St James's Club

I had the pleasure of visiting the St. James’s Club back in June 2019. We arrived late afternoon after a long, but comfortable flight from London. Upon arriving we were offered a glass of champagne whilst checking in. The reception staff are friendly and provided us with some information we needed for our 14 day trip there. All rooms on the resort are in separate buildings and not connect to the reception are, so a golf cart took us to our room. We stayed in a beachside room with fantastic views of the Atlantic. Our room was located on the second floor, unfortunately there was no lift to my knowledge, so anyone with mobility issues, may find it hard to access. However, the room was spacious with a large comfortable bed and storage space with a rack for the suitcase to go on. On resort there are a few different restaurants to choose from. During our stay we dined at all of them and found the food delicious. When we stayed the resort was not at high capacity, so not all the restaurants were open every evening although I am told this is different during the peak season. Only one restaurant requires you to pay extra to dine there. Anyway carrying on, once a week they hold a managers cocktail evening in the bar located by reception. As you enter make sure to give your room number as you can enter a prize draw, where the prizes on offer were surprisingly good. (We actually won the number one prize which was a trip to Emerald Island however, due to the wind we were unable to go on. The hotel kindly substituted the trip for a dinner at Piccolo Mondo). Also, throughout the week different evening events are held at the bar which is create fun so those who are slightly older. Moving onto staff! All the managers and staff onsite are friendly and smile at you when walking by. One particular member of staff, Alfred went out of his way everyday to ensure we had a good time. He came around the beach in his cart, making several trips a day, pouring cold, refreshing drinks. What made him stand out was that he remembered our names, and was just always polite. Now how did I almost forget about this, the St. James’s Club has two beaches, two! The Atlantic side beach is excellent for those very humid, hot days when the refreshing Atlantic breeze can just cool you down. The other side, Mamora Bay, is lovely and warm with access to excellent INCLUDED water sports. There are a whole different range of sports you can do there. I personally preferred this side as it was warmer and there was no noisy from the wind. If I could just suggest one thing to change about the resort is the addition of electric carts instead of the petrol/diesel, as they often leave a smell behind, especially on the beach delivering food. Thank goodness Alfred’s fab service made up for this. I highly recommend this resort to all types of people, they are incredibly accommodating and for the price, you cannot go wrong!

Beautiful beaches, beautiful grounds, a lovely setting for a holiday. The Atlantic side beach was a bit windier the the Bay side but still as nice. It’s a shame that we had to visit the St James resort just as the corona virus hit because as the resort was slowly shutting down we missed the scheduled entertainment and cocktail parties, some restaurants were closed at first and at the end only one per night was open, this was understandable due to the lack of guests at the hotel. That being said I want to praise the attitude of the staff, from the breakfast service in the morning to the restaurant staff in the evening, and in between all of the bar staff and leisure staff especially the water sport guys (and Ashley) these people never let the virus situation affect their enthusiasm or take away their smiles despite knowing that any day the resort would be closing down and they would be possibly laced off for an unknown period. Thank you all for making us feel welcome and looking after us.

We ( 2 70+seniors and one 40ish adult) spent 6 days at the Saint James the beginning of March and enjoyed ourselves. It is approximately a 35-40 minute drive from the airport. The location is somewhat hilly but carts are available to transport you from one location to another. Nothing is further than a five minute walk. The Atlantic side is windy, especially in the afternoon. The water sports are located on the Mamora Bay side. There is a coffee shop which is open 24 hours and serves good coffee and delicious desserts. JoeAnn always greeted us with a smile and made a great latte. Two restaurants offered breakfast, Coco, a sit down restaurant and The Rainbow Garden, buffet style. Both served delicious food. Lunch was served at either Eleven Eleven(sit down) ,Rainbow Garden(buffet), or the beach hut for burgers and hot dogs on the bayside. For dinner there was a choice of reservations at Coco or Rainbow Garden. The Dockside offers the only buffet option. We enjoyed all the food and there was a good selection. Our daughter was able to select options from a vegan menu which can be obtained from guest relations by ordering a day ahead. Drinks were top shelf offering Johnnie Walker Black Scotch , Grey Goose Vodka and Bombay Sapphire Gin as well as other brands. They were not watered down. As with any resort there are pros and cons. The pros are numerous:, mostly friendly and helpful staff, neither towel cards nor resort ID is required, beach chairs are available all day long (hotel was at 70% capacity), variety of water sports, laid back vibe, pleasant background music, good food quality, well equipped gym with AC and a water dispenser to fill your water bottles with filtered water, non pushy staff at tour desk and no beach staff to annoy you with requests to join activities. Cons: Our room wasn't ready until 2 hours past check-in time. There were no chairside tables on the beach to put your drinks, drink cart on beach comes only occasionally, there aren't any evening theatre performances, free wifi only in main areas unless you want to pay a lot for it in your room even if you are all inclusive. There is no drying rack for wet swimsuits on the balcony. The safe is located on the floor of the closet and may be difficult for some to bend that low. A key and lock mechanism needs to be obtained at check-in to operate the safe and is very inconvenient. There is no free room service. Building maintenance needs to be improved. Our room was facing the beach on the Atlantic side on the second floor in the Pineapple section. It was large and provided plenty of closet space and drawers. There was both AC and a ceiling fan as well as a small refrigerator and coffee pot. Our refrigerator needed to be replaced. Diana at the reception desk made sure the replacement came quickly. Plenty of hot water was available in the very large shower. The balcony was good size with a table and two chairs. When leaving your room, make sure the door lock is in the UP position. If not, your room key will not work. In addition to Diana and Joe Ann, kudos also to Hyacinth at the Rainbow Grill, JUAnn at the bar, Vincent who drove us in one of the carts and taxi driver, Franklin, who drove us to Shirley Heights and English Harbour. We would return to the resort but want to explore some of the other Caribbean islands.