St. Lucia help! (Sandals La Toc and Halcyon)

We went to St. Lucia but stayed on the other side of the island near Soufriere! (Sugar Beach - it was amazing)

Here are some past forum posts about the Sandals Resorts in St. Lucia, hopefully they're helpful!

https://www.weddingwire.com/wedding-forums/st-lucia-sandals-who-is-going/7c00ab6dd458c142.html

https://www.weddingwire.com/wedding-forums/sandals-st-lucia-grande-vs-la-toc/e411ca4a965b6b53.html

https://www.weddingwire.com/wedding-forums/sandals-st-lucia-la-toc/63e54285e1c15c9b.html

https://www.weddingwire.com/wedding-forums/have-you-been-to-sandals-la-toc-st-lucia/bb7878b52f798217.html

https://www.weddingwire.com/wedding-forums/opinions-on-st-lucia/7be192d589ace21f.html

https://www.weddingwire.com/wedding-forums/sandals-grande-st-lucia/4b3ce63fdaee2530.html

We are honeymooning at La Toc at the beginning of May! We've never been there so I can't really give you advice there, but if it's a Sandals all inclusive - everything is already paid for (tips included) so you'll just need spending money for souvenirs.

We stayed at La Toc and had an amazing time. The only thing you need to bring money for is if you plan to do any excursions which can range from $25pp to like $150 or $200pp.

The cool thing about Sandals St Lucia is that you can stay at one and play at 3. There is a shuttle that runs between all of the resorts all day long. We went over to Halcyon a couple of days to eat and watch Karaoke and stuff. They are both beautiful. There is an older crowd that stays at Halycon, and it seemed like the beach was a little smaller. You'll probably hear the waters can be rougher at La Toc but they were fine when we went. You should really only take that into account if you plan on renting their kayaks or paddleboards.

You would honestly probably be happy with either! St Lucia is a beautiful place!

We are going to La Toc in July...we picked it because as far as the rooms are concerned it seemed to be a little more for your money (nicer room for the same amount as a 'lesser' room at the others) and knew we could go to all three during the day if we wanted too!

You ladies are so helpful! Thank you tons. I read at a lot of places that at La Toc the water is rough, but if we can go to the other two resorts during the day it's really no big deal!

Are you supposed to tip? Someone said that it's already included in the price, so I wasn't sure.

Also, what room did you all book?

This review was shared not long ago on the ww bride2bride FB page. Might help with the decision.

https://www.facebook.com/kristee.leigh/posts/10210876302040581

Nope, tipping is not allowed unless you have a room with a butler. We stayed in the Honeymoon Walk-out suite and it was perfect. On the bottom level, and could walk right out of our room. I would honestly advise a bottom level room because what looks like a balcony in some of the pictures on the website, isn't really a balcony at all. It was also in a perfect location, close to the pool but not right in front of it. Also close to the all-day free pizza!

I heard that Hycalon is much older and out dated. We're going to La Toc in January for our Honeymoon! Our friends went last year and loved it

I had looked into ladera at st. Lucia

Awesome, thank you all! I'm leaning more towards La Toc right now for sure.

Did you all book through the Sandals website?

@Courtney I'd loooove to hear your feedback when you get back. How long are you going for?

I haven't read previous comments to disregard if I'm repeating

We booked Sandals Grande and splurged since it's the most expensive of the 3 sandals on St Lucia. Our reasoning is because a nice swimmable beach was important to us. After researching, La Toc has a beach, but most days the water is too rough with undertow that its not open for swimming. We like larger resorts to take walks around the grounds and the beach in the evenings before/after dinner. I had a cousin stay at La Toc and 2 coworkers as well for their honeymoons and they had nothing bad to say. I personally didn't want to have to take a shuttle to a beach I want to lounge in the water at.

It also seems like Grande is a little more livelier.

According to my cousin

Grande is the party resort with stuff always going on

La Toc is the garden one with really nice scenery

Halcyon is the quiet/small one

Looks like I'm booking the Grande! lol

We booked a room in Pitons...it's ocean view with a balcony...and this one is a real balcony (at least according to the photos...it has a table and lounge chairs!)

We almost did the butler room, but couldn't bring ourselves to spend the extra $1200 for something we probably wouldn't use enough to be worth it.

Please read what Nadja shared above... On Dec 8 in the fb group "WW Bride-2-Bride" someone named Kristy posted a horrible experience she had with Halcyon with pics of what it really looks like there. I would definitely not go there after seeing that.

Just wanted to add, the beaches aren't private, at any of the resorts. The locals hang out on the beach and harass you to buy cigars, weed, and excursions. We had all intentions to swim and lay out on the beach but it never happened because it was just too much of an annoyance. When I stayed at La Toc, the red flag for rough waters wasn't up the entire time.

Thank you!

I just read that. I feel so bad for them, geez. La Toc is my number one right now, unless we can splurge a little more for the Grande.

Stinks that the beaches aren't private. We went through the same thing in Cancun!

Following!

How long have you stayed/will stay there?! I'm thinking of doing a week.

We stayed at La Toc for our honeymoon in September this past year. It was amazing. The scenery was beautiful, food was all great. About the water: it was too rough to swim the majority of the week, but for 2 or 3 days, the water was very calm, so we were able to paddle board, kayak, float in the ocean, and swim. The days where it was rough I was way too afraid to swim. The waves were huge, but gorgeous. Our first night, we got to stay in a sunset bluff suite I believe, then the rest of the week we stayed in a walkout room. We were in the water the whole time and I really have nothing bad to say about it. We went snorkeling through the resort (it's free) and the views you see underwater were incredible!

We chose La Toc mainly for the food (amount of restaurants) and golfing. We did visit the grande one night. Be aware that you have to wait for shuttles and it takes about an hour to get to the other resorts. At the grande, we enjoyed laying in the hammicks, a swinging bed, playing huge shuffle board, and eating by the beach.

Also, La Toc is very hilly, so be prepared to walk a ton. But once again, the views are way more incredible than Hal or Grande in my opinion.