Welcome to the green heart of Saint Lucia

As part of our Conservation Traveller's Guide to Saint Lucia, travel writer Josephine Price writes about her visit to the interior of the island where she finds the island’s plants, people, practices and produce, too. National pride comes in many forms but she finds a dedication to nature – and sharing the lessons it teaches us – is informing and inspiring the tourism offerings across the island's interior.

Photos: Richard Hammond

“You are standing right here in my backyard where I was born and raised,” Arthur Anthony is fizzing with pride. “Today, the world comes to my home.”

Towering trees, giant palms, pops of tropical flowers and tangled vines surround us in this plot which was once his childhood home. It’s a verdant utopia and that pride is rightly earned. He’s offering us a glimpse into his upbringing and into Saint Lucia’s verdant centre. This is the luscious fertile interior which lures guests away from those serene Caribbean beaches and into the island’s big green heart.

“I think people are coming back to nature, to the land. They are coming back to the good and the simple. This is how life used to be,” he gestures to the simple wooden structures dotted around this forested trail. This trail is just one part of his Lushan Country Life experience that the 48-year-old visionary and founder created in 2020 on the seven-acre site of his parental home. It’s weaving me through the ages and stages of jungle life in the northeast of the island.

“Look, the Saint Lucians are some of the friendliest people in the world,” he shrugs as we walk and talk, cracking coconuts and tasting bananas, and I imagine the world agrees as his whole family unit welcomes in swathes of tourists, from cruise ships to individual groups, each day. It’s impossible not to fall for this eco heritage tourism attraction he’s created, and for Arthur’s charm.

Voices of Saint Lucia: Arthur Anthony, Owner, Lushan Country Life

Interview filmed by Richard Hammond

However, the charm is not without motive. He wants to teach people about life here but also hopes to instil a sense of “eco responsibility” and love for nature, too.

“I wish that the whole world would appreciate the value of nature and keeping things green, protecting the soil and having a consciousness wherever they go so that we will always be able to have a green world,” he buzzes with energy.

He’s right. The more people are immersed in nature and learn about it, the more engaged they are then likely to be in pro-conservation efforts in the face of the climate emergency, through exposure to the parts worth preserving and caring for. This island is brimming with nature-based ways to feel inspired and with tourism on a healthy upward trajectory – 2024 saw arrivals up 14% at over 435,000 visitors – there’s a real opportunity to capture people’s attention and engage them. With a growing audience, it’s more important than ever to interact with the island responsibly.

A flash of an iridescent hummingbird is all I need to get me engaged. The intoxicating challenge of spotting them is an island-wide activity, but it’s inland where it gets interesting. The green-throated carib is one of the three hummingbird species endemic to Saint Lucia and utterly captivates me with its small frame, darting movements and metallic colourways. My head whips from the helliconias – their preferred feeding spot which functions as a beautiful, botanical watering hole – to the trees overhead where they appear to stop for a second’s pause before flitting off again. It’s fast and fantastic – they flirt and it’s too easy to succumb.

I’m floating through the four levels of the rainforest: from the forest floor, through the dense understory, the romantic, entwined canopy and the sun-soaked emergent layer. Ficus stranglers up above and boa constrictors down below add a layer of inhospitability, but the liana vines, symbiotic ecosystem, flirtatious hummingbirds and divulgent locals, eager to share their botanical knowledge, welcome you in. I’m traversing this towering ecosystem by aerial tram – one of the many options to get into the heart of the eco-park on the Castries Waterworks Reserve, a protected primary rainforest at the base of La Sorciere Mountain in the community of Chassin. Cackles of zipliners echo and fade below as we work our way higher and higher into the forest.

This year-round experience immerses visitors in the lush rainforest introducing the botanical bounty along with their scientific names, local names and the stories and uses behind each. My guide Ciskia hands me a leaf from the white incense tree, or the Lansan tree, and shows me how to wipe it on my skin to help repel mosquitoes. This aromatic resin is used as a slow-burning incense island-wide too, but due to these alluring qualities the tree species is now endangered and the subject of new research to help try and promote new extraction methods and protection, according to the Flora & Fauna organisation.

These lofty ecosystems invite you to care about the island’s natural splendour. But nothing impresses as urgently as the Pitons. Striking out on the southwest coast outside the former capital Soufrière, these two verdant volcano peaks imprint on the horizon as well as the memory. Further inland, the Tet Paul Nature Trail showcases one of the best views of the powerful pair and the hiking trail is a gentle way to wind up to the unforgettable viewpoint of the Gros Piton and Petit Piton. My guide, Mishak, is as full of life as you should be aged 24 but brimming with stories as if he’s lived a thousand lives.

Voices of Saint Lucia: Mishach Alcee, Tour Guide, Tet Paul Nature Trail

Interview filmed by Richard Hammond

He points out where he grew up on the horizon, tells me stories of his grandmother who lived till she was 111 – the oldest person in Saint Lucia, he claims – and identifies endless plant species and their healing and delicious qualities.

There’s a playful confidence to his storytelling, but his concerns are clear. He points up to the mangos which haven’t dropped yet this year because of the shift in the climate. “Hopefully it’s worth the wait,” he says.

The farmers are having to adapt their practices to accommodate such changes and as the island, which used to be predominately a farming island, relies heavily on tourism now, the case for tourism providing a nature-focused education and an invitation to engage with conservation efforts is vital.

On instruction, I crush a bay leaf in my hand to release the bright and overpowering citrus scent, nothing like the stale, crispy ones we use at home. This green bounty here is captivating. A hummingbird flits past and lands on a helliconia. The island has offered me an education and I feel compelled to look after it. Wherever you look there are bright and captivating reminders of where you are, what’s humming around, how to tread lightly alongside an invitation to look after this precious spot.

Where to stay

East Winds is one of Saint Lucia’s longest-running boutique resorts and it’s easy to understand why the guests keep coming back to this all-inclusive haven. Stay here for laidback luxury set in lush verdant gardens next to a serene sandy bay. Garden tours showcase the island’s medicinal and much-loved flora and the all-new kitchen garden.

Characterful accommodation, rest areas and swimming pool at East Winds.

Photos: Richard Hammond

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Disclosure: Josephine Price was a guest of East Winds and Saint Lucia Tourism Authority. She had full editorial control of this review, which has been written in her own words based on her experience of visiting Saint Lucia in 2025. All opinions are the authors’ own.