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The Jalousie Plantation is a resort with a truly majestic setting, in 190 acres of incredibly lush land between the twin raging peaks of the Pitons in the south of St Lucia. Its 112 bedrooms, suites and villas stand ranged around forested hillsides, with ever-more spectacular views the higher you climb. At the heart of the resort, just above the sea, stands the Great Hall, where you will find two dining rooms and a bar and shops that lead up to the Reception. Beneath it is the beach area, the centre of activity, with its pool, watersports and beach restaurant. The resort has very extensive facilities including a fitness room, tennis and squash courts and its beauty salon and spa, which takes full advantage of the setting, looking onto the massive flank of the Petit Piton. Built around a former sugar estate in a UNESCO World Heritage site of exceptional beauty, Jalousie Plantation is a Caribbean luxury hotel with a truly unique backdrop, possibly the most dramatic in all the islands.
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KEY FEATURES
| A luxury Caribbean spa hotel with four restaurants, full service spa, shops, tour desk, car rental desk, secretarial service and meeting rooms with equipment, children’s centre with activities, pool, watersports, scuba diving, tennis courts, squash, walking trails, dedicated wedding co-ordinator. Accommodation has air-conditioning, ceiling fans, mini bar, coffee maker, safe, clock radio, data port and direct dial phones, satellite TV and VCR. |
STYLE
| Modern Caribbean architecture with traditional touches, gradually being redeveloped into stylish contemporary Caribbean. Some formality in the Great House at dinner time but otherwise relaxed and secluded, with a ‘resort’ atmosphere in the beach area |
CLIENT PROFILE
| A mix of European and North American visitors, families and wedding parties |
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You approach Jalousie Plantation over the shoulder of the Petit Piton, first up and then down an extremely steep road, through incredibly profuse tropical greenery. As the road snakes its way downhill into the hotel, the face of the mountain comes briefly into view, a massive black and grey slab soaring above you, and then you are swallowed by greenery once more as you arrive at the reception. Set a UNESCO-listed area of exceptional beauty, Jalousie surrounds you by extraordinary and dramatic natural life, tropical growth that is almost explosive in its fertility, trees a century old etched on the sea horizon and of course the Petit Piton, tens of millions of years old, which looms like a giant above you.
Jalousie is a former sugar plantation and the traditional plantation style has been retained at the resort, but in a modern incarnation. It is immediately visible as you arrive in the foyer of the reception building, which has a tall pitched ceiling with exposed white beams. The doors and windows are topped with traditional rounded arches in a starburst pattern – another theme which continues around the resort. On your left in the foyer you will find the reception desk. Beyond it, where the space opens again into a small garden courtyard, are offices and on the right you will find the real estate desk (the Villas of Jalousie Plantation are a key feature of the resort at the moment, see below). From here a covered walkway leads off down the hill, passing the car hire and helicopter tour booths and then the hotel’s boutique where you can find essentials and some clothes. Eventually you reach the Great House.
The Great House is of course designed for its view out to sea and so you approach from the rear. Actually the first thing you come to is Jalousie’s fine dining room, the Plantation Room, which you reach via a set of circular stairs whose curved walls are decorated with Arcadian scenes. Inside the Plantation Room the décor is traditional, with a marble floor, gathered curtains, formal armchairs, ceiling fans and belle époque hanging lamps.
The circular stairs bring you down into the Palm Court, a bar with a pool table and low armchairs - light snacks are available here, which you can eat on the veranda at the front of the Great House – and then in turn into the Great Room. This is particularly attractive. Again the graciousness of the old plantation style is immediately obvious. It has a decorated tray ceiling, a polished wooden floor, formal armchairs, card tables and the walls are hung with classical prints and oil paintings. At the front of the room, looking towards the sea, huge sets of tall double shutter doors give onto the veranda and then the fantastic view. The classic feel is kept outside with carriage lanterns and large straw armchairs, but the colours, earthy orange and green, are modern.
The level beneath the Great Room is marked by hefty Georgian arches. Inside, the room contains a bar and club that operates during the evenings, but in the morning breakfast is served here, between the arches or under parasols on the veranda at the front. Looking towards the sea, you will see the ‘active’ part of the resort laid out in front of you, among tall and slender palm trees that stand along the shoreline.
The large main pool, which is surrounded by loungers and umbrellas, sits in a lawn. Beyond it is the beach, which stretches for a couple of hundred yards in either direction, dotted along its length with palms. At the central area there are hooded loungers and thatched parasols to provide shade from the sun. Just to the right of the pool is the beach restaurant, the Bayside Bar and Grill. This is undercover to keep you out of the sun, but it is open-sided and so you have a pretty view of the beach over the typical Caribbean balustrades. Just behind here is the watersports building where you can get a windsurfer or arrange to go scuba diving. A pier reaches out into the water and just beyond here is a good area for snorkelling.
To the right of the pool you will see the Sugar Mill building, the old crushing and boiling house – you will see the massive old metal gear that was used to crush the cane. Inside are a handful of suites. These are popular because they are on a level with the central facilities of the resort, but the majority of the rooms at Jalousie –actually cottages and villas - are tucked away on the hillside and so you can hide yourself away in seclusion. The land here is also steep, and it is quite a walk to get to some of them, so a shuttle bus runs regularly in a circular direction around the resort. Other transport can also be called.
From the beach area, all vehicles go left along the front. The road passes a helicopter pad and then reaches the Pier Restaurant, Jalousie’s fourth restaurant, which is at the edge of the resort. Just outside the perimeter here there is a shop and a restaurant called Bang Between the Pitons. At this point the road turns inland and climbs steeply into the jungle, passing the clusters of rooms until it reaches its summit, where it arrives on a level with the tennis courts and meets the main road into the resort.
The folds in the ground give some spectacular settings and views of the mountain face and out to sea. However, equally impressive in many ways is the fact that the cottages are set in the forest itself and many of the large trees have actually been left (in accordance with the area’s UNESCO heritage status). While they may be in front of your balcony they do contribute to the sense of being in the most extraordinary jungle and a beautiful setting. The clusters of rooms are numbered in 100s – 100 to 900, and each cluster contains around half a dozen one or two-bedroom units. There are two types of rooms at Jalousie at the moment, while the resort undergoes a steady refurbishment. The new villas have taken the old cottages and enlarged them and given them a much sharper, more modern Caribbean plantation style, in keeping with the theme of the resort. All cottages have pretty gingerbread trim, cedar shingle roofs and a deck that gives onto a plunge pool. The older cottages have a more continental feel but are still elegant and comfortable.
Once you have reached the top of the circuit, you come to a flat piece of grassland, where there are three short holes of golf and some tennis courts. Above here, on another rise in the land, is the spa building, which looks out onto the most spectacular view of all of the Petit Piton. The burnt black rockface hangs literally right above you here, rising vertically into the sky. The spa building has eight treatment rooms and a couple of cabanas for outdoor treatments with a view. It also contains a squash court and a gym.
With such a spectacular setting Jalousie Plantation is happy to organise a wedding for you. If you are getting married then you may spend some time in the spa anyway. However, you may not have to move as the Sunset Deck there is also a popular location for the marriage ceremony itself. Other favourite locations include the lawn between reception and the spa building and the beach.
Jalousie is a large resort set on steep land, so things are inevitably spread out, however, there are obvious advantages to that. It is large enough that there can be different atmospheres in different areas. The beach and pool area beneath the Great House is busy with activities and often a lively crowd. There is a daily diet of activity for those who want it. On the other had you can spend your time tucked away in seclusion in your room, only joining the crowd when you feel like it, say to scuba dive or for a smart dinner at the Plantation Room, before returning to your room. However, whether it’s in quiet contemplation on a sun lounger or on your pool deck, you are always in the presence of the Petit Piton and the fantastic greenery.
Villas of Jalousie Plantation
Jalousie Plantation is currently offering its new villas in a buy-to-let programme in which you own the property and have four weeks of residency per year. An estimated US$50 million is being spent on the redevelopment of the resort over the next few years. For more details, please see our Review of the Villas at Jalousie Plantation.
Stop press: The Jalousie Plantation is to close during summer 2010 for an estimated 18 months, during which time US$100,000,000 is to be spent rebuilding and remodeling the entire resort. The plans include a new spa located in the rainforest, a new swimming pool reserved for adults, three new restaurants, two new bars, a children’s club, a rainforest walkway, a new scuba centre and games room. The existing accommodation will be completely renovated and the hotel’s capacity increased to 152 rooms. |
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Beach & Swimming
Jalousie’s Beach follows a graceful curve at the front of the resort and it is dotted with palm-thatch parasols and loungers. The Bayside restaurant and beach bar is set to one side right at the edge of the sand and beyond it is the watersports hut. It only takes a quick look at the Pitons around you to realise how steep the land is underwater as well as above the surface. The seabed drops off quite quickly, but it is good for swimming as it is so calm - and it is also good for scuba diving. There is a good snorkelling area near the watersports hut. The sand on the beach is usually white but it is not actually the natural colour of the beach here (which is darker because of its volcanic origins). The white sand has been imported.
The huge swimming pool is set slightly inland from the beach, on the main lawn beneath the Great Room. Many of the cottages have their own plunge pools so you do not need to leave your cottage to cool off. |
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Sports & Recreation
Jalousie has a huge number of sports facilities and it holds a whole programme of activities if you wish to get involved. They operate a daily diet of activities and organised fitness classes. As an all-inclusive hotel, Jalousie includes a number of sports within its rate. Sports that are not included are scuba diving and lessons (sailing and tennis).
Some examples of the daily activity schedule include Aqua Aerobics in the main pool, an introduction to archery, a limbo dance class, beach volleyball, a squash clinic and a hike to Soufriere (the town nearby). There is also a special activity programme for teenagers.
There are four tennis courts (three of which can be lit at night), quite high up in the resort, close to the spa. Here you will also find a squash court and the gym, which has step machines, bicycles and treadmills and a multi-gym. There are also aerobics, yoga, pilates, step and dance classes up here too.
At the beach you will find plenty of watersports. Kayaks, small sailboats and catamarans, and windsurfers are available to guests of the resort. There is also a good snorkelling area beyond the watersports hut.
Jalousie is situated in one of the best scuba diving areas in St Lucia and there is a scuba shop on the premises of the hotel. And if you would like to try a new sport, then you might consider free diving, which has been developed at Jalousie. In this you allow yourself to be dragged down by a weight and then swim back to the surface.
Finally, you can of course climb the two Pitons. The Gros Piton (south, further away) is the easier of the two (actually it is a walk and scramble), while the Petit Piton is an advanced scramble that involves guide ropes. You should not attempt either climb alone and you should take advice over guides and their insurance before going. |
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Spa
Jalousie is a Caribbean spa resort - the Rainforest Oasis, Jalousie’s spa, sits on a ledge high above most of the resort, right beneath the face of the Petit Piton, giving you a dramatic backdrop for your treatment. There are eight treatments rooms inside the building and two outdoor cabanas that sit on the edge of a steep slope with a view looking straight onto the rockface. Treatments include several sorts of massage including aromatherapy, deep tissue and rock massages, and other services include ayurvedic and holistic treatments, body wraps and scrubs, including a couple that use the waters from the Suphur Springs nearby (which have long been know for their curative properties). Finally, there is also a beauty salon for manicures, pedicures and hair care. |
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The Rooms
There are several styles of rooms at Jalousie Plantation. Most are set in the one and two-bedroom cottages in the clusters that run up the south side of the resort. These are also undergoing a steady refurbishment to give them a sharper, more contemporary plantation style.
Inside, the new rooms are clad with tropical hardwood, with traditional frames around the doors, dado rails and pitched wooden ceilings with up lighters. The bathrooms have been enlarged with a tub, a large outdoor shower and a double vanity and marble floors and a separate lavatory.
The older style of rooms have some West Indian features, with the brightly painted beams in the pitched roof, but generally the colours that are not typical for the Caribbean and the thick curtains give them a more continental feel. A canopy hangs from a wooden ‘crown’ above the bed and there is reproduction antique furniture. Bathrooms are marble. They are air-conditioned and feel a little enclosed by normal Caribbean standards, but they have some outside space and most have a plunge pool.
There are also twelve rooms in the Sugar Mill at the foot of the hill, on a level with the pool and beach area. These are decorated in a similar way to the older rooms, with bright colours and some classic design including traditional botanical prints. |
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Dining
There are four main dining rooms at Jalousie. The fine dining room is the Plantation Room, which opens each evening. It is situated next to the Great Room and it has elegant style, with a marble floor, deep pink and cream décor and armchairs. The menu is a fusion of international and Caribbean cuisines. There is dress code of long trousers and collared shirts at the Plantation Room.
The Pier Restaurant is at the southern limits of the hotel, set on a split-level covered deck that looks out to sea and of course the Pitons, both of which look fantastic in the moonlight – it opens six nights a week until 1030. It has an à la carte fish and seafood menu. There is no dress code.
The Bayside restaurant opens at lunch every day, with a full lunch menu (it also serves snacks and light plates from 1130am to 5pm). Among the burgers and salads there is some grilled fare. A themed Caribbean buffet dinner is served each week on Fridays. There is entertainment.
The Verandah Terrace, on the ground floor of the Great Room, is the location for breakfast (7-10.30am each morning). Breakfast is buffet style with some dishes cooked to order.
The other option, if you don’t want to make your way down the hill to the various restaurants, is room service, which is available 24 hours a day. There is a special room service menu which covers dishes from all meals. Your meal can be set up in your room or on the patio outside. |
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Weddings
Jalousie has an extremely beautiful setting and so naturally it makes a very good wedding location. The hotel has a dedicated wedding co-ordinator who will help you with your ideas, plan everything with you, cover the regulations, and then put all the plans into action on your arrival, making sure to give you as stress-free a day as possible. Marriages can be arranged on the hotel grounds or in a nearby church, with a denominational or a non-denominational pastor and the wedding co-ordinator can also make suggestions as to the best locations within Jalousie to have the marriage ceremony itself. The Sunset Deck outside the spa is a particularly popular location, but there are pretty areas on the open lawns and down by the beach. The hotel offers a number of packages, but if you want to tailor-make a ceremony, with a reception or a dinner, then they can arrange that too. They can cater for up to 100 people. |
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Children
Children are looked after well at Jalousie at their Learning Centre, where they arrange programmes for children aged between five and twelve years old. There is also a Teens’ Activity schedule which is part of the regular Activities programme.
The Learning Centre offers discovery of the area around the resort including the rainforest and the marine environment. Then they have story-telling, craft lessons and dance lessons. Children under five are welcome to attend but they should be accompanied by an adult or an older sibling.
The Teens’ Activity programme includes Beach Olympics, pool competitions, picnics, tennis and basketball clinics and hip hop and dance hall music lessons.
Baby-sitting is available and Jalousie offers a night’s baby-sitting for free if you stay for three nights or more. |
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Rates
| | 04 Jan- 30 Apr 2009 | 01 May 18 Dec 2009 | 19 Dec- 04 Jan 2009-10 | 05 Jan- 30 Apr 2010 | | Sugar Mill Room | 420 | 240 | 640 | 470 | | King Villa | 490 | 310 | 710 | 540 | | Villa Suite | 590 | 430 | 830 | 660 | | Luxury Villa | 700 | 540 | 940 | 770 | | Superior Luxury Villa | 800 | 640 | 1,040 | 870 | | Grand Luxury Villa | 870 | 710 | 1,110 | 940 | | Two-Bedroom Grand Villa | 1,700 | 1,400 | 2,200 | 1,800 | | Meal Plans: BP MAP AI | 28 100 156 | 28 100 156 | 28 100 156 | 28 100 156 | All rates are in US$ per room, per night, room only and include 8% Government Tax and 10% Service Charge. Extra Adult Supplement: add $60.00 room only. Meal Plans are per person, per day and include 18% Tax & Service Charge: BP = Breakfast Plan and includes full English breakfast; MAP = Modified American Plan (Half Board) and includes full English breakfast and dinner; AI = All inclusive and includes breakfast, lunch, dinner and bar drinks by the glass including premium brands, house wines and sparkling wines – minimum 5 nights must be booked on the AI plan. Note: some menu items may attract a surcharge. Room service and mini bar are not included in the meal plan supplement. All rates subject to change without notice. Children: under 12 years receive free breakfast and 50% off other meal plans. One Free night babysitting (4 hrs maximum) is applicable to all stays of 3 nights or more. Children up to age 16 stay free on a room only basis when sharing with parents. Minimum stay 7 nights between 21 December and 03 January. |
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How to book
If you wish to make further enquiries or a reservation, please use the WEB LINK or DIRECT EMAIL ENQUIRIES facility at the top of this page to make contact with The Jalousie Plantation, or if you wish to telephone them, their telephone number will be revealed if you click on the CONTACT TELEPHONE NUMBER link. |
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UK Tour Operators
If you wish to book through a tour operator or travel organiser, please follow the TOUR OPERATOR link below.
See List of UK Tour Operators
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Locality
Jalousie Plantation is set in its own, seafront valley a couple miles south of Soufrière. Soufrière itself is the oldest town in St Lucia and although it is currently undergoing development it still retains some of its traditional character, with a few attractive gingerbread houses. To the rear of the town are the Diamond Falls and Botanical Gardens, with samples of the Caribbean’s explosive tropical flora and some baths that take advantage of the mineral-laden and extremely hot waters. You can take a curative bath here if you wish.
In the region you will also find another famous St Lucia attraction (the most famous of course being the Pitons), the Sulphur Springs, the island’s volcanic vent. It is an area of steaming, smelly morass, jokingly referred to as the ‘drive-in volcano’. There are also two delightful former plantations in the area. Morne Coubaril Estate is a former plantation where you will see old cocoa works, a copra and cassava factory and the remains of a sugar mill as well as a re-creation of a traditional St Lucian farm workers’ village. Farther south is Fond Doux, where there are garden tours and you will see the traditional method of processing cocoa beans. There is a café there too. |
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Meet & Greet
If you are travelling independently, taxis are usually available at the airport, but one can be arranged for you by the hotel at your expense. It is worth putting in the request at the time of booking. Because of Jalousie’s location you are best advised to fly into Hewanorra in the south of the island, from where the ride is around 40 minutes. If you want a bit of fun on the way in, a helicopter flight, in which you seem to fly straight at the Petit Piton before dropping vertically nearly 1000 feet, is a fun way to arrive. Alternatively, if you would prefer to be taken care of from the minute you arrive at the airport, with helicopter or limousine transfers, a Concierge Service is offered by St Lucia Representatives.
If you have booked with a travel organiser, it is likely that their representative will be at the airport to meet you. This service and your return airport transfers should be included in the cost of your holiday. Please check at the time of booking. |
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Getting Around
It is probably best to hire a car if you want to explore from Jalousie. On St Lucia we recommend Cool Breeze Car/Jeep Rentals, which has an outlet in Soufrière, and Drive-a-Matic. They will deliver the vehicle to the property and issue your St Lucian driving licence, price US$20 or EC$54. You can return it to either airport or they will collect it at a pre-arranged time on your departure day.
Be aware that there can be a shortage of cars in St Lucia over the Christmas period, from early December into January and also over the Jazz Festival in May, so you are advised to book well in advance. Also book early if you want one for a week or more because the pre-booked rates can be better. |
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