Stellar Resort, and felt safe even in time of Covid
We had a marvelous five night stay at Jade Mountain in early November 2020. The trip had been booked a year prior (pre covid) and honestly, we did not expect that we would still be able to go. St. Lucia, however, has found a way to keep their people safe, and provide a safe and relaxing vacation to travelers, so after getting our negative PCR tests and filling out the appropriate forms, we headed out to celebrate our 35th wedding anniversary. One additional thing that made us feel safer was that we could take a direct flight, so everyone on that flight had to also have recently tested negative, and Jet Blue was still keeping planes less than capacity, with no booked middle seats.
So, to speak to the resort itself, it was a dream, certainly worthy of a special occasion trip. We were upgraded 2 room categories, to a Sun sanctuary, and it was everything we could have desired. The pool in our room was only slightly smaller than the in ground pool in our backyard! We loved taking a dip in the evening after dinner, so relaxing. We had heard that the water was not heated, but this was not the case, it was heated to a lovely 86-87 degrees F, and always comfortable.
We loved the open concept room, never missed having air conditioning or a TV. Of course, we are early risers, the birds did tend to get noisy around 7am, this wasn’t a problem for us, but others might want to use the provided ear plugs. The bed was very comfortable also, and surrounded by mosquito netting. We never felt bothered by bugs in the room. We also did not use many lights once it got dark, so that we would be less likely to attract any.
The food – we ate most meals in the Jade Club and I would absolutely recommend that. The service is as good as any 5 star restaurant, and the dinner menu changed daily, we never had a dish we did not thoroughly enjoy. We did venture down to one meal at Anse Chastenet, and while tasty, the whole experience did not measure up to the Jade Club. So, as one reviewer has already said, Why downgrade?
Finally, all the people that we interacted with were so nice and went out of their ways to make our stay enjoyable. Much appreciated as we knew that by opening their island up to tourists, they were putting themselves and families at risk.
Activities we did –
• Discover chocolate – so fun! We got to make our own bars and understand a little of the process in the workshop that supplies all the chocolate products for the resort. The chocolatier we had, and I am sorry I don’t remember her name, was so informative and nice. We even got to make some filled chocolates.
• Volcano and Sulphur Springs – glad we did this unusual activity, not sure I actually looked 20 years younger from the mud I smeared on, but it was fun and the baths were nice and warm, unique. Luckily we read reviews and wore old clothes as well as old bathing suits, as the smell did linger until we got said clothes home for a proper wash.
• Botanical garden – part of the same volcano tour, we like a good botanical garden and this one was quite enjoyable. There were so many species in such a small area. The only negative here was that our guide seemed a bit put out and rushing us, I think maybe she was supposed to go off shift and they made her stay for our tour, but we enjoyed nonetheless.
• Guided Snorkel – it was ok, not great. Nothing against the folks running it, I’m speaking of what we saw. On the other hand, the water was calm and clear, there was an abundance of fish life and mostly healthy looking coral, so while we may be jaded from some fantastic snorkel trips we are using for comparison, others may find this wonderful
• Half day sail – on the resort’s own sailboat – fun! We are not sailors, I was a little worried I would be scared when the boat heeled over, but it was fine. A nice afternoon out on the water.
Note that somehow, with all our activities, and the fact that it rained one whole day, we never actually made it down to the beach to relax there. The rain day was actually fine, as our sanctuary was so pleasant to hole up in. We also didn’t push ourselves to get to the beach as we planned the second half of our vacation at another resort – Viceroy Sugar Beach, and we planned no activities there, just beach. So I cannot speak to the service on the beach or quality of loungers, but from what we saw they were quite nice. And it appeared there was a flag system for drink or food service. And FWIW, of the two resorts, we much preferred Jade Mountain over Sugar Beach. Much more upscale, comfortable and “safe” feeling.