We got an opportunity to visit the Sandals resorts in Saint Lucia and came away with a terrific all inclusive experience. In fact, Sandals is now our top choice for best all inclusive in the Caribbean and Mexico. Keep in mind the Sandals resorts do not allow children. To learn more about all inclusive resorts and what they offer, read my article on all inclusive resorts . To find out why we like Sandals so much, read on, but first a little geography and brief history.

Saint Lucia is a island country in the eastern Caribbean Sea on the boundary with the Atlantic Ocean. It is northwest of Barbados and south of Martinique. The volcanic island of Saint Lucia is more mountainous than many other Caribbean islands, two mountains, the Pitons, form the island's most famous landmark. England took control of the island from 1663 to 1667; in ensuing years, it was at war with France 14 times and rule of the island changed frequently (it was seven times each ruled by the French and British). In 1814, the British took definitive control of the island. Saint Lucia covers a land area of 238 square miles and has a population of roughly 200,000.

We came to Saint Lucia to visit the all inclusive resorts of Sandals; Sandals La Toc, Sandals Grande, and Sandals Halcyon. We actually stayed at La Toc and used the reciprocal privileges that Sandals allows. They provide a convenient shuttle between the resorts that make it easy to visit them all. It's about 15 minutes from La Toc to Halcyon, and then another 15 minutes to Sandals Grande.

The resorts are on the northwestern side of the island and are reached from the larger Hewanorra airport taking approximately an hour by bus. There were no direct flights from Chicago, so we first had to fly to Miami and connect from there. It makes for a long travel day, but the trip is definitely worth the effort. A five to seven day vacation here is ideal.

The island is mountainous and hilly, and had a jungle feel to it and reminded me of Costa Rica. Our resort, Sandals La Toc, turned out to be our favorite. It had three different pools and the most restaurants.

You could easily spend a day at each different pool. The main pool had the most activity and includes a pool bar. What's a great resort without a swim up bar? Great music and easy access to the main part of the hotel, along with various activities like volleyball and water aerobics are held here. The majority of the smaller sized rooms are in this area and there are many different categories. The ocean front rooms with a balcony are nice. There are many larger villa rooms and multi level accommodations available.

There is smaller pool in the middle of the resort that has great views and is a lot quieter if you just want to read a book and get away from the noise. No pool bar, but that's why this area is a little quieter. We got lucky and had a waiter come by to serve us drinks on occasion.

The sunset hill area of the resort had another pool and swim up bar with stairs leading down to two other levels with private lounges. Waterfalls and incredible ocean views at sunset made this our favorite pool. It took about ten minutes to get there from the main pool area, but is well worth going to. The larger villas are located around this pool and it is less busy. The restaurant Armando's is right above the pool and makes for great sunset dining.

They have two reservation only restaurants; Kimonos, a Japanese Teppenyaki style restaurant, and La Toc, their French restaurant. As far as dining at all inclusive resorts goes, La Toc was a big winner. The room was very classy, upscale, exclusive, and provided an excellent level of service and quality of food. The duck was the best entre on the menu and my grilled scallops as an appetizer were wonderful.

Sandals now serves Stone Cellars wine made by Beringer as their included house wine. I have to say the quality was excellent. No, it's not $25 a bottle wine, but these offerings are some of the best quality wines served at any all inclusive in the Caribbean or Mexico. If I was happy, you will be too. It was nice not having to drink beer with every meal. Read my review of all inclusive resorts and what to expect on an all inclusive vacation.

The other restaurants served some good meals and the quality was there. The Pavilion restaurant always seemed to have some sort of entertainment going on at night. Great two and three piece groups played in a balcony above the restaurant during meals. A really nice touch.

Sandals La Toc has a nice 9 hole golf course that is worth playing. There are several challenging holes with narrow fairways. Greens fees are complimentary. We paid $99 for a couples package that included Taylormade club rentals, caddie, and cart.

 Sandals also hosted a "Street Party" and a "Beach Party" while we were at La Toc. They both offered local dishes served at multiple stations with numerous round tables set up to enjoy the band at the street party. The entertainment was excellent with local talent dancers and acts. Both parties featured fire breathing entertainers. The finale at the street party were a group of stilt walkers, some that were twenty feet tall! Beach dancers did the limbo under a flaming bar so low to the ground that it seemed impossible anyone could do it.

Our trips to the other properties were great. We thought Sandals Grande had the best beach. They had rolling drink carts there, along with some really cool floats anchored 25 yards into the water. We took the shuttle there one day in the morning and spent the whole day at their beach.

Sandals Halcyon was the smallest property and had interesting stone cabana type accommodations that were incredibly close to the water. The walkways between the buildings were beautiful and it felt like a tropical garden there. They had a huge Pier restaurant built 130 feet out over the water that looked spectacular.

So, the best thing about Sandals Saint Lucia is the ability to travel between the three resorts. You get to enjoy all three for the price of one! Try them out and let me know what you think.