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Dive Review of Scuba St. Lucia/Anse Chastanet in
St. Lucia

Scuba St. Lucia/Anse Chastanet, Oct, 2004,

by Laurie & Kerry Watts, NC, USA . Report 1565.

No photos available at this time

Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Accommodations 4 stars Food 2 stars
Service and Attitude 3 stars Environmental Sensitivity N/A
Dive Operation 3 stars Shore Diving 4 stars
Snorkeling N/A
Value for $$ N/A
Beginners 4 stars
Advanced 3 stars
Comments We actually did not expect at lot from the diving in St. Lucia but were pleasantly surprised. Reefs are very healthy with large schools of typical Caribbean fish - angels, parrotfish, butterfly fish, creole wrasse, fairy basslets, blue chromis, etc. Noticeable lack of large species such as grouper, barracuda, sharks, turtles, rays etc. Scuba St. Lucia is onsite at Anse Chastenet Resort. Lockers and spacious rinse facilities are available to divers. Most of the staff is friendly and helpful, especially the divemasters. Some of the administrative staff are constantly preoccupied and can't be bothered. The Anse Chastanet Reef is a shore dive right off of the resort which is one of the best dives in this area. You may see it a lot as there are only 2 single tank boat dives per day and all other dives are shore dives. Keep this in mind if you purchase a dive package. The shore dives are guided as St. Lucia law does not permit divers to go it alone. We were told that they offer an additional boat dive in the morning if we had four or more divers who wanted to go. When we got four divers together and tried to reserve an early morning dive the next day, they told us that the dive boat was being used to escort other guests to Castries for a shopping trip. Having booked a dive package, we were a bit annoyed that we (the divers) didn't seem to be a priority to the dive shop or the dive boats.

The Anse Chastanet Resort is only 25 miles from the airport but the trip took a hot and dusty 1 ½ hours because of the poor roads and construction. Anse Chastanet is a beautiful resort with amazing architectural design built into the side of a mountain near the town of Soufriere. Because the resort is built into the side of a cliff, you’ll need to climb at least 118 steps once or more a day. The restaurant and hillside rooms offer spectacular views of the ocean and the Pitons. The rooms are amazing with West Indian decor and an open design, using slats instead of windows. Of course, there are no TV's, phones or A/C, but most self-respecting Caribbean travelers don't want or need these things anyway. We were very happy with our beach deluxe room but note that these rooms are not directly on the beach, but tucked away in a garden area near the beach. There is some noise in the evenings from the live entertainment and you’ll hear the staff arrive every morning at 6am. Food at the resort is mediocre, but the roads are too treacherous to venture out at night to another restaurant. A la carte prices off the menu are outrageous so I advise getting your meals included in a package in order to avoid total outrage. Every night, we had some sort of entertainment such as a jazz trio or a steel drum band. The black sand beach is great with beach huts and lounge chairs. You can stake your flag outside your beach hut when you're ready for a pina colada or some lunch.

Overall, St. Lucia is one of the most beautiful, romantic islands we’ve visited and Anse Chastenet Resort is a great place to go if you want to chill out on the beach and do a little diving. People who DIVE-DIVE-DIVE their vacations may be disappointed in the lack of dive site variety and the fact that diving is not the highest priority at the resort.



Reporter and Travel

Dive Experience 101-250 dives
Where else diving Roatan, Bonaire, Aruba, Grand Cayman, Little Cayman, Belize, British Virgin Islands, St. Kitts, Saba, Bahamas, Dominican Republic, Barbados, Cozumel
Closest Airport Getting There

Dive Conditions

Weather sunny Seas calm
Water Temp 81-83°F / 27-28°C Wetsuit Thickness 0
Water Visibility 70-90 Ft/ 21-27 M

Dive Policy

Dive own profile yes
Enforced diving restrictions All dives guided, even shore dives (required by law in St. Lucia).
Liveaboard? no Nitrox Available? N/A

What I Saw

Sharks None Mantas None
Dolphins None Whale Sharks None
Turtles None Whales None
Corals 4 stars Tropical Fish 4 stars
Small Critters 4 stars Large Fish 1 stars
Large Pelagics 3 stars

Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Subject Matter N/A Boat Facilities N/A
Overall rating for UWP's N/A Shore Facilities N/A
UW Photo Comments [None]
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Note: The information here was reported by the author above, but has NOT been reviewed nor edited by Undercurrent prior to posting on our website. Please report any major problems by writing to us and referencing the report number above.

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