St. Lucia · Backpacking
ON A BUDGET
Steep, green and small, with minibuses that cost pennies and stop running not long after dark.
Sleep at Gros Islet
The village next to Rodney Bay has the cheapest rooms in the north, walkable to Reduit Beach and to Friday night. Castries is cheaper but bleak after dark.
What a day costs
The EC dollar is fixed near 2.70 to the US dollar. Bed EC$70–140, bakes and roti EC$40–90, minibuses EC$10. Reckon $50–95 a day.
Getting around cheap
Numbered minibuses run set routes for two to eight EC dollars, but thin out after about eight in the evening and barely run on Sundays.
Free by day
Reduit Beach and the whole north shore, the Castries central market on a Saturday morning, and the view down over Marigot Bay from the road.
Gros Islet street party
The village closes its lanes on Friday nights for grills, speaker stacks and rum; it has run for decades and is where everyone ends up.