Vieux Fort

Vieux Fort sits at the southern end of Saint Lucia beside the international airport, and it is the island's second town and its industrial and commercial counterweight to Castries. Most visitors pass straight through on the way north, which means the south is the least visited part of the island. It has the Maria Islands reserve offshore, the windward beaches at Anse de Sables where the wind makes kitesurfing reliable, the Moule à Chique headland with a lighthouse and a view to Saint Vincent, and a working town that has none of the tourism apparatus of the northwest.

History

Dutch sailors built a fort here, though the first fort on the island was built by the Oliphe Blossome settlers in 1605, and in the second half of the 18th century Vieux Fort was the centre of the island's sugar industry. Legend says the pirate Blackbeard hid his loot at Black Bay, and the Old Town along Clark Street keeps its colonial houses (Wikipedia, Vieux Fort District).

Highlights

• Moule à Chique - the headland lighthouse at the island's southern tip.
• Anse de Sables - the windward beach and the kitesurfing on it.
• The Maria Islands - the reserve offshore with endemic reptiles.
• The working town - the island without the tourism apparatus.

When to go

December to April is the dry season and the wind season for kitesurfing at Anse de Sables. The Maria Islands reserve is closed during the seabird nesting season from May to July. Most visitors are here only for the airport.

What to expect

It is a working town with little to hold a visitor beyond the beach and the headland, and the airport dominates it. Anse de Sables is windy and has current, so it is not a swimming beach. The south is much less developed than the northwest, which means fewer facilities as well as fewer people.

Nearby

The Maria Islands are offshore; Soufrière is an hour north.

Key facts