Hug,
I completely agree with your sentiments regarding the larger hotel chains. However, in terms of safety, these have got to be the best bet, especially if you are taking children.
With the concern about safety in the original post, that's why I recommended them.
There is still nothing to stop you popping into Avis and hiring a jeep for a few days (you can see pretty much all of St. Lucia in three to four days unless you decide to delve further into a particular area), or getting a taxi and heading off into town for the local bars and restaurants.
If you are feeling more adventurous, go to one of those smaller ones - you will meet more people and get a better flavour for the real Caribbean life (i.e.... slow, very slow, even slower and friendly !), but you do slightly increase the risk.
Go, enjoy, it's not necessarily a rich person's holiday if you shop around - you might end up ,like me, singing and playing 'The Piano Man' every night for a week with a local customs officer who was moonlighting at a piano bar. Great memories.
Best of all, St. Lucia has it's own brewery and distillery... Piton lager is cheap, plentiful and good (actually tastes like lager should) and if anyone is going, could you bring me back a bottle of 'Seventh Heaven' please
