There is a bit of a story about us and Vigie Beach. Our first couple of visits to St. Lucia we dived and kayaked. Our next few visits we took boat trips down the western coast to the town of Soufriere, at the base of the Pitons and near St. Lucia's drive-in volcano and botanic gardens (with the requisite waterfall). On a couple of trips, we snorkeled at Anse Chastenet, near Soufriere and the site of a beautiful black sand beach that the Travel Channel named one of the top 10 in the Caribbean.
More recently we set out to discover some entertainment closer to the ship that we could do on our own. A couple of years ago, with a map of St. Lucia in hand, we found a beach quite close to the ship, but to walk there required us to completely walk around the airport runway that separates the ship from the beach. We set out to walk there, but a taxi driver stopped us, wanting to take us to a different beach which was (of course) further away. When we told him we were walking to Vigie Beach, he got a horrified look on his face and said, "That's where we bury our dead". Yes, Vigie Beach is right next to the runway AND a cemetery. But we were unbothered by this, and set out to walk over there.
On the way, we discovered our greater fear should not be the cemetery, but the traffic and the lack of sidewalks. It was a little scary at times, particularly when crossing the street. Like on many of the islands in the Eastern Caribbean, they drive in the left on St. Lucia. They drive VERY fast on the left.
Still, the beach was nice, it was close and it was free, all appealing attributes on their own, but together we knew we had a winner in Vigie Beach.
We walked over and settled under a palm tree, and this was my view for the day.
