St. Lucia, Cayman Islands, or Aruba?

We have chosen Sandals La Toc St Lucia for our honeymoon! I’ve been to the island before and it’s beautiful for beach lounging and exploring the pitons! Plus if we stay at one Sandals resort we’re able to visit the other two for no extra cost.

View Quoted Comment Ooohhh!! That sounds amazing! Thank you for that! I'm jotting down any insight I can get so we can start narrowing down between the 3!

I never been to any of those, but my suggestion is to research on youtube, google, trip advisor reviews. Have fun planning!!!!

I’ve been to all 3 islands. It would be a tie between Grand Cayman and Aruba. I like the beaches better at both. All have great water and are beautiful.

St lucia is the most stunning place I have ever seen. I just stood in awe for like 10 minutes when we arrived. The pitons, the food, the beaches and water, the energy. I dream of returning all the time,I have not been to the other 2 but I have friends who rave about Aruba.

https://www.jademountain.com/ This is the place in st lucia I dream of going

St. Lucia hands down! That's where we're going for our honeymoon as soon as there are less restrictions. St. Lucia opens their border in a couple weeks, but they require that you take a COVID test 48 hours before arriving, but we don't know where we can get a test right now due to priority naturally given to essential workers and people who really need it so we're cooling our jets until limitations loosen. But when they do, we're on the first thing smokin to St. Lucia to see the beautiful Pitons!

View Quoted Comment I wish I could give insight on the other two, but if adventure and relaxation is what you’re after St. Lucia is perfect! ❤️

View Quoted Comment Oh my gosh same!

View Quoted Comment I've only been to St. Thomas and St. John's. Would they be similar to any of the 3? We liked the style and beaches (preferred st johns though between the two), but I hear so much about Aruba beaches! So I watched a YouTube video giving a brief rundown on "which island is right for you", it gave a break down of St Lucia for hiking/waterfalls, Aruba for nightlife and drinking, and Cayman Islands for snorkeling and water sports. Any truth to that? I want all the above, but we're mainly drawn to hiking/waterfalls. The other hit was snorkeling, but if St. Lucia water is anything like USVI, I'm good with that too. Any other advice, I'd appreciate it! Thank you!

View Quoted Comment We are leaning towards St Lucia! But I'm staying open to any of the 3! We'll plan out the trips, and it'll come down to our budget range... How much we can do for what money. We wanted Oahu, but we just can't afford it after flying across the country and to make it a 5 day trip, seems too short lol. My cousin obsesses going back to Aruba! He went for a cruise and said he wants to fly back for a week because there was so much to do and how breathtaking it was!

View Quoted Comment I found lodging for next May and holy crap! There's only 1 week open! It seems to book up so fast, even out to next fall! I hope you have a great time when you finally get to go!! Post pics!!

View Quoted Comment That's okay! I appreciate your input! We're leaning towards St Lucia anyways haha. I can't say we care too much about relaxing, but we love adventure. Hoping for the hiking/waterfalls, springs, ziplining, snorkeling. Is there anywhere to jet ski? He was leaning towards Caymen Islands for similar activities, if there's truth to the YouTube videos we watched lol!

View Quoted Comment This is amazing! 😭 I looked into Sandals like Nicole mentioned, but it'll be out of our price point... I found this Villa that we're in love with. Ever since having our own Villa with a private pool in St Thomas, we love this style of lodging! https://www.islandervillas.com/serrana-villa-soufriere-st-lucia.html
1600 for the week!!

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Yes sandals is very expensive, and honestly I like the villas and boutique hotels too. Sandals is not where I would spend money. I don’t think you can go wrong with any choice...... From what I hear, and maybe I’m wrong is that Cayman Islands beaches are not the same as the other islands. I really liked the people and the energy of st lucia. It would be so rewarding to hike those Piton mountains. They have the only “drive in” volcanic mud sulphur springs thing (sorry for my lack of technical wording lol). I just loved this part. The water in St lucia is very similar to the usvi. But when I went there I was in Barbados, st croix, st maartin, Barbados, peurto rico and of course st lucia. I don’t know what it was about that place for me, but OMG. I was overwhelmed with the island. I would definitely keep researching. I feel like Cayman Islands is just not nearly as exciting as Aruba or st lucia!

I would imagine most Caribbean island do jet skiing (except jamaica, it is illegal, 🤷🏻‍♀️

View Quoted Comment Oh wow! Thank you for this information! I read how expensive the cayman islands are out of the 3, although the safest? But I think we need to eliminate that. We're working with like a 6k budget in total. Flights and everything. We did St. Thomas on a 4200 budget, so we thought 6 would be reasonable for honeymoon. Lol!! We thought that too! We went to St. Thomas in June of 17, them, water island, and STJ did not have jet skis at that time 🤦 idk if it was a seasonal thing, but we were pretty bummed lol

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I do hear cayman island is quite safe. There’s a lot of money in the caymans. St lucia is very poor from what I remember. Now this was a few years ago, but when’s there’s poverty, crime follows. However I believe most places in Caribbean we need to be cautious in. (St croix was actually one of the least safest places I felt) I don’t know really anyone that has been to st lucia but I would be more cautious booking a villa or vacation rental in st lucia. Also, the reason I have not gone back is because of the cost. It’s very expensive, at least from Canada, to fly there. I also don’t think they have a big airport so minimum 3-4 plane changes to get there for me from western Canada lol. I know airfares are very different for us between US and Can.

I am so freaking excited for you! Keep us updated!

View Quoted Comment I really appreciate the input! You've been such a help! Yes, the flights... We'd be coming out of JFK and I already see its almost $300 cheaper per person to fly to Aruba than it is St. Lucia. I can't imagine your cost!! Maybe narrow down our stay to 5 days rather than 7 if everyone thinks St Lucia is the one to beat. Something to think about! Thank you!!! Happy planning to you!!

View Quoted Comment Jet skis I’m not sure about 🤔 I know that they weren’t offered in the excursions for Sandals but not sure if they’re available on the island. We did do tubing on the previous trip.

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The snorkeling was amazing at all 3. In Cayman I swam so to speak with sting rays. The water is about waist deep and they give you food to feed them. One of the coolest things I’ve done. I want to swam with turtles next.