Sugar Beach a Viceroy Resort

This is the best hotel I’ve ever been to, and I fear no experience will ever top it. We went here for our honeymoon. The service was amazing. Our butlers (Felicia and Samwed in shifts) were keen to our every need, even things we did not know we needed. Every day they checked on our plans and asked if we need restaurant or activity reservations. They even got great photos of us! The rooms were spacious and immaculate and private. Our private pool was just that, nobody could see us even if they tried, and we had a beautiful view of the ocean. The staff at the onsite restaurants were so friendly. The food is some of the best I have had in my entire life and very fresh, which is unheard of at a buffet. Speaking of buffet, almost every night featured some type of themed-buffet dinner at one of the restaurants at the resort. Tandoori night featured some of the best Indian food I have had, and I am Indian! I wish I could go back just for the food. The breakfast buffet was also fresh and tasty with lots of variety. Do not fear that the hotel is 1 hour away from the airport. The resort made it very convenient for us by arranging private transportation to and from the hotel to airport.

My husband and I visited August 31-September 8. This was a big vacation for us as it was our 10 year anniversary and being as it was around $1000 a night this was a splurge for us. Pros- - beautiful - staff very kind - grounds amazing and clean - food 9/10 - serenity - privacy So now I get to my cons. Unfortunately it was just our luck that literally 1/2 the resort was closed down when we were there. One of the restaurants, the tennis court, the pool , and to make matters worse they didn’t have the Wednesday night fiesta party or the Friday night beach dinner party. This was super super super disappointing as there was no evening entertainment at the resort. We were looking forward to these beach parties and made our reservations for dinner outside the resort based on these assumptions. Please keep in mind the butler told us these would be happening and also were on the itinerary. We also went fishing on Wednesday and gave our fish to the crew because we were planning on going to the Wednesday Latin fiesta. Well to our surprise we were just seated at bonte restaurant with regular menu with no explanation. I was so disappointed. We ended up going to our room and ordering room service . I did tell the front desk how I was sad that we paid 10k for this trip and 1/2 the resort was closed and they said it wasn’t up to them. The decision came from above. Lastly. We had 80 min massages at the spa. It was a beautiful setting. My massage was at best a 3/10 but my husbands was. 9/10. Later at the pool ( the villa they opened for pool) we were talking to another couple we ran into at the spa at the same time and the wife also said hers was 3/10. They essentially just rubbed our back in a circular motion like someone with no training. So at least I knew I wasn’t crazy in thinking my massage was less then great. Other notes- after I went to the front desk about my problems our butler became basically non existent and never answered the phone on the first 3-4 times and was kinda rude. He also stopped filling our ice bucket. Which was annoying. Notes- we tipped heavily throughout the vacay. $5 here - $20 there- always tipping the shuttle drivers . We weren’t sure when we were supposed to tip. Lastly I went into the store and saw a high on/ white claw can for $18!!!! That’s insane So overall we had a great time but honestly am still salty that 1/2 the resort was closed with no explanation and no extras. Like if you are gonna close half the resort at $1000 a night I expect a free dinner or spa.

I had 3 nights at Sugar Beach and managed to get a good deal on Booking.com. Shortly after I received an upgrade offer for a beachfront bungalow at a reasonable price so I jumped on that. The resort is beautiful, there's high end art everywhere which is a nice touch. We had room 17 which was direct on the beach and perfectly located. September is a quiet time in St Lucia so it felt like we had the beach to ourselves. Yes it's a bit pricey but I'd definitely stay there again.

Overall, Sugar Beach, A Viceroy Resort is great and I am glad my wife and I decided to stay here for our honeymoon. The resort has a lot to offer. It's right on Sugar Beach and it sits in between the Pitons, so the views are spectacular. Pictures just can't do it justice. The staff was wonderful and made our stay one to remember for sure. I would recommend this resort to anyone, whether you are looking for a beautiful honeymoon destination or simply a caribbean vacation getaway. There are two reasons why I personally am choosing not to leave a 5 star review, and why we will likely not come back. 1) There is not a meal plan option for people who don't drink alcohol. The food at this resort is pricy, especially when you consider the 10% VAT and service fees for each meal. We ended up spending a good amount more than we anticipated on meals, and we realized that the meal plan is only worth it if you drink alcohol. It would be nice if there were a meal plan option that just included meals and perhaps non-alcoholic beverages. 2) We had a pretty significant amount of money stolen from our safe and we had no way of proving it. To be fair, we were warned to be sure to store all personal belongings, especially money, in our safe when we left the room, and we were also advised not to carry cash on the resort. This made both of us slightly uncomforable, but nonetheless we did as we were advised. We were also on our honeymoon and we did not make it a point to take a daily inventory of the cash we had on hand because we wanted to enjoy our stay and not worry about anything. We did be sure to lock the safe each time we left the room, but I recall one time where we inadvertently left the safe unlocked for a few hour time span, and I believe this is most likely when the cash was taken. Again, we have no way of proving this, and to be fair, it was on us for leaving the safe unlocked. We mentioned this to the concierge upon checkout and they told us they would investigate the matter and get back to us, be we never heard anything. It's water under the bridge at this point. I honestly hope that the individual(s) needed it more than us. The only reason I am mentioning these things is to provide an honest review of some points worth mentioning if you are considering staying here. Again, we truly had a wonderful time and we would recommend this resort to anyone. For the reasons mentioned above, my wife and I personally are not likely to book another stay in the future.

This is an incredible resort. While it is certainly pricey, it really does deliver quite the elevated experience. First, being directly between the iconic Pitons is out of this world amazing. But then to plop down some of the most beautiful villas, well-designed amenities, and delicious restaurants in that amazing spot... it is just all so good. Check-in We were coming from another hotel on the island, and had to arrive on the earlier end. I called ahead to see if that was OK, and they said that so long as we had a room for that day, we could enjoy the amenities whenever we arrived. Our room wasn't ready early, but because it didn't matter - we were able to start enjoying their amazing beach and pool as early as 10am! What a treat this was to have nearly an entire extra day of enjoying the resort! Room We booked a Deluxe Cottage, but they upgraded us to a Luxury Villa. The Luxury Villas have large plunge pools - our was about 14 feet in diameter! It was more like a private swimming pool than a plunge pool! The room was beautifully designed and the bed was extremely comfortable. The mini bar included complimentary bottled water, Coke, Diet Coke, and tonic water. They also provided bug spray. Beach The beach was pretty amazing. They had very comfortable loungers and plenty of sunshade. One day, they even had a steel drum band playing - which was surreal. They had attentive staff who would serve you food and drinks. The beach also had a small station with complimentary suntan lotion. Pool Truly incredible pool. It was huge and warm. It also had great steps and a ledge which was so luxurious to lay around on. Just like the beach, there were waiters brining your food and drinks, or anything else you needed. Shuttles We thought we would walk up and down the hills, since we enjoy walking and are from NYC, so we are very used to it. However, the shuttle vans ran so frequently and there were so many of them that it was just so easy to take them. Moreover, because they seemed to always be within a 2 minute drive, the narrow roads weren't very accommodating to walking as there wasn't a separate sidewalk. If you want to be able to walk to the amenities more easily, the Sugar Mill rooms or the beach-front rooms allow that. Food and Drinks Food was expensive. We spent about $300-400 for each dinner for 2 people, only having 1 or 2 drinks each. Actually, the drinks weren't terribly overpriced. While they were expensive - about $15-$20 each, that markup seemed reasonable next to the food which was sometimes $70-100 per entree. Our package included breakfast, which was an incredible buffet. They had so much to choose from, including acai bowls, omelets, crepes, fruits, meats, cheeses, pastries (with tons of gluten-free options), and more. I have a dairy allergy, and sadly they didn't have tons of options for me. But if you are GF, you're gonna be in heaven! We ate at the Friday night BBQ, which was amazing. I don't know if I'd call it a BBQ so much as a buffet, but nevertheless, it was great. It came with one rum drink also. The food selection was out of control there was traditional Creole food, sushi, seafood, chicken wings, shawarma, curries, a huge salad bar, a candy bar, cotton candy, and tons of other desserts. It was food overload! There was a live band which was great and then a DJ played after dinner. The DJ was so, so good! It was so fun to dance the night away! The star of the food had to be Jetty Burgers - which coincidentally was also our most affordable meal! It is tucked away in a little bungalow on the far side of the beach. It was a whole vibe over there - great photo ops! The burgers were so good, some of the best I've ever had. Art I felt like this deserved its own category, because it was incredible. It really was so neat to be walking around the resort and casually run into pieces by world famous artists like Kaws, Daniel Arsham, Damien Hirst, and Yayoi Kusama (among others). Some of the pieces have QR codes where it will play a video about the piece, allowing you to take in a museum-like experience in the middle of your beach day....my two favorite things! Staff Everyone was so, so nice. We loved everyone so much! We aren't very "fancy" people, so we really didn't know how to interact with our butler. Like all guests, we had to call the butler whenever we needed to be picked up by a shuttle, which was about 4-5 times a day, but besides that I wasn't quite sure what they could do for us. I know they could do things like make dinner reservations, but the resort's app let you do that very easily for yourself. Not knocking that team, I was just confused about what we might have been missing. Vibe The vibe of the resort was a great mix of tranquility and celebration. There were a handful of families with children of all ages, and they all seemed to be enjoying themselves. That said, the majority of the clientele were couples, so it still had a romantic air to it. Also, the couples who were there were a huge mix of ages, which was so nice. There were 20-somethings on their honeymoons, finance-types on vacation (and often taking work calls from the beach), rich guys taking their younger girlfriends on a lavish weekend trip, couples who have been married for 50 years - a little bit of everything! We are a gay couple, and there didn't appear (I know that I'm assuming a lot here!) to be any other LGBTQ couples there when we were, but we overall felt very comfortable to be ourselves with the other guests and the staff. Activities We only did a few things, since lounging was the goal of our vacation. We did both a daytime snorkel (free) and a nighttime one ($60/person). That was pretty great as there is a small nature preserve off to the side of the beach that allows for great sitings of puffer fish, eels, rainbow fish, and the like. The gym is beautiful and has state of the art equipment plus Peloton bikes and treads. I do wish they offered more complementary classes like a sunset yoga on the beach, for example. I think that would have been a nice touch. It felt like that would be something a resort of this caliber should offer as complimentary. I love to travel and I never think about going to the same place twice - why should you when there's so much out there in the world to explore? But this resort is one that I'm already excited to return to. It really is that special. So if you're on the fence because it is pricey, take this as your sign to go for it - you won't regret it!