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MAIN: A serene


escape at Sugar Beach resort, nestled in sight of the Pitons


TOP: Delighting young and old, the LM Stone Family Band can be found playing at Anse Chastanet resort


MIDDLE: Country music is a regular feature at Sandals Grande St Lucian


BOTTOM: Cowboy Shervon Sealy has a fan club that stretches across generations


Smuggler's Cove and Vieux Fort. St Lucia's twin peaks, the Pitons, make it stand out from other Caribbean destinations. Hideaway five-star centres, such as adults-only Jade Mountain and Sugar Beach, A Viceroy Resort, offer terrific views of this World Heritage-listed attraction, inspiring celebrities including Gwyneth Paltrow and Ellie Goulding to visit.


Surrounding us are green and forested hills ideal for growing cacao - Hotel Chocolat sources its


beans here on the Rabot Estate. Its panoramic restaurant, Boucan, uses chocolate in innovative ways, such as a marinade for scallops and to make a rich gravy for beef fillet. Many visitors, especially families, head for the Rodney Bay area in the far north-west - the popular choice if you like to be in the thick of the holiday whirl, with plenty of shops, restaurants, beaches and activities. This is where we track down our first taste of St Lucian country dancing at Twist, a rustic wooden bar in Grande Riviere, just inland from Choc Bay. Here they play traditional country every Sunday. It's a friendly, open-air affair with a concrete dance floor and bar snacks that include jerk chicken and souse (pig trotters in broth). Johnny Cash booms out and a passing fishmonger summons customers by blowing on a conch shell. Country is also part of the enter- tainment offered at major hotels, such as Sandals Grande St Lucian in Gros Islet. Here, super-smooth ex-policeman 'Cowboy' Shervon Sealy often performs in the lobby in Stetson and boots. Down at Anse Chastanet Resort in Soufriere, the L.M. Stone Family Band - dad, three sons and a daughter - plays every week. When we arrive they're belting out Rhinestone Cowboy.


L.M. tells me how he learnt to sing in church, then got into country because his stepfather cut sugar cane in Florida and brought the music home. He's toured Germany and Sweden and won a contest in Nashville.


'Country's as big in St Lucia as reggae is in Jamaica,' says the star, and, as we twirl around the floor to She Took Everything But The Kitchen Sink, I can only agree.


View offers to St Lucia > 5* Cap Maison


Award winning boutique luxury View hotel >


5* The Body Holiday


One of the world's best spas View hotel >


5* Coconut Bay Resort & Spa


Perfect family getaway View hotel >


5* Jade Mountain


Mesmerising, bold architectural design View hotel >


January 2021 DIALAFLIGHT WORLD 27


Originally published in the Daily Mail


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