it cost $265 (US) each, so about £198.
Right, so what do you do and get for that? Our day started with a quick ten minute drive to a harbour in Castries, the capital city of St Lucia. From there we took a boat to Soufrière, and even though it was half 9 in the morning, the (free) beers and rum punch were flowing. It's about a 90 minute sail to get there - all with a ever-closer fabulous view of the Pitons as you edge towards the town - and then it's back in a minivan to drive ten minutes to
Project Chocolat. So far so good on minimal driving time.
Project Chocolat is part of Hotel Chocolat's Rabot Estate (if you're feeling flush there's also a hotel there) and we spent time there learning about how chocolate is made, then making our very own bar of chocolate! Which basically means pounding cocoa nibs in a mortar, in the sweltering heat, until it's liquidy. Add cocoa butter, then it's sugar next - more if you like it sweeter, less if you prefer it bitter. Over lunch they will chill it for you, and it will taste nothing like you're used to when you get it back. That's because to get chocolate smooth and yum, it takes a machine 72 hours. Our 30 minutes by hand was never going to compare!
Lunch was included at Project Chocolat - I had a pulled pork burger, mac and cheese and white chocolate mash, followed by a sundae - and then we headed off to our next stop on the tour, Sulphur Springs, which was another quick drive away. Known as 'the world's only drive-in volcano', though you can't actually get that close anymore, Sulphur Springs is the island's most popular tourist attraction. It's also where you'll find mud baths where you can soak in sulphur to open up your pores, then smother yourself in mud. Your skin definitely feels smoother afterwards!
Back to the boat after that to head to Sugar Beach at the base of the Pitons for snorkelling. Now I'm not sure how I'd feel about this if I was a guest at the Viceroy Resort there, randomers pulling up alongside the beautiful beach I'd spend a significant amount of money to stay at. Of course they can't stop this from happening - otherwise we wouldn't have been taken there - but, like I say, I don't think I'd be too happy as a guest at that resort. (And, in all honesty, the snorkelling wasn't that great. There was a lot of seaweed at the surface of the water, and nothing out of the ordinary to see, other than a sea snake.)
The tour ended with a sunset cruise back to Castries where the drinks flowed. And flowed. And flowed. Definitely good vibes on the boat, though it was very crowded compared to the boat that took us to Soufriere that morning. All-in-all though, a fabulous day out - and a Christmas Eve I won't forget! x
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