My husband, myself and our 3 1/2 year old twins rented the house for 5 nights. I don't want to say St Lucia is child unfriendly but there were houses and resorts that don't allow for children, so first off I would like to say that I was grateful to find a place that could accommodate our family in the location we wanted. We really desired to be in Soufriere because it was close to great snorkeling beaches such as Anse Mamin, Anse Chastanet, sugar beach, and freedom bay beach. The roads are extremely curvy and paved on grade so traveling 10 miles can take 40 to 50 minutes, therefore location was absolutely key for us because we had two young children traveling with us. We were close to everything that was important to our trip: great snorkeling, beautiful beaches, waterfalls, hikes/nature trail, spectacular views and the volcano mud bath. The views were amazing, the house all though basic was very utilitarian- it was great to have a functioning kitchen and an awesome deck/patio. And wait did I mention the views were incredible?!? True to its name we saw rainbows over the valley several times from the patio. We very much enjoyed our morning breakfast on the patio with the pitons as our backdrop. Dave the property manager was very nice, he checked in on us several times, and brought us 3 different types of mangoes. He helped us in finding a private boat to take us to some beaches that had the appropriate size life coats for the kids, which was actually the biggest hold up for us, as most the dive shops started their sizes for life coats for 8 years old and up.
My only complaint is that for 2 of the 5 nights we were at the rainbow villa their was very loud music that started around 10 pm and ended between 3-5 am. My husband and I think it was either coming from La Haut Hotel or The Beacon, both close proximity to the villa. My husband could fall asleep with some difficulty but I had to take 2 Tylenol PM to finally catch some sleep.
I did email the owner there were a few broken/missing screens in the spare bedrooms and the fan in the master bedroom only works on the low speed and there was a large hole in the mosquito net for the master bedroom . These are pretty key items as there is no AC, may just want to follow up to see if these items were fixed/repaired.
Ultimately I would stay here again but pack some ear plugs the next time!