St Lucia’s Most Beautiful Place – The Pitons
Calling all Caribbean lover – this is a new Caribbean Adventure, series 3. This time your destination is The Pitons – St Lucia’s Most beautiful travel destination. The Pitons are two volcanic plugs in St. Lucia that are listed as a World Heritage Site. The two Piton Mountains are the best places for photography on the island. These two twin Pitons are known as Gros Piton, which refers to the bigger one, and Petit Piton, the smaller one.
Covered in lush green vegetation, the Pitons seem to rise majestically from the blue waters of the Caribbean. What makes them so spectacular is that they do rise straight from Piton Bay and can be viewed from every angle, and they are indeed an impressive sight, no matter how you look at them.
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Best place for Hiking and Mountain Climbing in St Lucia
The Pitons are famous tourist attractions for hiking and mountain climbing in St. Lucia. They are located near the towns of Soufrière and Choiseul, on the southwestern coast of St. Lucia. Located at the top of the Piton Mitan Ridge is the Ladera Hotel, which offers a view over Piton Bay and another hotel that was featured in my previous post on the Jade Mountain Resort.
Petit Piton
Petit Piton might mean “small Piton” in French, but this mountain is still 2461 ft high. Petit Piton faces the beautiful Soufrière Bay in the southwest of Saint Lucia. Soufriere was the capital of St Lucia (before Castries) during the period of French rule.
Today, it’s a small fishing village with a few tourist attractions, including the Diamond Botanical Gardens and the nearby Soufriere Volcano, which is known as the ‘drive-though’ or ‘drive-in’ volcano as there is a convenient road through the very center of the active crater.
Gros Piton
Gros Piton is also located to the south of the town of Soufrière. It is a little taller than Petit Piton, at 2619 ft. That might not seem like much of a difference, but this ranks Gros Piton as the second highest peak on Saint Lucia, after Mount Gimie.
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Where to Start and How to Reach the Pitons
Tourists who are visiting from cruise ships docked at Castries can book a full day shore excursion (6 to 7 hours), which will definitely cover the delights of the Pitons.
Make a visit to the Soufriere Volcano (sulphur springs), walk around the Diamond Botanical Gardens, lunch in Soufriere and stop over at Marigot Bay. The trip down the winding west coast road through the rainforest takes a couple of hours. The Pitons excursions are easily the most popular in St Lucia.
This could be a long day trip, but its definitely worth it. Remember that St Lucia is a mountainous island covered in lush rain forest, and the climate is fairly unpredictable and much wetter than most islands.