Rosewood does a good job of keeping things more calm that at the rest of Baha Mar
There is a new resort on same beach called GoldWynn.
no intel yet i'm afraid

I�ve been doing a ton of research myself for a romantic couples trip and asked around regarding Amanera and several people said ocean is choppy and they spent more time swimming in their private pools. Also a number of people said there were surprisingly a lot of kids around.

We had an amazing time at Cap Juluca. Very romantic, hardly any kids. Beautiful beach with the best beach service we�ve ever had. You get your own beach setup right in front of your accommodations and they are nicely spread out. The spa was wonderful, had the best massage while listening to the ocean in the background. The accommodations were beautiful (white and wood tones) and a gorgeous huge marble bathroom. most of our meals were awesome, our first dinner was sub par but we enjoyed the rest. There is a REALLY GOOD lunch spot at the end of the beach called the Cap Shack, amazing fish tacos, fun music and vibes. We also had a butler that was always a text message away and he helped coordinate anything we needed. He was so kind!

We went to Hermitage Bay for our ten year anniversary and were disappointed in the food and the beach, it�s really small and has pebbly type sand. That was several years ago so maybe some things have improved?

I�ve been on just about every travel forum and the most consistently recommended places I�ve gotten are: little dix bay, amanyera (in a ocean cove pavilion), amerera (with a private pool), jumby bay (though several people say there are a lot of families), and a newish place in T&C called Ambergris Cay (not the one in Belize).

let us know what you end up booking, I�ve had a hell of a time making a decision.

Big Ambergris in TCI is amazing. Highly recommend it but not for the beach. When we went, they were doing daily private excursions but I think they stopped doing this. Amanyara... I'm not a fan of the beach and the price point is too high for how dated it is now. Nothing beats the beach at Grace Bay, but the hotels along that stretch (including Ritz and Grace Bay Club) are not great for service. I think we've narrowed it down to Cap Juluca and somewhere in St. Lucia (Sugar Beach or Jade Mountain). We went to Cap Juluca for the day once when we stayed at FS Anguilla. I'm going to book Amanera for later in the summer when the water might calm down. Spring is so windy in the Caribbean and I think that will make it worse there. I was strongly considering going to the One&Only Mandarina again but would like to try someplace new. That's worth a visit if you haven't been yet. The beach is small but easily swimmable and the food is amazing.

can't speak to pricing, lepmd, but we've stayed at all of those places except amanera and herm bay. multiple stays at samanna, jade mtn, and cap juluca.

of all the ones you name, i'd put cap juluca and jade mt at the top of the list. then the choice comes down to whether you want to be directly on a beach or not. at juluca you are, and one of the finest beaches in the caribbean to boot. at jade you're re not. of course, but the hard product and entire experience of jade is certainly more singular. i'm not sure what's up with ladera these days, but as recently as ten years ago it was still a very special place. the rooms are not nearly as insanely well finished as at jade mtn, but the views were the equal. ladera pioneered that 'missing fourth wall' thing that jade has taken to next-level, and there was also something very nice and authentic about the
rustic-ness of the rooms there. last time we went we had one of the larger rooms with the pools and it was pretty darn great. (prolly circa 2013).

we stayed at sugar beach just before the viceroy refurb. can't say i love the viceroy brand in gen, though the flagship santa monica location can still be fun for a drink, and the playa property is small, special and pretty dreamy (kind of un-viceroy, frankly). and it doesn't look like they've done tons of new build at sugar beach, though the accommodations have clearly been upgraded, ultra-refreshed. (they needed it) when we went it was called jalousie plantation, and it was sort of a disaster. i think it was branded as either a hilton or conrad property, and the service was almost non-existent. felt too large - both in terms of size/spacing-out of property and crowds at common facilities. nothing was really walkable from our casita, and mokes seemed to do the circuit about once every hour. lots of waiting around. also, the beach.while ample and picturesque, lookes to have about 80 billion truckloads (conservatice estimate) of blinding white sand dumped on it. poorly, too, as there wasn't enough to cover the natural dark grey sand beneath it. viceory has hopefully stopped this ridiculous practice, it felt sooo out of place (almost sacrilegious) to do that in one of the western hemisphere's most jaw-droppingly beautiful locations (between the pitons).
that made us really wish we had gone back to anse chastenet for that trip, where the beach is equally gorgeous and all natural. not quite black sand, but a darkish grey. (not sure if chastenet is still going - same owners as jade, i believe - but it's the same beach accesable to jade).

samanna is lovely. i found the beach a bit underwhelming (especially since you're forced to gaze longingly back at juluca/maundy's on anguilla) and the place a bit overpriced in gen for what it offers. if i were choosing between samanna and either jade/juluca/sugar beach, i'd go either of those latter three, personally.

that is so good to hear, apples12, sounds like, lhey've gone back to au naturel with the sand, then. that was probably my biggest hang up with it before. can't say why it bugged me so much, seems like a relatively minro thing. it's not even as much an environmental thing for me, it's more just the stupidity of it, the expense vs the needlessness of it.

have they figured out a way to 'tighten' the resort, do you know? in terms of getting around it, offering more regular moke service between casitas and the main common areas? built a monorail? i'd love to know. that setting was spectacular, felt like it had the potential to be something truly exceptional. wasn't getting it done as a hilton, but if viceroy has plussed it enough in a meaningful way, we'd def give it another whirl.

Is there still a daily invasion of trippers who arrive by noisy boats, crowd the beach, have a picnic and snorkel around the Pitons? That was a real shock to me. Not just one or two people, but literally hundreds, especially when big cruise ships are in port.

It's much easier to get to St. Lucia than Anguilla right now (direct flights to Anguilla don't start for us until later in the year). I'm thinking 3 nights at Jade and 3 nights at Sugar Beach, which is more than the 4 nights I wanted for this trip but seems necessary to split based on split reviews.

going to be great. Make sure you are ok with the 3 wall concept at Jade. No AC which is personally a killer but manny people don�t mind.

Refurb was amazing. Villas are great now and service has been very good. Sent a bunch of well travelled clients recently and they all loved their stay. Besides one who only likes the super mondern large resorts which isn�t this.

dag, this sounds like a wonderful week.

more than just split reviews (nobody loves every hotel), this itin will give you two really different looks, across the board. elevation (duh), topography, styles/takes on luxury.
all literally a stone's throw away from each other.
that's pretty rare to get to enjoy, anywhere, really.

anyway, pretty jealous of this trip. have fun!

totally great point. we never minded no ac, so high up and breezes are ample.
but you MUST not leave any food out. they'll surely tell you this a few times on the way in. youd do well to heed the warnings. even food associated items. candy bar wrapper, whatever. if you're vigilant abt it there'll be no problem, but we left some grapefruit peelings/rinds on a dresser one night, and it was absolutely clear in the am that large-ish mammals had perused our villa during the night....!

My spouse is not excited about the no A/C at Jade. We sleep at 64-66 degrees and it's 74 in St. Lucia tonight. Also, 6 nights split between Sugar Beach and Jade AI with flights is close to $25k excluding transfers. We've decided to save Cap Juluca and Amanera for when flight schedules are better through our small airport to MIA, so we'll go to one of those in July (probably Amanera since we've already been to the beach at Cap during our FS Anguilla stay). I'm starting to get decision fatigue which means that we'll be back at the One&Only Mandarina or back to the Ritz in TCI, which isn't great but is a bargain with the club lounge food/alcohol compared to everywhere else. The Mandarina has added a restaurant so that could be fun to try.

Myb try Rock house for the next Turks visit. Ritz service has been awful lately

I'll definitely look into Rock House. We lucked out with Ritz service when we were there and found the club lounge service to be naive/new but pleasant. The hard product at the Ritz isn't great; it's basically Marriott quality. It's a shame that the hotels along Grace Bay either need updating or have horrible service. It's one of the most beautiful stretches of beach in the world.

Auberge no longer managing Malliouhana —

https://www.caribjournal.com/2023/02...e-resorts-out/