Strap yourself in!
Barely three months after Sandals Resorts International opened up its nifty latest 301-room Caribbean resort on the island of St. Vincent, Mother Nature, shrew that she is, welcomed in category 4 Hurricane Beryl — down from a 5, bless her heart — in late June into early July.
And Beryl lived as much as her homonym all too well, barreling over the island and claiming three lives and doing billions of dollars in damages on St. Vincent (overseer of the northern Grenadines nation) along the way in which.
But this was hardly St. Vincent and the Grenadines’ first rained-out rodeo: It tussled with Janet within the ’50s; Beulah in ’67; Lili within the aughts; and Matthew in 2016, to call just a few.
Luckily, the newest in Sandals’ all-inclusive begotten litter (No. 18, should you’re counting), a little bit wet for wear, escaped with only minor cuts and bruises hiding out in its own private Buccament Bay cove, because it is. “The resort didn’t close and resumed normal operations the very next day,” reported Shawn DaCosta, chief operations officer at SRI, from the frontline. “We’re fortunate that [we] didn’t sustain any damage except newly planted trees, and we mark the storm’s passing with a beautifully polished hotel.”
In other words, adults-only Sandals SVG will proceed to get wealthy or dry tryin’ as there might be more stormage on the way in which (due to, you understand, obalglay armingway). Here’s the best way to benefit from the resort safely and soundly between trips to the perma-filled in-room minibar and silent disco parties.
Strokes of luck
When it’s not coming at you at 165 mph, nothing pairs with oxygen quite as nicely as two sides of hydrogen.
This Sandals spot sports a minimum of five pools — one in all which spans 300 feet from the lobby into the multiverse — and that doesn’t even include the largest one in all all, the Caribbean, over which its pricey $3,400/night two-story Vincy bungalows sit proudly stilted and prepared for fat cats. Here, the aqua is warm and curative with a capital Sea.
Caught Red handed
Whatever meteorological malfeasance is occurring outdoors, you’ll all the time find secure harbor contained in the partitions of Sandals’ signature Red Line Spa. From blooming jasmine and lavender aromatherapy to its latest Himalayan salt and warmth full-body massage, just close you mind (and mouth, please) and indulge.
Treatments range from $184 an hour to $518 for 90 minutes.
Con artists
Living your best life on St. Vincent is straightforward as A), stealing a automobile; B), burning down a gas station; or C), robbing a bank. Your selection! Actually, don’t — despite the fact that you’d wind up in one in all the world’s friendliest correctional facilities and arguably the second-best places to remain on the island.
The resort’s charitable wing, the Sandals Foundation, has teamed with local NGOs Hand2Earth and Grow In Time’s Vetiver Craft Project to assist rehab prisoners (each ex- and current) of H.M. Prisons Kingstown and Belle Isle Correctional Facility through the magic of arts and crafts.
Under the watchful and loving eye of project manager Vonnie Roudette, they weave every little thing from hats, baskets, bags, rugs, even intricate maquettes, all out of local vetiver (heavy-duty bunchgrass). Try their wares on the Hand2Earth Vetiver Heritage Centre in Villa on the Orange House in College Gap.
Aestheticism > recidivism, any day (784-434-8300).
Moves like Jagger
The lippy frontman of the Stones does indeed have a compound on the private, mysterious — and nearly named as much — island of Mustique, but he’s hard-passing on unannounced pop-ins.
What’s on the outside of those celebrity-caging partitions guarded by paramilitary death squads, errrr, well-trained security, nevertheless, is the all the time energetic, sail-up beachside Basil’s Bar, open to all of the world’s drained, poor and huddled masses like us. It features Taco & Tequila Thursdays, live music, even a blues festival in January. Arrange for a half-day boat voyage backward and forward with Sandals’ onsite Islands Routes tour desk.
They don’t serve the 85% ABV Sunset Very Strong Rum onboard going to the swimmer-swarmed saloon, but they sure do ply you with it on the way in which back (from $300 per person).
Spokes models
The take-a-penny, leave-a-penny way of living is available in modern velocipedic form here at Sandals. Parked (or strewn) concerning the resort’s 50 acres are free-to-use bikes like so many Lime scooters in NYC.
Try to not commandeer those a newlywed couple rode over to Butch’s chop house for dinner — there’s enough for everybody on the market, somewhere (and don’t sleep on the gratis golf cart rides Sandals provides, either; they turn out to be useful when it’s especially hot).
Rooms at Sandals St. Vincent and the Grenadines start from $409, per person, per night.
