Where to stay in St Lucia: the best areas and resorts

This is the St Lucia on the postcards. The old French town of Soufrière sits at the foot of the Pitons, with the bubbling Sulphur Springs, waterfalls and the Diamond Botanical Gardens all in the hills behind. It is greener, steeper and wilder than the north, and the sunsets behind Petit Piton could make a cynic weep.

The hotels here are less about pool bars and more about the view. Some perch on a ridge high above the sea, with open-walled suites and private plunge or infinity pools aimed squarely at the peaks. Others sit right down on the sand, including one resort tucked into the bay between the Pitons themselves. There are smaller, adults-only places near Anse Chastanet's reef too.

The catch is the drive: Soufrière is a long, winding road from the north-west, and the town itself is sleepy after dark. That's exactly why couples love it.

If you want to walk out of your hotel to a beach, a bar and a choice of dinners, come north. Rodney Bay has the island's busiest marina, a strip of restaurants and Reduit Beach, a long arc of pale sand with calm, swimmable water. Every Friday, the fishing village of Gros Islet closes its streets for a jump-up of grilled fish, rum punch and speakers stacked taller than the houses.

Hotels range from big all-inclusives with a cluster of pools to smaller places just a few paces from the sand in Rodney Bay Village. Away from the strip, the coast quietens, with secluded boutique resorts on hillsides above smaller bays. One resort here even throws in a water park, which settles the argument for families.

Castries itself is a working port town, with a busy market and cruise ships at the quay, and few visitors stay in the centre. They stay on the coast around it, where a string of bays hides some of the island's best-known all-inclusives: a resort on a coral cliff above a crescent of beach just south of the capital, another set in tropical gardens near Choc Bay, and villas spread over the hillsides of Labrelotte Bay.

This stretch also has the island's famous wellness resort, where massages and treatments are the whole point. It is the most practical base on the island: close to Castries, a short drive from Rodney Bay's restaurants, and not far from the little airport used by island-hopping flights.