PX This.

Welcome to: Where I Spent My Week Off —by a NYC Restaurant "Insider"

So, what do you do in the industry?
I’m a bartender, but I’ve also worked as a waiter. I’ve been in the F&B/Nightlife industries for about 14 years for various [very popular] places in NYC.

And you have how many weeks off a year, generally?
I don’t get paid vacations, but I do try to take off at least 2 or 3 weeks a year if possible.

What made you choose St. Lucia for this vacation?
I usually like to travel to warm places in the wintertime. My girlfriend’s family is from St. Lucia, so she was visiting them for the holidays already. We arranged our trip so that I would fly to St. Lucia to meet her there later, and she came to meet me at the hotel we booked especially for this occasion.

And where did you stay?
At the Jalousie Plantation which is currently being run by Hilton hotels. A friend of mine had recommended it since he’d stayed here several years before. It sounded great, but from what I gather, it had previously been privately owned by a somewhat eccentric English gentleman. My friend had gotten to meet him on his visit, and he said it made the experience a lot more charming, as he was invited to a private party thrown by the owner on the property of his personal home on the resort. Unfortunately, we didn’t get to have the same experience.

How was the ambience/service/amenities etc?
Overall I’d say very good. Our room was beautiful, but we got lucky, since apprently they are in mid-construction to convert Jalousie into a Tides hotel, and we received a room that was already renovated. The construction noise was irritating at times, but it was sporadic enough not to affect the trip that badly. The service was all right, but I’ve traveled to the Caribbean before, and it’s somewhat to be expected that everyone and everything moves much slower than New York, but mostly everyone was very warm and friendly. The food was a standout, as it was quite good, which is another thing that doesn’t come easily in the Caribbean. Aside from the fresh seafood and amazing fruit, I even had some American staples like the burger, and that was much better than I had expected.

Any major glitches and/or disappointments?
The only thing I can think of is that the long ride from the airport is a major pain. It’s about an hour’s ride since it’s slow-going at times over the rough terrain. I tried to book a helicopter for the return trip, because I was so not looking forward to the ride out. I was happy to see that the cost wasn’t prohibitive, and I booked a reservation, but at the last minute the pilot just decided not to fly so that was a major disappointment.
The other thing is that you have to get up very early and be aggressive if you want to save a first-come-first-served "cabana." Luckily, my girlfriend is an early bird so it worked out great, but the beach does get crowded all day every day. People move into their cabanas at sunrise, and it seems like they don’t move out until they check out.

Any great standout experiences?
We mostly just laid around the whole time, as my girlfriend isn’t so into hiking or other activities like that. She does waterski though, and the great thing is that local boats are always hanging around that will just take you out randomly on a whim. They also do tube rides if you’re into that sort of thing.
Also, the fireworks show on New Years Eve was nice. Being there in the sand watching fireworks on such a warm gorgeous night with my girl felt really great and special. And some of the people we met there were nice and cool too.

How much did you blow all week?
Ha ha, I don’t even want to think about it. But the room rate was lower than I’d expected. At first I thought it was due to the economy (as usually places will jack up the prices quite a lot for the holidays) but now that I think about it, maybe the reduced rate was due to the fact that the resort was under construction in some areas. My flight was about $750 economy, and the room was around $600 per night (but I think it’s normally around $900 for the holidays). We didn’t have an all-inclusive plan (but breakfast was included), so we probably spent about $150-$200/day average on food/drinks.

Leave a Reply