It’s got mountains and oceans, coral reefs and rain forests, mud baths and sulphur springs, and a drive-in volcano. There are affordable hotels with amazing views and well-known hospitality names like Sandals and Zoetry that hug the mountains and rest in the rainforests. While the weather is hot and the towns a little crowded, visitors will find an awful lot to love here—including “the most beautiful hotel room” and “the most beautiful spa” in the world. It’s easy to see why the French and the British fought over this island 14 times. Whether you are looking for the ultimate in privacy and luxury or an affordable, beautiful, romantic and flower-filled Caribbean getaway, you likely can find it on St. Lucia.
That’s my takeaway from a five-day fam trip to this diverse and fascinating West Indian getaway, home to the most fertile soil in the world, sponsored through KFMCS by Bay Gardens Hotels and the St. Lucia Tourism Board.
Our home base was the Bay Gardens Beach Resort in Rodney Bay, the Bay Gardens group’s flagship property, which by 2025 promises to add a new upscale all-suite block of rooms, with a private pool. For now, though, the Sea Grapes Restaurant is closed due to damage from a flood—but a new restaurant, Trios, will open in a couple of weeks, and Sea Grapes will reopen with the new room block in 2025. In the meantime, there’s a clean and wide beach, three meals plus drinks at the buffet, the pool, a 24-hour gym and a spa that offers a free massage to guests who stay three nights. My suite was large, colorful and airy, and the sunset views of the Caribbean were just gorgeous.
There are two other smaller Bay Gardens properties. Girls’ weekend groups and small weddings might consider Bay Garden Villas, which can hold parties of eight for prices starting at $1,200. But the younger members of intergenerational family groups might consider them as well, as their guests can ride the shuttle bus to the Beach Resort and share the amenities and the meal plan there.
Heading Uphill—and Upscale
If you’re looking for more luxury, though, you’ve come to the right place. We had one amazing dinner at Calabash Cove, “where we allow the Caribbean in” to 26 mountainside rooms and an all-inclusive meal plan where every dish is made fresh to order, wine is served by the bottle even for room service, and lobster is on the menu every day. Every room faces the ocean and has a private Jacuzzi, and then the Water’s Edge Cottage adds a plunge pool and an outdoor shower. (For TRO readers, the property promised agent rates of $250 per couple and/or a free night’s stay for every couple you book.)
Then we were off to Sugar Beach Resort, built on the site of an 18th-century sugar plantation, where the rainforest spa is the highlight. Every room has a butler and a pool, and a shuttle service to carry guests up and down the mountainside. We also visited the more business-oriented Harbor Club, as well as Zoetry Marigot Bay and Sandals Grande St. Lucian (home of an over-the-water wedding chapel to which brides can arrive by boat), both beautiful properties whose accommodations include over-the-water bungalows and suites with swim-up infinity pools overlooking the lush forests and soaring cliffs. At Sandals, I asked a honeymoon couple how they liked the place; “I love the tropics and I heard a lot of good things about this place—and pretty much all of them are true,” said the bride, Jessica Pazarena from Detroit. “It’s friendly and relaxing, and everyone did a really good job at accommodating us. I don’t think we heard the word ‘no’ once all week.”
We stopped at Cap Maison, an intimate luxury property where guests can choose between a first-floor swim-up or a rooftop terrace. Our host Ross was the essence of welcoming service here; when asked if he is the owner or the manager, he replied simply, “I’m Ross.”) Honeymooners here can arrange for a private breakfast or dinner on the beach far below, and have staffers send down a bottle or two via a champagne zipline.
The most awards likely have gone to Anse Castanet and its newer sister property, Jade Mountain—home to the highest-rated dive shop in the world, “the world’s most romantic spa” (Esquire magazine) and “the most beautiful hotel room in the world” (Conde Nast Traveler). Designed by Canadian-born architect Nick Troubetzkoy, who determined to do things no one had ever done before, Jade Mountain is literally built into the rock. Guests reach their suites via skybridge and cross the threshold into open air on three sides—no doors, no walls, no windows. There are vaulted ceilings, private plunge pools and views over the valley to the pitons beyond.
The restaurant is a private club, but the idea of the property really is to offer “a sanctuary with room service, in which coming out to eat is just a second option,” says our guide Peter Paul. Before Jade Mountain, he noted, the idea was to come to the Caribbean and go to the beach. “We were the first to say, ‘Stay in your room and the Caribbean will come to you.’”
There are seven different meal plans, 577 staff members, a chocolate lab to make the desserts and the wedding cakes. Ninety percent of the food, pretty much everything but the protein, is grown on the property. And while weddings are a big business here, they are limited to one day, so the bride and groom have the full attention of the staff.
Troubetzkoy is working on a new concept, Paul said, called Jade Sea – “I have no idea where he will put it, but he has 600 acres here.”
Fam Trip Feedback
Indeed, St. Lucia is an easy sell for travel advisors, says 29-year-old influencer Ismari Nolasco, who expects to sell as many as 50 trips from her week here, thanks to constant posts of these most photogenic rooms on social media and three-minute TikTok videos to her 100,000 followers there. “In St. Lucia, sell the over-the-water bungalows, because there are few places you can find those without having to fly to Asia,” she says.
“I love St. Lucia,” says Laura Martley of Destination Fun Travel in Kansas City, who just became a travel advisor in March 2021, and until now has been selling mostly Punta Cana and Mexico. “I’m here to learn and do some professional development; I think it’s gorgeous. It’s perfect for honeymooners, and the people have been so welcoming.”
Liz Cooper of Magic Mouse Travels in Kansas City said she has a client who just reached out for her 30th birthday trip, and asked for an alternative to Punta Cana, which she finds busy and kind of crowded. “I’m thinking St. Lucia might be perfect for her,” Cooper said.
Of course, those over-the-water and swim-up bridal suites are just in tune with what customers are looking for, says wedding planner Natalie John of Dreamy Weddings. “I’m working with one bride who sends me pictures of everyone else’s wedding. Everyone wants their wedding to be better than their friends’. Everyone wants to be a mini-celebrity; everyone wants their pictures to go viral.”
Perhaps the most touching moment, though, was our visit to a local elementary school, bringing books to refill the library that was damaged in a recent flood. On our trip, Guyana-born travel advisor Jennifer Ojha an independent contractor at 510 Travel (a host agency) in Toronto, recalled the time a group of Americans took a group from her elementary school to sing the national anthem at the local airport, instilling in her a love of travel that never left.
“Doing things like this, touching the lives of people in the places you visit, reminds me that when you give a little of what you’ve got, it just grows,” she said.
**Editor’s note: Corrected Jennifer Ojha to “an independent contractor” at 510 Travel
Cheryl’s 40-year career in journalism is bookended by roles in the travel industry, including Executive Editor of Business Travel News in the 1990s, and recently, Editor in Chief of Travel Market Report and admin of Cheryl Rosen’s Group for Travel Professionals, a news and support group on Facebook. As an independent contractor since retiring from the 9-to-5 to travel more, she has written regular articles about the life and business of travel agents for Luxury Travel Advisor, Travel Agent, and Insider Travel Report. She also writes and edits for professional publications in the financial services, business, and technology sectors.
