We stayed for just 3 days at Hummingbird. It was a totally delightful experience. We were in the least expensive room, but had access to all of the advantages of the resort. The restaurant was top notch. We loved the staff and the food and the ambiance. And for any snorkeling lovers this is paradise. Right down the beach is a wonderful site with fish,coral and fantastic visibility.

There are many beautiful resorts in the hills around Soufriere, including old plantations etc. But if you want to stay in the actual town, the Hummingbird seems like the best option.

HOTEL
The hotel is lovely, with lots of flowering bushes. The hotel name is appropriate because there are plenty of hummingbirds around.

The swimming pool is pretty small but looked inviting. The views towards the Petit Piton mountain was gorgeous. The beach just in front of the hotel was pretty good, and even the snorkling was OK there (at the end, along the rocks).

I found staff to be very helpful. Remember this is the Caribbean, if you show some warmth and humour, you will see how helpful and lovely people can be here.

There is free Wi-Fi internet in the lobby area, in my room I was able to catch a very weak signal, but i don't think it reaches all rooms.

The restaurant was also very good, even if it's pricey for local standards (mains are around USD 20-25). The hotel is at the edge of the town, about 5 minutes walk from the main square. Most restaurants in town are more simple, local style.

ROOMS
I was in an "AC suite" which was large, clean, had air-con and TV, but was a bit dark since it's literally located under the swimmingpool terrasse. It cost USD 120 + tax in March. The Hummingbird has many different room categories, which can be a bit confusing and potentially a bit of a lottery.

I thought the "Honeymoon Suites" looked nice since they get more light than my room, but I heard they didn't have air cons and that some mosquitoes did get in (I had no mosquitoes in my room). There are also economy rooms for only USD 60-65 but they were all taken when I stayed at the hotel.

In summary, I do recommend the Hummingbird if you want to be based in Soufriere town.

By the way, the hike up the Gros Piton peak was beautiful. It's a 3-4 hour steep walk, up and down, with very good views. No climbing, just walking. The hotel reception arranged it with the local village at the mountain base, total cost including transport was about USD 50-70 depending on group size (you can also go alone with a guide for about USD 70).

We spent 4 days at the Hummingbird's in January 09 and had a really great time! The staff was really helpful, always with a smile on their faces. We stayed in the Piton standard room. It was one of the cheapest rooms, but it was really really good. It had no AC, but since we had a ceiling fan and since it was quite breezy at night we didn't miss it!

The beach in front of the hotel was very nice. The locals use it as well and it felt very genuine there. We liked the genuine feeling there and also the fact that we didn't have to be squeezed in on an overloded beach full of cruise-ship-tourists.

One day we also walked to Anse Chastenet, which was another lovely beach 20 minutes beautiful walk away! We ate at the Hummingbird restaurant twice and the restaurant was very cosy and the food very good. The cocktails were excellent, one favorite was the "coco love". The view from the hotel is stunning and at night we could hear the ocean. Very romantic!

From the town it was about a 20 minutes to walk to the Botanical Gardens. We went there in the morning, at ten o clock, and there were just us there! Taking the local bus was a very easy and cheap way to go to all the places nearby worth visiting, such as the drive in volcano etc. One day we went horseback riding at the Coubaril Estate and that was a really great experience.

We can really recommend this place and we would really like to go there again some day!

I had read all the reviews for this resort and decided it would be the perfect getaway for our family of two sons with their spouses and our single, college-aged daughter. One of my husband's requirements was that he could hear the ocean from our bedroom, and that requirement was met!! Our bedroom was one of the rooms with the view of the pitons and the giant four poster beds with mosquito netting. One son and his wife had the room next door and the other son and his wife and our daughter used the cottage, which is a short walk up the road outside the entrance to the resort. We had a pleasant ride to the resort from the airport with Jones as our driver (who I would highly recommend--we used him all week long) and the resort had set him up for us.
As was mentioned in previous reviews, do not be in any sort of hurry when you place your order to eat--at any time of the day. This is true no matter where you go in St. Lucia!! The food was good, but by the end of the week, we were ready for something else!
We also ate at Ladera's, which had fabulous menu and the steaks were perfect. Our daughter is a vegetarian, and she enjoyed her pasta and vegetables as well. They also had a live band the night we were there (Thurs), which added to the fun. It is a bit more expensive, but I thought it was well worth it.
The beach outside the Hummingbird was wonderful for snorkeling, and there were beach chairs available, but you had to wait for security to come unlock them for you to get them outside to the beach.
We all received the famous mosquito bites (although they did not look like mosquito bites to me--they were small, red circles, not big blotches, like we have here in Missouri!!) Anyway, my son and his wife that stayed in the room next door to us were covered in bites all over, even when they used the netting, so that was not a pleasant thing for them to endure the whole week, as they got their bites the first night we were there and more were added nightly!! My daughter-in-law also had a white blouse left on top of the dresser and when she went to put it on there was yellow stain all over it, like a yellow highlighter, and I don't know what in the world caused that, but she was quite upset. We didn't say anything, because when I asked about the bites, the housekeeper acted like it was so unusual to happen, I just didn't want to pursue it. My other daughter in law lost the lid to her contact case up at the cottage. Actually, when she came back to the room after it had been cleaned, she noticed the green lid was missing from the white case, and had been replaced with a white pop bottle lid. Very strange!! The staff was very friendly, but not really helpful when it came to these matters!
The electricity went out twice while we were there (both times in the middle of the night), which wasn't bad, except for the fact the ceiling fans weren't going for all that time, and gave the mosquitoes more opportunity to do their thing.
We were also charged for a snorkel fin that we did not lose. Their check out procedure for snorkeling equipment is you go to the cabinet and pick them out and when you return them you leave them, there is no checking off names or sizes or anything, and there were other people using snorkeling equipment that day also. Not happy about that.
We did tour the botanical gardens, the Fond Doux cocoa plantation (which had a much better variety of plants to see than the botanical garden and a lovely lunch), the drive thru volcano, walked to town several times (the Chinese restaurant was great), ziplined, snorkeled and my daughter got her diving certification finished while we were there. Chester was great. He has a dive shop right outside the gate on the beach and is very good.
We also used Joel for a water taxi and a 43' yacht one day, which was excellent. Very fair prices.
Make sure you go to Ti Kaye beach, that was the best snorkeling ever.
All in all it was a relaxing, fun trip for most of our family, but the bites took a lot of the fun out of it for our son and daughter in law.