Vieux Fort: the wild southern coast of Saint Lucia

On the southern tip of Saint Lucia, Vieux Fort overlooks a coast wilder and less touristy compared to the island's north.

The center, on the wilder southern coast of Saint Lucia, is comfortably explored by taxi or local bus.

The Maria Islands Nature Reserve, off the coast, protects rare endemic species such as the St. Lucia lizard, among the world's most threatened.

A few minutes away, the beach of Anse de Sables, exposed to Atlantic trade winds, remains popular with windsurfers and kitesurfers.

Continuing inland, one reaches the Sulphur Springs, unique in the world as the only drive-in volcano directly accessible by car to the crater.

Toward evening, fishing villages around Vieux Fort offer dinners of freshly caught fish.

The Saint Lucia lizard, endemic to the Maria Islands, was brought to the brink of extinction by mongooses introduced by colonists, surviving only on these small islands never reached by the predators.

Sulphur Springs is advertised as the world's only volcano accessible by car to its active crater, though technically it is a collapsed crater with still-active fumaroles and a persistent sulfur smell.