St. Lucia is one of the two port of calls (the other being St. Kitts) in the 7-Day Caribbean Cruise itinary that does not have spectacular beaches compared to what people expect when they think of the Caribbean. After researching online at various websites, I had decided that we were going to go to Reduit Beach at Rodney Bay which is located in the northern part of the St. Lucia island.
After disembarking from the ship, we walked through the duty free shopping area and outside the Cruise terminal. There were a lot of cabs outside the terminal but their asking price was higher because we were just two travelers this time without a big group. We finally settled on a cab who agreed to take us to Reduit Beach for $30 USD round-trip.
The drive to Reduit beach from the Cruise terminal took about 20 minutes. We let the driver know our pickup time. One important thing to remember is to negotiate beforehand the roundtrip price and pickup times with any cab because even though you can get a lot of cabs to drop you off at various parts of the island, you might have trouble getting a ride back.
When we arrived in the morning on Reduit Beach, it was pretty early and the beach was fairly empty. Nearest to the parking lot is the popular Spinnakers Restaurant & Beach Bar and we turned right and walked towards the end of the beach where the Bay Gardens Beach Resort is located.
We found a good spot with shade in front of the resort. There were a few vendors selling a variety of wares such as food, conch-shells, fruit on the beach.
The water at Reduit beach is very calm but the temperature was a bit on the colder side (comparing to the water we found in our other port of call – St. John or Barbados)
When it was time for us to leave, the beach was starting to get packed. There was music blaring in front of Spinnakers and a row of umbrellas were all along the length of the beach.
Our driver arrived at pre-determined time and dropped us off back at the terminal. After some souvenir shopping we were back in the cruise ship by 3 pm.