sapereaude

Can anyone give me the names of some companies that offer water taxi service of some kind from Castries to Anse Chastanet or Soufriere? Please don't say 'there are lots of threads on this' I have been through them and every one says 'Just get book in advance there are lots of threads about water taxis' with very little info about actual companies. The ones I saw mentioned were Magic Man and discoversoufriere.com - can anyone recommend another one? Generic google searches don't bring much up.

My wife and I went on Cosol's tour around St Lucia on October 13th, 2011. We were from the cruise ship Emerald Princess. We can honestly say......forget the rest, Cosol is simply THE BEST! From the moment we stepped on the bus with the rest of the passengers, Cosol treated us all to a truly magnificent and memorable day. We saw so many lovely places on the beautiful island of St Lucia, and had a great time. Nothing was any trouble for Cosol, and he's the friendliest man you could wish to meet. His knowledge of the island and his genuine openness shine through like a beacon light. The value of the whole package was top notch, and nothing was skimped on. There were plentiful supplies of food and drinks, both alcohol based and non-alcoholic. To anyone visiting St Lucia and wishing to take a tour, I would unreservedly recommend Cosol's tour. I'm confident that you won't find one anywhere near as good, let alone better. All the other passengers on our bus enjoyed themselves, and they all remarked upon that fact. The other drivers, including Cosol's brother, all seemed affable men and I spoke to other people on the other buses and they were all fullsome in their praise of the tour. I honestly didn't see any of the negatives that you've mentioned, and I would reckon that judging by Cosol's natural personality that children in families would be well catered for too on the tour. I'm sure if you take the tour, you will thoroughly enjoy it. All the best!

While I appreciate your response, this kind of thing is exactly the problem. This is your only post on these boards. I don't want to insult you personally, maybe you are really just happy about the tour, but I know that if I was a tour operator I would be trolling this site and have 100 different identities giving awesome reviews of myself, so I have to be skeptical.

Alright, I have my anti flame suit on so I'm going to give a different point of view.

We were on Miracle this last week and did Cosol tour and HATED it!!! The water, soda and for those who drank rum punch and beers were plentiful, I didn't drink but might have enjoyed the tour except for a few things.

The first place we stopped was for bananas, people were giving out sugar cane and other things, if you took anything they wanted tipped, so ok we tipped no biggie, but then............. our first of VERY LIMITED bathroom stops, charged a dollar to use the rest room. So many people with their hands out this tour, we felt nickled and dimed to death.

The island is beautiful but the tour is by bus and they drive very fast on up and down ground, felt sorta like a roller coaster ride. Trying to get pictures as they sped by was very hard, and often frustrating.

We got off the bus and onto a dive boat to the beach, we were allowed on the crappy side of the beach, the nice side was for the hotel guests, it was rocky, and those without water shoes suffered. Also it rained the whole time, which is not their fault, but they dropped us off at a beach with little shelter in the rain, came back an hour later to get us.

When asked if someone could just stay on the bus instead of go to the beach, the answer was no.

Perhaps we got a new driver? I cannot even remember the name of our driver, but it was not Cosol, and not anyone who's picture has been posted here.

I guess we were lucky in the long run, I heard that someone else on our ship was on the same tour in a different bus and it was so roller coaster like that there was people throwing up :(

Anyway I'm usually all about the private tours, had a WONDERFUL time with both Bernard in St Martin and Thenford Gray was outstanding, but I really did not enjoy Cosol, and most of our group felt the same.

Different strokes...

Cheers, Carole

Thanks for offering your perspective.

I just went to trip advisor went back 4 pages and didnt see a bad thing said:confused:

You have to sort by rating to see the poor ratings, because as I said there is an inordinate number of 5 star reviews by reviewers with only 1 review on the site.

We have booked a tour with Spencer Ambrose "Beach Break Tour" in Feb.

Takes you by speed boat along the coast and stops at one beach along the way and ends up at Jalouise Beach where you can swim or snorkel for quite awhile. He provides pop, water, beer and rum punch and a lunch when you arrive at Jalouise. I choose Spencer from the reviews and didn't wan't a land tour along with the beach tour. Also, I did not see where Cosol had this tour to offer. Spencer has received great reviews. All e-mails that I have sent him with questions he has responded back quickly.

How much does that cost?

So I was considering Cosol because of all the great reviews here, but I'm really having doubts. Looking at tripadvisor at cosol tours and sorting by rating, there are a number of bad reviews and things that were mentioned were seriously concerning to me, since I'd be going with children. Like dirty bathrooms, people on the beach smoking dope, that you only really stop for a few minutes, one person said the driver they had (which was not cosol) was hostile, another said their driver didn't tell them anything, another said the fresh local bread and cheese was cheese slices and a couple breadsticks.

Also, I find it very suspcious that of all the tours on St. Lucia on that site Cosol has 348 reviews and the next best rated one (James I believe) only 30. Lots of people with 1 review make me think he just goes on and gives himself good reviews. I am concerned they could be doing that here as well.

Someone point out that the reviews earlier in this thread mentioned the blue bus and the rum punch a lot and that maybe they were very free flowing with the alcohol and that made the tour seem much better in everyone's eyes. (Not that I have a problem with that, but we aren't going as a couple)

Anyone go on this tour and not drink? Would you recommend this for small children?