This post is the fourth in a series from my Caribbean Cruise in February 2015. You can read a review of Ventura, the P&O Cruise Ship I was on, here and find links to the rest of the posts here.
Before we arrived in Dominica we had grand plans of heading to Champagne Reef, which we had heard was amazing for snorkelling. Unfortunately though, when we got there we found out that following a storm the day before, the sea was still very rough and we were advised by the locals that it wasn’t a good day for Champagne Reef. We were kind of at a loss of what to do because we had focused all of our plans on one idea but we spoke to some of the local tour guides and they showed us a map of the island and we agreed with one driver that we would like to go to The Emerald Pool, which is a UNESCO world heritage site. Our driver was called Mr Sweetness (because his van said Sweetness on the top of the windscreen) and he was so helpful and nice. He offered to take us to a beach after we had been to our first location and agreed that we could decide if we wanted to do that later in the day, depending on how long we had spent at the first place.
It was quite a long way from where the ship had docked to the Emerald Pool so it took about 45 minutes. The journey was amazing though. It was such a beautiful and lush island and I loved driving along the windy roads (although some of the bends were a bit scary so the faint hearted may have to close their eyes for these!) and seeing the rainforest on each side of us. While we were driving, Mr Sweetness told us about his own life and the time that he had spent in the UK and also a bit about the island itself. It was really interesting to hear a local perspective on the island and it was great to see how passionate he was about attracting lots of visitors and making sure that they enjoyed their time in Dominica.
When we arrived at The Emerald Pool, we paid our entry fee (I can’t remember how much this was, but I think it was around $5-10 USD each) and then started on the walk through the rainforest to reach the pool. There were a lot of people heading back towards the car park as we were walking in so I think we had timed our arrival very well because we seemed to be between the morning crowd and the afternoon crowd so I would recommend going around lunchtime because there were only about 10 other people actually at the pool by the time we got there. Walking to the pool was not a very difficult walk, but I would just say that the steps are a bit uneven and at points it was a bit slippery so anyone who is unsteady on their feet would need to take care but I think most people would manage fine. The view was definitely worth it when we got there!
Because we had thought we were going Snorkelling somewhere where there wouldn’t be anywhere to keep our valuables, I only took my GoPro camera which I would be able to take underwater with me so all of the photos were taken on that. I also have to confess that I am still a beginner with my GoPro so I apologise that the quality of the photos isn’t as good as it could be. Some other people we were with took photos too so hopefully they will send them on soon and I will update this post.
After we had spent some time at the Pool, we decided just to head back to the boat because we were tired out after our exploring. I would definitely recommend the Emerald Pool to anyone who was going to Dominica – it was absolutely amazing to walk through the rainforest to get to a waterfall. It definitely ticked a few things off of my Caribbean to do list!
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