All-Inclusive Resorts in St Lucia: The Honest Guide
St Lucia has the Pitons — the twin volcanic plugs that rise from the Caribbean Sea on the island’s southwestern coast to over seven hundred metres, appearing in the water without foothills or transition, so dramatically that the photographs of them from the beach look digitally altered. They are not. They are the island’s defining feature and the reason that St Lucia’s visual identity in the Caribbean travel conversation is as strong as any island’s, including Santorini and Bora Bora, whose landmarks do equivalent work for equivalent destinations. The Pitons are a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The coral reef around their base, accessible from the Sugar Beach resort below, is the finest dive site in the Eastern Caribbean. The black sand beaches at the Pitons’ feet — volcanic sand, a different texture and a different experience from the white coral sand of the Caribbean average — are specific and extraordinary and not what the visitor who came expecting Aruba has been adequately prepared for.
St Lucia’s all-inclusive market is small, high-quality, and heavily oriented toward the honeymooner and romantic couples market that the island’s landscape, food culture, and the specific atmosphere of its rainforest interior attract. The Sandals properties are here — Sandals Regency La Toc and Sandals Halcyon Beach — and constitute the island’s most comprehensive all-inclusive operations. But the most significant luxury hotel on the island is not a Sandals property and is, in the consistent assessment of informed travellers, one of the finest hotels in the world.
Jade Mountain
Jade Mountain is built into the mountainside above the Pitons, with rooms — sanctuaries, in the architect Nick Troubetzkoy’s terminology — that have no fourth wall, leaving the entire Piton view open to the Caribbean air and the weather and the light that changes across the face of the mountains through the day. The infinity pool in each sanctuary extends to the open edge. The view from the bed, the bath, the pool, and the breakfast table is the same view: the Pitons, the Caribbean, the sky. Troubetzkoy has been building toward this hotel his entire career, and the result is the kind of place that earns the description “one of the world’s great hotels” by simply existing and being experienced rather than by accumulating awards. It is not strictly all-inclusive — the Starlight dinners and in-room dining are additional to the room rate — but the room rate is substantial and the experience is complete. For honeymoons and significant anniversaries, it is among the three or four correct answers on the planet.
Sugar Beach, A Viceroy Resort
Sugar Beach is in the valley between the Pitons — the only resort in the world positioned between two UNESCO World Heritage landmarks — on a beach of volcanic dark sand at the base of the Piton Marine Reserve, with the reef immediately accessible from the shore. The all-inclusive option covers meals at the resort’s restaurants and is the most practical approach to a Sugar Beach week, given the property’s remote position and the difficulty of reaching other dining options without a significant journey. For the couple who wants the Piton view from a resort with direct reef access and the full service infrastructure, Sugar Beach is the correct answer if Jade Mountain is beyond the budget.
Sandals in St Lucia
Sandals Regency La Toc and Sandals Halcyon Beach are both in Castries, the island’s capital, on the Caribbean’s calmer northwestern coast rather than in the Piton zone. They provide the full Sandals experience — unlimited scuba diving, adults-only, comprehensive all-inclusive — in the most accessible part of the island for visitors arriving at the nearby Hewanorra International Airport. For the Sandals guest for whom the brand’s consistent quality is the primary selection criterion, they are reliable. For the guest who came to St Lucia specifically for the landscape, the Piton-area properties are the correct choice and are worth the forty-five-minute drive from the airport that the distance requires.
When to Go
January through April for the driest conditions. St Lucia’s lush green landscape — the reason the island looks the way it looks in photographs — is produced by significant rainfall, and the island’s wet season of June through November is genuinely wet in the rainforest interior, less so on the Caribbean coast. December and January are the finest months: the island is at its most beautiful after the wet season has refreshed the vegetation, and the dry season’s consistency makes planning outdoor activities realistic.
Book Jade Mountain, St Lucia direct — one of the world’s great hotels, with open-wall sanctuaries facing the Pitons above the Caribbean.
