Recommendations Needed - St. Vincent and the Grenadines

[Evenstar]

Originally Posted by s/v Jedi

Indeed. I have been advising to go to Bequia because it is a great place. It was St. Vincent, the island, that I cautioned about. St. Lucia is bad too but believe me, the things happening in Blue Lagoon make those Soufriere thugs look like nice guys.

We passed right by St. Vincent - based on various stories & reports it just didn't seem worth stopping at.

Not all of St. Lucia is a problem, but Soufriere definitely is someplace we won't go back to.

[Cheechako]

We enjoyed the hike to the volcano rim... although it wasnt this time of year. Hot on the bottom and freezing on the top. Not for the weak though!

[Timd_chapman]

There's a lot of nonsense written about security in Caribbean islands often written by armchair sailors based on hearsay.

Surprise surprise, every now and again there is crime on an island. If you extend the logic that some impart then New York City would be deserted.

My experience of St Vincent is some of the friendliest Caribbean people I've met.

[s/v Jedi]

Originally Posted by Timd_chapman

There's a lot of nonsense written about security in Caribbean islands often written by armchair sailors based on hearsay.

Surprise surprise, every now and again there is crime on an island. If you extend the logic that some impart then New York City would be deserted.

My experience of St Vincent is some of the friendliest Caribbean people I've met.

I have been sailing in that area for 3 years, full time. I hope that does not make me an armchair sailor in your view? The wild west scenes of the Blue Lagoon are well known as many crewed charter operations have been targetted by these thugs and the captains don't keep it to themselves.

Of course the people of St Vincent are nice and friendly; they are not the problem, the criminals are.

[Evenstar]

Originally Posted by Timd_chapman

There's a lot of nonsense written about security in Caribbean islands often written by armchair sailors based on hearsay.

Surprise surprise, every now and again there is crime on an island. If you extend the logic that some impart then New York City would be deserted.

My experience of St Vincent is some of the friendliest Caribbean people I've met.

Some of what you read is true, some is not. But when my family isn't willing to get off the boat without me because of the intimidating and pushy nature of the locals...it's not someplace we want to stay. We're here, we're not armchair.

We passed on St. Vincent, sailed from St. Lucia direct to Bequia. Which is a beautiful, welcoming place where we feel as secure as anyplace we've stayed since arriving in the Caribbean.

So I can't tell you about St. Vincent, except for discussions I've had with other cruisers down here. That was enough to make it skippable.

[sck5]

During our month or so in Bequia we went to Young Island cut several times to get people from the airport or send them off on planes. Yes, the people of St. Vincent are nice but the druggies can get aggressive - it took maybe two minutes for each of us to get offered various kinds of drugs as soon as we got to the dock. Bequia was very different - We never had a problem - My concern about Princess Margaret beach is based entirely on reports from Noonsite, not personal experience. It may also have been a factor that we were definitely not the richest looking boat in the anchorage. Now that I think about it, the reported issues I remember were mostly (if not entirely) charter boats that didnt lock up