With its glorious gold beaches, dramatic Piton peaks, and thick rainforests offering up waterfalls and wildlife, St. Lucia’s landscape is staggering, even for the Caribbean. Ribbons of protected coral skirt its shores, coves are flanked by coconut-laden palms, and many of the best hotels in St. Lucia have scrambled uphill for front-row seats to those fabled sunsets—a fleeting burst of crimson and orange.
The island’s quiet eastern shores are unsullied by tourism, courtesy of its unruly Atlantic waters. Inland, tropical rainforests heave, and organic farms and cocoa plantations whisk visitors off on farm-to-fork and bean-to-bar tutorials. Drenched in rum and sunshine, Rodney Bay in the north is deliciously docile, with the odd evening soiree put on by resorts. And in the south, Soufrière offers a smattering of veranda-rimmed wooden mansions and time-warped shuttered houses under the mystic gaze of two volcanic spires.
The majority of St. Lucia’s chicest hotels have found their patch of sand on the southwestern shores, with a calm, scuba-diving-ready Caribbean Sea, plus otherworldly beaches and a tropical backdrop. Here, old-world rhythms of tennis, high-brow breakfasts, and sunset gin and tonics combine with the island’s easy-going spirit. Looking to get a taste of these tropics? Below are our favorite hotels in St. Lucia, from beachside stalwarts with seafood platters under umbrellas to sprawling jungle estates with organic farms.
