>Rather than all-inclusive deals or luxury accomodation, we
> prefer planning our own way, taking basic but comfortable
> accomodation,
There are reasons people choose the all-inclusives in places like St. Lucia:
1) there isn't a lot of nice-but-modest or mid-tier accommodations; and 2)
the begging and related shenanigans.
St. Lucia is basically third-world. There are actually people living in
jungle trees and shacks barely worthy of the name. Anything 'comfortable'
was built rather recently and with tourists in mind, and is therefore also
rather expensive. This is not America or Europe - it's not as if there was a
large portfolio of aging-but-maintained infrastructure from which
nice-but-modest accoommodations are generally drawn.
I tried the 'mingle-among-the-people' schtick when I first went there. I
ended up with hotels with unwashed bedsheets with blood on them, fighting
off ants in the showers, bugs in the beds, and not a great price-break.
Beyond the shelter of the walls of an all-inclusive, it can be VERY
exhausting dealing with the beggars and scammers.
> Finally... I guess we could just fly to St Lucia, and then take a boat
> to a neighbouring island to stay there; or the same from Antiga. Are
> one of the surrounding islands to these to even better suited to this
> kind of holiday (but at least as spectacular?)
No. This is unworkable, St. Lucia is spectacular, and nothing in convenient
vicinity comes close. As for Antigua, 'spectacular' is not a word generally
used to describe it. It has nice beaches and some nice snorkeling, but the
interior has nothing to offer and is nothing like St. Lucia for scenery.
|
