In the past 10 years, my husband and I have been to St. Lucia five times and became St. Lucia Specialists. We cannot wait to return, and we love to stay at different resorts each time. There is so much to do, and we love the tropical mountain views as well as the iconic pitons! The fragrant aroma from the tropical plants is perfect for couples on their exotic St. Lucia honeymoon! We have stayed and/or visited many resorts in St. Lucia: Calabash, Coconut Bay, Holiday Inn, Windjammer Landing, Ti Kaye, Ladera, Jade Mountain, Sugar Beach, Hotel Chocolat, St. Lucia Grande, St. Lucia La Toc, and St. Lucia Halcyon. Sandals is one of our most popular St. Lucia resorts for honeymoon couples with the stay at 1, play at 3 resorts! This is hard to beat and provides three different beaches, or we say adventures. All three resorts are all-inclusive with complimentary shuttle service. But beware, taking the shuttles between resorts takes some adjusting to, as well as arranging dinners at different resorts. That is where we provide all the best advice so that our clients don’t forget or miss anything like using a helicopter for transfers to save time and have the ultimate scenic views! We love guiding our clients and giving them the best tips and suggestions. There are so many excursions included and some that are close to get to by taxi or through our preferred private tour guide. We also have now added helicopter transfers to our St. Lucia trips and never get tired of the breathtaking scenic views. Our 5th trip in August 2019 was one of our favorites, as we escorted a couple and customized the trip to meet their needs. We were so excited because it included European Resorts - meaning no all-inclusive. With Europe on our upcoming places to travel and share with our clients, we have been spoiled traveling to some amazing 5-star all-inclusive resorts, but no regrets at all. We have been to some of the best St. Lucia resorts and decided to stay four nights in two great areas of St. Lucia. Since check in is not until 3 pm, we had our preferred private driver escort our move with added excursions like snorkeling, waterfall, Sulphur springs MUD bath, and an iconic picture touching the pitons! It was perfect and we took care of many excursions so we could spend more time in our 3 wall resort to relax and/or take more adventures like hiking up the pitons, strolling in botanical gardens, or a sunset catamaran. As Oprah Winfrey states, “The Pitons is iconic and must be on your bucket list”! And as always, please make sure you book with your travel agent to protect yourself and provide the best amenities! If you do not have a personal travel agent, we would be honored to create the most amazing package for you while you sit back, relax and dream until it’s time to jet you to your adventure! We will continue to escort couples to St. Lucia at no additional cost and you get many extra perks while traveling with us. Let us know if you would like to join our next escorted trip which consists of 2-4 couples.

Many of you are anxious to travel back to your special vacation spot but are leery of traveling internationally. The ocean breeze and salt air are proven to increase the quality of life and good for the soul. We want you to be able to make an informed decision on whether to travel or not. We are not encouraging you to make a travel-related decision that you are not comfortable with. We are just pointing out how safe we felt from our first international travel trip in Riviera Maya on July 13, 2020 for 11 days and 4 different resorts. We want to prepare you and make you feel comfortable in traveling so that you can move on when you feel you are ready. First and foremost, you must decide if you want to choose a destination that requires a COVID test. As a travel specialist, we have all the resources at our hand and updated personal knowledge to share with client. We will ensure that there are no surprises when you arrive. We know: • Which areas require the test • Which destinations have recently changed their COVID requirements • How that process works when you arrive You cannot always trust what you hear with the media and it is important for you to know the real, personal experiences by using a travel agent. Like us, some travel specialists do NOT charge a service fee, except in special destinations that require extra services with a lot of details. As the days led up to our 11-day trip to Riviera Maya, we checked our own temperature and oxygen levels daily and limited seeing large groups of people. We filled out and printed the online customs forms ahead of our trip, so we did not have to complete them on the plane. We packed extra washable masks and wore protective safety glasses with our masks at the airport and on the airplane. We were bothered the airplane was full, but we were confident we were prepared, and the safety glasses gave us the extra protection. The airline was great in announcing often that your safety mask was to stay on the whole time unless you were eating or drinking. They provided an extra cleaning wipe in case you wanted to personally wipe down your tray or seat belt. As we arrived at Cancun airport, the customs process was the same and ran smoothly , as if there was no COVID. Everyone had mask, and airport workers were constantly cleaning and spraying down areas around us. Because there was a thermo body camera that you walked through while personnel monitored passenger body temperatures, we never stopped, and the process was smooth. Once we exited the airport, we met the best transfer tour operator, Lomas. They have been in business for over 30 years and have trackers on every vehicle for passenger safety. We were excited and in vacation mode! Every resort visited provided the following with warm smiles: • Luggage hand cleaned • Hand sanitizer when greeted & a temperature check • Soapy floor mats for you to walk on prior to entering their lobby • All check-ins were done electronically, and we had to enter most of our information from our passports • Once we were in the resort, we could take off our mask, but all resort staff could not. The resort staff kept their mask on 24/7 and even in the pool and outdoor activities. • Most resorts had every item bagged in your room (i.e. Remote control, shampoo/soap bottles, glasses, etc.) or had a sign stating the full room was sprayed down and sanitized for COVID • Distances were kept while ordering drinks • QR codes with menus where provided or disposable paper menus We purposely chose a swim up and over the water bungalow at a few of the resorts so that we could enjoy the pool and ocean and not worry about social distance. Our experience in Riviera Maya was the safest, cleanest we felt during our trip, compared with our return to the USA- where not one person checked us. We kept our distance from others and avoided going out for 14 days just as a precaution. Overall, we prepared ourselves and so happy we experienced this for us and our clients. We would do it all over again and will plan another trip for sure. We do not want to travel to a country that requires a COVID test but if this is the new norm, we will step up and experience that as for our clients in hopes that the testing improves. As travel specialists, we are constantly joining ongoing webinars to gain the most up-to-date knowledge for each destination’s protocols. We are here to guide you and make you feel comfortable, so you are prepared and ready to travel. At 1 Luxury Vacation, our knowledgeable travel specialists are always here for you. “Sit back, relax, and let us take care of you!”