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

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Scuba St. Lucia/Anse Chastanet, Oct, 2004, by Laurie & Kerry Watts, NC, USA . Report 1565.
No photos available at this time
Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Accommodations		Food
Service and Attitude		Environmental Sensitivity	N/A
Dive Operation		Shore Diving
Snorkeling	N/A
Overall Rating
Value for $$	N/A
Beginners
Advanced
Comments	We actually did not expect at lot from the diving in St. Lucia but were pleasantly surprised. Reefs are very healthy with large schools of typical Caribbean fish - angels, parrotfish, butterfly fish, creole wrasse, fairy basslets, blue chromis, etc. Noticeable lack of large species such as grouper, barracuda, sharks, turtles, rays etc. Scuba St. Lucia is onsite at Anse Chastenet Resort. Lockers and spacious rinse facilities are available to divers. Most of the staff is friendly and helpful, especially the divemasters. Some of the administrative staff are constantly preoccupied and can't be bothered. The Anse Chastanet Reef is a shore dive right off of the resort which is one of the best dives in this area. You may see it a lot as there are only 2 single tank boat dives per day and all other dives are shore dives. Keep this in mind if you purchase a dive package. The shore dives are guided as St. Lucia law does not permit divers to go it alone. We were told that they offer an additional boat dive in the morning if we had four or more divers who wanted to go. When we got four divers together and tried to reserve an early morning dive the next day, they told us that the dive boat was being used to escort other guests to Castries for a shopping trip. Having booked a dive package, we were a bit annoyed that we (the divers) didn't seem to be a priority to the dive shop or the dive boats. The Anse Chastanet Resort is only 25 miles from the airport but the trip took a hot and dusty 1 ½ hours because of the poor roads and construction. Anse Chastanet is a beautiful resort with amazing architectural design built into the side of a mountain near the town of Soufriere. Because the resort is built into the side of a cliff, you’ll need to climb at least 118 steps once or more a day. The restaurant and hillside rooms offer spectacular views of the ocean and the Pitons. The rooms are amazing with West Indian decor and an open design, using slats instead of windows. Of course, there are no TV's, phones or A/C, but most self-respecting Caribbean travelers don't want or need these things anyway. We were very happy with our beach deluxe room but note that these rooms are not directly on the beach, but tucked away in a garden area near the beach. There is some noise in the evenings from the live entertainment and you’ll hear the staff arrive every morning at 6am. Food at the resort is mediocre, but the roads are too treacherous to venture out at night to another restaurant. A la carte prices off the menu are outrageous so I advise getting your meals included in a package in order to avoid total outrage. Every night, we had some sort of entertainment such as a jazz trio or a steel drum band. The black sand beach is great with beach huts and lounge chairs. You can stake your flag outside your beach hut when you're ready for a pina colada or some lunch. Overall, St. Lucia is one of the most beautiful, romantic islands we’ve visited and Anse Chastenet Resort is a great place to go if you want to chill out on the beach and do a little diving. People who DIVE-DIVE-DIVE their vacations may be disappointed in the lack of dive site variety and the fact that diving is not the highest priority at the resort.
Reporter and Travel
Dive Experience	101-250 dives
Where else diving	Roatan, Bonaire, Aruba, Grand Cayman, Little Cayman, Belize, British Virgin Islands, St. Kitts, Saba, Bahamas, Dominican Republic, Barbados, Cozumel
Closest Airport		Getting There
Dive Conditions
Weather	sunny	Seas	calm
Water Temp	81-83°F / 27-28°C	Wetsuit Thickness	0
Water Visibility	70-90 Ft/ 21-27 M
Dive Policy
Dive own profile	yes
Enforced diving restrictions	All dives guided, even shore dives (required by law in St. Lucia).
Liveaboard?	no	Nitrox Available?	N/A
What I Saw
Sharks	None	Mantas	None
Dolphins	None	Whale Sharks	None
Turtles	None	Whales	None
Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):
Corals		Tropical Fish
Small Critters		Large Fish
Large Pelagics
Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Subject Matter	N/A	Boat Facilities	N/A
Overall rating for UWP's	N/A	Shore Facilities	N/A
UW Photo Comments	[None]

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

Scuba St. Lucia/Anse Chastanet, Oct, 2004,

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 Chastanet in
St. Lucia