We are back and honeymooned! (begrudgingly… 
) We went to St. Lucia and stayed at the Sandals Regency La Toc and it was INCREDIBLE! We had never been anywhere like that before and the views were unreal. The rainforest reminded me of like Jurassic Park and I kept expecting to see the trees start shaking and a dinosaur to pop out! Sorry if this post is pic heavy but you have to see it to believe it! Here was our view for breakfast every morning. (My husband and I are thinking of blowing this up and hanging in our apartment so we can have a better view!)
View for Breakfast
We went for 8 days (including travel) and I really think we made of the most it! We went out and did a lot of the excursions but still had time to relax at the resort as well. It was our first true vacation. I would definitely recommend doing an all-inclusive if you can. It’s more money up front but it was so nice to be able to go to any of the resort restaurants (there were 9 at our resort and you can also go to the other two Sandals resort and dine there too) and be able to order whatever you want and not have to worry about how much it costs because you already paid for it. It was a little strange though the first couple times after a meal when we just got up and walked out without paying! And not having to tip was so great! We would have been tipping like 10 times a day otherwise.
We did a honeymoon registry through Honeymoon Wishes and we are so grateful for it! We were able to do so much more than we would have been able to on our own. We did zip lining, a candlelit dinner, a land and sea excursion and sea trekking! The only issue we had with the excursions wasn’t with the registry but with the resort. We had reserved a local shopping trip excursion and one of my friends had gotten us a sugar to rum tour/tasting. What they don’t tell you when you sign up is that the excursions require a certain amount of people so if not enough sign up, you don’t get to go. They refund you the money but that doesn’t really help you get the experience! Instead of the rum tour, we ended up going sea trekking but I never did get to go shopping other than at the resort store.
Sunset cruise
If you have never tried zip lining, I highly recommend it! It was one of requirements when picking our honeymoon destination because we’d always wanted to try it. The one we went on had 12 different lines and we got to hike through the rainforest in between the lines. They pair you with a guide who clips you into the lines and takes pictures for you while you’re going. Here are some of the shots our guide got.
We're ready!
I did it!
View from ziplining
Our other favourite was the land and sea tour. It was an all day trip but we got to see so much, it was worth it! We started out on the land and they toured us around some of the local towns. We got to try banana ketchup and it was BOMB! (We made sure to stock up before we came home.) We learned a lot about the area and local culture on the tour. St. Lucians are so friendly and welcoming and we felt very safe the whole time we were there. We went through a botanical garden. We got to visit the Diamond Waterfall, which is called that because it changes colour. It’s fed by the sulfur springs so it’s more white when there’s calcium, brown when there’s sulfur and green when there’s limestone. We went to the sulfur springs and had a volcanic mud bath! They were saying how amazing the mud bath was and it was really true! We rubbed volcanic mud on each other and it felt so nice and exfoliating. You left it dry and then wash it back off in the sulfur spring and our skin was so soft! I couldn’t believe it! Afterwards we got to go have lunch at a local restaurant and try St. Lucian food. (More banana ketchup yay!) We loved the local food and were glad that our resort had a restaurant with local cuisine so we could try more! It was one of the best restaurants at the resort for sure. After lunch, we got on a catamaran and went snorkeling. Such a great day!
Land & Sea
My aunt bought us a candlelit dinner and it was really nice but not quite as romantic as expected haha. I guess it was supposed to be on the beach but it was windy so they set us up in a cabana by the beach instead, which we actually preferred. We had our own server who brought us our courses and drinks but she never seemed to be around when we needed her! Because it was windy, the curtains on our cabana kept flying into our table and trying to get into our wine glasses! We didn’t have anything to tie them with so we just kind of held them until our server came back. It was literally dining by candlelight because there were no lights on the beach or in the cabana other than the tealights on our table and the tiki torches. (It was really hard to see the food!) At one point because of the angle of the tiki torch and the wind, the tiki torch caught on fire! I think Collin was ready to javelin throw it into the ocean but I just walked over and poured my water glass on it. (silly boys) We were having a good laugh by this point and our server laughed with us when we told her what happened. 
After that things settled down and we had a really nice dinner.
Candlelight Dinner
I had never heard of sea trekking before but we decided to try it because my husband can’t scuba dive. He has problems with his ears and has to wear glasses so sea trekking was perfect for him! It’s like wearing a space helmet underwater and you get to walk on the ocean floor. The water makes you weightless so it feels like moon walking! It was definitely a different experience and I’m glad we tried it. The only problem was that somehow I got stung by something. They had some underwater stone benches set up and the guides had us sit on it to take pictures and something must have stung me while I was there. There was nothing they could do for it so I just had to wait it out. Felt like I was getting tattooed on the back of my legs for 5 hours. 
Luckily it went away before we had to travel home.
Underwater Husband
Seatrekking
One of the best parts was how unselfconscious everyone was. We spent like 90% of the time in our bathing suits and I’m not quite in top shape since the holidays so I was a little nervous… But everyone is so comfortable in their bodies and not judgemental that it was great! I really wasn’t expecting that. It was so nice to get to just enjoy our honeymoon and not be stressing about how I looked in a bathing suit the whole time.
Here are some tips for if you decide to do a similar honeymoon:
-If you get car sick or motion sick, make sure to take something for it before you travel around the island. The roads are very windy, they drive on the opposite side of the road and there’s only one lane on each side so the drivers frequently pass each other very closely! The airport was about 1-1.5 hours away from the resort and by the end, I was feeling really nauseous. Luckily I took something before we had to take the trip back! Also, it’s better to bring motion sickness medicine with you because of course it’s crazy expensive in the resort shop. We thought that all the prices were in their currency (Eastern Caribbean) but surprisingly all the prices were in US! (1 US dollar = about 2.5-2.6 Eastern Caribbean dollars)
-If you plan on going on any excursions, book them as soon as possible so you get the days you want! We made a plan of what we wanted to do each day and then we went to book them and they were already filled so we had to rearrange everything. Also, the times that you reserve online will not be the exact times you will be going. When we got to the resort, the times that they gave us were sometimes off by an hour or two from what we had originally thought. It all works out though! And it’s probably best not to reserve excursions back to back because you never get back when they say you will (island time haha!) so it’s better to give yourself lots of time in between if you do.
-Always bring money on the excursions in case they stop so you can buy souvenirs! We didn't know that and missed out on some shopping opportunities.
-Wear bug spray even if you think you don’t need it! Because of course the one day you don’t, you will get eaten alive….
-Pack more than you think you need! You will be sweating 24/7 so you might need a couple changes of clothes throughout the day. Bring extra tank tops, t-shirts and shorts. And you can never have too much underwear!
-It rains a lot but you don’t really need a rain jacket. It’s so hot that the rain is refreshing! If you don’t want to be in the rain though, I’d recommend an umbrella instead of a jacket because you want to wear as little layers as possible with the humidity!
-If you’re booking with Sandals, make sure to do it during one of their promotions so you get discounts and free stuff like a 60 min couples massage! (And if you don’t get a free couples massage, I highly recommend investing in one! So good!)
-If you’re going with Sandals, I don’t think that the butler room is really necessary. The only perks I could really see from having it was that you could order room service through them and that they would help you make reservations for restaurants and change it if you’re running late. (Only 2 of the restaurants required reservations though. We pretty much walked in to the rest of them.) We’re very independent and probably would have felt weird having a butler the whole time we were there. They do give you rides around the resort in golf carts though so you don’t have to wait for a shuttle! (But the shuttles run every 5 minutes.) If we go back, we’d like to do a nicer room but don’t think we need a butler.
Can’t wait to hear about everyone else’s fabulous honeymoons! If you have any questions, I’m happy to help!
