Castries Travel Guide, Saint Lucia

Castries Travel Guide – The Metropolitan Pattern

This Castries travel guide will give you the basic information on the atmosphere and conditions of the capital of Saint Lucia, an island state located in the West Indies. The city has a population that barely exceeds 10.000 but it has numerous facilities and services for the locals as well as for tourists. It was built on reclaimed land on a site of a former large flood and it was first settled by the French, being the site of massive reconstruction in 1948, after WWII bombings. The interesting fact about the way the city was designed is that it very much resembles the pattern of large metropolitan cities (one close example is New York), but reproducing it on a much smaller scale. The post office in Castries is the only one on the island and, given the fact that most of the streets are not named properly, all mail that doesn’t have a clear destination will arrive in one of the P.O. boxes in Castries.

Castries Travel Guide – The Duty Free Shops and the Fast Food Joints

Castries functions as Saint Lucia’s main administrative and economical centre and its harbor receives cargo vessels as well as ferries or cruise ships daily. For tourists this is very convenient, as in the harbor area there are many duty free shops as well as restaurants with various international menus. These include places like Burger King or KFC, so many of the foreign tourists can feel like home. There are also many supermarkets and getting around town is made very easy by the complex bus network and many taxi companies. This means that once your cruise ship has landed in Port Seraphine, there are all kinds of facilities awaiting you, including guided tours of the city and of the island, and you can also take a tour of the coastline with one of the water taxis. Castries has the largest numbers of hotels and resorts, but if you decide to extend your trip to the whole island you will find more in the smaller cities.

Castries Travel Guide – The Beaches and the Buildings

Ferry services from the island include Bridgetown in Barbados and Port-of-spain in Trinidad and Tobago, but if you travel by plane you’ll probably arrive at the Hewanorra International Airport, from where you can choose car or helicopter transport to the city. One of the main focal points when getting into Castries is the beaches, and the city has plenty to offer. However, if you decide to take the advice of this Castries travel guide, the first thing you need to do is tour the city and find the important buildings such as the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, the Derek Walcott Square or the Government House.