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Inside The Fond Doux Cocoa Plantation Hotel In St. Lucia

Where: P.O. Box 250, Soufriere, Saint Lucia

Have you been digging our recent tours of St. Lucia's Anse Chastanet and Jade Mountain resorts, but perhaps the prices or beachside locations aren't up your alley? Well, while we were on the island and jumping from active volcano to scuba diving, we came across Fond Doux Estate, a working cocoa plantation that also functions as a boutique hotel comprised of several individual villas scattered around the lush grounds.

It was a complete surprise to be walking through foliage just short of a jungle—with starfruit, cocoa pods, banana bunches and ginger lilies all around—and then to emerge into a clearing with the cheery yellow cottage, Angelina Villa, you see above. This house, over 200 years old, is one of the ten cottages available for your stay, but sadly it's the only one we saw since the grounds are so sprawling. Fond Doux is not on a beach, so families or couples who elect to stay here will get a decidely non-touristy look at St. Lucia. And for nightly rates beginning from only $100 and cocoa tea with breakfast, the deal is literally sweetened.

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Inside Anse Chastanet In St. Lucia: Oh, To Be A Snowbird

Forget Disney World—when you wish upon a star, this is where you hope you are. Following our visit to the uber-luxe Jade Mountain resort on the Caribbean island of St. Lucia last week, we headed down the hill a bit to peek behind the doors at Anse Chastanet, owned by the same folks and with the same impressive views of the Pitons, but a tad older a property with thankfully less expensive nightly rates.

Just outside the town of Soufrière on the southwest coast of the island, Anse Chastanet is a tribute to the indigenous charm and pride of the island, since much of the staff and property itself is of St. Lucian origin, and it's been hopping since it opened its doors in the late 1960s—don't worry, it was freshly renovated in 2004. It's now known as the premier St. Lucian resort for scuba diving (with the first scuba center on the island), bird watching, and jungle mountain biking (they have their own 12 miles of trails).

And of course, it's quite the honeymoon and destination wedding hotspot, having been voted one of the "Top 25 Resorts: Americas & The Caribbean" for 2009 in CN Traveler, and #1 of the Top Five Places To See In Your Lifetime by good old Oprah.

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The Ladera Resort Unveils New 'Paradise Pavilion': A Happily Ever After Not Guaranteed

Where: Soufrière, St. Lucia , British West Indies

While the Hotel Bel-Air is definitely out as a venue for brides looking to get married before 2011, the Ladera Resort in St. Lucia is in. Coming in December, the hotel will step up their romance factor, allowing couples to say "I do" inside its new Paradise Pavilion. Okay, so the name is kinda hokey, but we’re grooving on the visual, even if we’re not quite ready to walk down the aisle.

Perched 1,100 above the sea, the open-air wedding venue sits along the property’s rainforest ridge. Sounds lush and lovely, right?

It’s crafted in Ladera's signature rainforest style, with terracotta flooring, columns milled and richly polished from tropical greenheart wood, as well as cut stone and tile work crafted by local St. Lucian masons.

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Solar-Powered Golf Carts Debut at Jalousie Plantation

Where: P.O. Box 251, Soufriere, Saint Lucia

Good news for the environment, going green is still all the rage (or at least promoting green news about your hotel so close to Earth Day is). Still it's enough of a trend for the Jalousie Plantation resort, located on the Caribbean island of St. Lucia, to rock the island's first environmentally-friendly hybrid solar-powered golf cart. Guests can shrink their carbon footprint by riding around the 192-acre property while emitting nothing.

On the flipside though, there is also a $100 million renovation of the property shaking up land that includes luxury villa suites now on the market and running for roughly $700K to $2.1 million. To plop down that kind of dough for a vacation home (which let's face it will only be used four weeks out of the year, max) you're probably the type of person who has a high carbon footprint (private planes, SUVs, etc.) So let's hope these green golf carts make you feel better.

Room rates are currently at $420 a night but drop down to $240 a night starting May 1. That's for a standard Sugar Mill room. Villas start at $490 a night.

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La Hot View From St. Lucia's La Haut Plantation

Where: La Haut Estate, Soufriere, Saint Lucia

We are suckers for a room with a killer view.  We find that we are even more likely to forgive some minor hotel inconveniences if we can stare out the window at something pretty--yeah we are that shallow. Let's help out our fellow hotel mavens by uploading rooms with killer views to the HotelChatter/Flickr photo pool, or by sending the photo along to us. We will feature our favorites in this space from time to time. Remember to tell us the name of the hotel and the room number of the hot view.

While you sit at your desk and gaze at this photo of a place far prettier than where you are right now, allow us to add insult to injury by presenting the caption we encountered when we found this shot on N. Chatfield's Flickr page: "What we saw when sipping beer, sitting in a rocking chair, on the balcony of our room at La Haut Plantation hotel, Soufriere." Yup. Mad jealous, right?

The hotel, nestled on the coast of St. Lucia, is teensy: it has 13 rooms (six premium, four standard, one self-contained cottage and one 2-bed unit). And you'd better love the heck out of this view because those rooms have no TV's and no telephones. During the summer low season, rates for a single standard room start around $80 and prices can climb up to $525 for a six-person villa during the high season (winter) — but breakfast, gratuity and tax are bundled into the rate, so it doesn't seem too bad.

Then again, we imagine not a whole lot of things seem too bad when you're sipping beer in a rocking chair admiring this view.

[Photo: Neil Chatfield]

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Tides Resort Coming to St Lucia in 2010

One door closes, another door opens: the Jalousie Plantation is going to close up in early summer 2009, but hold your breath for a year and it will reemerge as The Tides Sugar Beach in 2010. It sounds like it could be worth the wait, too.

The setting for this resort is in the Valley of the Pitons, a World Heritage listed site thanks to its many acres of rainforest and perfect white beaches. The developers will spend over $100 million on the renovation including setting up a spa complex and restaurants with locally grown food to give it that little sustainable touch.

This the first "Tides" resort in the Caribbean, but they're already operating in Mexico and Florida with the common theme of beautiful beaches. No word on room rates yet but unfortunately we remember stinging prices like the $8,000 week at the Tides Riviera Maya.

[Photo: DeeCork]

Tags: Warm Weather Hotels / Warm-Weather-Hotels-Map / St. Lucia Hotels / → All Tags

Warm Weather Hotels: Relaxing Views at Stonefield Estate

Where: STONEFIELD ESTATE, SOUFRIERE, British West Indies

If you decide to vacation at the Stonefield Estate Villa Resort on St Lucia in the West Indies, the biggest problem will be trying to choose which of the 20 villas to stay in.

Recent guests who've left TripAdvisor reviews each have their very firm opinion that the villa they stayed in is the best ever--with names like Frangipani, Manchineel and Hibiscus (this pic shows the plunge pool at Hibiscus), there are various pros and cons to each, but all seem to have pretty good views.

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Anse Chastanet's Utopia

Where: Old French Road | PO Box 7000,, Soufriere, Saint Lucia

Rocking it at number 52 on Conde Nast's Top 100 Travel List for 2006, the Anse Chastanet in Soufriere, St. Lucia's greatness is no longer secret.

And why should it be? Plopped on a black sand beach that meets intensely warm clear waters with a view of the jutting Piton Mountains as a backdrop is heaven. The hotel features rooms that are all of different design with the unique tie being that they promote a "do nothing" attitude. So much so that you should not expect a television here and if you were to find yourself desiring one, you should seek help.

Chilling in the "couscous huts", snorkeling, sipping cocktails, enjoying live music, and feasting on island cuisine should reassure type A personalities that are afraid of the "do nothing" attitude here. On top of that, it really couldn't be more romantic so leaving one's room may never even be necessary. That said, expect to see weddings and honeymooners here; this isn't exactly a single Suzy's resort.

All of this is topped with one more incredibly important feature. A major reason why it landed in the top 100 list: its staff. Past guests talk up the staff so much that one goes so far as to find a new outlook in humanity:

Prepare to have your faith restored in human nature - Anse Chastanet has more than their fair share of nice people.

Related Stories:
· Top 100 [Conde Nast Traveler]
· Anse Chastanet Reviews [TripAdvisor]