They only run north-south. That is from the French islands and then down to St.Lucia and back. There is a web page giving details. Look for "Express des Isles".. There is no ferry service between Barbados and St.Lucia.

hi bearded f

we have just returned from 8 weeks in the lesser antilles; we used both airplanes and ferries to get from island to island.

we took a ferry from st.lucia to martinique (get tickets at ferry port directly, there are 2 different ferry companies). we chose the wrong company (the one on the first floor) the ferry was only a 12 seater and the waves were HEAVY. 2,5 hours to "le marin" in martinique.

from there on we only took "express des iles" from martinique to dominica (fort de france- roseau) and dominica to guadeloupe (roseau- Point a pitre). other than that, we travelled liat (barbados- st.lucia) (guadeloupe- antigua) and winair (antigua- montserrat).

i have to say that the advantage of taking the ferry is the reliability. the ferries were always on time and there was never any problems with ticketing or check in.

liat and winair are horrible airlines, just as you hear it everywhere (no offence to anyone who is fond of them)- we had nothing but bad experiences!

in terms of prices, we were very disappointed, we had thought the ferries would be much cheaper- but at the end, they are the same price as the flights!! the departure tax is a bit less.

if u go by ferry, you get a discount if you are under 26 and it is the cheapest if you buy all ferry tickets at once rather than seperately on every island!