rated the Anse Chastanet Resort as follows:| Cleanliness |  | | Location |  | | Staff | | | Food | | |
| Entertainment | |
| said: The airport at Hewanorra, St Lucia was the a little more efficient than the Caribbean islands we have visited so far and we once were through immigration (slow but steady) we had our baggage reasonably quickly. TIP – don’t let one of the porters take you bag once you have collected it – the reps travel desks are on the other side of the exit doors and these guys take your bags less than 100 yards and expect a tip!
The drive from the airport on St.Lucia to the Anse Chastanet resort takes about 40 minutes, but the most exciting are the last 10 minutes as you take the road to the resort. Imagine a concrete road. That has seen 20 years without a repair. On the side of a cliff. With no safety barriers. With hairpin bends. And 45 degree climbs and drops. It makes you breath a sigh of relief when you reach the resort!
The staff are very friendly when you arrive and guide you through the signing in process and give you a non-alcoholic drink and a cold face towel, then it’s off to your rooms. NB If you end up at the top of the resort give the guy who takes your suitcases a really good tip – after a few trips up and down the hill with just your beach bag you’ll realise why! We were lucky(!) enough to have room 14B “Ginger” – this is the one you may see in the Kuoni brochure that has a palm tree growing through the bathroom. When I say lucky we didn’t realise quite what a hike it would be up to the room – we visited in April and the weather was very warm but had extremely high humidity (we’ve been to Thailand but the humidity here was much greater) – the trip up and down the fairly steep hill to this particular room is something that you don’t want to repeat more than twice a day (you soon learn!).
The room was massive and had a great view over the rainforest and partially the sea. We also managed to see inside room 7E “Passion Flower” which had absolutely stunning views over the rainforest, sea and the Pitons.
Looking at the plan of the place I would guess the following rooms also have great views (but can’t guarantee it) with less hill walking – 3B/C, 5B/D. The rooms have a fridge as well as coffee and tea making facilities but milk is provided in the form of tins of carnation condensed milk, a free standing fan and that’s it. No radios, telephones or TV! Electricity is 220V with UK style sockets.
Mosquito nets, sprays and coils are provided and were definitely required with both of us suffering from numerous bites by the end of the holiday. The room was nice with a very large comfortable bed, sofa, table, chairs and sets of drawers and wardrobes.
The bathroom was great with very large tiled open shower area that was shared with the tree with a very powerful shower, double sinks and the usual range of toiletries (provided by Crabtree and Evelyn – very good apparently!). The room is open to the rainforest on one side which could be a problem if you’re a light sleeper on an evening due to all the frogs/lizards/insects chirping away all night long. It had a violent tropical storm one night but no water came in the room and the only evidence in the morning was a few leaves and twigs scattered about the room.
The hotel reception area where you first arrive is about half way up the resort with the rooms higher up the slope and the beach down quite a lot of steep stairs.
The beach itself is made up of clean volcanic sand which gives it a kind of darkish colour when wet and dries to a lighter (but not the typical Caribbean white powder) colour when dry. The beach attendants are great and will provide towels and drinks (you get a yellow flag that you stick in front of your beach hut if you want attention).
There is no shortage of beach huts (don’t know if that’s the correct term – mushroom shaped shelters roofed with thatch) although some are a little way down the beach if you’re late from breakfast! They are also very safe – the beach is more or less used exclusively by the guest and has security guards as well so we often used to leave our stuff and come back for it after lunch. Watch out for a guy called sunshine who sells wood carvings on the beach – one day he tells you they are mahogany, the next red cedar etc. but we were watching him and he has two tins of kiwi shoe polish in his bag which he was colouring his carvings with! (they were light coloured when he finished the carving probably palm tree!) He’s a really nice guy and it became a standing joke between us when we saw him!
There is also a t-shirt seller on the beach but none of the usual annoying locals trying to sell you things when sunbathing. Other water activities included snorkelling (off the beach), diving, sailing, kayaking and windsurfing.
The water is very clear but when we visited was full of jellyfish which kind of put us off snorkelling despite the hotel being situated right on St.Lucia’s coral reef. There was also a complimentary water taxi to the other beach that belongs to the hotel where they have their own plantation and you can take excursions include hiking trails and jungle biking.
Food was of a very high standard for the evening meals almost verging on al a’carte! The breakfast was good (but watch the birds if you leave your food on the table!) and the lunch menu was ok (if not very hot), as was the evening buffet dinners.
We were glad we went all inclusive as I think it could have been quite expensive otherwise. Every drink below $5.5 is included in the AI plan so the evening usually started and ended with cocktails which was good and the local Piton beer is fine. The drinks list is pretty good if Piton isn’t your thing! For once, neither of us suffered from the slightest upset tummies whilst on holiday so this says something for the quality of the food and drink.
Because it was our honeymoon we each received three hours of spa treatment which my wife loved (blokes – go and have the gentlemans facial), complimentary dinner for two on the beach and a snorkel boat trip.
Flying out of Hewanorra, the customs were doing random suitcase checks and it was a FULL unpack, but if unlucky enough to be selected you did get to go eventually to the front of que! Both are flights were with BWI and were not good – the flight out did not have any entertainment for the 8 hour flight and coming back was delayed by 2 hours and the food was dire both ways, but the seat legroom was very good for economy class.
Would I go back? – YES!YES!YES! It’s great if you want a place where there are no kids and want to kick back and totally relax – not so good it you want a pool, blasting pop music and daytime entertainment (stick to Sandals!)
This was the first place we have stayed at that we never once left the resort – we didn’t want to! We have stayed in some very nice 5* hotels around the world but have never, ever, been to a place as friendly as this, where the staff know you by name and where the manager sees every guest off personally. We also filled in the questionnaire on leaving and got a personal reply sent back home – now that’s what I call customer care! It’s fantastic. Book it. NOW.
(PS If they now get a golf buggy to run people up and down the hill that’s thanks to my suggestion!)
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Sunny Says there
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Mr.&Mrs Booth from Oldham travelled to Anse Chastanet Resort with
Kuoni
on a couples holiday.