Fantastic Resort

I have been wanting to stay at this hotel for my 50th birthday, but the opening got delayed a couple of years... so finally made it and stayed for 7 nights in February 2019.

Pricewise, this is high season, so the standard rate with my corporate ID was around 612 USD. Thanks to the new WOH option, to use points in order to upgrade to Premium Suites, we were able to get the Park Executive Suite.  I however had to pay a standard rate of 769 USD.

The resort is an absolute gem. Extremely quite, wonderful grounds and pools, outstanding staff, great food. Albeit on the pricy side.

The hotel only has 126 rooms (including 48 Suites), and since the grounds are big, you almost feel alone. Even if the hotel were full, considering 2 guest per room, maybe in some with 1-2 kids, I doubt there are ever more than 300 guests present. 

As an information, there is a 10% service charge and 12% VAT added to all prices (room, food, drinks, etc).

What I noticed is, that for all incidential charges to my room, I received points also on service charge and VAT!! but not for the room rate.

We took a taxi from the airport. Cost was USD 30. for many taxi drivers, tourism as well as tours of the island are their sole income. So we got some interesting facts and figures on our way to the hotel. Added a 10$ tip. 

When we arrived at the hotel, the staff greeted me by name, since they knew when we'd arrive.

Very friendly checkin, received something to drink and a cool towel to refresh.

Since the resort is so spread out, they drive you with a golf cart to your room and give a short overview of the grounds.

Bags arrived shortly thereafter.

General:

- the rooms named "beachside" (be it a regular room or suite) are on the ground level

- the rooms named "sea view" are on the first level.

- the premium suites (Nevis, Park Executive) are on the top floor with own pool

- the Penthouse Suite are 2 story suites, with main entrance on 1st floor, and pool on top.

The Nevis Suite is another Premium Suite, with own pool, but slightly smaller. The Park Executive Suite is simply fantastic and we were grateful to receive the larger suite (confirmed when booking).

The king bed was the best bed I have had so far in any hotel (except that it did creak from time to time, becaus frame was made out of wood). But the view from the bed in the morning was simply marvelous. Since we had jetlag coming from Europe, we were awake around 5 am and could open the curtains and watch the sunrise while sipping a Nespresso coffee in bed.

Bathroom:

Living room:

Dining room:

Patio / Pool:

Service is impeccable. Nowhere have I ever found such friendly staff. In earlier posts to this thread there are remarks, that staff need to improve. I cannot relate to any of those comments (or everything has changed since).

They greet you all the time, when walking on the drive ways, the drivers of the cushmans wait until you have passed, greet you. 

every staff member gave 100% to make you feel at home and welcome. 

About 10 days prior to our arrival, we were contacted by e-mail about special room requests, such as the timings of housekeeping and turndown service. We requested between 9-10 am and 6pm. On ALL days (except Sunday, may have reduced staff), the serviced the room at these times.

There are a couple of restaurants, all of them were fully operational, although never full.

The Great House: this is where breakfast is served. Fanastic buffet, with omelette station as well. As a Globalist I could have the buffet, plus 1 entree, which we however never took advantage of, since the variety of the buffet is amazing.

We once had dinner here, both had the Sirloin Steak. excellent, huge, pricewise just about ok

Fisherman's Village: this was our favorite restaurant and pricewise quite decent. On Saturdays they have the "Kittitian Buffet", which we highly recommend. 70 USD all you can eat including lobster. We had both lunch and dinner there, and they are very accommodating to any request. e.g. we only wanted to share an appetizer salad, and the brought it on 2 separate plates, nicely decorated.

The Stone Barn

We never had dinner here, as simply said, it is way too expensive. I have no doubt, that quality etc would have been excellent, but sorry, I will simply not pay 70 USD (plus 22% taxes/service charge) for a Paella.

I never saw more than 3 tables occupied in this restaurant.

You have other options just 5-15 minutes on foot down the beach. We once had lunch at the Raggae Beach Club which was also excellent, and just about half price.

Overall, a fantastic resort and we will return. 

On Sunday we wanted to rent a car. The Concierge mentioned, that an AVIS agent usually shows up around 9am (but it was Sunday, and no AVIS agent there). So the Concierge called Avis. I was able to book the car online in my app, and if it is a minimum Class "C" car, they deliver free of charge to the hotel.

You need a temporary drivers licence, which is issued through AVIS, valid for 3 months and costs 24 USD cash.

Parking at the hotel is at no charge.

Next time, we will again rent a car, there are a couple of nice places to go for dinner (e.g. Salt Place for sunset), or of course to Basseterre.

Mind, this Island was British territory, so it is right-hand driving on the left-hand side of the street. But if you can adjust, it is no big issue. The Kittitians drive very moderately and carefully as per my experience. 

Now, SPA... My wife and i are not the SPA people at all. But since a 50 minute massage was included for us in the premium suite, we took it.

It was very good.. BUT also very pricy. I honestly cannot really judge on the pricing, since we do not have experience, but our massage was charged to the room and subtracted again, and cost 450 USD for both. I would simply not pay that. 

For those of you interested, I have uploaded the SPA menu/pricing below:

Beautiful beach with some spots of Turqoise waters. The beach in front of the pool is better. As others have menioned, lower down towards the Presidential Villa there are some rocks.

It tends to be very windy, but if you walk down the beach towards the Reaggae Beach, it is very pleasant too. Keep in mind, the beach there will be crowded at times with all the tour busses coming with the Cruise tourists for the day. You can check the St. Kitts website on days, where there are no cruise ships in the harbor.

You must keep in mind, that currently NONE of the pools are heated. Others have written in this thread, that the main pools are heated. this is not true. I had spoken with the Director of rooms and she confirmed to me, that none o the pools are heated. the large pool may be slightly warmer, but only because it is shallower and all day in fully sun.

The are however considering using sun collectors to heat the pools, as the pool temperature seems to be one of the mose points being complained about. 

For February, it was too cold for my wife, she only managed on 2 days to quickly enter the pool, but not spend hours in the water as we had hoped. This was our only disappointment of the hotel.

We used the gym twice. Super equipment, and luckily not cooled down as much as gyms in mainland USA :)