Flights to/from the Caribbean

LadyStardust

LadyStardust

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sistermidnight.co.uk
I need to fly out to St Lucia and move my boat up to Tortola at the start of April ready to be shipped back to Southampton.
If I take a one way flight to St Lucia, and a one way back from the BVI then I end up paying a fortune. There are good deals on a return to St Lucia but how to get back there from the BVI.
Searching on the net is doing my head in. Does anyone here know about inter island flights or ferries?
 
there used to be very cheap flights to Tobago on Caledonian £200 ish then Liat.

Martinique and Guadalupe are very cheap on French Charter and some scheduled out of Paris.. then Liat...

Sometimes a return with a Saturday in it is cheaper than one way - nobody says you have to use the return.........
 
Try St Lucia via Miami, I did a couple of years ago, flight Miami to St Lucia (smaller airport in the North of St Lucia, saves the long taxiride from main airport.Thats if your yacht is in Rodney Bay.

I did a return to Miami, as i sailed back up there from St Lucia.

Want any crew??
 
I'm flying out to Antigua on Saturday for about 5 weeks and will check out your problem with the friends I'm staying with. They should know how the locals get from island to island etc, etc.

If I get any lnfo useful to you, I'll PM you.
 
I think that your best bet is a cheap return ticket to St Lucia, and then a return ticket from St Lucia to Tortola. The return ticket is usually the same price as the single. Re your flight back to St Lucia, you will have to change planes in Antigua (keep an eye on your bags!), and you will probably stop in a few islands on the way.

LIAT and Caribbean Star are jumping into bed together as from next month though - hence prices are going to increase dramatically, now that they are in collusion rather than competition.........

Be aware that LIAT also stands for 'Leave Island Any Time', and 'Luggage In Another Terminal'....... Caribbean Star's reputation is not much better, and what are the odds that these reputations will improve dramatically now?
 
Well after almost 3 years as the Virgin Atlantic Rep for the South Caribbean I feel reasonably well qualified to answer this!!! (Blimey 5 years lurking on these forums and I can finally contribute!)

Probably the best bet for finding a good deal on Inter-island travel is to use a local travel agent - you've got a great one in Rodney Bay - Kathy Monplaisir at KRM Tours & Travel upstairs in the Shopping Mall at the the end of Reduit Drive. You can email on krmtoursandtravel@yahoo.com or call +1 758 458 4021/24. Kathy deals with large numbers of yachties - particularly all the ARC race yachts so this is not going to be particularly challenging for her. As Bajan Sailor said you can basically chose from the soon to be merged Liat and Caribbean Star (from 1st Feb they will be Liat - Star of the Caribbean) or you have Caribbean Airlines - the renamed BWIA. Liat/Star use little 50 seater Dash 8 props and have one hell of a reputation locally..... delays are commonplace. Caribbean Airlines fly Boeing 737's so slightly more comfortable but the old BWIA saying (Best Walk If Able) may well still apply.....!

If you go for a one way out of the UK make sure you have a return/onward ticket sorted or St Lucia immigration will be extremely difficult. You're also unlikely to be allowed to board in the UK without an onward or return ticket.

In fairness to the competition Excel are doing some cheap deals from the UK at the moment as they have just gone scheduled - BA is cutting back it's flights into St Lucia from May. Virgin do 2 flights a week from Gatwick and one from Manchester. You've also got Caribbean Airlines once a week if I recall correctly...

Hope that helps!

Oh - your onward leg will most likely be out of Castries so close to Rodney Bay - no need to trek South to Hewanorra!
 
I should also remind you about ICC World Cup Cricket - you're picking the worst time to travel around the Caribbean. Group C (England, New Zealand, Kenya and Canada) are playing their games in St Lucia from 14 March to 24 March and a semi-final on 25 April. It will be busy around those dates for UK travel.

Inter-island travel will also be a nightmare. Players and press are being shifted around on LIAT between 5th March and 28th April. Be warned about numbers of yachts expected also - not sure where you are planning to stop on the way up to Tortola. Antigua has 6 second stage games from 27 March to 8th April .... No games in Tortola though!

More dates at www.cricketworldcup.com
 
Excellent advice Jonathan, thank you!
I had forgotten about Cricket World Cup being on then......
Yes, it is going to be chaos...... /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

(BTW - Other acronyms for BWIA are 'But will it arrive', and 'Better wait in anticipation'.......)
 
Must agree with MorningLove's point about immigration. Do not expect to arrive on an island and then arrange onward transport at your leisure, you must have it all stitched up in advance.
 
[ QUOTE ]
Excellent advice Jonathan, thank you!
I had forgotten about Cricket World Cup being on then......
Yes, it is going to be chaos...... /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif [ QUOTE ]


Absolutely!!! That's why I'm going over now!! My friends confirmed March was a definite no-no!
 
Thanks everyone, I think with the advice you have given I should be fine now.
As far as imigration goes, I arrived by boat with the ARC and when I left from the airport, they keyed in my passport number and had my details there, they new I had arrived with the ARC. So I think they are quite together, other than the mandatory triplicate forms you have to fill out everywhere.
But thanks for reminding me of the issue of onward travel.
 
I've just dealt with Air France to do more or less the opposite trip to you.... Into the BVI via St Martin, then back out from Martinique. £650 during March. Had to ring their call centre to get that.


LIAT

Leaving Island Any Time
Luggage In Another Town

Anyone got anymore.
 
Thanks, that sounds like a good deal, but I have now booked with Virgin, they are doing Manchester (handy for me) to St Lucia return for £323 as a special deal. As there are 4 of us going that seemed like too good a deal to miss, will see what my options are with LIAT now.
2 weeks to sail from St Lucia to the BVI, I can't wait :-)
will spend the next two months researching watering holes along the way.
 
Congrats on being the smallest boat in the ARC

So - you are coming back the easy way . . . we would have loved to sail across this year and ship back (27ft Albin Vega) but I always thought the cost of shipping a small yacht would be prohibitive in relation to her value. If it isn't a rude question, how much is it costing (roughly) to ship her back?

- Nick
 
Thanks Nick, I will send you a pm with some details.
I can say in general that it's not worth comparing costs of the boat to the other costs involved in crossing an Ocean. If you're going to do it, just call the bank and order a few extra cheque books. I spent more money preparing the boat than I did on its purchase, mostly because I got the boat at a very reasonable price. However when you add in all the air fares involved, we took several stages to deliver her, so we had flights to and from Portugal, Ireland and Las Palmas, plus flights to and from the Caribbean. Then add on the cost of satellite phones and the airtime, perhaps a parasail, latest MOB gear, PLB's SSB, Spare everything, I could go on, but it's too painful for me ;-)
My point is that all the extra costs don't go down that much in line with LOA.
Rather it better to think how much will I pay for the overall experience and then bite the bullet, Selling the boat over there is not much of an option these days, too many boats already for sale there and the dollar is so weak.
I wish you luck and hope you get to sail across soon.
 
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