What It’s Like Renting A Car In St. Lucia

Emily and I visited the Caribbean island of St. Lucia for our honeymoon.  It’s a really stunning tropical island with the world-famous Piton mountains, waterfalls, beaches, rainforests, and more.  So it was a perfect place to enjoy some relaxation in the sun, while also providing some fun adventures.  We knew that we needed a way to get around the island to explore, and decided that renting a car in St. Lucia was the best option for us.  This post explains our experience with the rental car to help others who might be considering that option.

However, there are many other ways to get around St. Lucia that you can consider for your trip.

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Why We Chose To Rent A Car in St. Lucia

For the first half of our trip, we stayed at Sandals Regency La Toc (our review here), an all-inclusive resort near Castries.  Sandals has a free shuttle from the UVF airport to their resort, so we spent the first half of the trip without a car, just living it up at the resort every day.

But for the second half of the trip, we stayed at an Airbnb apartment in Soufriere.  We used this part of our trip for adventurous exploration of the island.  Soufriere is the city (town?) closest to the Pitons, and is really an excellent home base to explore the most impressive natural attractions on the island.  Thus, we knew we would need daily transportation to explore all the hikes, waterfalls, mud baths, hot springs, beaches, and restaurants. And also for more mundane things like going to an ATM and the grocery store.

We normally travel in a campervan in the US and thus are accustomed to a high level of freedom and autonomy when we travel.  So we thought that a rental car would allow us to explore St. Lucia in the style most familiar to us.  No waiting around for drivers, or booking rides in advance.  We could just hop in the car and go do whatever adventures felt right each day.

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Renting A Car From Sixt Rent A Car

There are many rental car companies operating in St. Lucia, Sixt, Hertz, Budget, Drive-a-Matic, Thrifty, ACE, and more. Using Kayak.com is our favorite way to compare prices and options when renting a car.

We rented a car with Sixt, primarily because they allowed us to pick up the car in the north (near the Sandals), and return it in the south (at Hewanorra International Airport).  We paid for the car entirely on our own, and this post is in no way sponsored by Sixt.

It actually ended up being even easier than we thought because Sixt was willing to bring the car right to our Sandals resort.  So that saved us from having to take a taxi to the cruise ship port. Initially, we made the booking to pick up the car from the cruise ship port in Point Seraphine, Castries (one of their popular pickup/drop-off points). 

And then at the end of our stay, we were able to drop the car right at the airport, literally steps away from the security check.  So from a convenience standpoint, Sixt really could not have made it easier for us!

We had heard that St. Lucia has steep and narrow mountain roads, many potholes, and even some adventures that would require driving off-road.  And our visit was in October, during the rainy season, so we knew that a 4-wheel drive vehicle would give us extra peace of mind on our adventures.

We rented a two-door Suzuki Jimny, and absolutely fell in love with it.  Our booking was for “Suzuki Jimny or similar”.  But, we are really glad we got the Jimny, since there is really nothing that compares to the look and feel of this car.  It’s kind of like a cute little cousin of a Jeep Wrangler.  I’m sad we don’t have them in the US, it would make the perfect tow-behind for RVers.

The Jimny’s small size was ideal for the narrow roads in Saint Lucia.  And yet with 4-wheel drive (hi and lo) and high clearance, it’s a very capable car.  And when we made a couple friends on our trip, we were able to fit 4 people without too much trouble.

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The Cost Of A Rental Car In St. Lucia

The cost of renting a car in St. Lucia total will be the daily rate (plus taxes and fees), the cost of a temporary Saint Lucian driver’s permit, and whatever you spend on gas.

Obviously, the daily rate we paid might change over time, or fluctuate with demand on the island (we were there during slow season).

But for reference, we paid $665 USD (EC $1,797) for 11 days.  The temporary driver’s permit was $22 USD (EC $60), and only needed to buy basically a full tank of gas once on the last day for $40 USD (EC $108).  So if you take that total for the car, the permit, and the gas, then divide by the 11 days we had it, we paid about US$66 per day to use a rental car on the island.

But renting a car in St. Lucia had its pros and cons.

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Positives of Renting A Car In St. Lucia

We loved that we didn’t have to arrange rides in advance.  We could simply hop in the rental car and go anywhere, anytime.  This worked well for the rainy season because we could make plans last minute depending on the weather (we found the multi-day weather forecasts for St. Lucia to be quite inaccurate).  Every day seemed like it had the potential to be light showers for a few minutes or an entire day of rain and clouds.  So it was nice to just look out the window each morning, and make the call.

We visited several destinations where 4×4 and high clearance were extremely helpful and would have been borderline essential if it was rainy (Anse Chastanet Beach, En Bas Saut Trail, and Tree Top Restaurant).  And even with the steepness of paved roads, large potholes, and rainy weather, there were a few times we were even happy to have 4×4 on the pavement.

Staying in an Airbnb, meant that we could save money by cooking some meals for ourselves.  And the rental car gave us the freedom to drive to the grocery store whenever it was convenient.  In Soufriere, the Massy Supermarket is the best grocery store with the biggest selection. Not really a supermarket by USA standards, but still good enough).  And there’s also an ATM there we visited often to take out local currency (ECD) we needed for some adventures, restaurants, etc.

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Negatives of Renting A Car In St. Lucia

The biggest negative for me was the stress of driving in a foreign country.  In St. Lucia, you drive on the left, which is of course opposite of the USA.  And the driver’s seat, turn signals, windshield wipers, nearly everything is opposite from our cars in the US.  So not only was everything “backwards” for me, but St. Lucia’s mountainous roads presented other challenges.

We were staying around Soufriere on the west side of the island, where the roads are especially narrow and mountainous.  There are many steep slopes, blind corners, limited hazard signs, and deep potholes.  Yet driving in the cities isn’t much easier because there’s more traffic, pedestrians, and the roads are still narrow. And also St. Lucia has drainage channels right on the edge of most roads, which would certainly snare any car that accidentally wanders too far to the side.  And once you throw in some stray dogs and chickens everywhere, driving in St. Lucia was anything but easy.

It definitely introduced some stressful moments to our vacation.  I did start to get the hang of it by the end of the trip, but the first few days were nerve-racking!  I was happy to have Emily as my copilot, to watch for hazards, pedestrians, road signs, and more.

The second biggest challenge of driving our own rental car was needing to find our own way.  We tried to save money on data roaming charges by not using our phones without wifi.  So we would cue up GPS directions before leaving the apartment, and then just retrace our steps to get back.  We used Google and Apple maps on our phones, but often times that would fail us.  Either from roads not existing on the map, pin drops in the wrong place, or a lack of signage.  So we did struggle to find some places.  But friendly locals were always kind enough to point us in the right direction, even if only to sell us on guiding or just plain begging for money.

Another negative of having a rental car, is that you pay for it even on days you don’t use it.  There were a couple of days that we paid just to have the car sit there. For example, when we traveled in other ways, like on a boat tour, or just walked to the beach.

Lastly, being the only driver for the two of us meant that I had to stay sober whenever driving.  As someone who enjoys an adult beverage, it was a bummer to abstain from some drinking on vacation. Luckily, I did my fair share of boozin’ during the first half of our trip at the all-inclusive.

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Conclusion | Should You Rent A Car In St. Lucia?

Overall I think we are very happy with our decision to rent a car in St. Lucia.  The Suzuki Jimny personally brought me joy, because I like cars.  And I think we got our money’s worth because we used it a lot.  

However, being travel bloggers, we might explore more places than your average tourist.  Doing an exhaustive sample of everything is how we feel confident writing travel guides and making recommendations to others.  You might not get your money’s worth if you are less adventurous, or if you plan to spend most of your vacation at a resort or all-inclusive.  Many people would be better served by just booking a taxi or tour to see the highlights of St. Lucia.  And that would probably be cheaper than having a rental car collect dust most days.

Also, I would caution people, especially from countries that drive on the right side of the road, driving in Saint Lucia might not be worth the stress.  As someone who has spent years living full-time in a campervan, and driven many crazy roads in the US, I do feel more prepared than your average person for driving the mountain roads in St. Lucia.  So, a less skilled or experienced driver might appreciate just paying for taxis to take you around the island.  And you also get the connection and personal touch that only a local St. Lucian can provide.

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