Dear Janus: With your email assistance, my wife and I arranged a private tour of St. Lucia for Wednesday, February 11, 2015. We initially learned of Real St. Lucia Tours by reading various online posts at Cruise Critic. Since this was our first Caribbean cruise, we wanted to do what we could in advance to ensure a great vacation. Just as your instructions had indicated, our guide was patiently standing by the Tourist Information Centre with our name on a placard; he was joined by quite a large number of other tour guides and so forth. We soon learned his name was Hygenus and by the end of the day both Sharon and I had grown very fond of him. We walked about ten minutes to get to a very comfortable automobile (I think it was a Toyota Crown Majesta) which would be our day's mode of transportation. This was quite nice given that the day before we were squeezed into a small van with two other couples for a day's tour of Antigua. Given the hilly terrain of St. Lucia and it's many switchbacks, we felt much more comfortable and safer in this vehicle! Hygenus was keen to ensure we were able to see what we wanted to see and do what we wanted to do while visiting this beautiful island. He carefully plotted what we could accomplish given the time constraints imposed by the cruise ship's departure time. I am a license plate collector and I told Hygenus that I really wanted to try and locate a St. Lucia plate for my collection. He took steps early on so that this objective would be accomplished (unlike my day before in Antigua). Touring in a sedan as part of a private tour has its privileges: we were typically able to arrive at the popular tourist destinations in advance of the vans and buses. Such was the case as we made our way to the famous volcano pools stopping along the way to experience banana ketchup, holding a python snake and snapping some photos of the Pitons. At the pools, Hygenus was a great host instructing me on what I needed to do to get the most out of the experience. He made sure to get into the perfect spot to take our photograph. Later, he arranged for a mini tour of the botanical gardens with his mother given that we were running short of time. St. Lucia was our favorite island of those we visited on this trip; to be sure it is a very beautiful place! That said, our time visiting St. Lucia was made all the more special because of our amazing guide Hygenus. He was polite, friendly, calm, knowledgeable and we knew he had our back! Throughout the day, many people we met seemed to know Hygenus and they would tell us how special he was and that we were lucky to have him as our guide. Initially, our reaction was skeptical but by the end of the day we could see the reasons for the accolades. Thanks again for this tour. We would not hesitate to recommend Real St. Lucia Tours to anybody considering a visit to St. Lucia. We can only vouch for our guide who was exceptional, but by the reviews, it sounds like there are quite a few associated with this company who are just as dedicated and passionate about their customers' enjoyment. Please be sure to pass this along to Hygenus along with our best wishes and thanks! By the way, the St. Lucia license plate is my favorite memento of our Caribbean cruise ; great memories of the day too. Best regards, Gerry & Sharon Comments are closed.
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