St Lucia: Christmas in the Caribbean

During Christmas 2024 we decided we wanted a break from hosting Christmas. So, what better way to do something completely different and spend Christmas in the sunshine instead! As we could only go for a week, the Caribbean seemed the ideal location, which is why we ended up in St Lucia.

How to get there:
We booked a year in advance, as soon as flights were available, with British Airways to get the cheapest deal. Flight time is billed at 9.5 hours from Gatwick to Hewanorra and 9 hours back (both our flights took a bit less time). You're looking at at least a one to two hour drive from the airport if you're staying at an all-inclusive resort as these tend to be on the opposite side of the island to the main airport.

Or, if you don't fancy the drive, you can pay around $202 (US) each, each way, to fly to George F. L. Charles Airport which is nearer to the resorts. This take around ten minutes, via helicopter, and your luggage will follow in a van/car. We didn't do this, and just took the Sandals shuttle bus over to our resort (included in the hotel cost).

Where to stay:
So, as I've just mentioned, most people do tend to stay at an all-inclusive resort on St Lucia. But! I did consider us staying B&B at the Hilton's Harbor Club St Lucia when we thought about coming here last January (we went to Thailand instead). And that's because it's in Rodney Bay so looked to be pretty walkable to lots of restaurants if you're not into the all-inclusive vibe. 

We very much wanted to be all-inclusive for this holiday though, so chose Sandals Halcyon Beach, our first Sandals experience. This is one of three Sandals on the island, which are all adult-only, and you do get access to all three with shuttle buses running between Regency La Toc and Grande St Lucian. Halcyon Beach is in the middle of the two, so you're well placed if you stay here. We only went to the Grande, which takes about 15 minutes if traffic is normal, but took us 45 minutes to get over there for the day with the holiday traffic. 

I'm biased but I do think Halcyon Beach is the best one. Okay, we never went to La Toc so have no full basis for comparison - and I'll admit that Grande (pictured above) has the better restaurants - but we appreciated the smallness of Halcyon. It has cosy vibes, and three great pools. (Though we never went in the third pool, which was literally the one outside our room; it's the longest pool in the Caribbean, apparently.)

When to go:
I mean, if you want to spend Christmas in the Caribbean, then you're looking at going just before 25 December, haha! All joking aside, hurricane season in the Caribbean runs from June through to November, so December to May is actually the better time to go to this part of the world. The weather for us was late 20s to low 30s (celsius); whilst we did have rain on some days in the daytime, it would last ten minutes, tops. (It did rain quite heavily overnight though.) 

   

 

And if you are wondering what Christmas is like in the Caribbean, the resort was decorated for Christmas with a big tree in the lobby. Plus we had a visit from Santa Claus and Mrs Claus (haha) themselves, who arrived on motorbikes on Christmas Day with their elves, who did a little dance and fire show. (Once a week there's also a "street party" with fire eaters so this isn't just a Christmas Day thing, albeit they're not in elf costumes for that.) There wasn't a full-on Christmas lunch at the buffet but they did have roast turkey, lamb and ham that day - just not with the usual trimmings. 

What to do: 
Eat, drink and be merry! (Especially at Christmas.) As we were only there a week and wanted to relax, we mostly just hung around the pool and made the most of the all-inclusive with Olly's sister and her partner. Watersports are included, so we did go out on a catamaran at our resort. And we did go to the Grande for the day for a change of scenery - their beach is a bit more white sands, and their bit of the sea a bit nicer. If you fancy a hike, the Grande is also by the national park, Pigeon Island. (We didn't do it.)  

I've shared all about the chocolate decadence tour we did here. Years ago, you see, we ate at Hotel Chocolat's Rabot 1745 restaurant in London so I was intrigued by their Rabot Estate on St Lucia and wanted to give making chocolate a go. This tour was also optimal because it had minimal driving as you largely travel by boat - St Lucia's roads are mostly single lane so it can get quite trafficy - and you got to see the Pitons, which St Lucia is famous for. Perfect! 

What to eat: 
It's all-inclusive all-day, every day, at Sandals and Halcyon Beach has six restaurants and a pizza truck. (There's 12 at Grande and 10 at La Toc, for comparison.) Breakfast is either a buffet at Bayside (there's a buffet for lunch there, too) or you can do a la carte at Kelly's Dockside, perched over the sea. Unusually for an all-inclusive, there's no buffet evening meal, so you've got a choice of Bayside (French), Kelly's Dockside (seafood and grilled meat - we found it better for breakfast, than dinner), Mario's (Italian), Kimonos (Japanese teppanyaki - we did this as our Christmas Day dinner), Soy (sushi) and Beach Bistro (more casual fast food style - our stop for jerk wings, nachos and mahi mahi fish burgers). 

At the Grande we ate lunch at The Mariner and Jerk Shack for lunch with snacks later on from Josephine's (for crêpes and ice cream) and Dino's (pizza). And we had the best dinner of the holiday there at Bomaby Club (fabulous Indian). If we had been there longer than a week then I think trading the cosy vibes of Halcyon Beach for the vaster restaurant selection of the Grande would have been better, but getting the shuttle over as we did for our taste of the Grande worked perfectly for a week's stay. And for an all-inclusive, the food was decent - we tried all the restaurants and the pizza truck at Halcyon. (Kimonos and Kelly's Dockside do have to be booked in advance.)

Anything else? 
For UK tourists you'll get a visa on arrival for free at customs, but you do need to fill out a form before you fly - that's available to do online three days before your flight. Be wary that even though St Lucia's currency is the Eastern Caribbean dollar, you'll probably get charged in US dollars - that exchange rate isn't as favourable. x