Oh my goodness, what a Fabulous Honeymoon! My Husband and I are 28 yrs old, and where looking for a place that had activities and seclusion for a romantic time. Well ladera has both, Cant even tell you how much we enjoyed our stay. First of all the personal service is incredible, everybody knew our names within the first half hour and remembered them the whole 8 days we were there. The staff is so friendly and enjoyable. Anyhting we asked for we recieved.
Our room was outstanding, if you worried at all about the no walls, don't be. Our room was NEVER to hot to stand, a beautiful breeze all the time, the only bugs were a few moths at night, and some friendy frogs and birds. The view is Incredible, our plunge pool was awesome, some people said theirs was cold but ours had heated water when you turned on the jets. We stayed in room V, a little far but definately worth it. I recommend taking a taxi into town and going to a store to stalk your own room with snacks, drinks and beer, they are a little pricey if you have the resort stock your room.
The restaurant was awesome, some of the best food ever, definately get room service on your first night. I recommend going down to the Jalousie Beach and getting a relationship going with one of the water taxi guys (Mitch if you can find him is awesome) these guys will do 90% of the activities the resort does at like half the price and the they also give you deals on more people, so find some people you enjoy at the resort and all go together. They also do regular taxis and will take you other great restaurants on the island. I absolutely reccomend going to the Friday night fish fry, FUN, weird food. The only activity we did through the resort was horseback riding, it was awesome. The spa was also great. Definately take a dip in the sulfa baths they have. And the bar was alot of fun, they have live bands and other entertainment.
All in all we could not have asked for a better place, some people we talked to stayed half their time there and half at other places, I would not have wanted to leave Ladera and go to another resort, so if your doing that go to Ladera last.
I am trying to get my husband to take take me back for our 1 yr anniversary!

liked - view - unbeatable, friendly staff, pool in room
disliked - pricey - amenities in room not comparable to other 5 star properties, very noisy - room right next to restaurant, could hear staff cleaning silverware till late into the night, entertainment ran late into the evening as well, slow service at restaurant - we had a 8 pm reservation, were not seated till 9 pm, and did not get menus till 9:15 pm, not very apologetic, seems restaurant runs more first come first serve instead of honoring reservations, food quality very average

First, the good points. Yes Ladera is beautiful, and the open suites are a wonderful idea. The view is amazing, and is constantly changing throughout the day and night. We loved that we had our very own private pool. The food at Dasheene was amazing, I have never had such good fish, or pate for that matter. The staff is all very friendly, attentive, and patient (We asked them a lot of questions just about St. Lucia. In fact one of my favorite moments was talking with the lady who braided my hair about her family and the island's numberous holidays.)

But...If you go there for rest, you better be a heavy sleeper. Being in an open suite means a completely different thing at night. When hundreds of tiny tree frogs come out at night and make more noise than I have ever experienced in the wild. I was really surprised I had never read anything about this prior to our trip, because it is so loud it took us two nights of no sleep to get over it. Then there's the birds who fly in your room, poop on your things, or try to steal anything shiny you might leave out. And God help you if you have neighbors like we had, one night they fought like cats and dogs, and the next, well, we could hear them making up...loudly.

Then there was the fact that nothing went right. Remember I mentioned St. Lucia has a number of holidays? Well, there were two in the span of a week while we there. Normally, Ladera has little side trips you can take. Nearly none were available the entire week we were there. We got one half-day to fit in a trip around Soufriere. So ask what holidays are around your dates and what that will affect. There are also black water(from the volcano) baths at the resort, they were broken the entire week. And both our plunge pool and the resort's pool were both entirely too cold for a sane person to enter. My husband was determined to use the plunge pool on our trip, but had to get out when he couldn't feel his feet anymore. It was really the wrong place for us, we just got bored after a day and a half of looking at each other and the view, and thinking of how much it was going to cost us.

It is a gorgeous place to experience, at least one night. But I wouldn't stay too much longer. And if you go, bring some of those Bose quiet headphones, they will probably work better than the earplugs the resort gives you.

Before I left for Ladera for my wedding and honeymoon, I read enough reviews to make me feel a little worried. It seemed that people either loved it or hated it, but the moment that I arrived to the resort all my fears completely vanished. I cried when I saw our Hilltop Dream Suite (room X1)! After catching my breath from the room, the view, the cool breeze, I remembered all the bad reviews I read and I couldn't believe what people actually complained about!

I have traveled the world, and stayed in 5+ star hotels, but to date there is NOTHING like Ladera. It is not a typical hotel, and if you are looking for a typical hotel everywhere you go, then you are missing out on expanding your horizons in the most luxurious way. While Ladera is a tree house, I always felt that I was in a 5 star facility with 10 star service. I could not get over how nice the staff one. In addition, they were constantly making everything so easy for us!

We had our wedding at Ladera, and the staff did everything, literally everything for us! Arranged spa appointments, arranged a driver for the day to shuttle around my family back and forth from our hotel to theirs, set up a room for my husband to get ready in, everything was ready and in place perfectly. Also, the day before the wedding I walked into Dasheen for lunch and the head chef, Orlando had been looking for me. He wanted to make a special menu just for me and my family on our wedding day. Joining him was also the restaurant manager who wanted to know where we wanted to sit, what wine we wanted available, how many bottles of champagne to celebrate, etc. Their attention to detail for my wedding day was outstanding. Even the live band was told we would be there for dinner, and they dedicated two songs to us.

Now to the food... Because of the food, the rooms, the staff, there is absolutely no reason to leave Ladera. When people in past reviews complained about the slow service, I think that maybe this was their first experience in fine dining. Dasheen had the same service pace as the fine dining restaurants in the U.S., it is not a Chili's. Also, the food was to die for. There was probably only one thing I ate that wasn't my favorite, and that was personal preference not based on the quality of the food. Be sure to get the seafood cesear at lunch and the Dasheen shrimp for dinner. My family stayed at Jalousie, and towards the end of the trip they were coming to Ladera for all of their meals.

If you are the type of person that really wants to experience St. Lucia (and in my opinion, a person who wants to really experience life), Ladera is the place for you.