Kath Eats Real Food

a healthy food, nutrition, and lifestyle blog

Sandals St. Lucia Trip – Part I

As many of you saw on Instagram, Thomas and I took a trip to St. Lucia last week. It was a wonderful, warm, beautiful, romantic, fun getaway, and we had such an amazing time!

Our travels took us to the Sandals Regency La Toc in Castries, St. Lucia. Mazen’s teacher from last year, Rhonda, who is a travel agent, helped me choose a resort, and she recommended La Toc for its dramatic cliffs, stunning views and exotic atmosphere. We loved it! 

We got up at 3am to catch a flight from Richmond, traveled through Atlanta, and finally touched down in 82 degrees late that afternoon. After a one-hour bus ride, we were finally there and ready to relax.

Our room was stunning – it was a one-bedroom suite with sweeping views of the ocean high up on Sunset Bluff. We even had a ‘Tranquility tub’ on our balcony, a rain shower, and beautiful modern decor. I was very impressed!!

I loved that they provided full-size beauty products in the rooms, and they smelled amazing! Like passion fruit!

The resort feels like two resorts in one – the lower area by the beach is where the party people hang out, and there are all kinds of games and music going on. If that’s your thing, you’ll be very happy spending your time at the swim up bar!

The main beach area was very pretty, but the waves were quite rough and we couldn’t swim there on any of the days except the last! Note the bluff to the left – that’s where the good views come from!

I loved that the bluff area, which is open to all guests, was much quieter and more serene. And I never got tired of that cliff-top view!

We ate at Neptune’s on our first night, which is the ocean-side Mediterranean seafood restaurant, and it was our favorite atmosphere of all.

I ordered the Crab on Crab – soft-shell crab and a crab cake and probably some lump crab in there too! This was one of my favorite entrees of the vacation.

Evening entertainment was pool and ping pong. T killed me at pool, but I beat him at ping pong!

We had breakfast in the main dining room the following morning, and I was excited to find overnight oat-style muesli! I tried to restrain myself from eating all kinds of decadence for breakfast so I wouldn’t feel too weighed down at the pool all day.

It was so nice to just R.E.L.A.X. with no phones beeping or appointments to make. The sun told us what time it was : )

[This pina colada may have been consumed before noon 😉 ]

We loved the beach-side pizzeria for lunch, and shared two wood-fired pizzas and a couple of salads. And beer!

That evening we ate at Armando’s, the Italian restaurant up at the bluffs.

This was one of my favorite desserts of the trip – a Sambuca pudding in an edible chocolate cup!

On our second morning, we ate breakfast at at Armando’s again. As much as I like the variety of buffets, I decided that I enjoy ordering a la carte most of all. It’s much more relaxing, I think! Croissants, fruit, omelets and coffee with a breathtaking view!

After realizing that we would need to get up at 6am to scout out the best beach chairs, we decided to rent a cabana for the day instead.

This was one of the few things that cost extra, but we knew it would be worth it, and it was!

The cabana rental came with a private butler for the day, and Marcus was the man. He brought us drinks and snacks, and made sure we were comfortable all day.

We were able to order lunch from the restaurant next door and Marcus brought it over on a tray. Talk about luxury! I tried the St. Lucian special – a sausage with coconut rice, plantains, and peppers and sweet potato fries. Plus a great little feta and tomato salad. Marcus surprised us with rum balls for dessert!

We had dinner at The Pitons, which serves St. Lucian cuisine. I forget the details of this shrimp, but the conch fritters in the background of this photo were great!

There were stray cats all around the resort, and this mama had three kittens with her. I sure wanted to pick one up to snuggle, but I didn’t want to risk getting clawed by the worried mom – or the kitten itself! House cats these were not.

After dinner we went to a street party with a show featuring stilt walkers and fire dancers.

Coconut juice is the best cocktail!

To keep this post from blowing up your internet, I’m saving the details of our last two days for tomorrow. Stay tuned to hear about our trip off-grounds to visit the famous Pitons and a volcano!

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  4. We’ve celebrated our anniversary at this resort!
    Once you’ve been to a Sandals it makes it hard to go anywhere else!

    Reply

  5. Wow, this looks like an incredible vacation! You look so fantastic, Kath. I LOVE cats, so it would’ve been so hard to not get to snuggle them. 😉 Can’t wait to read your part two!

    Reply

  6. What brand/model selfie stick do you have? I’d like to get one for my honeymoon, but there are so many options so I have no idea where to start looking!

    Reply

  7. I just left a relationship and thought about you saying you had to come to terms with that you may never couple again or at least not for a long time. Knowing that I had to risk that there may be a better person or at least other opportunities… I sit behind my computer screen thinking thankful that this post came today. I’m also realistically optimistic… but this helped me a little more optimistic

    Reply

  10. Katieclat from Insta here! We stayed at Sandals La Toc too! We spent half of our trip there and the other half at Cap Maison, a small boutique resort up by Sandals Grande St. Lucian(a far better beach than La Toc in our opinion!). I would HIGHLY recommend staying at Cap Maison if you ever go back. It was worth the extra money, and the food…oh my God…you’d be in heaven! I loved St. Lucia! I can’t wait until we get the opportunity to go back.

    Reply

  13. Handsome man, beautiful woman, wonderful couple!

    Great picture of you two, thanks for including and sharing it.

    Ain’t love grand!?

    Reply

  14. And just to think… this is just part 1! Gosh all the food and views look to die for! Sunshine a top requirement for any vacation for me!

    Reply

  16. So warm and beautiful. We’re getting over a foot of snow now (NH) and i’m ready for some warm weather! Love see pictures of you guys as a couple. Thanks for including us 🙂

    Reply

  22. St Lucia is a beautiful Island that has A little bit of everything. I know that Sandals resorts have many included amenities like pools restaurants drinks and unlimited scuba, but did you get to venture off resort to see the Piton’s? Zip line through the Jungle, walk up to a waterfall, or take a mud bath and dip into the hot springs fueled by the active volcano? If not plan another trip it is worth it!!!

    Reply

  26. Are there affiliate links in this post? I don’t see a disclosure anywhere in the post. I thought you had to provide an indication to your readers that you may be compensated.

    Reply

  27. Was the beach nice? When we left on 12/23/16, the beach was washed away. It was a four foot drop from the steps…..

    Reply

  32. Beautiful pictures!
    I have always wanted to travel to St. Lucia. It looks like a stunning vacation spot!
    The hotel you were staying at looks amazing too!

    Reply

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