Spent 4 nights at Jalousie (Nov 6-10) and were sadly disappointed. We had spent 4 night at Ti Kaye, which is a very different type of resort but we had a more pleasant stay there and found it to have better and more friendly service. My expectation had been Ti Kaye would be remote and rustic and Jalousie would be elegant, luxurious and stunning. It met the stunning expectation.
First the positives:
- It is a truly stunning location at the base of Petite Piton, with an amazing view of Gros Piton.
- There is good snorkeling right off the beach, in a roped off area protected from boats.
- The food is high quality, including good bread & pastries at breakfast (something we didn’t find elsewhere in St Lucia).
- The rooms have high end details and appointments, including deep comfy beds and huge bathrooms.
- Water taxi’s available on the beach (outside vendors who do solicit guests on beach but fairly tactfully) and this is a great way to get up to the Anse La Reye Friday night fish fry. We went with Terry in his boat named “why knot” and had a great time.
- Rain umbrellas available in the room and very handily also at the restaurants. In November we did have some rains, but fairly quick showers.
Stuff that’s good and bad:
- Walk from Sugar Mill rooms down to the beach is short, though currently through a construction site.
- Beach is lovely white sand, but heard this is trucked in and not natural local sand, which seems odd to do.
- Nice thatched roof “umbrellas” on the beach if you want shade – and these are also dry in quick rain showers. Beach chairs look really cool, but are actually not very comfortable as many have deep indents that you kind of get stuck in and are heavy to move if you want to follow the shade.
- There is a lot of staff around. But quantity does seem to equal helpful.
- It’s very close to Gros Piton hike trail head (about 10-15 min drive) so easy ½ day outing from Jalousie, but the hotel books you an “excursion” to do this at US$85 per person +tax. Because of a double billing mistake (which they did promptly correct when asked), I learned this covers a $60 taxi and US$34 per person trail entrance fee. So a nice mark up for hotel for booking a cab. (We tipped our trail guide as well, so plan for this as well.)
- They very nicely delivered a bottle of Freixenet and fruit plate as a honeymoon welcome gift when we were in the plunge pool the evening we arrived, but in doing so room service locked us out of our room and I didn’t get a very gracious greeting when I showed up dripping wet at reception for a new key.
The issues we had:
- It’s currently a construction site. The pool is open (which we actually didn’t care about since the swimming off the beach is nice), but there was still significant work going on around the pool area that involved jack hammers, power sanders, nail guns and other noisy work and lots of construction crew. The construction noise can be heard clearly on the beach, in the Bayside restaurant and in the Sugar Mill rooms. Walking from Sugar Mill rooms to the beach or Bayside restaurant necessitates walking through the construction area. The workers are very nice and accommodating and tend to turn off the power tools as you pass, but you’re still walking through a construction site on your high-end vacation. We booked directly w/ the hotel and received no notification in advance (other than what I had seen on tripadvisor which suggested it would be completed Nov 1) about any construction activity or noise during our booked time.
- It’s came across to us as very regimented – feeling a little like Disney World with too many lawyers influencing the management (you’ll sign a lot of release forms). E.g. We arrived at beach restaurant at 2:31 and were told it closed at 2:30. We were told we need to snorkel in the roped off area not the open bay. We took out a kayak and were told we couldn’t snorkel or swim from the kayak. We wanted to night snorkel and they required we do it in a booked and staffed “outing” and then they didn’t have enough people to do it and canceled. (We asked if we could rent flashlights from them instead since we had our own other snorkel gear and were told no. So the next night we paid for the 3 spots so the 2 of us could go out. ) We called to ask if we could delay our 8 PM Great Room reservation to 8:30 and were told the only choices were 8 or 9:30 – so we showed up at 8 and had to wait 20 mins for a table. Each of these things alone is not a big deal, but they added up to a less than enjoyable experience and it was not what we expected from such a high-end hotel that markets itself as being service oriented.
- Bayside restaurant is full of staff, but getting service at breakfast can be a challenge. Seems that the tasks are highly sub-divided, so the guy who pours you juice doesn’t refill your coffee if you ask since that is someone else’s duty and the request tends to get lost in the shuffle.
- The Sugar Mill rooms do not have very good sound barriers. The room adjacent to ours had multiple early (before 7 AM) phone calls several mornings. The phone ringing could be heard clearly in our room (Sugar Mill #10).
Stuff to know:
- Great Room restaurant requires long pants and closed toe shoes for men
- Wine prices run from $15 range for most glasses and cheapest bottles are $50-60 range.
- It’s a steep curvy road into Jalousie from the main road (don’t expect to walk any of this) - with a fabulous little local restaurant (Martha’s Table) on the entrance road – worth a visit for authentic cuisine.
- Bug off: be sure to bring some.
- There’s a 10% service charge (plus an 8% tax) added on to your room rate (and most other activities and meals.) This covers tips at the resort. So no need to carry around cash unless you want to tip more than the standard amount.
Jalousie will certainly be a more enjoyable place to stay once the construction is finished, but I still think it won’t live up to the hype until they get their service model working. Hope others have a better experience than we did.
Room Tip: It looked like lower number Sugar Mill rooms (1-5?) might have better views. #10 did not have a vie...
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This review is the subjective opinion of a TripAdvisor member and not of TripAdvisor LLC.
November 26, 2012
Good day,
Thank you for providing us with your feedback following your recent stay at The Jalousie Plantation, Sugar Beach.
Based on what you have described, it appears that you did not have the best possible experience at the resort and for that, I am truly sorry.
In reference to the work-taking place at the resort, you may be pleased to know that the work you describe is now finished. The main pool has been in use for a couple of weeks and the new path from the Great House to the beach is now finished as well. It appears that your stay coincided with a period where the level of noise was higher than usual as we were re-doing the paths and putting final touches to the pool project. I would like to take the opportunity to apologise for any inconvenience this caused. I am also sorry about the confusion with settling the time for your dinner reservation. We are continuing to review our service standards in that area to ensure that there isn’t a repeat of what you have described.
Some of the issues you describe as “regimented” are actually put in place for the safety of our guests. As you can imagine, our beach is very popular and at times, there can be a great deal of boat traffic. We have marked off an area for snorkeling (actually the boundaries of the National Marine Reserve) to prevent boats from entering the very best location for this activity and to keep our guests safe. Once again, thank you for your comments and business and we look forward to serving you again so we can share firsthand the changes and improvements that have taken place in light of your concerns.
Regards,
André Boersma
General Manager
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This response is the subjective opinion of the management representative and not of TripAdvisor LLC.
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