You should go here for the location. Its stunning. The beach is worth the price all on its own.

Villas are ok, do not stay in 500 or 600 block(no views). 900's are new and looked great. We stayed in 302 and had a view of the ocean the beach and Grand Piton. Stunning.
The villa was adequate. Had a (cloudy) plunge pool.noisy air con, crap, shower noisy fridge and extra loud bathroom fan that never seemed to turn off.

The service is 50/50. Some of the staff are great and some are irritating or miserable beyond belief. Beware the egg lady. The only food we considered edible was the lunch buffet salad and occasionally the lunch fresh fish and chicken cooked by the local guy in the bayside restaurant.
The other restaurants are laughable. One evening we came late by 15 minutes for dinner at the plantation restaurant and witnessed some interesting comments from the person i assumed was the restaurants host. I couldn't tell because she didn't introduce herself and was just a moody old bag for the rest of our food. The plantation restaurant thinks it's a posh French affair, they bring dinner in klosh's and do a count down to reveal a sad frozen attempt at fine dining. It's actually pretty amusing.

Anyway we only started to care when we realised that they recycle the buffet between restaurants. The salad you have in the afternoon can be (in another guise) something you have in the evening.poor. The food at the pier was disgusting and we gave them 3 evenings at getting it right. never going to happen.


Alcohol is cheap.even if you are not AI. $5 for a beer. $6 for a cocktail.
Food for those not on AI is a crime. $45 for some sad sad food.

The entertainment is also pretty amusing. A steel band was great, the rest was either funny or irritating.

We got the chopper from the airport, recommend it, fantastic way to catch the coast and arrive at the hotel. Its the only hotel with a helipad, which is located impeccably.

All in all it was an amazing week in the sun. News is they are remodeling the place completely so i also assume it will cost bucketloads more when thats done.

Have fun.

My wife and I just returned from our week’s vacation in St. Lucia. We spent 5 days at the Jalousie Plantation and 2 days at the Body Holiday LeSport.

To sum up our week, it was as close to perfect as any vacation we’ve ever had. I did quite a bit of research on St. Lucia and the Jalousie and set our expectations accordingly. We expected a nice clean but older room, outstanding location and OK but over priced food. The Jalousie exceeded these expectations by a long shot.

The important thing to do in reading reviews is to read more than one to try to weed out the extreme cases. If you can’t have a great time at the Jalousie, then either you came in with the wrong expectations, or you’re one of those people who are only happy if you have something to complain about.

VILLA

The villa was very clean. The unit was cleaned in the morning and then there was a turn down service in the evening. We had villa #208. This was a perfect location for use, since we were high enough to have a great water view, but were close enough to be able to walk to the beach or meals in under 10 minutes. The unit wasn’t new, but everything worked. The tub and sink water ran very slow, but the shower had plenty of pressure. The unit had a very large safe that held everything we wanted to lock up.

FACILITIES

As stated in previous reviews, the resort is being renovated. The units in the 900s are finished. The 700s and 800s are currently being renovated and are out of service. The pool is very large with chairs and loungers all around. There was always a place to sit in the sun or shade, whichever you preferred. The beach had lots of white sand, a roped off swimming area and a roped off snorkeling area. The snorkeling area had many fish and is very convenient. The reef is a little beat up but still pretty. The workout area is right at the water’s edge. It’s a pretty spoiled way to get a workout.

FOOD

The food was hit or miss, and most of it was very expensive. If you really want to forget about it all, go all inclusive and don’t worry about the prices. If you don’t want to pay the price for AI, I would suggest getting the breakfast plan and plan to eat several meals off the resort. The breakfast buffet is great. Lots of fresh fruit and eggs cooked to order. Plus a view that never gets old.

Eating dinner off the resort will end up costing about the same as on the resort, even when you include the taxi. This gives you the opportunity to sample a variety of food.

BUGS

Maybe we were lucky. We never saw a bug the entire time and never had to use bug spray. I’m sure this varies over time.

WEATHER

Perfect, that’s about the only word to describe it. It was 78 – 85 degrees F and sunny every day. It tried to rain one day, but only lasted about 15 minutes.

ICING ON THE CAKE

On our fifth day, we received a letter telling us the resort was over booked and offering to let us spend the final two day at the Body Holiday LeSport all inclusive at the north end of the island. We decided to take them up on their offer and were glad we did. The Body Holiday is a very different kind of resort, with activities all day long. The all inclusive included food, drinks and one spa treatment per day. Since we were not all inclusive at the Jalousie, it was a nice change to stop worrying about the steep food priced. It also gave us the opportunity to see another resort and the rest of the island.

CONCLUSIONS

Comparing the two resorts, we really liked the Jalousie best. The Body Holiday was a great resort and we enjoyed our time there, but the Jalousie has a location that trumps everything. The Pitons, beach and bay cannot be matched. For resorts, as in real estate, location is everything, and the Jalousie has one of the best locations on the planet.

We will be back.

We went April 6-13, 2008. We arrived tired and cranky after going from SFO to Toronto then onto St. Lucia and while everyone else was getting into a taxi, we were renting a car which took about an hour and a half. FYI the rate was 2.7 to 1 USD. Bring a copy of your reservation to get the right price. When we piled out of the car at the car park of the hotel, we then got into a shuttle down to the reception. I had made reservations at the Plantation prior to our arrival for 6h30 and I was wondering if we were going to make it. We were greeted with some cool washclothes soaked in lavander water and a cool island cocktail, instantly we were transported to vacation mode!

This was by far one of the best hotels and locations on the island of St. Lucia. I am a novice snorkeler and we have been to Kuai 2x, Maui, Grand Cayman and this trip surpassed them all in terms of the raw beauty, color and easy access to snorkeling. We almost went for a tour to Anse Chastnet but heard from another family that went during a red day that the current was very strong, if its green give it a try then.

We had to tear them away from the kids club. They run a fantastic club there, request the program when you check in!
They went on 3 of the tours (additional $20 each but very worth while).

Entertainment was beyond Excellent. I don't want to spoil the surprises.

The hotel even offers to all their guests beginning scuba for anyone with the motivation. It also offers tea starting 4pm. It is truly relaxing, to reflect the day and wait for the sun to set. It's one of those vacation moments. We had to stop after a couple of days, our stomachs could not take the quantity of food we were consuming each day - the cucumber sandwhiches were fantastic!

I arranged for the Sulphur Spa prior to our departure and regretted not being able to book another treatment during the week, they were totally booked.

I was disappointed that our Sugar Mill room had a roll-away bed for the kids rather than a fold-out sofa but it worked. We went for the modified American Plan - we obsolutely gorged ourselves. The dinners are around $34, MP have to pay extra for some of the better offerings of $44.50. We did not esteem the lunch buffet at $45, and since we had transport we used it. We went into Soufriere and ate local no problems. Be prepared for people to approach you for any and everything - I would not plan a trip with the kids. We ate at the Mango Tree, Discovery Bay (nice accomodations if you like apartements overlooking a pier), and Ladera. Wanted to try Chocolate but did not have enough time.

It's true that the Plantation does not get enough TLC to keep it in tip top shape, but if you can overlook that to soak in the pitons, the beach and the marine life. You'll understand why it has been named a World Heritage Site.

My wife and I recently completed n 8 night stay at the Jalousie and we both agreed that it more than lived up to our expectations. Thanks, in part, to this forum, we pretty much knew what to expect with respect to the views and proce and quality of the food. What we really didn't expect though was how friendly and helpful EVERYONE we came in contact with from the resort was.

I know that not everyone would have that kind of experience (in fact the hotel was overbooked for a few nights and there were some very unhappy and disappointed guests that were forced to stay elsewhere for a while) but we did. Maybe adding to that was the fact that we had a beautiful mano tree right outside our villa that would draw quite a crowd every day of workers trying their skill at knocking down the fruit. We met many helpful people this way.

The rooms were as everyone has described. They are very clean and some would say in need of some TLC. We found them to be very comfortable and rustic. Very much as I would expect on a Carribean Island.

The food was not five star. The best of it were on the nights that the Bayside held their buffet. On Fridayu and Monday, that was the best food available. The plantation room left us rather uninspired. The Pier was good most evenings.

The beach, the views etc. were breathtaking. It is a very laid back experience, so if you're looking for nightlife, don't look here.

We did hire a cab for a day to see the island. For about $150 we had a great driver (Peter D..ask for him at the hotel). Peter took us through Soufree, to Castries and onto Rodney Bay. The drives are quite exiting if you like hairpin turns and narrow roads. Not unsafe, but make sure you have an experienced driver and you're not very prone to car sickness. Peter D ended the tour by recommending a great little restaurant in Castries called the Coal Pot that served a fantastic lunch for us (not included in the cab fare).

All in all..excellent value.