We might not be super-impressed with the Marriott Bear, but that doesn't mean we'll hold it against the St Kitts Marriott Resort in St Kitts and Nevis. After all, TripAdvisor reviewers have decided it's the best place to stay in St Kitts, and who are we to argue.
Well, we probably won't argue with all the previous guests, but you shouldn't forget that there aren't really more than a dozen resorts on St Kitts, which hasn't been in the tourist game that long. The St Kitts Marriott has its good points--convenient location close to the airport, a fantastic beach that's rarely too crowded, and the food is tasty.
But on the flip side, the tasty food is also rather pricey (and there's not a huge amount of other choices), and the uncrowded beach can get pretty windy, too. Enough of our complaining, though: when you get to the pool you'll be happy again. It's one of those daydreamy lagoons of a pool, with beautiful water matching a cheery blue sky ... that's probably all we need (plus a good cocktail or three) to enjoy a day at the St Kitts Marriott.
A hotel room in St Barths is a good place to relax at any time of year--or a place where the art gallery comes within the hotel, if you remember our story last week. But when winter gets you down then the warmth of St Barths is an especially good destination, and you could try the Hotel Guanahani and Spa because, for a start, it has a lovely warm sounding name!
Get beyond the name and everything about the Guanahani is still screaming "winter escape". It belongs to the Leading Small Hotels of the World group and deservedly so, with its luxury cottages (some so brightly colored so you won't have any trouble finding your way back there), full-service spa, two to-die-for pools and two beaches.
Winter rates do, of course, jump up a bit from the better-value summer packages, but it's now that you need the sunshine: nightly rates including breakfast start at $820 for a basic room and rise to $1670 for the Ocean 1-Bedroom Suite, which includes a living room and a terrace. All guests get free access to snorkeling, windsurfing, canoes, tennis courts and the fitness room, if you need to work off a bit of post-Christmas winter flab, like we do.
When we started to read about the coming-soon Ritz-Carlton West Caicos Reserve our environmentally conscious radar went up: West Caicos on the western end of the Turks and Caicos archipelago is a virtually uninhabited island. Why spoil it with a fancy hotel? But Ritz-Carlton are very careful to point out that the proposed 75 island villas are part of a very environmentally responsible development that included extensive consultations with an eco-tourism expert.
So then we relaxed and decided it sounded like a wonderful place. West Caicos is apparently the home to the Molasses Reef which is not only one of the world's best diving spots, it's also rumored that Columbus' ship Pinta sank here--that makes us dream of buried treasure.
The Ritz-Carlton development will be at the high end of the luxury scale, centered on the north shore of the island; most of the island will remain "forever" undeveloped, they say. The villas will be built using the varying architectural influences of the Caribbean and in a low-density, low-impact style. At the moment the scheduled opening is late 2008 and we'll let you know when they firm that up--and how much you have to pay to stay on a nearly uninhabited island.
Down on Aruba the Hyatt Regency Aruba Resort and Casino on Palm Beach has been busy this year doing a $20 million makeover. That $20 million adds up to 360 renovated rooms with modern designs, new colors and brand new bathrooms stocked with deluxe Portico products for your grooming pleasure. The official grand opening of the new look will take place in early 2008, but last week they held a "soft opening" for local attendees.
The local people were wowed not only with the new refurbishment but with a nice "think global, act local" kind of campaign that the Hyatt Regency Aruba is running. It's called the "You Can Do It Too" program and involves picking 10 inspiring young Arubans chances to use their talents and potential to the full. What's more, the hotel intends to continue the program in future years, too. Thumbs up for that.
Ok, you know we usually shy away from staged marketing photos. It isn't like we have an aversion to good photos--Noah takes great, real hotel photos for us. However, the above photo illustrates why we like to use hotel issued photos as a last resort.
C'mon. We all know if you are lucky enough to check in to the Christian Liaigre (Club Med Bora Bora, The Mercer in New York) designed Le Sereno in Saint-Barthélemy you are going to flop on the bed in sheer ecstasy, leaving your bags strewn throughout the room along the way--why do they have to prop those bags up there? Besides, the room looks great regardless, just leave the bags out of the shot.
Furthermore, if do happen to be OCD enough to neatly line your perfectly packed burlap bags at the end of the bed before enjoying the room, then we hope the person unlucky enough to travel with you brought plenty of rum.
Our advice to the person traveling with this type of pedantic traveler? Head out to that couch type thing you see in the insert above, down a bottle of rum and flirt heavily with the young, friendly, beautiful staffers that grace this 37-villa seaside resort.
The villas include plasma-screen TVs, iPods, Wi-Fi, and Ex Voto Paris bath products.
The beach isn't one of the nicest on the island, but the resort is--we are sure your OCD partner, who meticulously lines up luggage at the end of hotel beds upon arrival, is already complaining about the beach, instead of enjoying the beautiful resort. See why we don't usually use these type of photos? They conjure up all kinds of visions.
A while back the big news on Curacao was the J Lo's possible pregnancy. Didn't happen, but we are guessing the Dutch could care less.
Fast forward six months, or so, and it turns out Lodge Kura Hulanda & Beach Club, one of Willemstads's beach resort options, made Travel & Leisure's 25 Affordable Beach Resorts List (March 2007).
While all the beach resorts on the list are definitely worth a look we focused in on Kura for two reasons.
First, Curacao takes our minds off slush--just get yourself to Miami, and three hours from MIA you will be in Curacao.
Second, Kura was written up by Andrea Bennett, a friend of HotelChatter, and we always tend to believe our friends, even when they show up in the glossies.
The lodge's 75 villas, suites, and guest rooms stand on a cliff, surrounded by 350 acres of carefully tended gardens filled with flowering shrubs and tamarind and breadfruit trees.
The rooms, with their big patios, soft white linens, and rattan furnishings, are soothing but also high-tech, with flat-screen TV's DVD players, and free high-speed Internet.
If we do book a flight to Curacao and get out of the slush filled Northeast the first thing we will do upon check-in is fire up our computer, no, not to live blog the experience for you, but instead to go straight to Wikipedia and hope there is an entry for tamarind trees.
As a bonus, it sounds like you get welcome drinks. Nice. White coral-sand beach, welcome drinks, free Internet for under $200 a night, if you find a deal.
If you watched The Office last night, you know that Michael Scott was planning on taking Carol any girl he could on an all inclusive trip to Sandals Jamaica. While Michael did not specify which resort he bought in to, we are going to guess it was Sandals Montego Bay, where according to the resort website:
A fun loving staff can help make every couple as lazy as the sun and as free as the sea - and the only rule to follow is to do whatever you please. As often as you want.
Wherever the office boss chose to say he can take full advantage of the amenities and scenery at all seven Sandals Jamaica resorts through the "Stay at 1, Play at 7" program.
We might not be super-impressed with the Marriott Bear, but that doesn't mean we'll hold it against the St Kitts Marriott Resort in St Kitts and Nevis. After all, TripAdvisor reviewers have decided it's the best place to stay in St Kitts, and who are we to argue.
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by amandak
