- My wife and I spent an entire day at Jade Mountain in St. Lucia and never even left our room.
- Each of the room's resorts is open to the air on one side, which means you can soak up the views without every having to sacrifice your sense of privacy.
- Rates at Jade Mountain start around $1,200 per night and can go up to $3,945 per night.
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As a professional travel writer, I've visited the Caribbean hundreds of times and stayed at some of the most beautiful resorts on the planet.
Jade Mountain in St. Lucia is the only one where my wife and I spent an entire day without leaving the room. We weren't sick, and the weather was absolutely perfect.
So what makes the rooms at Jade so alluring that you'd forego the tropical beauty of St. Lucia - an island of tall mountains covered in lush foliage, surrounded by the shimmering Caribbean Sea - for the confines of four walls?
Three walls and a personal pool
To start with, it's only three walls. Each "Sanctuary" is open to the air on one side, with postcard-pretty views of St. Lucia's famous twin Piton mountains rising up from the waters of the Caribbean. Uninterrupted by windows or doors, the vistas are simply stunning. Friends will think the colors are Photoshopped or filtered. But it's all real - and all yours for the length of your stay.
The elevated perch of Jade Mountain adds to the drama while also ensuring that the open-sided villas capture cooling breezes day and night. Mornings are announced by the rising sun and the songs of tropical birds; we had no issues with insects, but the beds in the Sanctuaries are protected by an interwoven canopy of mosquito netting, just in case.
You might figure that we'd at least venture out occasionally to cool off with a dip in the water. No need. Lots of resorts in the Caribbean boast of rooms with private plunge pools. But at Jade, the Sanctuaries come with swimming pools - our Moon Sanctuary pool was 900 square feet, big enough to swim perhaps a half-dozen strokes in from end to end.
Floating for hours in the pool, or reading a book on its edge, is certainly an option when you are escaping to the Caribbean and looking for refuge from everyday life. But even the most lavish hotel room can start feeling a bit confining after a while. Not so at Jade Mountain, where the bi-level Sanctuaries have between 1,400 and 2,000 square feet of living space devoted to sleeping, eating, and bathing. The absolute privacy means you can spend your days in a robe, bathing suit … or wearing nothing at all.
At some point, of course, you will get hungry. Food and drink are just a call away using your private cell phone, monitored 24/7 by the resort's butler staff. We began each day with a breakfast on our poolside patio and took full advantage of the service by ordering in cocktails made with local Chairman's Reserve rum and snacks and meals throughout the day.
Spa treatments can be arranged in rooms, as well, although that was one indulgence we didn't partake in - we preferred to have our day go uninterrupted even by the most pleasurable of intrusions.
Our decision to hole up in our Sanctuary wasn't all that unusual. One couple stayed in their room for five straight days, showing their faces only to answer the door when their Majordomo arrived with food or drinks.
Two resorts for the price of one
When we did eventually emerge from our Sanctuary to explore the rest of the resort, we were thrilled to discover that as a Jade guest, you get two resorts for the price of one: the high-altitude luxury of Jade Mountain and the beach-resort vibe at Anse Chastanet, just downhill.
The Jade facilities, including dining at the Jade Mountain Club and cocktails on the resort's roof deck, are reserved exclusively for Sanctuary guests. But as Jade guests, we had the full run of Anse Chastanet's six restaurants, bars, beach toys, and other amenities. Included among those were classes on making sweet treats at the resort's Chocolate Lab using cocoa beans grown on the property and jungle biking on 12 miles of trails through the Anse Mamin plantation.
We spent time lounging on both of Anse Chastanet's beaches, including the broad stretch of sand in front of the resort and the secluded shore of Anse Mamin, located in a private cove a short walk or boat ride away.
We chose to explore St. Lucia on our own, but some Jade Mountain guests get so attached to their majordomos that they take them along on guided hikes to local attractions like the Enbas Saut Waterfall, the Tet Paul Nature Trail, or bird-watching at Anse Mamin. And with Jade Mountain always in high demand, the resort is planning to add another 24 Sanctuaries when a new sister property, Jade Sea, opens later this year.