We were booked to stay in The St Lucian but were upgraded to the Royal. The St Lucian / Papillion shares the same reception however the All inclusive restaurants are seperate with Papillion guests not allowed to use the St Lucian Restuarants ( I dont know if fees can be paid to use the St Lucian Restaurants and Bars) We paid for AI for the St Lucian but ended up not using it for meals and dining out. The Pool and rooms at the Royal are far superior and if you want to use the pool / shops etc at the St Lucian you can do, however, guests of the St Lucian are turned away from the pool at the Royal by security!

There are many local restaurants so I would suggest using them especially Spinnakers which is next to the Royal which was brilliant. (Make use of the entertainment at the St Lucian as the Royal has very little!) Don't miss Diamond Steel the steel band. Buzz was another favourite of ours but the choice is yours as there are many which you could walk or take a taxi to.

Hello Metalbabe,

Don't do this replying malarkey often but on the site as just booked the Royal again.( Oct for 14 nights )

I have stayed at the Papillon/ St Lucian and the Royal. They simply do not compare !!

The Papillon is equivilent 2 star over here, even for us Yorkshire living folk.

The St Lucian is 3 star.

The Royal 4/5.

BUT it depends on what you want ?

If you are foodies you will be very dissappointed with the All inc BUT the St Lucian has a very good restauarant in the Oriental and the Chic is showy but very very good in the Royal. The restaurants around are great - Charthouse, Bigsteak, Spinnakers is OK, Razmattaz etc etc.

For this reason alone we won't be going back in October on the All inc.

All the hotels at the end of the day have the same Beach, views etc etc but it boils down to your accommodaton desire. You will be disppointed with the Papillon's rooms as they are knackered, St Lucians are a tad better. Royals are Brilliant, air con is spot on and service is top notch and so friendly.

If you like Pools - scrap the Papillon, its too small and full of Chav's and it is dirty around the Bar area near the loungers etc etc. St Lucians is very good, Royals ...yes you've guessed it - Brilliant. Check out the free sorbets and cool towels they give you mid affy.

You are imho picking the right resort especially if you like to venture out for eats etc etc. Nowehere else in St Lucia is like Reduit Beach/Rodney Bay for that, BUT for a really good hotel it has to be the Royal. The St Lucian is OK but you'll kick yourself when you walk next door to the Royal and the Papillon is as some guests have called it, a poor Motel.

Only prob not doing AI will be the drinks BUT I bet you still save if you don't plump for this option.

Hope this helps - let me know what you choose ?

Cheers - have a good trip.

AJ ( North Yorks )

Stayed in St Lucian in April - I more or less agree with Sweepdogs comments.

Rex St Lucia is shabby but I wouldn't call it dirty exactly, that's just the impression you get when your room looks past it's sell by date! In retrospect I'd have rather been in the Royal but at the time I wasn't prepared to pay any more for a 1 week stay to attend a wedding. If it's your main holiday then the Royal might be a nicer choice.

If anyone is already booked for the St Lucian, it's not so bad I'd say CHANGE! Just expect the rooms to appear a bit 'tired' and you won't be disappointed when you arrive.

Rex Papillon, St Lucian & Royal are brilliantly located if you want to go for a stroll and a drink/meal 'off resort'.

Hi

thanks for all of the replys!

This is (very sadly!) my first holiday in 7 years and is costing quite a lump of money - I am now in ultra-panic mode!

I am leaning more toward staying at the Royal Half Board.

It sounds nice from the review and at least by going half board we can sample the local restuarants - I am very much a food fan!!!

My partner is worried about the cost of the extra meals/drinks though but if the All Inc food is that bad at the Papillon/St Lucian, we would proberbly end up eating out anyway, thus wasting money?!

Any other advice would be gratefully received!

Thanks,

Jo xxx

I stayed at the Royal St. Lucian a few years ago. It was very very nice. The rooms are nice because it has a bath area, then a raised bed area, a separate sitting area (couch, chair, table, tv) and a balcony. The hotel is beautiful! The entry is open, no windows or doors. The breakfast at the hotel restaurant was very good. I can't remember the names of the restaurants, but the restaurant across the street from the hotel was very good and the steak restaurant down the street from the hotel was great. The beach at the hotel and the pool were awesome. You can get some good deals for renting water sport items. There is a rainforest hike that is like 3-4 hours. It's rough but well worth it!

The only negative to the hotel was the bed. The king was two twins pulled together. Not romantic and very uncomfortable. We requested a true king but they said that's how all the kings were. Hopefully they have upgraded that!

Hi, would like to offer my opinion if you haven't already booked. We stayed at the Royal in May and as you sound like you need a good break I would say this is your best hotel in the area. We booked B & B and it was well worth it as you can eat really well at lots of places nearby. Quite often we ended a sunbathing day at the Royal's pool by going next door to Spinnakers downing 2 drinks for the price of one watching the sunset over the sea -then as night fell, deciding we couldn't be bothered to go back to room and change- so in sarong and shorts we'd stay there chilling to the music and then eat there from a very good menu at very good price. Have some lovely memories from there of great sunsets, great cocktails and great food right on the beach at a very good price -can't be bettered IMHO!

Or you can get dressed up and wander across the road for more upperclass type nosh. The Coco Palm restaurant was our favourite, pricey, but really atmospheric open air dining for special occasion. There are all sorts of priced restaurants close to the Royal and it was well worth just having B & B so we could decide at night on what we fancied, from plain salads/burger/steaks/wonderful fresh fish its all close by and all good.

Have a great time and do wander around the Bay, you'll find lots of choice.

We stayed at the Papillon and it was terrible. The rooms were very tired, not that clean and need total refurbishment. for the money we paid. Not value for money. The pool area of the Papillon was very basic, nothing like the other side of the Rex grounds, I agree with the other forum member who said 2 star for Papillon. It was difficult to secure a chair by the pool or on the grass area each day, there were not enough for the people at the time of our stay and to use the ones on the beach there was a charge for chairs & umbrellas! The restaurant on the Papillon end was nothing special at all, we didn't eat some items as the flies were around the uncovered food and there wasn't a great selection of food either. We hope it has changed from our stay for the better.

o.k , i am pushing in on your conversations, I am looking to travel at xmass from manchester and I thought I had reached a conclusion that the papillon was ideal, however after reading this script I too would like to go to the Royal.Which travel company does b and b, as this is the prferred choice.