My fiancé & I chose Balenbouche Estate for our destination wedding, pretty much based on the sparkling reviews we saw here.

Balenbouche Estate (namely Uta, Verena and Anatanja, who run it) exceeded all our expectations and made our wedding and our stay in St. Lucia simply incredible.

We brought with us a group of 17 (staying at Balenbouche), plus 17 more staying elsewhere on the island (Mago Estate, Stonefield Villas and D'Andres), and by the end of the vacation, everyone was wanting to spend as much time at Balenbouche as possible, for Uta's renowned dinners, perched up on the quaint porch of the main house and watching the night tick by, or by the quiet beaches.

At Balenbouche, you don't feel like one of a hundred people plodding around some cement complex with a cocktail - you feel like part of a family, and part of the island itself.

The Estate's history is incredible, and the Lawaetz family has worked hard to preserve that heritage, while honouring the surrounding community. We got to know a few of the local farmers who farm plots on the Estate, some of the school children who were rehearsing for a community play on the Estate grounds, and a group of local craftsmen who use a shady spot under an Estate Calabash tree every Tuesday for inspiration. Balenbouche's small tribe of animals (including 4 sweet dogs, a massive tortoise, and the mango-loving cows in the fields) also brings a connection to the land you won't find at an overly manicured Sandals-type resort.

Balenbouche's cottages are rustic but carefully decorated and uniquely beautiful. Uta, a former interior designer, has built and decorated each cottage specifically - an amazing feat in itself, for one woman - all from mostly reclaimed wood and renewable resources. The main house, too (where all the meals are held) is fantastic. Thick, dark wood and delicate tiles mix with soft tropical hues, to make it look like something out of a period film. It's no surprise that the estate has been featured in a few Caribbean Decoration books.

The Estate grounds are tranquil, with 18th century sugar mill ruins subsiding back into the tropical landscape. Balenbouche also has three beaches, all with different appeal. The second beach was by far our favourite - a short walk through a field of palm trees, and a climb down a steep embankment brings you to a neat quarter-mile of empty, soft sand. No one will find or see you on this beach, aside from one fisherman and possibly a sea-moss diver, and we spent many days frolicking in the waves, and a few nights surrounding a beach bonfire.

We had an amazing time at Balenbouche, which made our time in St. Lucia all the better. It is a place that grows on you, that warms your heart. My husband & I are already planning our next escape back...

The Balenbouch Estate is simply the most beautiful place on earth. The private villas are beautifully appointed and everything is open air. The outdoor shower is an incredible experience.

Uta, Verena, and Anitanja are wonderful hosts. The food is the most incredible I've ever eaten. The dogs, cat, birds, turtles, cows, and lizards make it a place for animal lovers.

The beach is a bit difficult to get to (it involves a bit of a hike) but it is completely secluded and you will most likely have it completely to yourself. Once you are there you feel as if you are at the edge of the earth. Simply amazing.

This is not the place to go if you love five star hotels and crowds of people but if you are looking for a quiet, secluded spot of your own, this is the place to be!

Balenbouche Estate.

We have visited St.Lucia many times & on one trip I said to a St.Lucian friend of ours 'Do you know anywhere exclusive, secluded, peaceful, off the beaten track & near the sea, that would suit us 'He said after some thought, 'I know of such a place down South in the island, an Old Sugar Estate & it would suit you both Just Fine' That is how we found Balenbouche.

We visited next year, after a long flight from UK we arrived at Hewanorra in the dark around 8pm, picked up our 4WD & drove to Balenbouche, this was before the road was done & there were many large potholes. We arrived around 9.30 & a lovely lady Uta Lawaetz gave us a very warm welcone & escorted us to our Lodge. She had prepared us drinks & a fantastic meal which we enjoyed to the sound of an orchestra of tree frogs, the fireflies & stars of the warm tropical night were beautiful.

The Flora & Fauna here are amazing, Hummingbirds flit along the verandah amongst the tropical flowers while you dine on fantasic meals of fresh local produce. The Estate House is beautiful & dates from Colonial Times & sipping a rum punch, one drifts off into a'Time Warp' The whole place is a photographers paradise, especially the Old Sugar Mill & its machinery, plus many walks & the two beaches, but the sea was rough whilst we were here. Its not everyones taste, but we were spoilt rotten & will return again, if you wish to escape the hectic world, come here relax, & enjoy paradise.

If you are the type of traveler who selects your accommodations by the number of stars it rates or who might be annoyed by the occasional Anole lizard in your living quarters, then pass on this review. However, if you are looking for an authentic Caribbean Island experience that is unique from the cookie cutter offerings of the all- inclusive resorts of St. Lucia, then Balenbouche Estates may be your perfect island getaway. My husband and I visited St. Lucia the week of April 11-18th and had the most wonderful vacation at Balenbouche. I’m actually a bit reluctant to share this information since it may make it difficult to get a reservation in the future, but it really is a secret too good to keep.Balenbouche Estates is located on the remote southern part of the island about 20 minutes ($20 US taxi ride) away from the Hewannora airport. Owner Uta Lawaetz and her two daughters Verena and Anitanja run the place. The grounds are beautiful with a variety of tropical plants, flowers and fruit trees, two small ponds complete with water lilies and goldfish and interesting architectural structures from its days as a sugar mill plantation. Visual artists will feel they have landed in paradise. Everywhere is a potential photograph or artistic composition. I took over 500 still photographs and three hours of video during my stay and still feel I could have taken more.The combination of the hosts’ personalities and their attention to aesthetic details, the beautiful gardens and the old sugar mill ruins create a magical, spiritual atmosphere about the place. What my husband and I liked best about our Balenbouche stay was spending the better part of a day outdoors in beautiful tropical surroundings and feeling like we had the place to ourselves. Accommodations:The Balenbouche web site refers to their two guesthouses as villas. A review in tropical traveler calls them quaint cottages which is perhaps a more accurate description. We were originally booked for the smaller guest house for the week, but due to a booking mix up and an unexpected flood we ended up staying at a room in the main house for two days then moving to the larger guest house for the last five days. We did not care for the main house accommodations due to the “fish bowl” feel, since the bedroom was adjacent to the dining area and random tourists occasionally came through the house during the day (it is a “historic destination”). However, the larger guesthouse was quite nice and very private and we would definitely stay there again.This two- bedroom guesthouse is tucked into a beautiful garden about 50 yards away from the main house. We enjoyed spending time on the veranda avoiding the midday heat and watching a variety of hummingbirds dart among the tropical flowers in addition to toads and lizards hiding out in the leafy vegetation. The bedrooms have mosquito nets which we used, although insects were not at all a problem since I probably had fewer than five bug bites my entire stay.There is no air conditioning, however, the kitchen and bathroom are open to the outside which keeps a cool breeze going throughout the house. Bedrooms have fans, although we only needed it only one of the nights we were there. Water is heated by passive solar, so late afternoon was the best time for a hot shower. The water pressure was usually good and the tap water was drinkable.Beaches:Balenbouche has two beaches on the property. The closest beach, about a five- minute walk from the guest house, is very picturesque but small and rocky with occasionally rough surf. The river that used to power the sugar mill enters the ocean here. This is a very nice place to hang out, read a book or take pictures.The second beach is about a 15- minute walk through a cow pasture and woods. The access is a bit steep at the end of the trail; steps and trail improvement are a high priority for the estate. The sand is smooth and black and although I did not go in the water (due to my photographic gear), the Balenbouche guests said the swimming was nice here. All of the beaches in St. Lucia are public access, but it was rare to see anyone other than Balenbouche guests (and this wasn’t often) at either of the beaches.Some other very nice beaches are a short (20 minute or less drive) from Balenbouche. Sandy Beach, near Vieux Fort is the location of some of the “Best Kite Surfing in the Caribbean” according to an article in the Air Jamaica Magazine I read on the flight. An English couple staying at Balenbouche invited us along with them to a trip to Sandy Beach and the beach at Laborrie. The beaches were smooth, golden sand and the water was a brilliant turquoise. We ate lunch at The Reef” which is next door to the kite surfing operation. The food was okay and I braved the “shark attack” cocktail, a concoction that used blue Curacoa and Genadine to (almost too realistically) simulate blood in the water. Reviewers that have complained about St. Lucia beaches haven’t been here. The beaches were so nice I was surprised that there wasn’t a major resort here or that more tourists hadn’t discovered it. There are rumors that a Club Med Resort that closed several years ago on the far end of Sandy Beach may be reopening soon.Food:Originally I had planned to cook a few of our meals (one of the reasons for renting a house with a kitchen and bringing along my own spices), and to perhaps try the highly reputed Dasheen’s at the nearby Ladera Resort for dinners. However, after sampling Uta’s and Anitanja’s cooking we decided we would be quite happy eating our breakfasts and dinners at Balenbouche. Meals were served on the veranda of the main house where tropical flowers strewn artfully on the table along with soft strains of music (usually new age harp music or jazz) and the accompanying chirping of frogs, insects and birds created the perfect tropical ambiance.Breakfast was one of my favorite times at Balenbouche. Uta would serve a choice of coffee or tea along with bread, butter, homemade marmalades, and cheese. Sometimes scrambled eggs and tuna fish salad were offered along with any ripe fruit from the garden. (We had yellow watermelon and mangos… yum!) Occasionally, the bread truck would be late and we would pass the time watching and photographing the wildlife and flowers from the veranda. I got a great hibiscus still-life photograph and some interesting bird and flower shots, but never did photograph the mongoose that scampered back and forth a few yards from the veranda, nor did I get a shot of the yellow bird (vireo?) that once again was returning to build a nest in the dining room chandelier. Dinners were a highlight of our time at Balenbouche. Dinner was scheduled for 7:00, but rarely was ready by then (island time), so while we waited patiently, enduring the wonderful food odors wafting from the kitchen window, we would enjoy a rum punch and conversation with the other Balenbouche guests, or the “outsiders” (folks who were not staying at Balenbouche and had just come for dinner). Twice when we had a lot of guests, we ate buffet style, otherwise we were served at the table. Presentation was always artful in the use of garnishes, leaves from the garden or simply spiraling the extremely long “spaghetti” green beans around a mound of millet. Usually a choice of two entrees (meat, poultry or fish) were offered along with inventive salads and well-seasoned, perfectly cooked vegetables (some of them grown on the estate). They accommodated my vegetarian diet very well. Desserts were always offered; my favorites were the pineapple fritter served on a sea grape leaf and the decadent chocolate cake served to Jane, our English friend, in honor of her birthday.Attractions:At first we had planned to rent a car and use Balenbouche as a home base for touring the many interesting sites at the south end of the island. However, after experiencing the poor road conditions and erratic drivers on our taxi ride from the airport, we opted to hire a driver instead. Uta arranged for Mr. Bernard Saltibus to take us to Diamond Water Falls/Botanical Gardens and the volcano. Mr. Saltibus is a careful driver and very knowledgeable about the island. He is also quite well known around the island (everybody said hello) and had some interesting stories about various celebrities he had driven around. He gave us a personal tour of the botanical gardens that was much better than going with the tour guide and a herd of tourists.The next day Mr. Saltibus arranged for us to take a water taxi out of Soufrierre so we could get photographs of the pitons from the water. We also toured the coastline and saw the Anse Chastanet resort (looks like a great place for a dive vacation). We then drove uphill to the La Haut Plantation where we had an unbelievably inexpensive and delicious lunch. Rachel (a Balenbouche guest) had recommended this site for its incredible views and she was right. Two of my favorite photographs of the pitons were shot from the terrace here.On Saturday we ventured north to Castries for market day and to take a helicopter ride. Initially, we had planned to take a bus from Vieux Fort, but we ran into some former Balenbouche guests and their friends and we jointly hired a taxi for the one hour trip. (We negotiated a rate of $80 EC that was much better than the $100 US it cost us to get a taxi ride back to Balenbouche.) The helicopter ride was the best $130 I have ever spent! We did the north and south loops and the flight lasted about 30 minutes. The scenery from the helicopter was fantastic and the pilot knew just how to tweak the experience by flying straight up a mountain so the ground dropped away on the other side, or by banking steeply around a coastline to suddenly reveal a stunning landscape of turquoise water, black sand and frothy white surf. When we flew between the pitons, my husband got an amazing photograph of the petit piton and surrounding beaches. During the flight, the pilot pointed out various geological/geographical features and it was interesting to see the major resorts from the air. This was definitely better than any amusement park ride!Although we did not stay at the Castries market very long, from what I saw it was a bit disappointing. I did purchase an animal print outfit, but most of the souvenirs offered were junky, touristy items made in India or China. I did not see any local crafts for sale or anything I felt would be suitable for gifts.To end our day in Castries we decided to eat a late lunch at the Green Parrot. I had read about this restaurant, its parrots and the infamous chef who likes to interact with the guests. When we visited we were amused by the four green (yellow headed) parrots squawking around in their red wire cage, however, Harry was nowhere to be seen. We did enjoy incredible views from Mount Fortune and again a surprisingly inexpensive, delicious lunch—I had eggplant provencale with a most attractive lavender- skinned eggplant and Rob had a tuna sandwich-- fresh not canned. This was the only meal we ate indoors the entire time we were on St. Lucia. We would definitely recommend St. Lucia and Balenbouche Estates as a vacation destination. If you have any questions please feel free to email us. Contact Information for Balenbouche Estates:-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------