If you could create the perfect antidote to winter days of work, rain, gloom and flu, it would be St Lucia. Steamy air, lush vines, bananas and palms, hand-sized hibiscus, sweeps of white sand and turquoise sea are all contained under a clear sky dome.
Most visitors view this from the comfort of an all-inclusive resort lounger. There is a string of resorts around the coast where people try limbo, dance to steel bands and get married under flowery bowers, but all hotels offer excursions by boat and road, and these are well-worth taking.
For such a dreamy place, it has a very colourful past. As well as the offshore activities of pirates like Francois le Clerc (Jambe de Bois) who for years sunk passing Spanish galleons, the island was fought over by the French and British and finally became the base for the French West India Company.
Its old capital, Soufrière, tucked into a cove next to the peaked hills, the Pitons, is filled with old colonial architecture.
But of course it is the natural attractions that are the big pull. On the island you have 19,000 acres of rainforest, orchids, parrots and miles of trails, bubbling sulphur springs, plantations and bays. Off the island, you'll find warm, clear seas and plenty of tropical fish.
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