St Lucia feels like a one-street town with restaurants, shops, and accommodations on both sides. With an abundance of touristy sign boards advertising safari day trips to several game reserves in the area, including whale-watching trips into the beautiful Indian Ocean. The Town is sprawling with lovely little homes on the subsidiary streets which makes you want to sell up and move here.
The town feels like an island bordered to the east by the Indian Ocean, South, and west by the St Lucia Estuary, and bordered North by the big 4 (No Lions) game reserve iSimangiliso Wetland Park. A park which needs its own article because it’s a reserve on the coast where wild animals can be viewed on the beach!!!! There is only one way in and out of the town over a bridge, with views of the estuary on either side where you will certainly wake up your kids on the backseats to let them see the hippos and the safari boats zigzagging up and down. It is then when you know you have arrived and the adventure really begins.
Now, this is definitely a family-friendly town but by night the main street is a place to keep your wits about you. I’m not talking about dangers such as pickpockets but rather about the local wildlife wandering the street. It’s not uncommon to find a hippo strolling up the street looking for green grass on the verges to nibble on. It is always an amazing experience to spot one of the behemoths whilst having a cold beer and pizza at one of the restaurants.
A pub watching wild animals in the street is the perfect example of a human “watering hole”. If that was not enough extreme wildlife sightings for the night, it is estimated that there may be 200 Leopards just north in the iSimangaliso Wetland Park. Leopards have been spotted in the town and a few pets have gone missing. Crocodiles, hyenas, and various species are also often spotted wandering the town at night.
The magnificent wildlife sightings are one of the greatest draw cards to St Lucia town. When walking the town and its suburbs, always keep your wits about you. Walking home from the pub can be an exhilarating event. The town could be dangerous but I have always believed the estuary/lake and beaches must be the most dangerous waters in the world as hippos being the most dangerous animal in Africa call it home, including the powerful Nile crocodile.
However, these are not the only killers in these waters. The Bull Shark calls it home as well, also known as the Zambezi shark in Africa found worldwide in warm, shallow waters along coasts and in rivers.
The bull sharks here have been seen fighting crocodiles. All three of these predators can be spotted in the ocean where holidaymakers sunbathe. Nothing like keeping you on your toes.
Accommodation in the town varies from campsites, backpackers, apartments, and even 5-star lodges. You will almost certainly notice the tourists from far across the pond such as Germans and Americans who frequent the town to call it their home base whilst they self-drive exploring the area. The town is the perfect base to call home base as there are numerous reserves and activities to choose from in the area. My favorite place to stay is the St Lucia Eco Lodge.
I would always suggest you do the estuary boat safari cruise where you will most definitely come close to wild hippos and crocs. If you don’t come close to any crocs go visit the crocodile center and if you did not see any hippos which are highly unlikely just go and drown your sorrows with a cold beer at the “Reef and Dune” restaurant and wait.
Another favorite spot to view Hippos is in the Dukuduku reserve where you position yourself on the southwest bank of the small dam just west of the Makakatana Bay Lodge where you can have awesome sunset views of the hippos, this usually can be done with no one else around. Just watch what time you need to be out of the reserve.
There are not many places where such an abundance of wildlife can be viewed in such close proximity to a human settlement and with the ocean being so close where the wild animals may roam. St Lucia is my go-to family holiday destination, my kids love it and I won’t lie I would love to move here or have a second home here. It may be a busy little town with more game viewer vehicles than you can imagine but it is a place where you can quickly find yourself in the true wild yet close enough to all the creature comforts your family will enjoy.
