St. Lucia

Updated: Nov 12, 2022

Our itinerary

One of the best decisions we made, besides marrying each other of course ;), was leaving for our honeymoon 2 days after our wedding instead of the very next day. It gave us time to relax the day after our wedding, see our extended families who traveled far & wide to celebrate with us, + the chance to drop off wedding gear & triple check our suitcases before leaving for paradise for a week.

Day 1:

Monday morning we got up super early & Ubered to the airport from our apartment in Dallas. We wanted to be extra early & give ourselves enough time to get through baggage & security + grab some breaky by our gate. Little did we know at the time that even though the airport is open 24 hours, baggage & security don’t officially open until a certain time each morning (depending on the terminal). So we ended up having to sit with our bags inside the airport & wait before officially checking in for about an hour. Lesson learned. Once we finally made it through & got to our gate, we grabbed a quick bite to eat from Starbs and boarded our flight from DFW to ATL. Once we landed in Atlanta we had to book it for our connecting flight to UVF. Knowing we needed to get food for lunch prior to boarding, we ran through the terminals (because of course our first flight wasn’t in the same terminal as our next one). While Alec grabbed food I held down the fort with the bags by the gate to make sure they didn’t take off without us. Sadly for this flight we didn’t have seats next to each other and the one bad thing about going to St. Lucia or any popular romantic spot EVERYONE is on their honeymoon. So there were no fancy upgrades or seat changes like you see in the movies but at least we made the flight & had some food. It is truly the little things in life. Little did we know, the couple I was sitting next to, who also got married on March 9, 2019, quickly became some of our dearest friends. We ended up chatting almost the whole flight to St. Lucia & hopped on the same van to head to our resort once we landed. Warning, once you land & go through customs there are workers who will offer to carry your bags for you to your vehicle. DO NOT, I repeat, DO NOT let them take your bags unless you're ready to tip immediately upon dropping off your bags. Also side note, they only roll them about a couple feet ahead of you so it’s not like it’s that far.

Once they dropped off our bags (ugh) and we tipped them (double ugh) we waited for our complimentary Sandals shuttle to take us to our resort. After a long day of travel in an Uber, 2 flights, + a bus ride, we finally made it to the resort and couldn’t have been happier! We were greeted with some sparkling champagne while we waited to be checked in. Once we were all squared away, they went ahead & took our bags to our room for us while we wondered around the resort. Since we had had such a long day of travel we took the first night pretty slow. After checking everything out, we grabbed some drinks at the pool bar, and headed to watch the most beautiful sunset on the beach that we’d ever seen. Once the sun went down, we headed back to the room to change before meeting up with some of the other honeymoon couples at the Olde London Pub for an unforgettable night of drinking & dancing with new friends.

Day 2:

Our first full day at the resort & we couldn’t have been more excited. Once we woke up & got ready for the day, we headed to the Bayside restaurant for the best endless buffet breakfast we’ve ever had. Spoiler alert, we loved it so much we ate there every morning for breakfast, that’s how phenomenal it was! Alec’s favorite part was the steak & eggs and I couldn’t get enough of their hash brown triangles, yes you read that right, triangles. After we finished up at breakfast, we headed down to the beach for a relaxing morning listening to the soft waves roll in & soaking up the sun. If you know me at all, you know sitting for long periods of time isn’t my thing at all & luckily Alec knew that before marrying me lol. So after only a couple minutes of Alec reading his book & me complaining of there being no one to talk to, we swam out to these floating ring seats in the ocean. Once our drinks were empty & our sunscreen had worn off, we headed to the pool to hang for a bit. Then after a while we went back to the beach again enjoying the easy access between the two, endless drinks, & delicious snacks all day long.

Once we had gotten all the sun we could for one day, remember we are redheads over here, we walked back to our room to freshen up before dinner. We decided to eat at Toscanini's with our sweet, new friends Brooke & Trevor. Everyone’s food was absolutely delicious, you seriously cannot go wrong with anything you order there. After dinner we decided to hit the hay pretty early because we had our first off resort excursion the very next morning.

Day 3:

Like I mentioned before, I’m not much of a sit & relax on the beach all day long kinda girl, and luckily Alec is very go with the flow. So we woke up pretty early Wednesday morning to our delicious room service breakfast (from Bayside Restaurant of course) before hopping on the boat to our first excursion- JJ’s boat cruise. With our travel planner, Kinsey Law from Happily Ever After Travel, we had planned most of our excursions & dinner reservations prior to our arrival however, all of our new friends were raving about this boat cruise so we couldn’t help but add it on to our itinerary the day before.

Since our resort had a small dock at the far end of the beach, the speed boat was able to pick us up, around 9:15am, easily which helped us avoid another long bus ride. The first stop on the tour were the Piton mountains. During our boat ride to that side of the island, the tour guide shared lots of historic & unique info with us about the mountain + island in general. Once everyone got pictures on the boat in front of the mountains we headed to dock the boat at Marigot Bay. After we all hopped off the boat, we got in a bus to drive us to the sulfur springs in Soufriere. Warning, since it is a sulphur spring there is def a very distinct, pungent smell in the air, so be prepared. The first step once we arrived was to get in the warm tub, this helped get all the toxins out of our bodies. Next they give you white volcanic mud to rub all over your skin + some black mud to decorate your face with. Once it’s all dried it starts to harden & tingle a bit but totally worth it after you rinse it off in the refreshing Torille Waterfalls. They use the word refreshing to refer to the VERY cold water but it does help wash off all the mud and leave your skin feeling super soft. After the waterfall rinse, we headed back to the dock to do some snorkeling near a beautiful reef pretty close to shore. So those who know me well know I don’t love the open ocean much, huge fear of sharks, but this little tucked away snorkeling spot made me feel very safe. After swimming around for about an hour, we had worked up quite the appetite. Once we dried off a bit & got dressed, we walked over to Marigot Bay for a tasty buffet lunch at JJ’s Paradise Restaurant. We loved getting to try lots of different local favorites + enjoy the infamous rum punch. After lunch we all jumped back on the boat & headed for our resort. During the trip back we had the best jams & you could say Alec was really feeling the music. Be sure to check out the video linked below for a great laugh + killer moves! Also we def recommend bringing cash to tip the crew members upon departure, they were all so incredible & were the true definition of work hard, play hard.

When we got back to the resort, around 4pm, we were exhausted. Luckily we had made our dinner reservations later in the night so we were able to take a quick power nap before walking over to Kimonos, their Hibachi style restaurant. Everything we had was to die for and as always we loved the atmosphere of the restaurant + servers. After dinner we walked over to the hotel lobby bar area to enjoy some live music and dance the night away before another beautiful day in paradise!

Day 4:

Thursday was another early morning + long bus ride to do our 2nd excursion on our trip, zip lining. I had gone zip lining for the first time a couple years back on my family’s cruise vacation but I had always wanted to do it again with Alec. It was about an hour & a half bus ride back to the other side of the island, which is where most of the excursions in St. Lucia took place. Once we arrived we were given a safety lesson + all our equipment to put on before heading to our first line to zip. Even though I’d done this before I still got butterflies before the first zip of the day but boy was it worth it. As soon as we started going we were hooting & hollering at all the gorgeous scenery + wind flying through our hair. We zip lined for about an hour, weaving our way through the park almost like a ropes course. Once we were finished, everyone on the excursion met in the lobby. We got to see some garden snakes in the wild + one of the workers challenged Alec to a race up this giant hill. I won’t say who won & who lost but it sure was a good try Alec ;)

After our hour and a half bus ride back to our resort we decided to change quickly, grab a bite to eat at Dino’s Pizzeria, and enjoy some relaxing time by the beach. It was St. Patrick's Day so they had a ton of fun activities + awesome jams by the pool/swim up bar. Of course we couldn’t resist a good time so we met up with our friends & joined in on all the fun. Once all the festivities were over we went back to our room to freshen up before dinner. We decided to keep it super lowkey & ate at Barefoots by the Sea, which turned out to be my favorite dinner of the whole trip. Their Mahi-Mahi was to die for, I loved it so much we actually ate there on our last day too!

Day 5:

After so many early mornings & days filled with activities (our fave but still exhausting nonetheless) we decided to take our Friday morning slowly. We took our time getting ready & of course made our way to Bayside Restaurant for our fave breakfast. By this time the waiters & waitresses knew us & our drink orders by heart. Once we finished up at breakfast we decided to go snorkeling one last time. One of the things we love about Sandals resorts is that there are so many activities/excursions included in your stay & you don’t even have to plan ahead to do them! So we just walked down to the dock at the end of the property, put in our info, and hopped on the boat with some other folks to snorkel near by. It was a much windier day & therefore the water was super choppy & foggy so I chickened out pretty quickly but Alec enjoyed swimming alongside all the fishies. Once we got back to our resort, we walked over to Jerk Shack to grab some grub, clearly I worked up an appetite snorkeling ;)

After we ate lunch we headed back to the pool to hangout for just a bit before heading back to our room to get ready for the infamous white outfit beach pics. Yannick, one of the photographers on the resort, took our pictures for us at sunset down by the water. He also taught us that right as the sun hits the horizon during sunset the Green Flash shines a light for a second before the sun completely disappears for the day. Now even though the sunsets in St. Lucia will never compare to anywhere else, we always think of that fun fact from him, our honeymoon in paradise, & all of those precious memories made everytime we watch the sunset over the beach. Once we finished our photo session we headed to Alec’s personal favorite dinner choice, Gordon’s Steakhouse, which was located at the end of the dock. It was the most breathtaking view overlooking the water + mountains with some incredible food. Since it was white out day at the resort, they put together a dance party + dessert night to celebrate all the newlyweds + anniversary trippers. So after dinner we quickly changed into some more casual clothes & followed the music. We had the best time dancing, stuffing our faces with dessert, & laughing til our stomachs hurt. Of course Alec was challenged to a dance off and decided doing the worm in flip flops on the edge of the dance floor would be a good idea. One almost broken big toe later we decided it was time to call it a night lol. If you didn’t know, Alec is definitely the more accident prone of the 2 of us but is always down for a good time! Once we made it back to our room, we ordered a quick late night snack before heading to bed.

Day 6:

Saturday was our last full day in paradise so we had to soak up as much fun in the sun as we could. After we devoured our go tos at Bayside Restaurant for breakfast, we headed to the beach. Since we went to the Caribbean pretty early in the spring the water was still kinda chilly but we didn’t let that stop us. We loved laying out on the beach, getting nice & toasty, then swimming out to the floating rings to cool off (with our fave drinks in hand of course). We had such a casual & relaxing last full day just hanging out around the resort, daydreaming of our trip & hopeful future anniversary trips. We did have one last excursion planned however so we went back to our room early afternoon to get ready before getting on yet again another bus ride. Luckily this one wasn’t nearly as far as the others but regardless was totally worth it. Once aboard our sunset cruise there were plenty of apps + cocktails to enjoy while we sailed off into the sunset. This excursion was such a perfect way to end our last night in St. Lucia & we loved getting to just soak up every second of pure bliss on this romantic night cruise. Pro tip, I don’t recommend wearing a shorter dress or skirt during this excursion, it was quite windy so I had to be very mindful not to give the guests a show when walking around the boat lol. Once we made it back to the dock, then on the bus back to our resort, we decided to go hit up Barefoot by the Sea one more time for dinner because we just loved it so much! After dinner we went & sat on the beach reminiscing on our all excursions & unforgettable memories made during the best week of our lives!

Day 7:

Sunday morning was a sad day for the Stegalls because we had to say goodbye to our little slice of Heaven on Earth. We got up that morning, packed our bags, & headed for one last breakfast at our forever favorite spot, Bayside Restaurant. Alec enjoyed steak & eggs one last time while I ate all the triangle hash browns I could without exploding. As we left we braced ourselves for a LONG day home of travel. The resort sets up your transportation back to the airport for you & allows for ample arrival time to your flight to be on the safe side. So we took that hour & a half bus ride to the airport, waited for what felt like forever (with no ac & no wifi I might add #firstworldprobs) for our first flight, flew back to Atlanta, Georgia, went through customs, then hopped on our next flight to Dallas, Texas, then in an Uber & finally back to our place, home sweet apartment.

Where to stay

We stayed at the Sandals Grande St. Lucian. When deciding on where to honeymoon we were looking for 2 main things- an all inclusive resort to a beachy destination + a place we would probably never have the chance to visit again. We absolutely fell in love with St. Lucian & are so glad we picked it for our honeymoon location! One of the best perks of staying at a Sandals resort is that you can “Stay at 1, Play at 3”. This just means that you can travel to & dine at any of the 3 Sandals resorts in St. Lucia; Regency La Toc, Grande St. Lucian, & Halcyon Beach.

However, a major warning if you plan to visit, it is quite the trek to get there. We flew out of Dallas Fort Worth (DFW) and had a layover in Atlanta Hartsfield–Jackson Airport (ATL). Then we got on a smaller plane, (not too small, just not one of the giant ones) and flew to Hewanorra International Airport at Vieux Fort (UVF) which is located on the southern edge of the island. Unfortunately the Sandals St. Lucian resort is located on the northed edge, so you have to get in a van (which Sandals includes in the price of stay) and drive to the resort, which is about an hour & a half away. But when we say it was worth it, we truly mean it. There are also 2 other Sandals resorts + many more along the way, but Grande St. Lucian had the best reviews, restaurants, and beach access which made it a no brainer for us. Another side note, if you plan to do excursions most of them are also located on the southerns edge of the island so anything off resort is either a helicopter, boat, or bus ride away. Again totally worth it in our opinion for such a monumental trip (and hence why we picked this as our place we would probably never have the opportunity to travel to again).