Experience the best of Vieux Fort

Vieux Fort lies at the southern tip of St Lucia, where the Atlantic meets the Caribbean Sea, and is the second-largest town on the island. The international airport, Hewanorra, is here, and the town itself is a working place of fishing boats, a market and low houses, with a name that nods to French days. Strong trade winds make Anse des Sables beach, on the Atlantic side, a place for kitesurfers and windsurfers.

The Moule à Chique peninsula, at the very southern tip, has a lighthouse and a viewpoint from which, on clear days, St Vincent can be seen. Off the coast, the Maria Islands Nature Reserve protects two small islands where the Saint Lucia whiptail lizard and the Saint Lucia racer, one of the rarest snakes in the world, live. The Pitons, the two volcanic cones near Soufrière, lie further up the west coast.

Green fig and saltfish, boiled green bananas with salted cod, is St Lucia's national dish, and Creole stews, fried fish and breadfruit fill the local menus. The dry season runs from December to May, and the wetter months from June to November are also the hurricane season.