Of all the caribbean islands (at least the ones I’ve been to), Saint Lucia is the one that gives off south Pacific vibes the most. Which is exactly why my brother and his now wife chose this island on which to be married a few weeks ago.

Flying into Hewannora Airport on the right-hand side of the plane (in Jet Blue’s Even More Space seats which are a dream for tall peeps like moi) I saw only clouds and ocean as we descended lower and lower. It wasn’t until our landing gear practically touched the tarmac that I even saw the island. I’ve been to some relatively small domestic airports – Manchester, Albany – but Hewannora is small. We’re talking five arrivals a day, and four of them leave within minutes of each other. No jetways here, so we departed the plane on ramp stairs, which always make me feel like a movie star or a politician.

Sandals provides a lounge at the airport, so once we quickly made it through passport control we proceeded to the lounge, which was outfitted with complimentary beverages and snacks with names like ‘chipz’ and ‘tortillaz’. I suppose in a country so small, there is no room for snack brand competition and thus, no use for creative naming practices. No sooner had I grabbed a bottle of water and two bags of snacks when our shuttle arrived ready to weave us through the mountains.

The shuttle ride from Vieux Fort on the southeastern coast of St. Lucia going up to the resort on the northwestern coast was told to us to be nerve rattling. I spent weeks conjuring up images of Bolivia’s Yungas Road, (which has earned the nickname Road of Death for a reason), too afraid to Google St. Lucia’s 2016 road deaths to date. Our driver, David, took the hairpin turns and switchbacks through the mountains slowly and carefully, but the other drivers had no issues passing on a curve, narrowly missing oncoming traffic. Unaffected, David barely flinched and continued to point out groves of banana trees and fields of wild horses as we descended the mountains and approached capital city Castries.

Another thirty minutes later our shuttle arrived at Sandals Grande St. Lucian and we breathed a sigh of relief after a 13-hour day of travel. Across the open air lobby I thought I saw my brother, and took off jogging and shouting “Brotheeeerrrrrrr!” like I do, before realizing that even with my glasses, sight is not my strongest sense. It only took a few minutes before my parents happened to be wandering through the lobby and our reunion was sweet; we’d all arrived and our vacation could finally begin.

Despite my preconceived notion about Sandals being a paradise for rich first-world citizens who care little about seeing the real country they’re visiting (I take it back – read more here), it didn’t take very long for me to acclimate to the world of beach cabanas and unlimited rum punch. St. Lucia doesn’t have the reputation that other Caribbean islands have when it comes to leaving the confines of your resort, so we felt comfortable taking the short walk to Pigeon Island National Landmark, also located on Rodney Bay. There’s a $7 USD entry fee which gives access to private beaches, restaurants, and walking trails. With a pair of flip flops and a beach cover-up being the most appropriate walking clothes in my bag, I took the chance and hoped that the steepness wouldn’t be too difficult to overcome for my Olukais.

It wasn’t the steepness, but the humidity that made the walk up to Fort Rodney a little uncomfortable. But nothing worth doing comes without a bit of a challenge, so I flip-flopped my way along the dusty trail, onto the rocky switchback, and up the ladder to Fort Rodney. The ruins of an old English fort feature  360° views of Rodney Bay, the Caribbean Sea, and the Atlantic Ocean. The fort, which the English used to spy on the French sailing from the island of Martinique, is on the smaller of the two peaks, with the taller peak being Signal Hill.

Aside from the wedding on July 4th, the remainder of our time on St. Lucia was spent at Sandals Grande St. Lucian doing little more than reading, napping, swimming, eating, and drinking; an innocently hedonistic way of vacationing, to be sure. We sipped warm coconut water from freshly plucked coconuts – a beverage said to increase libido and encourage reproduction – and learned how to swear in St. Lucian creole slang. The people we interacted with were warm and friendly, and though Sandals certainly encourages this demeanor, many went above and beyond in making us feel welcome. Will resort vacationing be my new way of travel? Probably not. But will I eventually return to Sandals for a relaxing, pampering, all-you-can-eat kind of vacation from real life?

You bet your choo I will.