ST VINCENT AND THE GRENADINES TOURIST ATTRACTIONS

We show you the top rated St Vincent and the Grenadines tourist attractions near the cruise port and a whole host of other great places to visit on a cruise day.

When you think of St Vincent and the Grenadines, you think Paradise Island with white powder sand beaches and you’d be right but what some movie buffs may think when they hear St Vincent is “ pirate’s of the Caribbean” and they’d be correct as it’s the filming location for the black pearl.

We decided to incorporate this into our day tour of St Vincent and the Grenadines along with some stunning beaches. We planned our day and got in touch with a tour company to see if it was viable with them.

We did actually find it quite difficult to find tour groups and ended up booking one of very few. My husband had real reservations of who we booked and it turned out he had reason too.

Our first stop was Fort Charlotte, a 19^th century British colonial fort in the capital of Kingston, only a 10 minute up hill drive from the cruise port. Our driver was friendly and very chatty along the way pointing out points of interest.

When we arrived at Fort Charlotte, our driver decided to get out and come with us informing us of all the historic background of the fort. This would be great if you didn’t have children but when you have a 3 year old running up and down ramps near huge drops its pretty impossible to listen!

I don’t think we got to see the best parts of the fort as I was running after a 3 year old who loved it with all the hills, whilst having an oblivious driver/tour guide following me around chewing my ear off as my husband swanned off taking pictures!

To say I felt stressed after the visit was an understatement!! If you have children make sure you don’t have a tour guide trust me its impossible to listen as they will love exploring the fort.

We then headed for the Botanical gardens in Kingston the oldest in the western hemisphere which celebrated it’s 250th anniversary in 2015. Boasting a wealth of tropical plants, flowers, trees and birds, the gardens are also home to the beautiful St. Vincent Parrot, the Amazona Guildingii, the country’s national bird.

When we arrived our driver informed us he would park up and we could go and buy our tickets and HIS!! We didn’t want a repeat of the fort so we kindly asked if we could have a walk around ourselves and explained about Brody.

It costs only $5pp and $2.50 for kids.

The gardens were just beautiful, a must see if your in St Vincent. We heard Prince Harry had been there a few days before we went!! Now that would have been a cool picture to take home! We didn’t spend too long here as it was so hot and we were quite excited about seeing the pirates of the Caribbean set.

Last stop, Wallilabou bay! This was a 35-minute drive from the botanical Gardens and a very bumpy and windy one at that! if you get car sick like me keep your eye on the road.

The set of the pirates of the Caribbean have an interesting array of photos, props, building facades and other memorabilia from the making of the movie, all free for viewing. Brody especially liked the cannons and the noose rope, which he tried to put around my neck!!! Monkey! There is also a café on site, which was very reasonably priced. I have to say the place looked pretty run down and hasn’t been well maintained since the movie in 2003, which is a shame as it’s a beautiful bay and interesting place to visit.

We were supposed to be visiting Dark Falls waterfalls but it was another 30-minute drive North that would have meant over an hour back to the ship so we decided to head back and see if we could find a beach to relax on. However I wish we did get time to visit Dark View Falls looking back on it as it looks stunning.

When we told our driver he was great and recommended the “mini falls up the road which was lovely and refreshing. There is a little more information on this further down.

Our driver then had a call which we realised was his boss telling him to get back as quick as possible for another job. Well the dive back was like being in the back of a racecar! I suffer with a very bad back and coccyx and was in so much pain from his crazy driving I was nearly in tears! Then poor Brody started vomiting everywhere with carsickness! It was like something out of a comedy movie!! We had to skip the beach and go straight back to the ship and get cleaned up but on our way back we noticed a sign for a water taxi to the beach so decided to try that in the afternoon.

Our driver then took us to Wallilabou Heritage Park where there is a small waterfall in a great secluded location. There is a small entrance fee, but it is certainly worth a visit if you are in the area visiting the Pirates of the Caribbean set.

Unfortunately we didn’t have enough time to fully explore the park but there are some nice walks and gardens if you have more time.

We jumped on Blue sea water taxi for $6pp over to Indian bay beach, be warned you get wet, very wet! Which we found hilarious; it actually gave us such a laugh watching everyone get soaked. When we reached the beach there were more little boats offering rides over to Young Island Resort so we jumped on one as the island looked so idyllic and beautiful, far less crowded too.

The views from the island were just stunning and the water was crystal clear and shallow with no waves for Brody to play in. They even had a little hut in the water for you to swim over to.

There’s a bar on the beach selling cold refreshments. As it’s a resort you can only use the main beach that was great for us and so relaxing, after the day of drama we had just had!!