Dive Review of Scuba St. Lucia/Anse Chasanet in
St. Lucia/Anse Chasanet

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Scuba St. Lucia/Anse Chasanet, May, 2010, by Steve Dussault, NH, US ( Contributor 18 reports with 4 Helpful votes). Report 5509.
No photos available at this time
Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Accommodations		Food
Service and Attitude		Environmental Sensitivity
Dive Operation		Shore Diving
Snorkeling	N/A
Overall Rating
Value for $$
Beginners
Advanced
Comments	Anse Chastanet St. Lucia May 2010 Arrangements were made directly with the booking office for Anse Chastanet. As part of the reservation package you will receive a medical release form to be reviewed. If you answer yes to any of the questions, you are required to have a medical release from a dive physician (and folks wonder why divers do not fill out medical forms truthfully - good luck in finding a dive physician to sign off on a medical release). We signed up for the 'Run of the House' package that included 12 dives and the meal plan (breakfast, lunch, afternoon tea and dinner). After arriving at St. Lucia we had a 1 hour taxi ride to the resort. The last 2 miles is a secondary road that is very steep and rough. Upon arriving at the resort all your troubles disappear and the staff of Anse Chastanet take care of your every need. There is a welcome reception where the appropriate paper work is taken care of. The electric power at St. Lucia 220 volts / 50 Hz so adapters so transformers are needed to plug in 110 volt equipment. The resort does have available transformers for use at no charge. St. Lucia requires that all dives be guided - even shore dives. At Anse Chastanet your first dive is a mandatory shore dive where you will be required to perform basic skills reviews (mask clearing and regulator clearing). After your mandatory shore dive, you can either do boat dives or shore dives. The resort has 2 large dive boats (20 diver capacity) that take you to dive sites that are 5 to 15 minutes away. The typical dive profile was 60 feet for 60 minutes although some dive guides would start to try ending the dive at 45 minutes. If you are diving with a computer deeper depths are allowed. NITROX is available at the resort. The involvement of the dive guides varied. Some dive guides would point out items and others would just float along dragging the surface marker buoy with them. Divers have to haul their equipment to the boat every day, set up their equipment, and change over their own cylinders. Not a big deal but the resort prides itself on pampering you but apparently not when it comes to diving. There is a medium size rinse bucket on the boats for cameras and a large dedicated camera rinse tank at the dive shop. You may need to empty the rinse bin and wash the sand and slime out of the bin before putting your camera in. The staff did not appear to be concerned about keeping the camera rinse tank clean. The Anse Chastanet Resort is right in the middle of the Marine Reserve so the reefs are in pretty good shape and there is lots of color on the reefs. Most of the dives are drift dives with lots to see. There is a lot of soft and a proliferation of fish. We saw sea horses, frog fish, Caribbean Spiny lobster, Batwing Coral Crab, Spotted Moray, Whitespotted Filefish, Spotted Drum, Honeycomb Cowfish, Spotted Scorpionfish, Yellowhead Jawfish, Squirrelfish, Parrotfish, French Angelfish. Most of the fish we saw were juvenile. The resort requires a glow stick be attached to your cylinder for night dives. I thought most places banned glow sticks but these folks require them and charge $4.00 per stick. So if you are planning to do night dives, plan on bringing some glow sticks with you. The night dive turned out to be a shore dive which is the same dive as the checkout dive. At first we thought the night dive would be a bust, but it actually turned out to be pretty good. I think a boat dive on the reef at night would be pretty spectacular. The rooms at Anse Chastanet were beautiful. Our room 5B opened up onto a deck overlooking The Pitons on one side and the Anse Chastanet beach on the other. The only rooms that have air conditioning are the beachside rooms. There was a breeze through our room but with the mosquito netting over the bed at night it got rather hot. The ceiling fan did little to help. After the first night we requested a separate fan which helped. The deluxe rooms have two sides open which is beautiful, but I wonder about the bugs. Mosquitos were a real problem for most people. Our room had screens, but the doors were opened during the day and invariably they found you. We brought lots of Deet and Benadryl spray. Everyone we spoke to and saw had lots of bites. One couple we rode from the airport with moved to a beachside room with A/C to get away from the mosquitos. The food at Anse Chastanet is awesome! We were wary when we signed up for the meal plan as you’re a captive audience, but were very pleasantly pleased. There are 4 different restaurants on the property to pick from. There is something for everyone and the variety and quality of the food was great. We strongly suggest that you consider the meal plan or the $50 buffet breakfast for two might shock you. There are many other activities to do while at Anse Chastanet. You may want to plan to have non-dive days so as to be able to have time to do the other activities-kayaking, jungle biking, walks and hiking, sailing, tennis, yoga, and the spa. While at the resort be sure to walk up to Jade Mountain Resort and ask for a tour. One of our friends got upgraded to Jade Mountain for the last 3 nights of their 10 night stay. It’s pretty amazing.
Websites	Scuba St. Lucia
Reporter and Travel
Dive Experience	501-1000 dives
Where else diving	Carribean, Mexico, Fiji, Micronesia, Thailand, New Zealand, Alaska, US
Closest Airport		Getting There
Dive Conditions
Weather	sunny	Seas	calm
Water Temp	82-84°F / 28-29°C	Wetsuit Thickness
Water Visibility	50-75 Ft/ 15-23 M
Dive Policy
Dive own profile	yes
Enforced diving restrictions	Dive guide stated 45 minutes / 60 feet but could dive deeper with computer. Most dives lasted close to 60 minutes
Liveaboard?	no	Nitrox Available?	yes
What I Saw
Sharks	None	Mantas	None
Dolphins	None	Whale Sharks	None
Turtles	1 or 2	Whales	None
Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):
Corals		Tropical Fish
Small Critters		Large Fish	N/A
Large Pelagics	N/A
Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Subject Matter		Boat Facilities
Overall rating for UWP's		Shore Facilities
UW Photo Comments	Small camera bucket on boat (sometimes) and dedicated shore tank not the cleanest. Some dive guides pointed out subject matter and some did not.

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Dive Review of Scuba St. Lucia/Anse Chasanet in St. Lucia/Anse Chasanet

Scuba St. Lucia/Anse Chasanet, May, 2010,

Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Overall Rating

Reporter and Travel

Dive Conditions

Dive Policy

What I Saw

Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):

Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Dive Review of Scuba St. Lucia/Anse Chasanet in
St. Lucia/Anse Chasanet