Flying to St Lucia there are two airports, one at the north end (Castries - SLU) and one at the south end (Hewonarra/Vieux Fort - UVF). We were flying into SLU, which is the smaller of the the two airports with Caribbean Airlines from Trinidad, but will be flying out of UVF, which handles long haul international flights, with British Airways back to London Gatwick.

SATURDAY

Upon arrival we should have been collecting a hire car in Castries but there was an issue with the car not being available until later in the day, so a free taxi transfer was provided to Soufriere, our base on St Lucia, which was around an hour away by car. The roads, just like Tobago, were pretty much a constant left, right, left, right series of tight bends through mountainous scenery. The island however looked far more developed than Trinidad and Tobago at first glance.

Our accommodation was an apartment in Soufriere, the original capital of St Lucia on the west coast, and was slightly more basic than the pictures seen on 'Booking dot com' seemed to show. If this was up for sale in the UK it would likely have the words 'great potential' mentioned somewhere in the sales material. That said, we did have views over the town/city and onto the Petit Piton, one of the iconic images that St Lucia is known for.

After a visit to the supermarket to get some essentials for our stay, our hire car was finally delivered and we then wandered into Soufriere to look for somewhere for dinner. What was noticeable was that prices here were much higher than on Trinidad and Tobago. Our single course evening meal at Orlando's was priced at US$25 (+10% tax +10% service charge) and was very nice food (snapper with vegetables and fried plantains), served in a nice environment, but it did seem somewhat overpriced for what arrived on the plate. We later learned that pretty much everything is expensive on St Lucia and we had just better get used to it!

SUNDAY

We spent Sunday in/around the Soufriere area and visited the town itself and the Diamond Waterfall and Botanical Gardens in the morning before grabbing lunch at the Stonefield Resort. The views over the Pitons were wonderful and it was a very decent place to break up the day.

In the afternoon we visited Sulphur Springs, also known as the only drive in volcano in the world. This claim to fame actually applies to the whole of the Soufriere area as it sits in a collapsed volcanic caldera. Before returning to the apartment for dinner we called in at Anse Chastenet, an exclusive resort hotel and beach.

MONDAY

We took the road north of Soufriere on Monday morning to head to Pigeon Island which is about 10 miles north of the capital, Castries. This was the base of the British army who built a fort complex on the hill that forms the island. There wasn't a huge amount of information available, but the views over Rodney Bay and the north of the island were fantastic. With Martinique visible in the distance it was understandable why this location was chosen to protect St Lucia from the French.

We had lunch on Pigeon Island at a restaurant that was also (slightly retrospectively) recommended by friends Peter & Paul. The food at the 'Jambe de Bois' (Wooden Leg) was very good and the lamb roti was a rather filling/tasty lunch.

On the way back to Soufriere we called in at Marigot Bay for a late afternoon drink and to take in this stunning location. They call the bay the Hurricane Hole as it is a really protected location and boats have not been lost here due to bad weather for many years.

TUESDAY

We were up early on Tuesday to get to the Tet Paul Nature Trail ahead of the crowds. The trail should take around 45 minutes to complete, but we were joined by a pair elderly Canadians and our guide on the trail, JR, was very good at looking after them and in the end we were there for an hour and a half. It didn't really matter as the views were fabulous and we could appreciate them for longer. JR was also a dab hand with the camera and was keen to get the best angles for those all important photos of both Gros and Petit Piton.

We then headed back up to Castries, and if honest the road is not the most friendly to drive due to the tight turns and fairly busy traffic.

In Castries we wandered around the city, visited the central area, the cathedral, the market and the cruise ship terminal. Castries had two large and one smaller ship in the harbour when we were there. The people off the boat seemed to like spending their US$ on everything St Lucian, especially the rum!

It was another hour of left hand and right hand bends as we headed back south beyond Soufriere to Sugar Beach. This resort complex really is very posh and I am not too sure they really welcomed outside guests, but we got in anyway. The sunset view and icy mocktail was a great way to round off the day before having dinner back in Soufriere at the Petit Peak restaurant.

WEDNESDAY

Yet another drive north for us today as we headed to the St Lucia Rum Distillery. Fortunately it was not as far as Castries, but the first part of the road has the most bends!

The distillery tour was fairly basic but informative and the tasting at the end was the main attraction. That said, as I was driving, I couldn't really partake of everything on offer. It really was an open bar and you could pretty much just try everything . . . and more than once if you wanted.

Afterwards we headed inland to Millet to visit the Millet Bird Sanctuary and Nature Trail. The signs warned of snakes and various other dangerous things and you also had to sign a waiver to go on the guided two mile trail. The guide was OK, but not a scratch on JR from Tet Paul the day previous.

For lunch we again headed to Marigot Bay, it was a good place to stop and fairly close to Millet.

Our evening was spent at Boucan, a hotel and restaurant owned by the UK's Hotel Chocolat. It's from here that some of the cacao beans are grown/processed and sent back to the UK to turn into their Rabot Estate chocolate. The hotel is very swish indeed with rooms charged at over £350 a night - which was more than we paid for six nights in our apartment. They do however have a rather magnificent view of the Petit Piton from the restaurant and that is why we booked a table for dinner.

Each course also features something chocolate based, be that chocolate butter or balsamic oil mixed with chocolate (for use on bread), through to cocoa nibs in some of the main dishes. The food was very, very good as was the service - and if honest you would expect so for the price. It was a treat meal for us on this holiday, but sadly as Heather had a cold she was struggling to taste everything!

THURSDAY

Finally a day where we could enjoy the roads on the east of the island which are far less curvaceous and mountainous. I don't think my back could take another trip to/from Castries!

We headed to Mamiku Gardens, around an hour and a quarter from Soufriere by car. The gardens were quite nice, but we were not that sure that they lived up to the 'Unforgetable Natural Experience' that was promised on the sign in the car park.

We headed to the south of the island to a recommendation from the Lonely Planet book. The Reef was a nice beach bar/restaurant, serving food at what was a good price for St Lucia. It also sat just a few metres from a wide open bay facing the Atlantic Ocean.

This side/part of the island is far less touristy, but the government has plans to develop a whole new area of land south of Hewonarra (UVF) Airport at Vieux Fort into what looks to be a luxury hotel and resort area. It'll certainly be handy for the airport, but some of the character of the area will be lost. It will also have an environmental impact as well as it involves building a causeway out to the islands that currently sit in the bay. What will become of The Reef is also unknown - if honest using some of the land for tourist development seems sensible, whether the area needs to be expanded quite so much really is another matter. It will undoubtedly all come down to finance and tourism is the biggest part of the St Lucian economy.

So that brings us to our final evening in Soufriere and dinner was had at The Hummingbird Hotel just a short walk from our apartment. It was a very nice meal and given we will be on a plane heading over the Atlantic Ocean at a similar time the following evening it was a nice place to finish our stay in Soufriere.

FRIDAY

We didn't need to be out of our apartment until 11.00, however that still left seven hours to fill before dropping off the hire car at UVF Airport and leaving our bags at the BA check-in desk.

After a bit of a drive around parts of Soufriere we had not previously seen we headed to the Fond Doux Plantation. This is still a working cocoa plantation but also a hotel and restaurant. We managed to spend around three hours there having a mocktail and a leisurely lunch trying our best to avoid the heat before the flight home.

Before dropping the car off at the airport there was a chance to see the arriving inbound flight from London Gatwick (that would form our flight later in the evening after nipping to Port of Spain and back), pop into a local supermarket for a few last minute goodies and have a final drink at The Reef where we had visited the previous day.

Dropping the car off at around 17.30 meant we had plenty of time at the airport before boarding BA2158, the 20.45 to London Gatwick. Bizarrely the airport departure screens just showed the destination as United Kingdom for both our flight and the Virgin Atlantic service also bound for Gatwick.

Having watched our inbound flight transit from Port of Spain on Flight Radar it made numerous approaches to St Lucia and spent around 40 minutes circling around the airport. There was no information other than a garbled announcement saying the flight was going to be delayed by an hour (although all screens still showed 'on time'). We eventually found out, just before departing St Lucia (and also only 30 minutes late), that the delay was due to thunderstorms and bad weather around the airport and a number of failed approaches had been made on the inbound flight.

Apart from a number of quite turbulent patches over the Atlantic Ocean the flight was actually quite good. A decent tailwind pushing us across the Atlantic also had us on the ground 15 minutes ahead of schedule at London Gatwick on the Saturday.

SATURDAY

It was just a matter of making our way back to Derby by train after getting through the UK Border Control and collecting our luggage from the carousel. The journey from the aircraft arriving on stand, disembarking, going through passport control, collecting luggage and exiting the airport all took less than 30 minutes. All very impressive for a busy London airport and fortunately the bottles of St Lucian rum seem to have made it intact as well.

It was an hour journey from Gatwick to London St Pancras where we bumped into Chris Rowley and John Boon for a quick chat before we continued to Derby. We were back in the house at 12.45 with bags unpacked, the washing machine on and a trip to Sainsbury's undertaken by around 14.30. It was not a bad trip home overall.

The temperature at home is certainly a bit cooler than we have been used to for the past two weeks. Anyway, it's nearly Christmas and time for another break from work!