Glittering Sands in Anse La Raye, St. Lucia, has opened to cruise guests.

Earlier this week, over 50 cruise ship passengers visited the beach facility which employs over 20 locals.

The new attraction is about an 18-minute ride from the cruise port in n Castries.

Charles Carvalho Sr., CEO of Trinidad-based Carvalho’s Agencies, is behind the new project he calls Glittering Sands.

“(It’s) due to the glitter you get from the sand like you are looking at diamonds,” he said. “What is most interesting about this beach, is that it was just sitting there undiscovered.”

Adding restrooms, a restaurant, beach chairs, umbrellas, showers, lockers, and other familiar amenities, cruise passengers are now able to snorkel, kayak, snack and sunbathe on the seven acre plot of leased land. Adventurous passengers could hike to waterfalls too.

“We are also planning on developing bamboo rafting on a nearby river,” Carvalho said.

Carvalho’s company is involved in numerous relationships with the southern Caribbean cruise industry – crew and passenger handling, facilitating government formalities like customs and port health standards, ship services and stores, passenger transportation, and more.

He already has contracts with cruise lines for the Glittering Sands site, he said, that require passengers book a visit as an excursion.

The Glittering Sands area is currently known as L’Oranger Bay, near L’Anse la Raye on the island’s western coast.