Jan '03 we were on the Radience and visited St. Lucia, we booked a horsback riding trip that turned out to be the highlight of the entire vacation. Floria diStefano with International Riding Stables has a great tour. Her email is
stefanof@candw.lc. A fellow cruiser said she was not too good at email and so we got the phone number off line and booked over the phone with her. It runs about $60 -70 per person. Floria and her driver met us at the pier and took us to the stables(they return you also), try to go in the am tour if possible. We did not do the BBQ offered although I've read that folks that did had no complaints. We had 3 adults and 4 children, the youngest being 1 1/2 , she rode w/ my husband, our other girls are experiened riders, they all had private guides though thethered to their horse. We really got to see the country side, beautiful flowers, some of the native homes, and then to the ocean, we were able to don our swim suits and then rode bare back into the ocean, it was a great experience, the guides were great about taking pics. I highly recommend it.
We were disappointed in Antigue, probably b/c we did not book a tour and just attempted to go into town on our own. It is a very impoverished country, the sidwalks are narrow, broken, there are many bums. We did get the 'real look' into the area but based on that experience I would skip that port next time, our dinner waiter said many people feel that way. Ask around I'm sure there is some good options out there.
We had an enjoyable day in Barbados, the people are very friendly. I looked to buy some Batik fabric one of the specialty items from there, I was unaware it was so highly priced though. Here again we opted to go it alone and walked about 10 minutes from the ship, on a nice stretch to a near by shopping complex Seems to me the name of the complex had something to do with Pelicans or something. Up stairs in the complex there is a cigar shop. My husband was pleased...something for him. They invited us in, the ladies are rolling cigars right there, it is a small workshop but they gave us the tour, as I said they are very friendly, they posed for pics, explained what they did and how many a day etc. We purchased a box before we left. Also there was a potter artisan area, here again they allowed us to come in , watch, ask questions etc. We purchased nice bathing suit wraps in one shop,,,wish I would have gotten one for myself. This may not be the most exciting thing but as our 7 yr old was missing school for the cruise we were trying to add some education in with the fun about the places we visited.
