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

 Bahamas, Caribbean, Australia, Malaysia, Indonesia, Cocos Island,
Galapagos, Micronesia, Guam, Hawaii, Bikini, Caymans, etc. 

Dive Conditions

Depth limits recommended, but allowed to go deeper. No decompression. Time
limit.  

Small water bin on boat. Large rinse tank at dive shop.   

Overall Rating

From the moment we arrived at the airport and handed bottled water, until
we boarded our cabs back to the airport, we were totally pampered and
spoiled. If anyone in our group had a complaint, they kept it to
themselves; mostly people said “we want to come back.” We lucked out
weather-wise, with moderate temperatures and occasional showers, but
nothing to hamper our activities. 

At Anse Chastanet you can laze around on the beach all day, having drinks
delivered to your umbrella, or you can be busy all day long. There are many
complimentary activities, such as the plantation tour, which we highly
recommend. Several of the group tried out the biking trails, which are also
great for hiking. Windsurfing and sailing are also complimentary. There are
also many tours available at additional cost. Then there’s the spa—many
massages were enjoyed, along with freshly manicured toes and fingernails.
Of course most of us went to dive, and we did plenty of that. Because
planes leave late in the day, we were able to dive six days on a week long
package, two boat dives each day, plus shore diving. The diving is average
to better than average for the Caribbean. Some of the diving got a bit
monotonous, but then I would see something unusual, like jackknife fish,
“The Thing”, tiny juvenile trunk fish, seahorses, and the black brotula. We
saw several turtles. The wreck of the Lesleem M was pretty cool as everyone
explored on their own. Two shore night dives were included in our package,
and these were very good—I counted at least 30 lobsters of various kinds on
the first, along with numerous crabs, scorpion fish, eels, an octopus, tons
of shrimp, and sleeping fish.

There were 15 divers on our boat, with plenty of room. There were two
guides and all dives except the wreck and night shore dives were easy drift
dives. Dives lasted 50-60 minutes with a couple lasting 65 minutes. Some of
us did an additional daytime shore dive, also guided, where we saw a
seahorse and a flying gurnard. Since St. Lucia is a volcanic island, the
underwater terrain consisted of large volcanic rocks with some coral
growing on it. The sponges, some as large as 5 feet, and soft corals looked
healthy and vibrant, while much of the coral looked bleached and dead.

Accommodations varied from the standard room with screened slat windows to
two-bedroom suites, to the beach rooms, to the almost top-of-the-hill, no
wall rooms. The new Jade Mountain, each room with its own endless pool, was
so popular we couldn’t even do a tour. Shuttles were available for those
not inclined to hike up and down the many steps. We picked a week at Anse
Chastanet that had few mosquitoes and cooled down enough at night so AC was
not missed. Although the rooms do not have telephones or televisions, there
is a high speed internet connection in the main bar back by the small
library.

Breakfast was available buffet style or off the menu upstairs or beach
level. Lunch was buffet style or off the menu at the beach restaurant, and
dinner was available in any of three restaurants, with choices of world,
Indian/Caribbean, or simpler grilled menus. The food was good to excellent,
and there were some killer desserts.

Anse Chastanet can be very expensive; the best deal is getting a package
with a group. It's a great place for nondiving spouses and people that want
to do things besides dive all the time. Even though we got a bit bored with
some of the diving, we had a wonderful time. We heard the age limit for
children was being raised to fifteen so double-check before taking
children. One couple in our group rode the helicopter from Jade Mountain to
the airport and loved it.

Anse Chastanet advertises itself as a five star hotel. Although it’s a
beautiful place and AC would be tough to institute in many of the room
lay-outs, air-conditioning is sorely missed if it’s hot and muggy, which in
my opinion keeps it from being a true five star resort. But with the
excellent food, decent diving, numerous activities, and pampering by the
entire staff, it gets darn close.  

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