If you follow me on Instagram you’ll know that I’ve recently returned from the luscious island of St. Lucia. The holiday was booked as my Sister chose there as her wedding location.

We chose to spend a week there, rather than two, so that holiday allowance could be used to go somewhere else during the year too. As you can probably guess, being based in the Caribbean, it’s a long way to go for just one week and I’d definitely recommend going for 10 days, if not 14, although ten days wasn’t an option for us with the package we all booked, so a week it was.

Hotel: Royalton

The chosen hotel was the Royalton in Smugglers Cove. Built in 2017, it’s a luxurious 8 building complex with seven restaurants, spa, swim-up bars and a private beach. The Royalton screams five star quality.

We arrived in the early evening and as we entered the room we were so impressed. A massive DreamBed, designed exclusively for the Royalton, free-standing bath, double rain shower, enormous smart TV and wrap-around balcony. It was just heaven. All rooms get a sea view but the higher up you are the better the view. We were on the second floor. Perfect. What’s more, for Instagram addicts like me, the best free Wi-Fi I’ve ever experienced at a hotel. It was just like being at home.

Restaurants

The restaurants are just superb. You can go to a different one each night or find your favourite and stick to that (you’d be missing out though on all the choice, especially if only there a week). Above is where you eat your breakfast buffet. Yes, that’s a buffet hall. Beautiful, isn’t it? You can also have lunch there but we never did as were always around the pool where you can also get food. Amazing snacks like blue cheese burgers and chicken wings, quesadilla and cheese fries. Not for the diet conscious.

Here are some more pictures from other restaurants that we enjoyed whilst there:

Steak House

Tepanyaki

Armadillo: Tex-Mex

Grazie: Italian

And relax…

We found ‘our spot’ by the infinity pool with swim-up bar and stayed there all week. There’s no need to rush down to put your towels out like in some places, you will always get one as there are many pools. Sunshine, sand, sea and unlimited cocktails. What more could you ask for?

Staff at the Royalton are so friendly; they’ll be stood at the bar singing and dancing and always say hello. Our favourites were Nasha and Jovanni.

Wedding bells

The wedding took place on the Friday. The ceremony was out on the jetty and then we made our way round to our private bar and finally enjoyed a private meal to one side of the cove in the evening. It was like something from a film.

Weather

I’ve never known anywhere as humid as St. Lucia. The moment you walked out of your hotel room, your glasses fogged up. On most holidays I might go in the pool once or twice a day. Here, I took a dip every half an hour. This is not a complaint. I wanted heat. We went in hurricane season and so for maybe 5 minutes every day it rained whilst you were laid on your lounger, but you were glad of it. It cooled you down. You were dry 5 minutes later. The lowest temperature all week was 26° – at night time! – and in the day the highest was 31° but as we have just experienced scorching weather here in the UK, I’d say St. Lucia felt more like 36°.

Flights

The flights to and from St Lucia were great. We flew with Tui on their Dreamliner. 8-8.5 hours each way soon flew by (ha, no pun intended) with all the films on offer, music to choose from and games to play. The Afternoon Tea on the outbound journey was lovely although I can’t really shout about breakfast on the inbound. There are two meals on each flight plus unlimited drinks.

To conclude…

DreamLiner, DreamBed, dream holiday really.

Would I go back? The only thing that puts me off is the 1.5-2 hour transfer. The views are fantastic, the roads are not. You’re winding left and right through greenery and if you get stuck behind a truck, you’ll be following it for some way. I get travel sick very easily and so this journey wasn’t ideal for me.

I can easily compare this hotel to the Moon palace in Mexico. I think Moon Palace would just ‘pip it to the post’ though but only in terms of transfer times (10 minutes), the fact they have alcohol optics in the room (I’m not an alcoholic but its a nice touch!) and that it’s also adult only. The Royalton is not, but I didn’t really notice this apart from when I was in the pool.

I hope you have enjoyed reading this blog.

Next stop, Ayia Napa in late September 2018. It’s a return visit and I’ll write about my stay when I get back.

If you have any questions about St. Lucia, the Royalton or the Tui Dreamliner, please comment below or come and say hello over on Instagram or Twitter.

Thanks for reading. Until next time, take care.

Natalie x