Cosol tour review (3/17/23 tour)

[Bossladyn]

My son (11) and I booked the Cosol tour since we couldn’t fish with my daughter and husband due to sons age. 
 

Our shipped docked a bit late (about 15 -20 mins). Our meeting time was supposed to be 8:20 with a start time of 8:30, but we didn’t leave the port till closer 9:00 due to the ship delay. While waiting for the rest of the people who had booked (there were at least two busses of people who’d booked Cosol), one lady near us asked about the return time. She was told 4:30 or 5:00 to which she said, no that won’t work because latest on board time is 4:30! And we were told we’d be back by 2:30 so we can do some shopping. Another Cosol tour driver said no worries you’ll be back in time. He is just confused on which ship you are going to. 
 

Leaving the port area took at least 30 mins due to all the traffic around the port which put us even further behind schedule. After that, the entire trip was rushed. Every stop we were at was packed with not only the Cosol busses but other tour busses as well.  So we had very little time to do anything at each stop. Basically get out of the bus, look around for a couple mins and get back on the bus to rush to our next stop. If you wanted to buy anything at the shops the lines were way too long and we didn’t have time to wait. 
 

The lunch was very good and the only thing that was not rushed. I just wish it was later in the tour rather than the scheduled time of 10:15. We got there about 10:45 or 10:50 so it was better timing but only because we were late.  
 

When we got to the part for the beach we had only 45 minutes to spend there, which is way too short for this gorgeous location. Then we had to rush to the volcano and were told to jump in the water, get out, rub the mud on us and hurry back to the bus. Since not everyone wanted to do the soak, the bus left for a tour of the volcano (supposedly 20 mins). When we rushed out of the hot springs, we had to wait at least 10 mins for the bus to return from the volcano tour with the other part of our group. Then we rushed to the waterfall where we had 10 mins there to rinse off, dry off and change clothes and hurry back to the port. 
 

We got back to Castries about 3:45 but traffic back to the dock was horrendous and we inched along and finally got dropped off at 4:23. I think what irritated me the most was when someone said we were worried we were going to miss the ship and our tour guide said “Jesus!  We got you here before boarding time!”  I mean she was technically right but we still had to get through the shops and then on to the ship.
 

I definitely would not take that tour again. I love st Lucia but this tour was so rushed there wasn’t any stop where you could really enjoy it. One way to help the rushed feeling would be to skip the stop where everyone gets a banana. I mean who hasn’t had a banana before?  Being that far behind schedule, I think that was one stop we could have for sure passed on. Also the stop after the waterfall to get everyone a drink when we were so far behind should have been skipped. 
 

Anyway, after our tour I’m surprised by all the positive reviews. 

[rollnoles2]

Thank you, @Bossladyn; we will be in St. Lucia in January and I was considering Cosol, but I think I will go with another tour.  Have you been on any other excursions in St. Lucia that you would recommend?

[Bossladyn]

The only other tours we have done were ship tours, one which was similar to, but better than, the cosol one and another one that was a snorkel and sail (which was awesome). Honestly if you want beach I’d find a tour that goes along the water to either sugar beach or another of the beautiful beaches. The island is so pretty either by sea or by land.  if you want an island tour, I think there was another tour recommended on this forum somewhere that had good reviews.  I heard the zip line was very fun by one of our traveling companions. They did the ship tour though. 
 

note that if you do soak in the volcano bring a swimsuit you can throw away. We could not get that smell out even after soaking and washing several times.  
 

I probably wasn’t much help.  

[Monthend]

We have been on this tour five times and always loved it. Especially  the warm bread at the end. Never felt rushed