I just returned from Coco Palm. Having stayed at many other places in SL, I HIGHLY recommend Coco Palm. It truly a great boutique hotel, and for the price, you can't go wrong! Plus the staff are great! Personally, I would just go B&B, as there are many many great restaurants and bars out your door to choose from, at varying prices. The breakfast at CP is continental, breads, yogurt, fruit, but for an extra price, you can get full hot breakfasts too. The rooms are great. I stayed in a poolview room, but had friends who stayed in a gardenview and really liked it. They are quite roomy, and nicely decorated. Very comfortable. Shower had a rainforest showerhead, which was quite nice. Most of the excursions you'd want would be on the south side of the island. I recommend taking a day boat trip to the Pitons, Marigot Bay, etc. SKip the volcano. Bit of a tourist trap. About a 10 minute cab ride from where you're staying is Pigeon Island. I recommend going there and hike up to the peak. Great views. It's not that strenuous. I did it in flip-flops. Costs like $5 U.S. Anything else you need to know, I'd be happy to help. SL is absolutely beautiful! Enjoy.

Hi, stayed here last month and last year as well. Lovely hotel, great location, exceptionally clean and very lovely staff. Are you going with Virgin? if so, the continental breakfast is included although the rep never told us, we were told by the breakfast staff. It consists of bread, toast, fruit, yoghurts and boxes of cereal. You can have cooked for a small charge. I agree to just go with this and choose on a daily basis if you want anything cooked. There are loads of restaurants nearby to choose from. The rooms are lovely with good amenities. We always have a ground floor patio garden room. The poolview rooms at the front of the hotel will get the noise of the various bands playing up to around 10.30/11pm. Being on the ground floor we did hear people coming and going and doors slamming. When we were there they had a business function which took over the whole outside area where they removed all the tables and chairs from the bar/restaurant area and put them by the pool. We were even told we couldnt use the bar! After I complained to a manager, in my opinion, he backtracked quickly and said we could. We felt so pushed out that night we went somewhere else. The noise was really bad that night and til very late, we could hear it at the back of the hotel and someone in a poolview room had earplugs in which we got on the plane. There was also a problem of overbooking there and some quests had to go somewhere else for a couple of nights but another family refused and stayed put - rightly so. I hope this hotel will not put business clients before holidaymakers in future as this would put me off going back there. We had a problem with our air con not working and saw the manager Jean in the end as it had been looked at twice. He was brilliant, got it fixed and everytime he saw me he always asked if everything was ok. This is typical of the staff they are really lovely and was nice to see some who remembered us from last year. The outside bar area is nice for the evenings chatting with the staff and other guests. The pool is very nice albeit too cold for me and they only have 4 parasols. There is a covered shady area but it was always full. They need more unbrellas but getting loungers was never a problem. Pool towels are provided too. Overall, it is an excellent place to stay, pricewise as well, and yes I would go back. I would just be wary of it being overbooked and any future business functions going on.

I was there from March 1 to March 9.

In response to your questions:

There are at least 15 restaurants (probably more) within a 5-minute walk from the hotel. I had a car and dined several times outside of Rodney Bay (Rainforest Hideway, Jacque's Waterside, Dasheene and Coal Pot), so I cannot comment much on the quality of the restaurants (Red Snapper was ok, Ti Bananne at Coco Palm much the same, another spot I cannot recall the name of but was better). I've heard the Edge is very good. In any event, lots of choices.

The continental breakfast is free, but you can order omelets and other breakfast dishes. The continental consisted of orange juice, boxed cereal, yogurt, fresh fruit (often not so good, except great bananas), white & wheat bread (and a toaster) and spice bread. It never changed during my stay. It was not very exciting, but it was fine for me as I'm not much of a breakfast person.

I stayed in a garden view room and I was surprised how nice it was for the money. The hotel is newish and so is the furniture, and it's nice. Bedding was quite comfortable, air conditioning worked perfectly, ceiling fans, in-room safes, plenty of drawers and closet space, television with more channels than anywhere else I've been in the Caribbean and a good size room. My only complaint was the shower because water gets everywhere, but that really was not a big deal to me. The nicest part of the garden view rooms are the lack of noise -- pool side rooms are presented with loud music at night, often until 11:30pm -- so if there's a night you want to turn in early, it won't be a problem.

I would absolutely recommend this hotel to anyone who does not want to spend a fortune and does not want to travel around that much. This was my first time to St. Lucia and I learned that I much preferred being south of Castries -- loved Marigot Bay & Soufrierre for the beauty. But I hated the drive because the traffic between Rodney Bay and Castries was awful -- worse than Chicago where I live.

Rodney Bay offers a lot more action though and you really don't need a car there. You can walk everywhere. Also, Reduit Beach is beautiful but I traveled to Anse Chastanet, Jalousie and Ti Kaye Village to snorkel from the beach -- all were excellent. I posted some additional info in my review of Coco Palm and you can check that out too.

Assuming you stay at Coco Palm, I'd say the one must is a drive around the island -- the Pitons are magnificent, the volcano is a nice, quick and interesting stop, the sunset views from the bar at Ladera spectacular and definitely go to the Fond Doux cocoa plantation -- amazing flowers and trees (cinnamon, almond, clove, nutmeg and cocoa trees), you can see how the process cocoa (much of which gets shipped to Hershey's) and enjoy a very nice creole lunch. On the other hand, the botanic gardens were very overrated.

Thank you all so much for your information.

I think I've made my mind up from your reviews & also on the forum. Couple of other questions:

- we will be travelling with Virgin - is the flight ok?

- how far from the airport is Coco Palm - I'm not sure which airport we're travelling into

- for an evening meal with drinks (we're not heavy drinkers) roughly what would we be paying

- which is the best currency to use EC$ or US$ - normally I use EC$ when travelling to Antigua

Thanks again folks!!

Virgin,

If you can upgrade to Premium Economy - it the scheme of things it is not a lot extra - if only for the return overnight flight.

Seperate check in, seperate cabin and more room.

Hi DeanyD, the flights with Virgin have always been good. Apart from my last return which I have posted about but down to weather nothing else. I found the food good, drinks when you want them plus ice-cream, watchable tv films/programmes and a free amenities bag with bits in. I agree, Premium Economy is very nice and I flew out last year on this and sat upstairs by the exit doors so we had loads of space. Getting this on your return flight is a good idea, will probably cost you around £250/£295 each. Its a 1.5hr drive from the airport. I have always taken E.C's. Can't remember meal costs but are much cheaper than here. Do remember paying £10 for 3 lattes, a coke and 40 benson & hedges and thought they had undercharged me! This was in Cafe Claude next door to the Coco Palm which is a nice place for lunch etc and we went there daily for drinks. When you going?

Hi eve

We're going at the end of August. I hope that the weather will be nice & hot at that time.

We've decided upgraded to Premium Economy. Virgin have a sale on at the moment so it was much cheaper & may be the only time we'll ever be able to afford it!!

We're just a little anxious about having to carry around money all the time to buy food. Hope it's not going to be too much hassle. How far is Coco Palm from the beach? Is there a beach bar we can buy food & drink? Is there much evening entertainment either at Coco Palm or nearby?

Hi, with the cash, there is a room safe and we just took out so much for each day. There is also a system where Coco Palm guests can sign their bills at several restaurants in Rodney Bay to their hotel accounts. Not done this but they will advise you at the hotel which ones. You can also do this at their restaurant and when using the hotel bar as well, save carrying money around or if caught short. There is a bank/atm at the hotel stairs which we used quite a bit. We always got confused using the atm but the security guard there always helped us out, really helpful. This was using the one inside the bank door and there is also one outside which is a driveup one. So enabling you to get money while out there at a good rate too. We always buy drinks/food from the nearby supermarket and put it in the room fridge too. We also had Dominio's pizza delivered one night to our room, which is allowed, and room service from the hotel restaurant. The beach is a 5min walk. One beach place we always used was Spinnakers, right on the beach and great for cocktails. The hotel has bands most nights and we always stayed at the bar in the evenings or in Marigot Bay. As you are right in the heart of Rodney Bay there are plenty of places to go. Others on here can advise you of the good ones. Good you upgraded on the flight see if you can get the exit door seats upstairs when you bookin. We were really lucky to get these and had so much room. Anything else just ask and will try and help. Others on here are brilliant as well and gave me so much info when I first went here.

Evie covered almost everything in her response. The only point I would add is that most restaurants in Rodney Bay accept credit cards. Not sure how it works in the UK, but with most US credit cards, you end up having a 2 - 3% fee (foreign currency exchange fee) tacked on, but in the scheme of things, it can be worth the cost to not have to carry around a lot of cash (cash makes me nervous). I also brought some travelers checks but only ended up using one. Between the bank fees and time wasted in the bank, I probably would not do that again.

evie/beachdreams 2

Thanks for your help. I'll speak to our travel agent about requesting those seats on the flight.

I feel much better now about the whole trip and am really looking forward to it.

Thanks again for all your help. If you have any other info that may sping to mind I'll keep looking out for you on the site!!

Thanks again guys.