Featured holiday Barbados and St Lucia two-centre holiday Caribbean

Arrive at Barbados airport in the late afternoon or early evening after your flight from London. A private car transfer takes you to the Sandpiper where you check-in for your five-night stay.

You have four full days on the island of Barbados at The Sandpiper. This contemporary, green hotel has beautiful views across the sea, a large number of grassy areas, tropical gardens of bougainvillea, Orchid trees, and coconut trees, and two communal pools. For alfresco lunches and cocktails, we would recommend visiting Harold’s Beach Bar, which, as the name suggests, is a thatched bamboo hut right on the white sandy beach. The hotel’s restaurant serves excellent European-Asian fusion cuisine from a menu that changes five times a week to keep the flavours fresh. The Sandpiper’s sister hotel, Coral Reef Club, has a number of facilities that Sandpiper guests are free to use. Relax in the Coral Reef Spa, which uses Natura Bissé products in a number of specially-developed treatments, or make use of the scuba-diving school. Complimentary transfers to Coral Reef Club are available from the hotel. Other water-sports are complimentary at the Sandpiper, including Hobie Cat sailing, laser and sunfish sailing, kayaking, paddle-boarding, and snorkelling. Many spectacular sights on Barbados are not to be missed. Organise transport to Harrison’s Cave and Animal Flower Cave to see some of the island’s most breath-taking natural phenomena. Harrison’s Cave was formed by flowing clear streams that have cut their way through crystallised limestone. Explore, by foot or on a small train, the narrow tunnels and vast caverns. To the north of the island, Animal Flower Cave is cut into the rock at sea level, creating a calm seawater pool that is perfect for relaxed, atmospheric swimming. For a taste of Barbados’ cultural heritage, it is worth visiting the lovely St Nicholas’ Abbey. This traditional plantation offers tours of the perfectly preserved main house and the rum distillery, as well as moonlit dinner buffets in January, February, March, and April (check dates before travelling). The local Caribbean rum can be tasted at Mount Gay. Other points of interest include the popular Barbados Concorde Experience, and many outstanding beaches, such as Bathsheba Beach, Dover Beach, and Worthing Beach, where it is possible to swim with turtles.

There are several Liat flights throughout the day, with early departures and an afternoon departure. The flight takes about 40 minutes. Upon arrival in St Lucia at Castries you are collected and transferred to your hotel in the south of the island overlooking the Pitons.

You have four full days on St Lucia. Anse Chastanet is an authentic, boutique hotel, with rooms on a hill-side overlooking the Caribbean Sea and the Pitons. Bedrooms are decorated in all the colours of the Caribbean, continuing the vibrancy of the views from your balcony, and adorned with signature features such as coralina or clay tiles, and glass or wooden louvered windows. On-site are several restaurants to choose from for lunch and dinner, including the open-air Treehouse Restaurant, which serves flavours of the Caribbean and the rest of the tropics under a canopy of tropical plants. The menu changes daily. Alternatively, dine in the Trou Au Diable Beach Restaurant, or in the Beach or Jungle Grill. Relax during the day or in the evening at the Kai Belté Spa, whose services include a beautiful open-air cabana which overlooks the reef. All products used in the spa are sourced at the organic Emerald’s Farm in nearby picturesque Soufrière. We recommend that you book treatments in advance of your holiday. For the more active visitor, the hotel’s scuba-diving centre is very highly respected and operates in an award-winning marine reserve. Reef-preservation is at the heart of the trips – be it beach- or boat-scuba, in the daytime or at night. Navigate around the Pinnacles, the Piton Walls, a shipwreck, and the Coral Gardens, which are home to creatures such as pufferfish, eels, seahorses, lobsters, and octopus. This is the perfect dive for any beginner, whilst offering the seasoned diver an incredibly unique experience. Other water-sports include snorkelling, windsurfing, and kayaking. Anse Chastanet offers more truly unique opportunities, including Jungle-Biking around one of St Lucia’s first colonial plantations. Excursions can be arranged through the hotel to destinations such as the island’s volcano and the sulphur springs. This is the hottest and most active geothermal area in the Lesser Antilles. Walk through the crater, pass bubbling mud pools, and soak in soothing hot springs. Trips are also available to the Diamond Botanical Park, complete with tropical vegetation, the Diamond Waterfall, and a quaint restaurant set in an old mill. You may also wish to take advantage of the Mineral Baths and Spa facility on-site. For those looking to witness the area’s fantastic wildlife from above sea level, Anse Chastanet offers yacht trips for dolphin watching, climbs up Gros Piton, and a rainforest hike. The hotel’s Chocolate Laboratory, which produces Emerald Estate Chocolate with cocoa from the organic farm, beckons to all visitors with a sweet tooth, offering guests tasting sessions as well as the chance to help make some high-quality chocolate.

You have the morning free to check-out before your transfer to St Lucia’s Hewanorra airport in the south of the island for the return flight to London, arriving the next morning.