This fifth segment got us to briefly experience island living for five nights in Saint Lucia.

2026.02.07 – [SL] Soufrière ==> Soufrière

After breakfast, we began our day of sightseeing with a drive up to a lookout offering sweeping views of the Petit and Gros Pitons—dramatic mountainous volcanic spires. Later, we drove to the other side of Soufrière and continued up to Sulphur Springs Park, where we explored the fascinating geothermal landscape during a 20–30 minute guided walk through the volcano.

A short drive further down the road brought us to the Sulphur Springs Mud Bath, where we enjoyed a revitalizing soak. The site was busy, with a steady flow of visitors happily painting one another’s bodies with playful mud designs.

On the return to our accommodation, we stopped at several additional lookouts for more stunning views of the Pitons and the town of Soufrière. We also visited the farmers’ market, picking up a couple of items, and made a stop at the supermarket to supplement the previous evening’s groceries.

Our villa was very quiet when we returned in the mid-afternoon, so we took the opportunity to cool off in the villa’s small infinity pool. Jenny did some laundry—which, unfortunately, included my travel pouch containing credit cards and cash. We spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing and taking in the views from our balcony. We also managed to secure a car rental for our next island hop.

2026.02.08 – [SL] Soufrière ==> Soufrière

As part of our island-hopping trip planning, which began in mid-November, we booked a total of ten flights. Along the way, four of these were canceled. Thankfully, we managed to rebook the canceled flights with other carriers. Last night, we were notified by email that our final flight refund was forthcoming. This lengthy delay was due to the fact that we had booked the flight through a third party—we had, exceptionally, broken our golden rule of always booking flights directly with the carrier.

We woke up to a slightly cloudy sky. After breakfast, we drove to the Tet Paul Nature Trail, expecting a 45-minute moderate hike. However, we learned that the trail had been redesigned over the past three months due to a contentious conflict with a property owner, making the hike much easier than anticipated. Even so, we still enjoyed excellent views of the Petit and Gros Pitons.

On the drive back, we stopped to visit the Diamond Falls Botanical Gardens and Mineral Baths. There, we met an older couple from the USA who were volunteering for a week at a school in a coastal village. We skipped the mineral baths, as they didn’t particularly entice us. Back at our accommodation, I took a dip in the villa’s pool and had a long chat with another guest from the UK.

2026.02.09 – [SL] Soufrière ==> Soufrière

After savoring our breakfast, which Jenny diligently prepared—as she did every morning—we left our accommodation and drove to Sugar Beach, nestled beside Petit Piton. Road access was controlled by a luxury resort on the same beach (with rooms starting at around $1,600 per night), so we had to park about 600 meters before the beach and walk down a steep road, while resort guests were chauffeured by taxi. We were offered the option of taking a taxi for USD $5 per person each way, but needing the exercise, we declined.

The snorkeling was the best we had experienced so far on our island-hopping trip: clear water, beautiful healthy coral, and plenty of colorful fish. We even noticed snorkeling excursion boats dropping off their guests at our location in the Anse des Pitons Marine Reserve. Beside our free sunbed, we met a young UK couple traveling with their two-and-a-half-year-old son.

On the way back to our accommodation, we stopped once more at the supermarket. After returning, we both took a dip in the small pool. Later, Jenny went off to rinse our snorkeling gear and clothes and start a load of laundry, while I stayed in the pool and had another long chat with an American couple. Each time we meet people from the USA, they promptly apologize for their government’s behavior.

We ended the day with a good dinner of chicken and fries.

2026.02.10 – [SL] Soufrière ==> Soufrière

We had a nerve-racking day. It began with our usual breakfast, after which we decided to spend our last day in St. Lucia driving to nearby Anse Chastanet Beach and Anse Mamin Beach. Although the beaches were only three kilometers from our accommodation, we had read that the road was in poor condition. We were relieved to find it far less rough than a shortcut we had taken on a secondary road in Dominica.

Upon arriving at Anse Chastanet, we were surprised—and disappointed—to see noticeable waves. We walked over to Anse Mamin Beach, where the waves appeared gentler. However, after about 15 minutes of snorkeling, it became clear that the underwater visibility was poor due to the murky water.

As we made our way back toward shore at a different part of the beach, a series of large waves caught us off guard. Each time we tried to recover from a receding wave, another, stronger one rolled us toward the beach like pebbles. Jenny, being much lighter than me, was pushed underwater more times than she wanted. I finally managed to grab her and help her out of the water, as other beach-goers ran to assist after noticing our distress.

By the time we reached safety, we had lost all of our snorkeling equipment except for Jenny’s snorkel mouthpiece and one of my fins. Jenny was cared for by a kind woman born in the Netherlands and now living in Fredericton, while another couple who came to our aid were from Manitoba. I spent over 20 minutes watching the waves, hoping they might return our missing gear, but the sea was clearly not cooperating.

We drove back to our accommodation still shaken by the incident. To add to the misadventure, my phone somehow got exposed to seawater inside its dry bag on an earlier snorkeling attempt at Chastanet Beach. My dear Huawei phone now appears to be dead. On the positive side, we’ll both have less luggage to pack.

Back at our accommodation, Jenny did a final load of laundry and prepared dinner, all while we remained deeply thankful that we had escaped our snorkeling ordeal safely.

2026.02.11 – [GD] Soufrière ==> St George’s

We set our alarm clocks to make sure we left Soufrière by 7:30 a.m. On the outskirts of Castries, we briefly stopped at a supermarket to grab sandwiches for brunch. It took us 1 hour and 45 minutes to reach the airport, with the last few kilometers moving at a slow pace due to traffic congestion.

The airport only handled propeller aircraft because of its short runway. All the travelers we had met in Soufrière had arrived at the larger international airport in the south of the island. The car rental representative was already waiting for us when we pulled into the airport parking lot, and we checked in shortly after arriving.

Our three-hour wait for the 12:35 flight felt very long, as we had to remain in a small waiting room before security clearance. We kept wondering why we weren’t allowed to proceed through security until our group was called. We were finally permitted to go through security only 30 minutes before departure. The waiting area on the other side was even smaller, holding about 50 passengers.

Our flight back to Barbados departed 20 minutes later than scheduled. We were hoping we would still make our connecting flight to Grenada. Upon arriving in Barbados, we had to go through security screening again before reaching our gate. Just as we arrived, our interCaribbean flight was about to begin boarding. The 40-minute flight was uneventful.

When we landed, we expected to pass quickly through immigration, as we had done on the other islands after completing the electronic travel arrival form. However, as we lined up to see the agent, we were told that the electronic form was not accepted and that we had to complete a paper form instead. Needless to say, we were quite frustrated.

On a positive note, our car rental company, which had an office at the airport, promptly provided us with an SUV for our stay in Grenada. We drove directly to a supermarket to pick up some staples before heading to our accommodation on the outskirts of St. George’s, Grenada’s capital.

Our first impression of the accommodation was somewhat disappointing, but we had to remind ourselves that it was also the cheapest place we had booked during our island-hopping trip. We’ve realized throughout this trip that many accommodation descriptions on Booking.com can be misleading—or even completely inaccurate.

We ended the day with some rather mediocre chicken and pork dinner purchased at the supermarket’s deli counter.