Castries: a first-timer's guide to Saint Lucia's capital

Why go

The resorts show you the beaches, but Castries shows you the island. On a Saturday morning the market fills with farmers from every quarter selling dasheen, breadfruit, plantain, spices and hot pepper sauce, while minibuses blast soca and dennery segment as they load for the countryside. It is a short stop for most visitors, but it explains a great deal about how Saint Lucians live.

The main sights

**Castries Market** on Jeremie Street, with its orange roofed iron hall from the nineteenth century, is the heart of town. Inside and in the vendors' arcade across the road you will find crafts, spices, cocoa sticks for cocoa tea and simple food stalls serving bouyon, fish and green fig. Go early, and go on Saturday for the full experience.

**Derek Walcott Square** is a shady park named after the Nobel Prize winning poet, who was born in Castries. Busts of Walcott and the economist Sir Arthur Lewis, the island's other Nobel laureate, stand here, beneath a vast samaan tree said to be centuries old. On one side is the **Cathedral Basilica of the Immaculate Conception**, whose plain exterior hides an interior covered in murals by the Saint Lucian artist Dunstan St. Omer, showing a Black Holy Family and scenes of island life.

Above town, **Morne Fortune** offers the classic view over the harbour and on to the Pitons on a clear day. The ruins of **Fort Charlotte**, fought over by the British and French, now sit within a college campus, and nearby the **Inniskilling Monument** remembers a battle of 1796. On the hillside you will also find Government House and the batik studios of **Caribelle Batik** at Howelton House.

Beaches near town

**Vigie Beach** runs beside the runway of the city airport and is popular with locals for an evening swim. A little north, **Choc Bay** is a long, calm stretch facing a small island, and **La Toc Beach** south of the harbour is quieter. They are pleasant, but for the best sand most people head to Reduit Beach in Rodney Bay.

Food

Castries is the place to eat like a local. Try **bouyon**, a hearty soup of meat, ground provisions and dumplings, **accra** fritters, bakes with saltfish, and the national dish of **green fig and saltfish**. The **Coal Pot** at Vigie Marina has long been a favourite for a more relaxed sit down meal by the water.

Shopping

**Pointe Seraphine** and **La Place Carenage** are duty free shopping areas near the cruise berths, where visitors with a passport and onward ticket can buy jewellery, watches and spirits without local tax. For something more local, buy hot sauce, cocoa sticks and spices at the market, and batik or carvings on Morne Fortune.

Getting there and around

Castries is the hub of the island's minibus network, with routes leaving from different parts of downtown for Gros Islet, Babonneau, the east coast and the south. The centre is easy to walk, though it is hot and busy. Taxis wait near the cruise terminals and the market. The road north to Rodney Bay is often congested at rush hour, so allow extra time.

Staying safe

Downtown is busy and generally fine in daytime, but keep valuables out of sight and expect persistent offers from guides and vendors when cruise ships are in. Avoid walking around quiet backstreets and the area near the waterfront after dark, and use a taxi in the evening.

Where to stay

Few visitors stay downtown. The hotels on the Vigie peninsula and around Choc Bay and La Toc put you a few minutes from town, the airport and the beach. If you want both nightlife and beaches, stay in Rodney Bay and come into Castries for a morning.