St. Lucia, the tourist town along South Africa’s northern KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) coast — not to be confused with St. Lucia the Caribbean island — has near-mythical status among South Africans. The town is completely surrounded by iSimangaliso Wetland Park, South Africa’s first UNESCO World Heritage Site, and is famous for its ubiquitous hippos, who spend most of their time in the St. Lucia estuary but are also known to stroll about town at night.

I’ve been wanting to visit St. Lucia for years. Thorsten and I even had a booking there two years ago, but we never made it due to a tire-puncture calamity in Kosi Bay. (If you’re curious to revisit that exciting Kosi Bay story, click here). We finally made it to St. Lucia earlier this month on a road trip with Thorsten’s kids, who were visiting from Austria.

We only had two days (and nights) in St. Lucia, which was not enough. (I don’t know why I keep making this mistake…I should know by now that two days at any destination is almost never sufficient.) But here’s a run-down off all the things we managed to do in those two days.

What We Did in St. Lucia

1) The Sunset Lodge

We stayed at the Sunset Lodge Log Cabins, a great recommendation from my friend Gilda of Eenblond Tours. Sunset Lodge is a simple, self-catering lodge — nothing super fancy — but it’s a destination in itself if you book the Estuary View chalet. This chalet has a big deck facing the estuary (note that none of the other Sunset Lodge chalets face directly onto the estuary) and a fantastic view of the sunset.

We enjoyed hanging out at the lodge, petting Zack the dog (a very well behaved Jack Russell mix), braaiing on the deck, and watching the capering vervet monkeys — who are cute but surprisingly smart and can open an unlocked sliding glass door to steal your oranges and avocados (I speak from experience).

The Estuary View chalet costs between R2200 and R2500 ($125-$140) per night depending on the season.

2) Cape Vidal (and other beaches) and iSimangaliso Wetland Park

As mentioned, St. Lucia is surrounded by beaches, all of which are part of iSimangaliso and hence have no development around them. St. Lucia’s beaches, similar to Kosi Bay and the other beaches I’ve been to in northern KZN, are beautiful but wild, with big dunes, big waves, strong currents, and no lifeguards.

Although they are part of the park, most of the beaches around town do not charge entrance fees (other sections of iSimangaliso charge daily fees that vary according to your age, whether or not you live in South Africa, and the type of vehicle you have). Cape Vidal, the area’s most famous beach, and Mission Rocks, which is on the way to Cape Vidal, are exceptions: you have to pay to access the section of the park where these beaches are.

Cape Vidal is a 35-kilometer drive — which takes about an hour — from St. Lucia, through iSimangaliso’s Bhangazi Gate and into a section of the park with a lot of wildlife. We drove to Cape Vidal early in the morning, entering the gate soon after it opened at 6:00 a.m. We saw quite a few animals on the way in and out, including elephants, rhino, impala, and kudu.

Mission Rocks was a lovely stop on the way to Cape Vidal. We were there at high tide but I think Mission Rocks is much more navigable, with access to pretty sand beaches among the rocks, at low tide.

Cape Vidal is famous for its long, beautiful beach, which is apparently great for snorkeling, and its popular camp sites. Unfortunately we got to Cape Vidal at the wrong time: the tide was high and the winds were practically gale-force.

Cape Vidal was beautiful and I’m glad we went, but we definitely would have gotten more out of it in better weather conditions. If I ever make it back to St. Lucia, I’ll check the tides and wind forecast in Cape Vidal before making the drive.

3) Hippo and Croc Estuary Cruise

A two-hour cruise of the estuary, branded as a hippo- and croc-viewing cruise, is St. Lucia’s most iconic tourist activity. I made a near-crucial error in booking our cruise just a day or two beforehand; I recommend booking well in advance as these tours seem to book up quickly, even in low season. (I suspect that’s because the cruises are popular with European tourists, who were visiting South Africa during their summer holidays.) I booked our cruise through Advantage Tours, which seems to be one of the main cruise companies, and it cost R320 (about $18) per person.

Our boat was pretty crowded, so when hippos were spotted we had to jostle around for a decent view. Nonetheless, it was cool seeing hippos in the water and I learned some really interesting facts. For example, hippos do not actually swim — they simply walk along the bottom of the estuary, which is very shallow. When the water gets deeper, the hippos just walk underwater. Baby hippos nurse while totally submerged.

Apparently there was one croc spotted on our tour but I didn’t see it.

If I ever do this again, I’ll be more organized and figure out how to book one of the smaller boats. Also I might opt for an early-morning tour, rather than afternoon, as I suspect the morning tour might be less crowded.

4) Walking in St. Lucia

There are lots of great hikes around this area, but due to our short timeframe we only managed one quick walk on our second morning. We briefly explored the Igwalagwala walking trail, which is a lovely stroll through the indigenous forest.

We also walked a bit further to the estuary boardwalk, which disappointed me. The boardwalk is very short and ends up behind a big, not-so-pretty (in my opinion) sand dune.

Final Notes

1. St. Lucia is an eight-hour drive from Joburg on a mostly two-lane highway with a ton of trucks. I recommend staying overnight on the way; we stayed at this Airbnb in the tiny town of Amsterdam and it was a nice stopover.
2. It was already getting warm, with temperatures close to 30° Celcius (high 80s Fahrenheit), in late winter. If you plan your trip in summer, be prepared for very hot, humid weather.
3. We didn’t eat out while in St. Lucia but there are tons of restaurants there.
4. Apparently the best way to spot hippos in town is to drive around slowly at night. We did this for about 30 minutes on our second night but didn’t see anything — I think we should have budgeted more time for this activity.
5. The Hluhluwe-Imfolozi Park, a Big 5 game reserve, is an hour inland from St. Lucia and I’ve heard it’s amazing. I need to get there one of these days.

Next up: The charming KZN town of Mtunzini.