Rendezvous

Well we should have been waking up on our first morning here in St Lucia, so disappointed to not be able to come and visit after all the good reports about this hotel we had decided to take the opportunity to visit to celebrate my husbands 70th birthday in November last year and my retirement at Christmas, we’ve visited some lovely Caribbean islands and prefer the small personal touches and this hotel sounded like the perfect place to relax and embrace our time together, however this year not to be, but who knows maybe in the future health willing, in the meantime we can only dream of what we’ve missed and wish you all well and keep safe.

We would definitely recommend this hotel as relaxing place to stay. The location is very good with a good sandy beach which is good for swimming. The hotel rooms are well appointed with character. The hotel grounds are well constructed with secluded areas and water way meandering its way through the vegetation where you find discrete relaxation pockets where you can relax in isolation. It is all not quiet and relaxing. if you fancy a more sportier activity then scuba diving and other water sports are available at the hotel with some of them included in the cost of your stay. The staff are very friendly and helpful. The food options are excellent with a variation of options from a formal restaurant to barbecues. A great place to relax and definitely would consider returning, which we normally do not do. One of the best holidays we have taken.

A tale of 2 halves - The good half. We booked this hotel from a personal recommendation when we were in Barbados last year. 1 thing worth mentioning straight away is the hotel is situated right at the end of George FL Charles airport runway, this is not the main airport on St Lucia so the size of aircraft and volume of takeoffs is minimal but you do see half a dozen inter island aircraft a day which fly directly over the hotel. Upon our arrival we were greeted and taken to one of the outdoor restaurants where we were served cold drinks and a welcoming cold towel to cool us down, the hotel was then explained to us in terms of restaurant location and times, bars, pools and the available activities etc. We had booked a seaview room and we had requested a 1st floor or above which we got. The room was decorated in a colonial style, my 1st impression was the bathroom and some of the furniture could have been improved with a makeover. Other than that the room was great, our room had a small balcony with a hammock, the vegetation was a bit overgrown so we never ventured out. Too many mozzies. There are 3 restaurants - The Terrace - this was for breakfast lunch and evening meal. Breakfast was your typical Caribbean, fruits, pastries, cheese, hams and the counter where eggs can be made into the usual scrambled, poached and omelette varieties. Lunch was buffet, again more than enough. Evening was a mixture of table service menu with a couple of buffet nights thrown in and the occasional beach BBQ. Waiting staff very pleasant, remembered our names throughout our time there, (how do they do that ?) Malabar Beach Club - this is on the beach and served lunch and dinner. We mainly came here for lunch, this way we didn’t eat too much as you tend to at a buffet. It was usually busy at lunch and occasionally we had to wait for a table, worth the wait though. Evening meals were again superb, dress code was relaxed so you could have your feet in the sand while eating dinner. The Trysting Place - this is the a la carte restaurant, choice of meals was OK and all tasted superb. More formal dress code is required, although on the couple of occasions we went, there were a couple of questionable people not dressed as I would have expected. One for the hotel, if you state a dress code you need to enforce this or what is the point. Beach. There are number of places on the beach to rest your head for the day, we tended to go on the beach directly in front of the Terrace restaurant. There are beds to the left (nearer the bar and activities) and to the right. We had no problem finding a couple of beds but there were a few couples that reserved beds, then went for breakfast and returned an hour or so later. Reserving beds is one of pet hates when on holiday, the hotel discourages it but also ignores it when it happens. There are beach waiters that kept your thirst quenched every 45 minuted or so, with water up to 11ish then alcohol if required. The occasional ice pop and fruit on a stick. A quick thanks to Nisa who looked after us. The sea although not rough was not very clear, this surprised us a bit, not the crystal clear sea we were expecting. The not so good half. We had booked this hotel a year ago and came out early March, on the 2nd Monday (16th) we returned to our room in the evening around 10.30 to find a letter on our beds that stated due to Covid-19 the hotel was shutting the coming Friday. This was a total shock to us as nothing about this was ever discussed beforehand. We were not due to fly until the following Monday so what was going to happen to us between Friday and Monday, the letter covered none of this. We went to reception, where there were already a number of people there for the same reason, the receptionist had no answer for us, he called for the night Manager who again could not answer our questions and reassure us we would not be out on the street come Friday. We tried contacting our Virgin Rep to find out what was going on but she was as much use a chocolate tea pot and in the next few days refused to come to the hotel, big shout out to TUI rep Amanda who did come to the hotel with a 2nd TUI rep every other day until we left and even offered us help should we get desperate, thanks Amanda. Virgin, shame on you for deserting your customers. This and the sister hotel were the only ones we knew of that were closing and the only reported cases of Covid were 2 people that came from Grenada and put who were put straight into isolation. Other hotels were remaining open why not this one? To either our scheduled flight date home or an earlier one? We spent the next 4 days trying to contact Virgin, the rep, Richard B and even phoned home to the Virgin travel agency, a very worrying time. By hook and by crook (not through any help from the Virgin Rep or the hotel) we found out our scheduled flight home had been changed from Monday to Saturday. Late on the Thursday, by which time we still did not know what we were doing Friday and were starting to get worried, one of the Virgin customers by chance walked passed the reception only to be called in as a letter had been dropped off, this was from Virgin confirming we would be moving hotels for 1 night !!. Upon collecting our letter I asked who had dropped the letters off and it was the Virgin rep, how cold was that, could not even face us (from a distance if required). We departed the hotel on the Friday, with the staff waving us good bye, which was like sticking the knife in a little deeper. I understand precautions were required but to do this in a totalitarian way was uncomfortable for the paying guests, if other hotels were staying open then why not this one ? This total ruined our time at the hotel between Monday and the day we left, not knowing is a superb self destructive weapon. Would I return to this hotel, based on the 1st week probably, based on the 2nd week and the way we were treated absolutely not, the hotel only had 1 thing on their mind, themselves and not the paying customer.