Settle in, this one is going to be long. After getting picked up at Windjammer, it took a little bit over an hour – hour and a half to get to Jade Mountain. Narrow windy roads and can only go the last part of the road at about 10 miles per hour, pulling over frequently for oncoming traffic. Got a little scared as I was on the cliff-side, but then the pitons came into view and shortly after we arrived and we stopped at the guard shack.
They called security and we transferred to another van. Someone met us at the entry with a cold towel and walk us to our room/sanctuary – JC2. Teddy (whom we thought was our Major Domo or butler) met us at the entry to our bridge and offers us a fruity, non-alcoholic drink. We walk into our room and I was blown away. It was more than I had hoped for, and I’ll admit it brought a tear to my eye. The room was just so inviting. The colors were so pretty, the infinity pool went all the way across the 4th wall, the 4 post bed and mosquito netting was romantic, the furniture was cozy. There is no air-conditioning but the 8 ceiling fans (plus one in the bed!) on the 15 foot ceilings do a good job keeping it comfortable. I can go on and on, but words can hardly describe it.
They had a bottle of champagne and a beautiful bouquet of flowers on the table. They filled out all our registration and ran a credit card and then showed us around the room and discussed what the Major Domos are expected to do for us. Teddy was so sweet and he pointed out a beach bag I could use and where the hairdryer was, and made it seem like Danny had contacted him to make sure everything was perfect. He wanted to make sure they do everything for us and that we just concentrate on each other. There was a welcome card and a Birthday card as well. I happened to mention that I am allergic to kiwi, he said “good to know as we do a lot of fruit.”
I took some photos and videos before we messed up the room. We unpacked and settled in, and of course we jumped in the pool! What a view! Just a little disappointed as this is the dry season and it is particularly drier than normal so it wasn’t as green as I envisioned but it was still a great view and the pool temperature was just perfect. The Jade Mountain sanctuaries are deliberately techno-free; there are no telephones, radio or television. We received a “firefly ” communication device, allowing us to contact the service team at any time.
They had left some sodas and some beer and water in the fridge and every day they would bring a snack bento box that was perfect for a light lunch. (We were on the breakfast/dinner plan.) Today’s offering was a tasty seared Tuna, a mix of berries, and a chocolate brownie. Yep, we can get used to this.
They took the liberty of making an early dinner reservation, so we just chilled in the room until it was time to eat. It’s quite a bit of a walk up to get up to the Jade Club from level 2 so if you have any mobility issues, take that in to consideration when requesting a room.
Junior was our waiter and stuck with us the whole stay and Gus, the very friendly Restaurant and Lounge Manager, came over to introduce himself. Everyone seems to know our name. No one but my boss calls me Mrs. McCarthy, so it was funny hearing it all the time. It’s very dark in the club and we had to use our phone flashlights to see the menu. While it’s nice to add to the ambiance, it made getting good food photos a little tricky.
We asked Junior to see if the bartender could make us a special drink made with Bounty Spiced Rum, as there were none on the menu. Leon the bartender came over and asked us a few questions about what we liked and he ended up making us what he called a Hammerhead. It was delicious. I tried looking it up at home but this is the closest I could find. Amaretto, Triple Sec, Rum, Southern Comfort and nutmeg.
The menu changes daily, and there is quite a bit listed for choices. They brought a tray of breads to choose from and brought over three dips. I had mentioned my kiwi allergy and when I went to pick my choice he told me I couldn’t have that one as it had kiwi in it. Ha-Ha Junior. For the dips, one was an olive tapenade, one a salted butter and one was cottage cheese. We found the cottage cheese odd but devoured the other two.
For my first course I choose; Roasted Organic Zucchini Salad, with Heirloom Cherry Tomatoes, Green Olive Tapenade, Avocado Puree, while Danny chose Citrus Spice Braised Fennel, with Whipped Truffle Goat Cheese, Watermelon Radishes, Mustard Dressing. After this, the chef sent out an amuse-bouche, of beef tartare. Second course was Fresh Seafood Pot sticker with Rainforest Mushrooms, Julie Mango and Ginger Sesame Dip. Danny went with the Prosciutto Wrapped Chicken with Butternut Squash Puree, Fresh Herb Salsa, and Local Cherry Reduction. Third course was Slow Cooked Ragu Short Rib, with Creamed Mash Potatoes, Steamed Broccoli and Toasted Cumin Jus. Danny had Charred Australian Lamb Rack with Breadfruit Hash, Salted Leeks, and Rosemary Demi. If this wasn’t enough to fill us, we split the dessert of Emerald Farm 60% Chocolate Dome with Passion Fruit Curd, Mango Ice Cream, and a Hot Caramel Sauce. All together this was probably one of the best meals we have ever had.
There is a small lounge area and during and after dinner there was a woman singing who had a great voice. We ended up sitting in the lounge listening to the live music. Gus came over and said he had something he wanted Danny to try after he heard Danny say he liked cigars. After showing him the humidor filled with Cuban cigars he brought him to the bar, cracked open a new bottle of Admiral Rodney HMS Formidable Rum and poured him a taste saying it competes with single malt scotch. After tasting it, Danny was blown away by it. Gus then poured him a full glass of it on the house.
When we came back to the room, turndown service had come and made a swan out of towels on the bed. The room looked absolutely stunning in the dark. At night the pool lights up and you can cycle through a color wheel to make the lights color change. When we walked in we noticed the smell of incense, come to find out its mosquito coils and “candles” by the pool. We never had an issue with bugs in the room. We did have quite a few birds and a gecko or two!
We met the first of our 3-person Major Domo team, Junius, and he was who we had the most contact with for the rest of our visit. We didn’t ask much of him other than filling the ice bucket and dining reservations. The other Domo’s names were Tony and Kieran.
The next morning we ordered room service for breakfast. We both had the eggs benedict. We did not like the bloody Mary at all (it had some uncommon spices in it) so we sent it back and Junius brought back mimosas. We chilled in the room for a while before Junius came to show us around a couple of other sanctuaries.
They all have similar set ups, just different colors and furniture. Ours was the smallest size available, but we preferred the way ours was set up over the other two we were shown. There are only 29 sanctuaries available, and of those only 24 have infinity pools. One room is available with air-conditioning.
The hotel itself is really hard to describe, my pictures don’t really do it justice, and I can’t find words to really explain how much I felt about it. Every sanctuary has its own suspended bridge at its entrance, with the color at the beginning being the color scheme of the room (we were blue), and a huge door at the entrance.
I believe there were 5 floors of rooms in total with 4 or 5 rooms per floor. Rooms range from 1400-2000 square feet and the pools range from 450 – 900 square feet. The pools are covered in one-of – a kind glass tiles and these tiles are echoed throughout the rest of the resort in funky statues and fish ponds. After I got home and was writing this report I found an interview on jademountain.com from the architect Nick Troubetzkoy, I think he describes it pretty well….
Give us a word picture of JADE MOUNTAIN
NT: The traditional daunting hotel corridor has been transformed. The adventurous journey to your sanctuary is via a long suspended sky bridge to infinity which is yours and yours alone. Your entry door is a massive rough hewn slab of exotic tropical hardwood. Your first step inside creates an instant spiritual uplift. The infinity pool in front of you is a luminescent Persian carpet floating you out into space, to hover over the Caribbean Sea, hypnotized by St. Lucia’s magnificent Piton mountains.
When we got back to the room we checked our bento box. There was some chicken satay, some chocolate brownies, and uh-oh, some kiwi. I called Junius and he immediately came and replaced our box with one that contained papaya and cantaloupe instead. Profusely apologizing, but I was fine (It can’t kill me, just makes my tongue fuzzy.)
After our snack, Sherick, another manager, gave us a tour of the rest of the property and Anse Chastanet. The rooms are also open concept and are bright and airy. We checked out several rooms that had been newly renovated, one has a tree that goes through the roof!
We then jumped in the back of Jonathan’s (another manager) car and he brought us down to the beach. We first took a short walk over to the bike trails and ruins of the old sugar mill, where Sherick offered to take some photos of us and loved the camera on the phone. It was actually pretty cool and would highly recommend checking it out.
Then we went over to the other more private beach, Anse Mamin, bummed that the burger shack had just closed at 3:00 but they gave us some delicious lemonade and cold towels. We were lucky enough to be able to tour the new beach house. Very pretty, beautiful bathroom, and what a great spot right on the beach.
When we get back to the hotel we can tell something is going on and Sherick says, uh-oh we are out of power. Room keys will still work but he lets us in to make sure but now the fans are not running, so we grabbed a couple of beers from the fridge and jump in the pool to cool off.
They said the kitchen will still be running so I pull my hair back in a ponytail and we head out for our 6:15 reservation. They ran out of big candles so they were using beer bottle candles that looked like a Molotov cocktail. We really couldn’t see our menus and then out of nowhere our other Major Domo Tony is standing next to me with a huge lantern/flashlight. Scared the crap out of me! Sure enough a few minutes later the lights came on.
Gus stopped by and offered to take some pictures of us with the sunset.
Danny asked for another Hammerhead and I had a ginger margarita, delicious.
This time we skipped the salad and I had Caribbean Queen Conch Creole, with Braised Taro Root, Seasoning Peppers and Fresh Turmeric and the Curry Lemon Spiced Atlantic Ahi Tuna with Brown Grain Rice, Wilted Callaloo Leaves and Seafood Bisque. Danny went with the Fennel Spice Roasted Diver Scallop with Sweet Plantain, Julie Mango Souskai, Garlic Puree and the Slow Cooked Muscovy Duck Breast, with Charred Asparagus and Local Cherry Jus. The meal wasn’t as spectacular as last night but was still very good. We were too full for desert.
Back to the room for a night cap and a swim and off to bed.
Stay tuned for Part 3….
If you’d like more information on any of these resorts, please reach out to us at (603) 777-7850
#SaintLucia #SLEx #letherinspireyou #JadeMountain #AnseChastanet
Kathy's Korner 