Latest Reviews for St Lucia

just returned from st lucia sandals halcyon, very disappointed sandals is not ultra all inclusive we have been on better holidays much cheeper. The minibus to the resort was very uncumfortable we were packed in like sardines i was sat over the wheel arch knees under chin for one and a half hours and the suitcases were just piled up loose on the two back seats can you imagine if we had to brake hard!!!!

the island is very beautiful and the people are all very friendly. We had a luxury seaview room which was nice very clean but no fridge i like a cold drink in the night so this was a problem, asked but didnt get a fridge. theres no waiter service for drinks so had to que, plastic glasses at night! no where to sit for pre dinner drinks, food o.k but had much better, plenty of sun beds but some were in poor condition, swimming pool old fashioned so lots of bits and insects flotting in water.

I read all the reports be them good or bad before my visit to this hotel so I went with mixed feelings hoping for the best but expecting the worst.I found this complex to be fine,the rooms are very clean and functional,the food is also fine with a good selection.One slight down side was the kids seperate restaurant which is in fact a side room from the main International buffet hall,but if your like me I like to see my children all the time anyway so this was also fine.
All the pools are great but what in my opinion really makes this place great are the MAT Team and the rest of the staff who are really friendly and make your holiday.

Virgin flight from Gatwick was ok however the Tuesday flight goes via Barbados and the plane gets very hot for the hour you are waiting so try to avoid in-direct flights,also the mini bus transfer from the airport takes about 90 mins and is a bit of a white knuckle ride but on the plus side you get some good views of St Lucia.
I only used US Dollars and didn't have any problems using them.

All in all I would recommend this hotel and complex as it may not be the best on St Lucia but it represents value for money and the kids love it.

We have just returned from our 2 week honeymoon, staying at the Jalousie Plantation and are planning to definately return for future anniversaries. The hotel itself is of a good standard, but the real selling point for it is the fantastic location in between the Pitons - the views around the estate are amazing and you can't beat eating breakfast on the Verandah with views of the beach between the mountains or an evening meal overlooking the sea from the Pier restaurant.

We took a helicopter transfer from Hewanorra airport to and from the resort, which took around 10 minutes and drops you straight onto the Jalousie's own helipad. I would highly recommend paying the extra for the helicopter as the views are fantastic and the transfer very convenient as your luggage is forwarded via road and then delivered directly to your villa.
At check in, we were greeted by cold towels and rum punch, which is always a good start to a holiday. As honeymooners, we were cheeky enough to ask if there were any upgrades available, which the receptionist was more then helpful about and provided us with a suite (#204) that had its own plunge pool, partial sea view, separate living room and easy access to the rest of the resort, in particular the beach, and Pier restaurant. We walked most times to the pool, the main house and restaurants, but used the shuttle a couple of times when a walk seemed too energetic! The shuttles were prompt and the drivers friendly but I would say they could do with replacing a few of the vans as they backfired a number of times and the interiors had seen better days.

Our villa was large and airy and the a/c was fantastic and very welcomed! It was secluded and not overlooked and the cleanliness and maintainance of both inside and out can't be faulted.

We stayed on an all inclusive basis, which I am so glad we did, as after looking at the prices on the menus at all of the restaurants, the food was overpriced for the majority of the selection. The all inc. package included all meals at all of the restaurants and the majority of drinks were also, including a selection of wines, all cocktails, soft drinks etc. One thing that we weren't happy with was that bottled water was taken off the all inclusive package as of the 1st october, which we didn't find out about until that evening when the waitress bought the cheque for us to sign and costs $5.80 US per bottle! As there are no local shops within easy walking distance, this seems an extortionate way of reaping money from a basic necessity, especially when all inclusive packages are paid for well in advance and our own tour operator representive (Virgin) knew nothing about the change in policy either, so please be warned!

Aside from that, the restaurants were very good. Breakfast is only available from one location (the Verandah) but provides a good selection of continental and cooked items. Lunch can either be buffet style (themed on each day of the week, eg. American, English, Italian etc) or a choice from the beach menu of basics such as burgers, sandwiches etc, all of which are served from the Bayside Grill next to the beach and pool. The buffets were very good some days but others were poor, which from a hotel of this standard, we expected consistently good food. Most of our evening meals were either at the Pier, which offered a good selection of meals in a relaxed atmosphere, or the Plantation Room, which is a more formal dining experience. Each of them were very enjoyable and on selected nights, entertainment would be provided and themed evenings, such as caribbean music in the Pier and guitarists, and solo singer and accompanist in the Plantation Room. Some evenings were spent at the Bayside for Caribbean nights and the Managers cocktail party on a monday night. The entertainment put on for these was good (bands and limbo dancers/fire eating) but again, the food was buffet style, hit and miss again, and the other 2 evening restaurants are closed on these nights so you don't have much choice of dining on these evenings.

The facilites at this resort are good - not the place for you if you're looking for a lively nightlife, but if you are looking for peace and quiet and enjoying a break from it all in a romantic setting, this is the place for you. The watersports available are good, with snorkelling, scuba diving etc catered for. The beach is imported white sand with adequate sunbeds and shade and the pool only a stones throw from the beach, again with enough beds and parasols. The pool was fantastic but the area and sunbeds need some tlc to bring this upto the standard the hotel are looking to offer. The spa offers a great range of treatments, where we opted for the couples cabana massage, an hour-long body massage with fantastic views of the whole resort, beach and pitons - it doesn't get much better than that! On some days, massages were also offered by the beach which my husband was only too happy to indulge again!

The staff and the level of service in the resort vary from the fantastic to poor - from our understanding, the change of management of the hotel has not been welcomed by all concerned and, we felt, was reflected in the attitude of staff. The levels of staff need to be increased in most areas of the resort as although its low season there at the moment, the guests who are there require the level of service expected and paid for. On a few days, cold towels and fresh fruit were brought round for the guests on the beach and pool side but it only happened sporadically. Touches like these in a resort of this level should be a daily occurrence and consistent. Also, some staff seemed more pre-occupied with each other and the job they were doing than serving a customer waiting. Having said that, we hope that once the management have settled in, these points will be looked at as having read some previous reviews posted on this site, it is a recurring problem picked up by guests.

The organised trips that we went on included whale watching, Soufriere (volcano and botanical gardens) and Castries - I wouldn't recommed Castries if you are looking for a city with huge shopping potential as its mainly made up of local markets and stalls, which do pester tourists considerably. Point Seraphine is an enclosed shopping centre for duty free but not of the size to spend hours around. From the Jalousie, many of the trips are via boat, which provides ample opportunity for fantastic photos to be taken of the Pitons and local coastline.

All in all, I would definately recommend this hotel, particularly for romantic getaways. The location of this resort is its best feature and although a number of points do need to be addressed at the resort, I look forward to returning there in the future.

We stayed at Club St Lucia end of August beginning of Septmeber 2005.There was a party of 10 as we were getting married. I had read some poor reviews so i would like to put the record straight.
The wedding was absouletly fabulous and the staff organised everything for us from champagne on arrival,reception,beautiful setting and champagne breakfast the day after.
We had paid for an upgrade for the 2nd week for room with a ocean view but the staff upgraded on arrival for the 2 weeks. The room was spacious, air con and jacuzzi and was cleaned everyday.
Any small problems we had like we were without ironing board , 1 call and the staff brought it round straight away.
The food was varied and there was no waiting for food. The Jade Vine restaurant and the Italian were especially nice.
The entertainment was well organised and there was something for everyone.
I cant understand the poor ratings Club St Lucia has been given but there is no pleasing some people.
A great holiday we will never forget.

We've just come back from 2 weeks at the Bay Gardens Inn, St Lucia . We booked room only but because we booked 30 days in advance with Virgin Holidays we qualified for free breakfast.

The hotel is ideally located for Non-All Inclusive holiday makers. There are 2 Supermarkets very close by, as well as various other shops. Lots of bars and restaurants just around the corner giving you the option of all kinds of cuisine.
Plenty of fast food places if you want it. Pizza, KFC, Burger King and Popeyes.

The hotel has approx 30 rooms and is really lovely and clean.We stayed in a Deluxe Room which was very spacious, rooms have TV's and a Fridge,finding 3 Pin Plugs was very useful. All rooms over look the pool, you also have use of the facilities at their sister hotel next door called Bay Gardens, which is bigger with about 70 rooms..A shuttle bus to the beach is provided by the hotel if you want it but it's so close we always walked. The hotel staff are very friendly and the manager Ms Waltrude Patrick is a customer service champion.

We were so excited about going to a Sandals hotel for our honeymoon our expectations were so high. I think this is where it started.
Everyone is there on their honeymoon or wedding so no freebies and no special favours. No petals on bed or towels made into swans! Silly but there were no little touches, no waiter service round the pool or beach.

Flight - We booked with Hayes and Jarvis and they use BWI. We find out now that apparently they are always delayed departing from Heathrow. This was the worst flight I have ever been on even worse then Aeroflop! We spent the first 12 hours of our honeymoon was spent in Heathrow as the plane was delayed. Then it was a stand in plane which was filthy. The return flight was better and the food was almost good! As we arrived at 3.30am St Lucian time customs were there just for us and our bags were waiting for us on the other side, nice and easy. Pay the extra and go with some else. We didn't see anything of the Hayes and Jarvis rep.

Transfer - No problem here there is an hour and half transfer in a little mini bus with dodgy air-con but it was 4 in the morning! These are just local taxi that the hotels use. There are no big coaches in St Lucia which I found wonderful.

Rooms - Check in was easy and we did get a glass of bubbly at 5:30am which was a bit novel. The rooms are clean, great big bed, and all have a balcony or terrace. But the Bathrooms were a little less inviting - be careful of the showers they were never a constant temperature. We did ask to change room as there is a major road that runs just outside the hotel and if you don't have the rattly air-con on the road is very noisy if you are staying in blocks 700 and 800. Apparently they up graded our room but I couldn't find any differences except it was a little bigger and you didn't have a road running passed your door. I believe that everywhere else was quite. Yes the air-con was noisy, everyone had a mown about that, we just had the ceiling fan on at night so we could sleep in peace. There were tea and coffee making facilities but all I wanted was a cold glass of water in the middle of the night and this was not possible as there were no bottles of water or fridges in the room and I don't care how safe they say the water was I was not drinking it, especially after it had rained the water from the taps ran brown!!

Pools and beach - To start off there are no where near enough sun umbrellas, 2 I believe in the whole hotel! The hotel was peaceful and there was no problems getting sun beds around either pools or on the beach. It was about a 50 50 split English and North American, which was nice. Although there is always one loud American women where ever you go that spoils the peace and quite. For all you English girls that have no problem sun bathing topless be warned it's not a done thing in America and they don't like it and they will tell you!! They would have a shock if they came to Europe. I think this was only round the pools and they didn't mind on the beach but don't walk around topless on the beach as if the police see you they will ask you to put your top on - now that was embarrassing! The floats were great and fun to watch people get on. There are 2 pools both with swim up bars. One has music and games, the other was chilled out and quite and the bar staff were happy to tell the louder people to quite down.
Beach - the beach was nice but it was not white sand like it the holiday books. It is a public beach so you have many beach sellers they are friendly enough but after a couple for days just dam annoying. We didn't see any fish during the day but we did see cheeky crabs.

Restaurants - This is where Sandals shines I can not complain at all about the food it was like eating out every night. We could use the other 2 resort facilities and restaurants. Fantastic. Jump on an air-con bus and 15 minutes you were there. This is why I would go back to a Sandals resort the great restaurants, so many to choice from and all great. What ever you do, do not just stay in your own hotel you are missing out on the best bit. Evening entertainment is not the best but that doesn't matter as you are to busy eating and having drinks in the piano bars. Breakfast and lunch there were plenty of choice too. All hot/cold and fresh.

St Lucia - friendly people, safe walk about in the day, not a lot of exciting activities. Just site seeing and they aren't cheap but worth doing to see the island or hire a car the roads are ok and you couldn't get lost that easily. One thing that is worth spending the money on is the helicopter trip - fantastic and I don't like flying but it is amazing to see this beautiful country for the sky's.

It was a great honeymoon just not the high standard that we expected from Sandals with no nice little touches. I think we could have got a much better service from another hotel at the same price. Although the bonus of using the other hotels facilities and restaurants may out way this fact.

Hi,

I am writing this review for the benefit of any people who are due to go to Club St Lucia on holiday and are nervous after reading some of the negative comments on this site. I am 22 years old and stayed at Club St Lucia from the 1st of August to the 16th with my boyfriend (24), my parents (41 and 42) and sisters (19 and 6). We all thoroughly enjoyed ourselves and loved the island of St Lucia.

It is true that the entertainment of a night is not brilliant......it seemed to be catering more for children. We were happy enough entertaining ourselves of a night though and myself and my partner particularly enjoyed the irish bar on site which had a very relaxed atmosphere (and provided excellent service!). The pool was cleaned daily....early risers had witnessed this every morning and I heard no complaints regarding the pool. We only noticed the slight smell of sewage once by the slide pool and that was after it rained....we never noticed it for the rest of the duration.

I must admit Club St Lucia's beach is not the nicest I have seen in the caribbean as volcanic sand and pebbles have been washed in, however two minutes up the road is a beautiful cove. Smugglers cove has a beautiful beach and is very picturesque. One thing I must say is that I really cannot believe people are making negative comments about the food..........there was a vast selection of different food every night and I heard many people praising this. As for the ice cream...the odd time children had mixed the flavours up and all i can say to that is.....parents should have been assisting them!

The rooms were basic but always clean and as for the insects.....ofcourse we got bites....we were in the caribbean! For the people who are not happy about this...you should not go to tropical locations! The heat was sometimes unbearable but the air conditioning in the room was great and we had no problem sleeping. We did have a few little friends who would come to visit us in our room ...lizards!! So again if you dont like creatures like this do not go to a tropical location. All alcohol has to be served to you at the bar (which ofcourse you have to queue at) however fizzy drinks are available at a self service machine....this was very practical. All drinks are consumed via plastic cups and this is obviously for safety reasons and we thought this was very sensible. You also have to queue at the restaurant...again this is obvious and only to be expected cosidering the large amount of people staying at the hotel.

The entertainment team has a song with actions that they get people up to dance to every night called ";VOLCANO"; and this was really fun.Whilst in St Lucia was did go on a few excursions....the horse riding was particularly fun (they take you in the sea on the horses). Another really good trip was to Pigeon Island.....historic ruins lie there and this really is a must...very interesting! Do go with sensible shoes though as the path is very steep you have to walk up to see some of the ruins. All in all we had a fantastic holiday.....but we did know where we were staying-in a 3 star hotel. I understand it must have been a let down for people who paid to the same price to stay in a 5 star hotel in mexico but had to pick Club St Lucia as a second choice.

It is more expensive to stay on the island of St Lucia and I have a friend who also paid the same price as us to stay in a 5 star hotel in mexico 2 months ago...but we wanted to go to St Lucia so accepted the price difference. My final comment is for people not to be disheartened when they read the negative comments....if you go with these in mind you will not be doing your holiday justice. Go and make your own mind up...we did and had the holiday of a life time!!! St lucia is a beautiful island and we felt very lucky to be able to experience it.

Just got back from the Caribbean, St Lucia is a beautiful and very friendly island. The Rex Papillon was a lovely and friendly hotel, rooms kept spotless, staff very friendly and helpful, nothing is too much trouble. Food was very good, but after 2 weeks got a little boring, try some of the local restaurants, Buzz is very good, and also the Oriental, based at the sister hotel next door, are very good for a change. All good value when you have two teenagers, who eat like horses and drink like fish!! Talking of which, you could swim with the fish and snorkle too! Go on the jeep safari, great fun, and don't miss the all day virgin catamaran trip, all good fun.

All in all a very good holiday.

We have just returned from a fabulous holiday in this resort. On arrival we were greeted with cool towels and a rum punch - a nice touch - and shown almost immediately to our room.(Tipping is discouraged by the management, by the way, and it's worth knowing this before you get there as the bus driver happily accepted tips which apparently they are not supposed to do).

We had been upgraded to a Verandah Suite (It was our Silver wedding anniversary) which was really beautiful. The room was typically Caribbean in decor (vibrant colours and not everything matching!) It gave us a flavour of the whole island really, but it was very clean and very, very spacious. The bathroom was very large and bright with lots of natural light.

The restaurants (both Terrace and Trysting place) are first class. The weather was VERY hot when we were there and we ate most nights in the Trysting Place which is air conditioned (you will have to book ahead for this)but the terrace restaurant had a different theme every night and always looked amazing.

The staff are very helpful and my only criticism of them would be that they very rarely smile, many of them live quite poorly (the journey from the airport takes you through some VERY poor areas), so maybe they don't have much to smile about. The beach is idyllic and although the hotel was full when we were there, it was never busy. The mosquitos are persistent tho and not all repellants work. Ask at the hotel and they will recommend one. Castries is very close by but is purely commercial and not too pleasant a place. The market is good fun but mostly just sells tat. Taxis are cheap and very helpful.

St Lucia is a lovely island for a romantic holiday. We would recommend it and expecially this resort.

We cannot recommend Rendezvous highly enough! We were met at reception on arrival with a glass of rum punch, shown to our rooms and our bags were delivered less than five minutes later. We were delighted to find that we had recieved an upgrade to a Verandah Suite (due to the fact that we were there for only one week) and had a much nicer room than our friends had, who were getting married there! The rooms are spotlessly clean and beautifully furnished with fresh flowers all over the room. Towels are replaced and the rooms cleaned daily.

The hotel and grounds are beautifully kept and we saw teams of gardeners at work every day. The pools are clean and the areas around them are tidied regularly.

There is no ";production line"; of weddings, as I've read on here. The most that happened on one day when we were there was three and the wedding arches are in various places around the grounds. Basically you can get married anywhere you want

The food at Rendezvous is out of this world! There's a different theme every night in the Terrace Restaurant and the Beach BBQ was our favourite. I'm a very strict vegetarian but I never went hungry as there were always plenty meat and fish-free dishes to choose from. There is the odd small cat wandering around the Terrace but nobody minds as you hardly notice them. They're very well behaved!

The restaurant staff are very friendly and make an effort to get to know you, no matter how short a time you may be there, as do the bar staff. The staff throughout the hotel are very welcoming and happy to please without it seeming forced and will always say hello as they see you around the complex. They do appear to work very long hours and late in to the night but they're always very cheery, particularly Neema, Giselle and Deano who are responsible for most of the entertainment and activities.

There are security guards on the beach 24/7 and they make sure that the beach vendors don't approach you whilst you're lounging. We were quite happy to leave our bags containg camcorders, cash and the like on the beach while we went for lunch as they were always in sight of the guards. The beach is a public one and becomes busy on a sunday but you certainly don't feel as though the locals have taken over. They play cricket and football further down the beach and are quite happy for you to join them.

If you plan to try Scuba diving whilst there, I suggest you book in pretty much as you get there. It's very popular and as soon as you're certified you can join them on most dives.

If you venture in to Castries, the market is the best place to buy souvenirs but be warned - it is well over 100 degrees inside it. The vendors do also tend to be rather pushy but a polite but firm ";no thankyou"; is accepted. Try not to let any of them put jewellery on you as you've as good as bought it by then! They're all open to bartering but don't insult them. They also tend to work in $US rather than ECD. We took ECDs with us but will take US next time as it saves a lot of hassle and confusion.

If you're venturing further, we would recommend hiring a taxi for a day, especially if there's more than two of you. We paid about £80 between four of us and were taken everywhere between Castries and Soufriere for most of the day. It worked out much cheaper than the organised tours and you get to see the real St Lucia and find out a lot more about local life. We hired a very nice driver called Elias who can usually be found at the hotel entrance. He told us all about the banana industry and basically answered all of our questions about St Lucia, something you probably wouldn't get if on a guided tour. If Elias isn't outside, the concierge at the entrance will call him for you. Tell him Gary the English taxi driver recommended him to you!!

Something to be aware of when visiting the tourist attractions such as the Sulphur Springs is that although you pay an admission fee, it seems you aren't allowed to walk around with out an official guide who advises you that you can pay them at your ";discretion";. If you choose not to pay them, they can get a little huffy!

I find it hard to believe that there is another hotel as beautiful and as friendly as Rendezvous on St Lucia and when we return (which we've already decided!) we won't even consider looking anywhere else.