Dune Buggy Day in St. Lucia

Dune Buggy Excursion:

Dune Buggy day in St. Lucia was an incredible success and I highly recommend it. The Island Buggy tour was booked through the travel desk at Coconut Bay. Booking excursions on your own can be a hassle. It is so easy to book with the travel desk and is worth the few dollars you might save doing it on your own. Don’t forget that everything is negotiable on an excursion. It also helps if you have a few people in your group.

The Dune Buggies and our guide met us at our resort. Thankfully, there was no shuttle ride. Dune Buggy driving in St. Lucia can be a little challenging. Of course, you get to drive on the left hand side of the road for one thing. Also, you have to be able to drive a stick that you shift with your left hand. All of this is made easier by the guide that was included.

First stop was the gas station in Vieux Fort. From the resort you are pretty much instantly thrown into Caribbean city driving. Thankfully the town is fairly small and we are on the open road shortly.

Volcano:

It was a rather long drive to our next stop which was the La Soufriere Drive-In volcano. Parking is in the crater of the volcano and you can pretty much walk up to the lava dome. This is not a volcano like the ones in Hawaii. If you’ve been to those volcano’s and expect to see the same here you will be disappointed. There are also mud baths and hot springs here that are definitely worth checking out. All of the fees for these activities were included in our Dune Buggy excursion package.

Lunch at The Beacon:

After the volcano we drove through the town of Soufriere on our way to lunch at The Beacon. What a great place for lunch. The food and the view are incredible. A buffet of local food is yours for the sampling and feasting. There was chicken, fish, coconut rice, plantain, salad, mac & cheese and more to choose from. All of it was great and this was the view from our table.

The only slight down side to this restaurant is that it appears that every tour group and excursion that goes near here stops for lunch. So, expect there to be a bit of a crowd. It was not too bad around lunch time on a Monday. Also, the restrooms are your typical off resort in the islands variety. I’ve been to much worse ones though.

Back to CBay:

We stopped by Hummingbird Beach on the way back to CBay. This is a very nice beach with great views and beautiful water. There is some construction going on and it looks like there will be another resort here soon.

The dune buggies are rather unforgiving and the shocks don’t provide much relief. After a day in the buggies you will start to feel that you are getting bounced around. Also, there are a ton of speed bumps to bounce over on the trip.

Dinner was at the buffet at the end of this wonderful day. The dinner buffet at CBay is good but not great. Most resorts seem to have many more items to choose from. However, we still had a very enjoyable meal.