One thing Ian and I have done since the beginning of our relationship (and love to do) is travel! 6 months into dating we took a road trip out to South Dakota with Patton, age 10 at the time and my nephew Isaac, age 11. We drove over 2500 miles in a VW Jetta with 2 boys in 6 days and our relationship survived!

Ok, enough about that crazy trip, lets talk about the honeymoon! We definitely splurged on this trip! Not only did we choose a Sandals resort in St Lucia, but we chose an amazing room with a butler. When our travel agent, Susan, first mentioned this package with the butler we thought, NO! we don’t need that. Then the more we thought about it, and the room with the view, the more we wanted to treat ourselves to this. It did cost more than we planned to spend but we also knew we would never get this chance again and if I could do it over again the only thing I would change is the location.

There are 3 Sandals Resorts in St Lucia and we stayed at Halcyon. Apparently this is the more calm and low key of the resorts. Although we stayed at Halcyon we had access to all 3 resorts but only went to one of the other resorts one night to eat at their French Restaurant and it did seem to be a party resort. They were gearing up for a white party with chocolate fountains. So basically you wear all white and eat really messy foods which was making my mom brain hurt.

Back at Halcyon, our room was amazing. It was a row of 4 bungalow rooms that walked out to a pool that connected all the rooms. I originally thought we would never use our little “private” pool but we ended up in that pool more than anything. We had a view of the ocean and there was a little restaurant seconds away that was open all day. Now lets talk about the butler service that came with the room. Like I said before, originally I wasn’t into the idea of the butler because I pictured someone standing right by us at all times just waiting for us to need a refill or to feed us grapes. We had 3 different people throughout the week depending on the time of day and they had 7 other rooms they were taking care of at the same time. Although they were not around all the time they were always right there when we needed something. We saw and spoke to Alice the most and she was fantastic! They took care of dinner reservations, they saved us a spot at the pool, and had a cooler of beer and water waiting. They would bring us breakfast to our room instead of us going down to the restaurant and eating off the buffet. #spoiled On our second to last day there, Alice came over with two mango margaritas because she thought we would enjoy them. I think that was around lunch time and we ended up enjoying mango margaritas the rest of the day…and the next day. We now love mango margaritas!

We never really needed to leave the resort and we would have been very happy spending every minute within the resort walls but we did pay extra for a catamaran boat tour. I feel it was worth it. It got us out on the water and we were able to see more of the island especially the Pitons. (which is what St Lucia is known for) They have many different tours to choose from but ours included a mud bath, waterfall hike, lunch, snorkeling and drinks for the boat ride back. The mud bath was fun but super crowded and they herded you in there like cattle. Same thing with the waterfall. Overall it was a great day and I’m glad we did it!

So if you are still reading and think you may want to book a trip to St Lucia, here are a few things to keep in mind.

• St Lucia is waaayyy down there. There are not many direct flights. (I think you have to fly out of Chicago if you want direct) Therefor you have to do something like fly to Miami, spend the night then fly to St Lucia in the morning. Those 2 flights combines is over 7 hours.

• Once your flight lands in St Lucia you have an hour and a half drive to the resort. This drive is up and down, left and right, through the mountains. The resort does provide a shuttle.

• The resorts there are GORGEOUS but outside those walls it is a different world.

• I would stay at a Sandals resort again in a heartbeat but not at St Lucia. It’s nice to say I’ve been there but we wanted an all inclusive, adult only, room with with an ocean view and you can get that a little cheaper and little close to home at another location.

We are so glad we went through Susan with Dream Vacations. The planning, air travel, hotel reservations, and resort reservations were completely stress free for us. We cannot wait to plan another getaway to a resort.