Question For Experienced Caribbean Travelers

Greetings All.

I'm wondering if any forum members can help me with a very specific travel question.

My daughter is getting married in St. Lucia next March, and wants to travel from there to SXM to join us for a week at a villa we are renting ( their wedding is an elopement! - just the two of them)

She is having trouble finding a reasonable option to travel from St. Lucia to SXM. Best she can find so far is St. Lucia to Miami, then long wait, and Miami to SXM - almost 24 hours travel time. I suggested checking Liat, Air Cariabes etc. - no luck so far. I also suggested connection in Puerto Rico, but nothing good there so far.

Any ideas from experienced island hoppers?

Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

Cheers!

That would have been my best guess, that the best connection they could get would be through Miami. The small airlines like Liat, etc., do not normally make very long flights, and the distance from SXM to St. Lucia is quite a ways. I'm surprised that routing would take so long though. Did they check flights into the French side airport, possibly from either Martinique or Guadelupe? Possibly she could cobble something together there. Best wishes.

I don't see an easy way to accomplish that trip in less than a full day. MIA may be the best option. Other options may include Port of Spain Trinidad (POS) and Barbados (BGI) but I would lean towards MIA. I would also look at flights out of both Castries (SLU) and Hewanorra (UVF).

Thanks for the suggestions.

Air Caraibes (sp) Martinique to Grand Case is a possibility, but we are having a hard time figuring out the Saint Lucia to Martinique piece. The must be a puddle hopper that will work, but we haven't found it yet.
Will keep looking.

Also. will check out via Barbados and Trinidad connection options.

Any of you have a Gulfstream 7 we could borrow for a couple of hours?

Thanks!

Somewhere I think I recall there's a ferry between St. Lucia and Martinique. If so, from there you should be able to find a flight to SFG. And, who knows if you'll save time or $.

Yes, there is a ferry, but my daughter did some research on it and says they have a very poor reputation for not being on time, cancelling trips with no notice., etc.

Perhaps they build an overnight in for Martinique, and go the next day to Grand Case?

Thanks all for your suggestions.

btw, my suggestion was to get married on the beach in SXM. Our rented villa is in Anse Marcel. What would be wrong with a private wedding on the end of the Anse Marcel beach??? Anyway, not my wedding, and that's not what they wanted. C'est la vie!

Cheers!

greenfields--yes, I don't think I would want to depend on a ferry to catch a plane in these circumstances. An overnight in Martinique sounds like it might be fun though. Hope you are able to get it worked out.

Thanks Carol.

Agreed. Eliminate as many moving parts and opportunities for things to go wrong as possible is the tactic that gets my vote. We'll get it worked out.

Can they start by flying to one of the ABC islands and than a direct flight to SXM.

NumberCruncher--actually you would think there would be good air connections between the ABC's and SXM, and in the past, there have not been much. As far as I know, not much has changed in that respect.

Carol, if I recall correctly, Winair expanded their coverage and leased a larger aircraft when LIAT contracted its schedules. Winair is showing destinations including Aruba and Coursal (sp) on their website. I hope this helps. John

Coursal?? Curacao??

Mustique.com
We have chartered them in the past. Once, we got F. Lee Bailey's puddle hopper. Very nice.
Cheers and good luck.
irina

Yes

Thanks all.

I'll check out all suggestions.

Cheers

We fly from St. Lucia to SXM each year. Pre Covid you could catch a LIAT flight out of the George Charles airport in Castries, stop in Antigua and then into Princess Juliana same day. Post Covid I couldn't find a LIAT flight that worked. This past year we flew from Castries to Guadeloupe, through Martinque on Air Antilles and then had to overnight in Guadeloupe for a next morning flight on Air Caraibes direct to Grand Case. We stay on the French side and so landing in Grand Case in fabulous!!

The main international airport in St. Lucia is Hewanorra and is in the south of the island. Castries is in the north end of the island and is a very small airport similar to Grand Case. We stay in the north end of the island and so a flight out of Castries is a huge advantage based on arrival times/number of people/easy access. It is minimum 1 to 1.5 hours from a resort in the north end to Hewanorra.

Thank you. I'll check this out.