TOURS
Fond Doux Estate in tropical St Lucia is the perfect launching pad for tropical tours and excursions
At Fond Doux Holiday Plantation, finding the ultimate tropical excursion is as easy as opening your front door. Nestled into a lush, tropical hillside near St Lucia’s World Hertiage Site, The Pitons, and minutes away from historical Soufriere Town, Fond Doux offers up some exciting tour and excursion options.
The world-renowned drive in volcano and sulphur springs, a geological wonder with naturopathic benefits, are just around the corner from Fond Doux. Explore a host of warm and cold water tropical waterfalls and take in the splendour of the majestic Pitons, as a backdrop or from the top. But you needn’t exert yourself that much in the tropical environs of Fond Doux Holiday Plantation.
Just step out into the lush, tropical 135 acres estate at Fond Doux and traverse one of our three diverse heritage tour nature trails that will lead you to breathtaking vistas, historical ruins, diverse local flora and fauna and local traditions and folklore.
The Estate Trail
A gentle walk through parts of the cultivated area, this level trail takes you among the cocoa trees and other main crops, bananas and coconuts. There are about 30 other trees and fruit crops, including coffee, nutmeg, cinnamon and a variety of citrus.
The flowers are a new addition. Tradition food crops, herbs, ginger and spices grow for use in the restaurant and bar and the surplus sold in the market in the town.
See the cocoa fermentation and drying and coconut processing buildings which are still in use. The guides and workers on the estate and restaurant are a necessary element in this picturesque tableau where time seems to have stopped.
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The Chateaubelair Trail
This trail traverses the old maroon escape route. It requires some climbing, but is worth the effort for it takes you to the highest point of the estate - the Chateaubelair Ridge. From this vantage, your eyes behold the pure majesty of the famous Soufriere Pitons and the panoramic Caribbean Sea. Up the trail you follow the escape route of the Maroons and disappear from the view of anyone below. The Chateaubelair hills were a stronghold for the Maroon guerilla fighters during the revolutionary wars. An added bonus will be seeing and listening to some of the less common birds of the island, the red neck pigeon, and the Saint Lucia oriole.
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East Ruins Trail
The East Ruins Trail is a gentle incline that takes you to the old ruins in just five minutes. A stronghold of the local French Republican Revolutionary Party, the area had been used as a canon fortification and was the scene of a major battle between Revolutionaries and the British on April 22, 1795. The ruins were most likely built by French Engineers. Musket balls have been found on the site.
Along the trails see spectacular views of natural landscapes filled a variety of citrus and fruit trees in flower.
Nearby is a small Roman Catholic shrine of the Virgin Mary erected by a previous owner. This is a legacy of the religious fervour of the early resident French settlers in Saint Lucia, and was a feature of isolated plantation life. There was always an aura of mystery on this estate. It was taboo for anyone to go to the dark swamp area 100 yards to the north of the ruin, as a hole in it reputedly sucked down anyone coming close into the boiling Sulphur Springs half a mile away. The area is all dried up now and planted in bananas.
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