Go Astro Travel LLC

Morgan Bay St. Lucia

Background – Dave and I spent 7 nights at Almond Morgan Bay from Nov 22^nd – Nov 29^th with our two sons and their two friends.  The boys’ ages range from 15 to 18.  We had been to Almond Beach Village in Barbados twice and wanted to try the new Almond in St. Lucia.

Flights - It is important to note that there are two airports in St. Lucia.  The larger international airport (Hewanorra) is located on the southern side of the island.  Flying into this airport and staying on the north end of the island near Castries requires a long 1 – 1½ hour drive.  We opted for the smaller airport (Vigie).  The only way to take advantage of this airport was to fly on American and change planes in San Juan.  Our flight from Philadelphia was late so we literally ran to our next plane.  We tried to get the boys some food but our plane was loading so we had to skip lunch. The flight from San Juan to Vigie is a small plane (about 20 passengers) and as we experienced is frequently late.  We waited for a bout 30 minutes (on the plane) in San Juan for a family of 4 to make the connection.  Had we known about the delay before boarding we would have gotten the boys some lunch. 

Our return flight was a bit more entertaining, we were over an hour late departing St. Lucia.  We had the option of an overnight in San Juan but Dave had work and the kids had school so we decided to give it a shot to see if we could make our connection.  As luck would have it our connection was 2 hours late in San Juan so although we did get home at 3am at least we did not have to over night in San Juan or Miami. 

I have to admit I did have some fun at American’s expense.  There were several honeymooners on our return flight from St. Lucia.  They did not know about rule 240 or the fact that American was offering food vouchers.  Since I had time to kill I found most of them and got them their food vouchers.  How tough would it be for American to let the passengers know that they were holding pre-printed food vouchers for them at the gate?

Arrival – Almond does a nice job upon arrival.  You are greeted with an ice cold herb scented towel and seated in a living room type setting.  There is no check-in desk.  All of your papers and keys are ready for you and you are offered an ice cold drink.  They then sit down with you to answer any questions you may have.  Your first night dinner reservations have already been made and you are escorted to your room.  Since it was raining when we arrived we took a short cut but most times they will give you a quick tour of the resort.

Food /Dining - Almond offers 4 full service restaurants in addition to the kid style buffet.  All of the food was very good and I would especially like to compliment Almond on the choice of china and utensils.  They had some very beautiful and unique plates, bowls and silverware.   An example would be the arched appetizer plate or the curved soup bowls.  The flatware and china complimented the beautiful presentation of all of our meals.

Plum Tree - The boys were starving when we arrived (5pm).  The only restaurant open was the Plum Tree Grill.  This is a buffet restaurant located at the kids’ pool which was actually very close to our rooms.  The food was pretty good.  They offered one or two salads, check nuggets, pizza, spaghetti, french fries, and one or two other entrees.  They also offer ice cream, cakes and cookies as well as a full bar.  The hours of operation are from 12pm to 8pm.  Also next to the Plum Tree there is a little room that has two smoothie machines and a popcorn machine.  This is also open from 12pm to 8pm. 

Bamboo – This is an open air beachfront restaurant that offers breakfast, lunch and dinner.  As with all of Almond’s restaurants the food was very good and the presentation was beautiful.  The service is a bit slow for the kids but Dave and I enjoyed the relaxing meals and great conversations with all the boys.

Breakfast - A full buffet with made to order eggs.  They had two large toasters available (no waiting) and the bread was clearly homemade and was fantastic.  The selection of fruit was great.  The resort attracts a large British contingent so the breakfast does include beans and bangers (sausages).

Lunch - Weather permitting they offered a beach buffet with grilled chicken, burgers and fish as well as several salads.  In addition they always offered a full service menu which offered salads, wraps, sandwiches and soups with a few daily specials as well.

Dinner – The dinner menu did not change but it did offer a great variety of entrees.  They bill it as an Asian/Caribbean fusion restaurant.  I don’t really know how to classify it except to say it was delicious.  The boys really enjoyed the short ribs and I loved the chicken.

Palms – The largest restaurant on property also offering breakfast, lunch and dinner.   The restaurant is again open air and very pretty with bright yellows and greens.

Breakfast - They offered a breakfast buffet that is identical to the Bamboo.  This allowed us to dine immediately regardless of the time we arrived for breakfast,

Lunch - Full service lunch offering a range of salads and sandwiches.  Although the food was good, with Bamboo’s views and our beach attire we did not eat at Palms for lunch more than once.

Afternoon Tea - I just love afternoon tea (even if I am not hungry).  They had a wide variety of tea sandwiches, biscuits, scones and cookies.  They also offered coffee and an amazing hot chocolate made from locally grown cocoa.

Dinner – The menu changes daily so it’s like having a new restaurant every night.  We enjoyed several meals at the Palms.  Most nights they offered a kids buffet (similar to the Plum Tree).  This really helped with the laid back service issue for the kids.  Unfortunately they do not offer it every night.

Le Jardin – This is the adult only French Creole restaurant.  It is the only air conditioned and enclosed restaurant.  Although I never missed air conditioning at any of the other restaurants I did enjoy the atmosphere.  The food was excellent and really highlighted the St. Lucian Creole heritage.   After dinner the tables lower and the restaurant becomes a piano bar.

Morgan’s Pier – (Dinner Only).  The restaurant is really located on a pier jutting out from the beach.  As you can guess it is a seafood restaurant but the do offer some chicken and beef dishes.  The food was very good and the atmosphere was beautiful.  They did offer Caribbean lobster for a $45 EC supplement.  Favoring Maine lobsters we did not chose this option but several people did and it was quite substantial in size and looked yummy.

Theme Nights – Twice a week Morgan Bay offers theme nights.  The 1^st is the Caribbean buffet that is hosted at the Palms.  The food was very good and they offered several made to order entrees.  The 2^nd theme night begins with the Manger’s cocktail party.  They invited a few local vendors to sell their wares while the staff passed several hot and cold hor’s devours.   After the cocktail party a full buffet was served in the Bamboo restaurant.  The highlight of the meal was your choice of fresh grilled steak, ribs, chicken and fish. 

Accommodations – I have always felt that Almond is not about the rooms or the views but about the food, atmosphere and great staff.  Don’t expect high end accommodations at Almond.  Although clean and large there is nothing spectacular about the rooms.  The resort is set up on a hill so if you have difficulty walking this may not be a good choice for you.  That said, the hills make for a beautiful setting.  The rooms are housed in several small buildings dotted across the beautifully landscaped property.  We walked by all of the blocks and did not find a single block with bad views.  I would request a high floor if only for the added views.

All rooms are virtually identical with the exception of the views.  Our rooms were large and we had connecting rooms one with a king bed and one with two double beds.  Since we were traveling with 4 teenage boys we were delighted that they could fit two twin size cots in their room.  Having 4 separate beds was a real plus.   The room is very clean.   They could use some extra dressers.  We did have trouble fitting all of our clothes into the 3 small drawers.  Each room has either a patio or a balcony.  We were on the ground floor and had patio.  You also get a mini fridge in each room.  The bathroom was a nice size and the shower/tub combo was very deep which was great for a nice soak but a bit tough to get our of for those of us with short legs.

Water Sports - Almond offers a wide variety of water activities.  They boys enjoyed waterskiing, paddle boats, sailing, banana boats and kayaks.  My only disappointment was that there was no snorkeling off the beach (like at Almond Beach Village in Barbados).  The water was a bit murky (the entire coast was).  This is mostly due to the fact that St. Lucia is volcanic in origin as opposed to the coral make up of Barbados.  You will not find white sand beaches in St. Lucia (okay except for the Jalouise Hilton that brought in sand from Antigua).

Beach – The beach at Morgan Bay is a bit small, it is beautifully dotted with palm trees and has very soft light brown sand.  We never had an issue getting lounge chairs on the beach or on the lawn adjacent to the beach.

Pools – There are two main pools near the beach and one children’s pool near the Plum Tree restaurant.   The adult pool offers a very nice pool bar and all pools had a ledge (seat) that went around the entire pool.  The pools were very clean and just the right temperature.  At Morgan Bay they did not have the floats mats like in Barbados but you could buy rafts and noodles in the gift shop.  I did miss the float mats.  The children’s pool near Plum Tree is a multi level pool with two water slides which is perfect for the 8 and under crowd.

Activities - In addition to the water sports Almond offers tennis, ping pong, basketball (on the tennis court) and a full exercise room.  Each evening they have either the Almond Band or a steel band playing.  A few evenings they offered a show featuring the band and dancers.  In all honesty the dancers were a bit disappointing when they tried an artistic type show.  The 2^nd time they performed they gave us a taste of Carnival and was much more entertaining.   Evenings are pretty quite at Almond Morgan Bay.  We personally enjoy the relaxation but it might not be for everyone.

Off Property Activities –

Jeep Safari - We booked a safari jeep tour through Almond.  The cost was $50 per person.  They picked us up at our resort and we drove through the main town of Castries and headed up the hills for a beautiful view or the port.  As we drove our guide Pinky occasional asked our driver Gunsmoke (great name) to pull over.  She would grab a leaf from a tree and crush it, she would then asked us to identify the tree by the smell.  We could easily identify each try by the smell, cinnamon, lime, oranges, etc.   Twice we stopped at roadside fruit stands for a taste of the local delicacies.  We then continued on to Morne Fortune a banana plantation.  We hiked down a hill to a beautiful waterfall.  On our way out we passed a cocoa, mango, banana and orange trees.  It was very lush and beautiful.  Once back on the road they offered a photo op with a Boa Constrictor (I passed).  Honestly it was a bit uncomfortable because the snake did not look well cared for.   As far as I am concerned they can skip this part of the tour.  Back on the jeep we headed for a river that was fed from the volcano.  Anyone wishing to could bathe in the mineral rich river, we chose to just have a Piton beer and enjoy the view.  Before heading back to the resort we stopped at a little gift shop in Anse Conchon (a small fishing village).  I was delighted to find the cocoa sticks I had been looking for and bought all the store had to sell.  The sticks are great gifts and can be grated and boiled with milk and sugar for amazing hot cocoa.

Snorkeling – We booked a private excursion with Maria from Rainbow Divers.  The cost was $50 per person.  Maria picked us up on the beach and took us by boat to Anse Conchon for about an hour of snorkeling.  The snorkeling was good but because of recent storms it was a bit cloudy.   The coast line was beautiful and we enjoyed the 30 minute ride to and from the resort.

Overall Impression - We had a great stay at Almond Morgan Bay.  If you want warm friendly staff, great food, nice pools, exciting excursion options and a relaxed atmosphere you will love Almond Morgan Bay.  For part of our stay at Morgan Bay the hotel was sold out.  We had trouble believing this was the case because it never felt crowded.  The resort is sized perfectly; we never had problems getting dining reservations, waiting in buffet lines or even for a drink.   The only negative for me is the lack of snorkeling off the beach.  I was spoiled at Almond Beach Village.  Now that Almond will have 5 resorts on two unique islands to choose from there is something for everyone.