Barbados or St. Lucia: which island suits your honeymoon?
Two islands, sold in the same breath, and two completely different honeymoons. I haven’t been to either. So this piece doesn’t tell you what they’re like. It shows how I build a decision like this one.
First: what I can’t give you
I haven’t been to Barbados or St. Lucia. I can’t tell you how a particular beach feels in the evening. What I can do is structure the decision so you pick the right island for you, and vet the hotels there with the same questions I use everywhere.
Two very different islands
The two islands are often sold together, and for a honeymoon they are two different trips.
St. Lucia is volcanic, green and steep. Its landmarks are the two Pitons, a UNESCO World Heritage Site as the Pitons Management Area. Many hotels sit secluded on hillsides or in coves. It suits couples looking for seclusion and scenery who don’t need much variety in the evening.
Barbados is flatter, more densely populated and more focused on beaches and restaurants. The west coast is usually calm; the Atlantic-facing east coast is rougher. It suits couples who like to go out at night and don’t want to eat in the same place every day.
Getting there from Switzerland
Here is a difference that often gets overlooked. Edelweiss doesn’t fly from Zurich to either island. St. Lucia has only one non-stop connection from Europe: British Airways from London Gatwick. Barbados is better connected: non-stop from London Heathrow and Gatwick with British Airways, from Heathrow and Manchester with Virgin Atlantic, from Frankfurt and Düsseldorf with Condor, and from Amsterdam with KLM.
For a honeymoon, that means Barbados offers more routes and more flexibility on dates and connection times. St. Lucia is more predictable but less flexible. Schedules change, so I check them again for every enquiry.
The questions I decide with
- Do you want to leave the hotel in the evening, or should the hotel be the evening?
- Is scenery the reason for the trip, or beach and water?
- How many connections and overnight flights are you willing to accept?
- Do you want to stay in one place the whole time, or add a second stop?
- Which room category do you need on this island so the view in the photos is actually yours?
The first two answers usually settle the island. The last three decide which hotels make the shortlist.
Where I stop making claims
I’m not quoting prices here. They swing a lot between high and low season, and I’ll only publish figures once I’ve seen enough real quotes for them to be accurate. I’m not writing about individual hotels here either: that belongs in a shortlist that matches your answers.
What I’d do in your place
Answer the first two questions honestly, together, before you look at a single hotel. If your answers differ, that isn’t bad news. It’s a reason to combine two islands or look at a third.
