A Slice of Kate

Y’all, I just turned 40. To soften the blow, I decided to spend my birthday on the beautiful island of St. Lucia. For some reason, St. Lucia has been calling to me for years. And conveniently for those of us with birthdays during hurricane season, it is rarely seriously affected by storms, thanks to its location.

It does take about 90 minutes to get to the resort where we were staying from Hewannora Airport (the island’s only international airport), and, if you go by car, be ready for steep and windy roads. There are also options to take a water taxi or, if you’re willing to pay the premium, a helicopter.

A note about the airport before I move on — it is small. And when I say small, I mean if you’re planning to get a snack before the ride to the resort or you need to pick up the sunscreen that you forgot, you will not be able to do that here. You deplane onto the tarmac and essentially go into an airplane hanger for customs and baggage claim. Upon exiting, you are whisked to whatever transportation you have arranged. There are snacks shops, souvenir shops, and a restaurant in the departure area after security, though, so you can stock up on things on your way back home.

We spent 4 nights at the new Secret’s St. Lucia resort, which took over the Choc Bay property previously owned by the St James’s Club. The location is gorgeous — white sandy beach, lush hillsides, and turquoise water. There are a number of different accommodation options, including both standard rooms and Preferred Club rooms. The Preferred Club accommodations are located on the hillside, and provide the most sweeping views of the resort and the scenery. You also get access to a private pool, lounge area, and a la carte breakfast restaurant. There are swim out options at both the Preferred and standard levels. We opted to do a standard room and chose a Partial Ocean View King Suite. Our room was in the 500 building, and the view from our balcony was stunning.

There are two main pools at the center of the resort with plenty of chairs and sun beds, all of which were first-come, first served. It’s an all-inclusive, so there are people who get up at insane hours to put a towel on a sun bed to “reserve it”, but I’ve experienced that behavior pretty much every beach resort I’ve been to. There’s a swim up bar, a second bar between the beach and the pool, and a third bar located in the theater area adjacent to the pool deck. Servers come around regularly, so you will never go thirsty. I’d also like to take this time to say that every employee we interacted with was so friendly and so kind. I have nothing but positive things to say about the resort staff and St. Lucians generally.

There are technically seven restaurants on site, but not all of them are open all the time. For breakfast, the options are the buffet at the Market Cafe, crepes at La Petit Creperie, or pastries at Coco Cafe. Shoutout to the ladies making eggs at the Market Cafe — they were so friendly and chatty. Lunch is similarly a buffet at the Market Cafe, tapas at La Petit Creperie, or Barefoot Grill, which is essentially a grill set up on the beach. I’m going to give some grace to breakfast and lunch since the resort only opened in June and is still getting all the kinks worked out, but I would say the food outside of dinner was very much just okay.

Dinners were another story. There are 5 dinner options on site. Seaside Grill/Oceana, which are technically two restaurants (a steakhouse and a seafood restaurant), are housed in the same building, and you can order off of either menu. Seaside/Oceana is also where Preferred Club guests can get a la carte breakfast. We went to Seaside/Oceana on our first night and were underwhelmed. Maybe it was because we got their fairly early on in the dinner serving, but the appetizer bar items weren’t labeled, service was a little slow, and the dessert options were pretty sparse. Fortunately, the rest of the dinners were much better.

Night two we opted for Portofino, and I really enjoyed my meal. I got an eggplant and goat cheese rollatini to start, stuffed chicken for my entree, and tiramisu for dessert. You can get glasses of house wine (or any other cocktail of your choice), or they do have a wine bottle menu, but those are an extra cost.

Night three we went to Himitsu, which is the only restaurant on property that requires reservations. There are 4 hibachi grills as well as a standard table section, so you can either reserve for the grill-side experience or a table with an a la carte menu. We sat at a hibachi grill and our chef was great. He told a bunch of “Dad Jokes” and gave us the show one would expect from hibachi. They make egg fried rice, veggies, steak, shrimp, chicken, and mahi-mahi fish. You can opt out of anything you don’t want, but just be prepared. Also, if you want yum yum sauce, you just have to ask for it. One more thing about Himitsu — it is located near the hotel lobby, but it is up a fairly steep flight of stairs. I don’t know if there is another entrance that doesn’t involve steps, but it’s something to keep in mind.

Our last night we dined at Morgan’s Pier, which definitely has the most scenic location since it’s located on an actual pier jutting out over the Caribbean Sea. This was the only time we actually had to wait to be seated, but it was only about 15 minutes. I opted for French Onion Soup, Beef Bourguignon, and Creme Brulee for dessert. I enjoyed all of it, but some may argue French Onion Soup on a Caribbean island might be a bit of a heavy choice.

As far as entertainment, this resort is fairly small and fairly quiet. The entertainment team had activities scheduled daily from about 11am through 4pm, including trivia, aqua aerobics, movies, crafts, and a foam party one day. At night there was either some kind of live music, karaoke, or a DJ. My favorite show was the Sparkle Legends Fire Dancers. Who doesn’t love watching people breathe fire? If you tell me you don’t, you’re lying. If you’re looking for a party resort with lots of night life, this isn’t going to be it. But it was a perfect amount of activity for me on this particular trip.

Since we were only there 3 full days (one of which was mostly rainy thanks to an uncommon tropical storm), we opted not to go on any excursions. Secrets works with Amstar, so there are liaisons on site to coordinate excursions for you should you be so inclined. There’s also a gentleman named Joy who sits on the beach right by the watersports rental area who runs a highly recommended day tour that leaves right from the resort beach.

We did take advantage of the spa on premises, which was a lovely experience. I opted for a massage and Husband went on the “Water Journey.” From what I gather, the Water Journey was essentially a circuit through the sauna, steam room, cold plunge, and hydrotherapy pool. He’s not a real “I love someone putting their hands on me” kind of guy, so it was a nice option for him. My massage was wonderful (shout out to my masseuse Karen). The prices are a bit steep, but it’s vacation, so might as well splash out a little bit. The spa facilities are clean and nice but not extravagant. There are loungers out by the hydrotherapy pool that you can relax in after your treatment if you want a little quiet time. Anyone who gets a treatment is welcome to use the sauna, steam room, and pool as well.

One thing to note about St. Lucia generally as an island is that it is mountainous. Nearly all of the resorts I looked into are hilly, and involve either walking up and down inclines or taking stairs. If you or someone you’re traveling with his mobility limitations, I’m not sure I’d recommend St. Lucia for you. That said, even though our room was in a building at the top of a hill, it wasn’t a bad walk and was only about 5 minutes from the pool, beach, and restaurants.

I wanted to write a post about our experience at Secrets St. Lucia because it’s so new and there isn’t a ton out there. If you look at Google reviews, a lot are from when the property was still St. James’s Club, so I don’t think it’s a fair or realistic barometer. We enjoyed our time — was it perfect? No. Is anything? But they are learning and trying to provide guests with a wonderful vacation experience. I would definitely recommend this resort if you’re looking for a laid-back getaway on a beautiful island, and I wish we had been able to spend more time there.