|
Framing the northern half of Port Castries, the heavily developed Vigie Peninsula is partially made up of land recovered from the sea by successive government reclamation projects. At the peninsula's southern end, overlooking the bay, is the Pointe Seraphine shopping complex (Mon-Fri 9am-5pm, Sat 9am-2pm), which advertises itself as the Caribbean's biggest duty-free shopping complex. It's not (the honour goes to the Charlotte Amalie mall in the US Virgin Islands), but it is certainly the largest that St Lucia has to offer, and it's still growing. Two adjacent cruise-ship berths deliver disembarking tourists directly to the stores, while the taxi stand (tel 758/452-1733) and the water taxi to downtown Castries (every 30-45min, more frequent when cruise ships are docked; US$1) stand by to cater for the day-trippers. From Pointe Seraphine the main highway runs north to Rodney Bay. Parallel to it, between the airport runway and the sea, is the more picturesque Peninsular Road - to reach it, follow the well-marked signs to Vigie Airport. Flanking the road is Vigie Beach 's two-kilometre stretch of smooth if rather dirty sand. It's not much to look at, but the water is usually calm and inviting. Once clear of the airport, Peninsular Road winds uphill towards Vigie Lighthouse at the apex. The entire peninsula was once a fortification, and many buildings here are restored military quarters, built from red brick in the late nineteenth century. At the western end of the peninsula, St Lucia's National Archives (Mon-Thurs 9am-4pm, Fri 9am-2pm; tel 758/452-1654, ) are housed in a circa-1890 building: inside, you can browse through hundreds of old photos, lithographs, postcards and maps, which provide a good historical perspective of the island.
Your Tip for Vigie Peninsula
Help other backpackers! Write your own guides and backpacking tips to Vigie Peninsula - they will appear instantly on this page - Please only write a tip/guide to Vigie Peninsula - visit the main Vigie Peninsula forum to ask a question!
Please do not post links to your site here (they won't work) - please use the Vigie Peninsula webguide section below! Thanks.
|
