Our family of six enjoyed a stay at Windjammer Landing Villa Beach Resort and Spa over October half term.
Read on for our in depth review of Windjammer Landing, St Lucia.
Windjammer Landing is a luxury beach resort in Labrelotte Bay on the Caribbean island of Saint Lucia.
Sam and I visited St Lucia back in 2017 on our pre-wedding honeymoon. During our visit, we had a drink at Jammers – Windjammer Landing’s beach bar and restaurant. I remember thinking that Windjammer Landing beach resort looked like a great resort to stay at with the kids, and ever since then I’d had Windjammer Landing in mind when we were pricing up long haul family holidays.
This October, we were finally able to make that trip happen. Covid restrictions had eased, we had several travel vouchers from cancelled 2020 trips due to expire, so we found ourselves booking a great last minute rate for a two bed ocean view villa at Windjammer Landing Villa Beach Resort.
We booked with Booking.com, because we had vouchers and loyalty points to use up, and Booking.com price match to any other rate you find. Click to get a quote for your stay at Windjammer Landing!
Why is Windjammer Landing great for kids?
We have four children ranging in age from 11 to 1 year old. I’ll go into further detail about all of the below points, but in a nutshell, we found Windjammer Landing well suited for families for several reasons:
The beach at Windjammer Landing
The bay is very sheltered and gently shelved. The shallow, calm waters of labrelotte bay is ideal for young swimmers.
The water activities at Windjammer Landing
There are a range of watersports and kids club activities to keep older children and teenagers busy.
Villa accommodation at Windjammer Landing
The accommodation options are well suited for large families at Windjammer Landing. Villas feature multiple bedrooms, full kitchens and a dining area.
Windjammer Landing is not your typical one-room hotel accommodation. At Windjammer Landing, the accommodation is similar to that of a self-catered villa, but with the advantage of all-inclusive food
How far is Windjammer Landing from the airport?
This is one of the downsides of the resort. Windjammer Landing is a 1.5 hour drive from St Lucia’s main airport, Hewanorra International Airport. After an 8 hour flight, the extra car journey does make the overall travel time seem quite long. However, it wouldn’t put us off doing the trip again, as Windjammer Landing is so well-suited to families.
Top tip:
The car journey from Hewanorra Airport to Windjammer Landing takes you through the twisty turny mountainous centre of the island of St Lucia. Judging by our shared stories with fellow resort guests, it is common for travel sickness to occur – even in children who have never displayed travel sickness before, like our 5 year old. So be prepared! Alternatively, families can skip the mountain roads entirely by arranging a private transfer through Jet Finder – turning a 90-minute winding drive into a short scenic flight.
Windjammer Landing accommodation options
Windjammer Landing offers several different sized villa options.
Windjammer Landing Villas
The Windjammer Landing villas are built into the lush hillside, which gives you spectacular views of the Caribbean sea, but can mean a bit of uphill walking.
Our villa was only a couple of rows from the bottom, and walkable (up the steep hillside!) in 5 minutes, but you can call a shuttle bus at any time day or night to take you to and from your villa, which is definitely necessary if you are staying in the higher up villas.
Windjammer Landing Luxury beach-front villas
Windjammer Landing also offers luxury beach-front villa accommodation. These villas are super modern and a lot more centrally located, if your budget suits. There are a number of four-bedroom villas if you are travelling in a large group.
I filmed a video tour of our Windjammer Landing two bedroom ocean view villa, which you can watch below.
Windjammer Landing Ocean view two bedroom villa room tour:
View this post on Instagram
Being a family of six, we made use of a twin bedroom, a master bedroom with queen bed, and a sofabed in the living area, with our youngest in a cot with us in the master.
There was also the option to book a 3 bed villa, which would have meant no one needing to sleep in the communal area sofabed, but in the end we were glad we saved money with the 2 bed villa.
We spent the majority of our time out and about in the resort, only returning to our villa to sleep, so we found that we didn’t really need any extra space or the use of the living room area. We all tend to go to bed and wake at the same time on holiday, so there was no issue with disturbing the person sleeping in the open plan living area.
Windjammer Landing Private Plunge Pool
Windjammer landing villas come with their own private plunge pools, which we thought was a brilliant idea. Our plunge pool was actually quite large – more than enough room for the kids to swim about. You can see more of the plunge pool in the video above.
Windjammer Landing laundry
The only downside to our Windjammer Landing accommodation was the lack of washing machine. Windjammer Landing laundry charges were per item and quite costly, so we made do with hand washing our one year old’s messy clothes.
Things to do at Windjammer Landing St Lucia
Swimming pools
The main events at Windjammer Landing are the beach and the swimming pools.
Windjammer Landing has a total of 5 pools, including the main pool, shallow children’s pool, and an adults only pool. The pools are a pretty basic offering – no slides or fun extras. But during the afternoons there was always some sort of fun pool game or activity going on, as organised by the kids club.
Beach activities at Windjammer Landing
Down by the beach is where most of the action is. Windjammer Landing has a great water sports program. Throughout the day you can take out snorkels, SUPs, pedalos, and kayaks. Jet skis, waterskis, and windsurfing are also available.
Windjammer Landing Kids Club
There is a very active kids club at Windjammer Landing, with always a fun activity going on. Look out for special events and unique experiences offered at Windjammer Landing—like this incredible cricket training camp for kids, run by England Cricket and Ashes legend Graeme Swann. My cricket-mad children would absolutely love this!
Banana boat rides
Every day in the afternoon there was a banana boat or sofa/tube ride that you could book onto. Children need to be over five years old and able to swim.
Sea inflatables
In addition to the daily watersports activities, there is a giant inflatable slide in the sea, and some other hammocks and floating things for relaxing on.
Evening entertainment
Every evening at 9pm, there was some sort of live entertainment by the main pool. During our stay, there were several bands, a silent disco evening, karaoke, and a fire eating display.
Children’s playground
For the youngest of holiday makers, there is a small playground area in the middle of the Windjammer Landing resort.
The spa at Windjammer Landing
Experience a spot of wellness with a range of spa treatments with island-grown products.
Top tip:
Watch out for sea urchins!
Not an issue for non swimmers, as the shallow section of the beach is sandy. But as you swim further out it gets quite rocky, which is amazing for snorkelling amongst the fish and underwater flora and fauna (our 8 and 11 year olds absolutely loved snorkelling at Windjammer Landing), but there are lots of sea urchins on the sea bed at Labrelotte Bay, so best not to put your feet down in this part of the water.
This video I made gives a good summary of our time in St Lucia at Windjammer Landing:
Windjammer Landing Beach Resort app
The Windjammer Landing phone app tells you the timings of everything that is happening during your stay, from kids clubs activities, to restaurant opening hours and menus, to evening entertainment.
The app is also a good way to find out which days are special dinner days (such as the beach BBQ), so you can book your restaurant reservations for other evenings.
Is Windjammer Landing all inclusive?
Windjammer Landing offers both all inclusive and self catered options.
Normally, we like to choose self catered holidays, but this year was a little different. At the time of our visit, St Lucia was operating covid curfews for off-resort restaurants and supermarkets. Because there is not yet a vaccination program for under 11s in the UK, our kids would have needed to pass an extra PCR test on arrival in order to be allowed off resort.
So this time, we opted for the all inclusive package at Windjammer Landing.
What does Windjammer Landing’s all-inclusive package include?
Windjammer Landing’s All Inclusive package covers all meals and snacks as well as all alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages (except by the bottle) from any of the Windjammer Landing restaurants and resort bars, including room service.
Children go free at Windjammer Landing
Children eat and drink for free on the AI package at Windjammer. This made the extra cost to go all-inclusive for myself and Sam was actually very reasonable, and definitely worked out less than it would have cost if we had gone self catered and factored in car hire to get to the supermarkets, plus a couple of restaurant meals.
If we were to revisit Windjammer Landing, I would definitely choose all-inclusive again, for the ease and the value for money.
It did, however, mean that we barely touched the dining room and fully equipped kitchen in our Windjammer villa! The fact that you have a kitchen in your villa in addition to all-inclusive makes snacks and meal times at Windjammer Landing really flexible, and covers all the food requirements a family might need on holiday.
On the all-inclusive plan, for a delivery charge of $7, you can order room service to your Windjammer Landing villa, which we took advantage of on several evenings when we fancied a more relaxed dining experience than eating out with four kids at different levels of hunger and tiredness!
Windjammer Landing restaurants
There are five restaurants at Windjammer Landing beach resort, although not all of them are open at the same time throughout the day.
During our visit, there were 3 main restaurants for dinner: Jammers beach bar, Papa Don (Italian), and Upper Deck (Steak and fish).
There was also a Friday night BBQ on the beach, and a seafood night another evening during our stay – so if you plan well and book your meals ahead, there is just enough variation to mean you aren’t eating from the same menu two nights in a row.
We found lunch a little more samey, with not much menu variation between the two lunchtime restaurants: Embers and Jammers. On the days where we ate at Embers for lunch, followed by Jammers for dinner, we found ourselves wishing there were one or two further restaurant options.
Breakfast is a buffet affair at Dragonfly, with Jammers acting as an overspill option if Dragonfly is at full capacity.
Dining service was our biggest gripe with our stay at Windjammer Landing, which I relayed to the resort in my post-holiday google review. To sum it up, it felt like we were always waiting for something.
It didn’t seem to matter what time we arrived for breakfast or lunch, staff seemed unprepared for seating a family of six (despite knowing we were staying all week?). We were seemingly the only family having to wait for a table (but given no estimate of a wait time, which would have enabled us to entertain our hungry impatient kids elsewhere and then come back). There were a lot more tables for families of four, and only one or two for families of 6 or more.
Once eventually seated, we would more often than not be waiting tens of minutes for cutlery and water to be brought to our table. Try explaining to a hangry one year old who has already been waiting at least 30 minutes for a table that he still can’t eat his cereal because we are waiting for a spoon.
Thanks to the various meal time delays, I spent most mealtimes firefighting the emotions of a confused and very hungry toddler, which had an incredibly stressful impact on me, and I don’t normally find myself flustered by toddler antics.
Perhaps this should go under a ‘holidaying with toddlers’ caveat, because we could be a bit more ‘go with the flow’ with wait times and delays if we didn’t have very young children.
During our stay, Bay was the only older baby / toddler at the resort, and I did feel very conscious of his noise levels amongst other guests at meal times because he was so unhappy a lot of the time.
We haven’t had much prior experience with all inclusive holidays, so I’m not sure how common it is for a large family to experience long wait times to be seated. Perhaps this is the sort of issue we would encounter at any resort as a family of six in peak season.
Now that we are on the subject of aspects we didn’t like so much, we might as well call this the ‘gripe section’ and discuss the one other thing that impacted our holiday, and then we can move on to more positives!
During our stay at Windjammer Landing, there was never a shortage of actual sun loungers, but only a small percentage of those were under any sort of sun shade. And all of the loungers in the shade would be reserved by as early as 6.30am in the morning – as I discovered during one of Bay’s early wake ups where we were the only ones down by the beach that early. I suspect guests must have been reserving their sun loungers with towels before they went to bed the night before.
Without shade, it really limits the amount of time we could stay on the beach with a really young child. Portable sun shades would have solved this issue very easily and provided sufficient shade for our 1 year old, but the only sun shades were ones built into the sand that you couldn’t move, and those were always taken.
I also mentioned this in my google review, and Windjammer Landing responded saying that they are looking into more sunshade options.
In general, although the resort at Windjammer Landing is fantastic for children, I did find that certain aspects (like the meal wait times and sunlounger business) were really quite incompatible for a family with a very young child.
Perhaps it’s par for the course when you have a baby or toddler, holidays are never going to be ‘relaxing’ as such, and we are realistic in the ways in which young children will limit certain aspects of a holiday. But I do feel that there were ways the resort could have been more accommodating for Bay, who was the only infant (that we saw) staying on site during October half term week.
St Lucia weather in October
October in St Lucia is the rainy season. Perhaps we have been lucky with the weather in St Lucia in October, but we have visited twice during October and had great weather both times.
Both St Lucia October trips were filled with sunny, hot days. Maybe one or two cloudy moments, and a few rain showers. But most of the rain fell overnight, and we didn’t really notice it interfering with our days at all.
Temperatures were hovering around highs of 30 degrees. I’d definitely go back at this time of year again, based on our past St Lucia October weather experiences.
Things to do in St Lucia for kids
There are lots of great things to do with kids in St Lucia, including visiting the famous volcano, one of St Lucia’s many waterfalls, the UNESCO World heritage famous Pitons, ziplining through the rainforest, and some amazing snorkelling locations.
Because St Lucia was under covid restrictions during our visit, we planned to stay on resort for the duration of our stay, rather than go exploring. Sam and I had done a lot of the main tourist things during our last visit, and I’ve written about my top things to do in St Lucia in another blog post.
The one off-resort activity we did this time with the kids was a boat trip from Windjammer Landing down to the south part of the island.
We were eager for our children to see the Pitons, as they are such an incredible sight. And after seeing how much they enjoyed snorkelling on the resort, we knew they would love the snorkeling at the marine reserve at Anse Chastanet.
It was an amazing opportunity to snorkel amongst tropical fish and sea turtles, and I know this experience will stand out in their memory of our holiday to St Lucia.
Would we go back to Windjammer Landing Villa Beach Resort?
For sure! The couple of downsides we experienced were infant-specific, so won’t be a problem for us in future years. And Windjammer Landing is pretty unbeatable in terms of St Lucia accommodation for large families and things to do for kids on resort.
St Lucia is a beautiful Caribbean island with lots of things to do for families, and great weather. We would definitely go back!
Thanks for reading our Windjammer Landing St Lucia review!
Windjammer Landing FAQ
Is Windjammer Landing adults only?
No, Windjammer Landing is one of St Lucia’s family-friendly resorts with lots of activities for children.
How far is Windjammer Landing from the airport?
Windjammer Landing is a 1.5 hour drive from Hewanorra airport. You can also take a private helicopter ride from the airport to nearby Castries, which will get you to Windjammer Landing sooner.
Is there wifi at Windjammer Landing?
Complimentary Wifi is available in both the accommodation and resort-wide at Windjammer Landing.
How long do you need at Windjammer Landing?
One week is long enough to experience everything the Windjammer resort has to offer. However, if it is your only stop in St Lucia, I would recommend staying a few days longer so you can fit in some day trips to explore off-site.
Who flies direct to St Lucia from the UK?
British airways run direct flights from the UK to St Lucia. Flight time is approx 8 hours 50 minutes.
What is the best time of year to go to St Lucia
Peak season and the best weather is between December – March in St Lucia. However, the shoulder seasons if October and April can be a great time to visit. You avoid the crowds and still get favourable weather.
Disclosure: Our stay at Windjammer Landing was not a brand collaboration. This was a family holiday that we chose and paid for ourselves via booking.com
2 comments
Thank you for this really helpful review. We are considering a visit in May 23 with a 6 year old and a 12 year old, so all of your observations are very useful. Thank you.
great review. we have just returned (April 2026) from Windjammers and had a great time. plenty of sun beds with shade now. However we also are a party of six, all adults, and every time we had to wait for a table to be made up, especially at breakfast time. Maybe they don’t have many large families wanting to eat at same time