With its picture-perfect views, it's easy to see why St Lucia's Jade Mountain resort has just been nominated several times as one of the world's best hotels - most recently with a nod to the prestigious Travel and Leisure World's Best Award 2024. It's also featured in the BBC's Amazing Hotels: Life Beyond the Lobby as an architectural masterpiece.
Built in 2006, Jade Mountain is perfectly located next to its little sister, Anse Chastanet, and offers breathtaking panoramic views of the Pitons, the twin peaks that were declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2004.
The hotel was designed and built by world-renowned architect Nick Troubetzkoy, whose presence is evident in every hand-built element. It is named after its collection of beautifully carved jade sculptures, the largest in the world. Outside are beautiful works of art by local artist Sakey, who teaches art classes at the resort.
The hotel is set amid 600 hectares of Caribbean forest and blends seamlessly into the surrounding landscape. The exquisite beauty and sounds of nature seep into every corner of the design, making it difficult to distinguish where one ends and the other begins.
Where?
Proudly flexing its architectural muscles, Jade Mountain sits high on the hillside at the southern tip of St. Lucia and on the southwestern Caribbean coastline, opposite the Pitons. The position means it wouldn't look out of place as a James Bond lair.
Upon arrival, your eyes are greeted by the resort and the towering palm trees that almost seem to touch the sky from across the bay.
Sharing a 600-hectare beach with its sister hotel, you'll be set amidst lush tropical vegetation, transporting you straight into the cacophony of a jungle choir 24 hours a day. Troubetzkoy once said: "It has been my ambition from the beginning to create an environment in which the beauty of the island can be fully appreciated".
Style
Features such as interconnecting infinity pools over six floors, connected by a series of pipes and troughs ingeniously hidden into the hillside, and all with their own unique design, ensure that the modern architecture is truly a sight to behold.
The story continues
The hotel has a total of 79 rooms, 29 of which are connected by a bridge that leads to your 'sanctuary'. As Peter, our unofficial guide - and the hotel manager-cum-prankster of sister hotel Anse Chastanet - tells us: "As soon as you cross the bridge, you enter your room." Who would have ever thought you could have your own room? private bridge while staying at a mountainside hotel?
All rooms are intimately designed with open showers, baths and even the toilets with little or no privacy, so make sure you're happy with your partner or housemate witnessing every action before you book. It's a unique feature that Jade Mountain is proud of, and rightly so.
Each retreat is a place of tranquility, where elegance and comfort come together. Each one has been carefully designed, from 10,000 infinity pool tiles hand-picked by Karoline Troubetzkoy. Right down to the locally sourced and designed furnishings in all rooms, this entire resort has the local community at its heart.
Which room?
With 24 open-air infinity pool rooms and five sky jacuzzi suites (known as the aforementioned Sanctuaries), you're spoiled for choice with unparalleled views of the Pitons and the Caribbean Sea, but at a small price. Because there is no fourth wall in your room, you are completely open to the elements, whether you are in bed, in the shower or otherwise busy. It also means guests have the unique opportunity to be one with the St. Lucian skyline.
The infinity pool sanctuaries are all designed to reflect the square footage of the property: they all have 15-foot ceilings and average 200 square feet each - and are named Star, Moon, Sun or Galaxy.
All shrines also come complete with a four-poster bed with a mosquito net, anti-insect sprays and coils, and yoga mats for the yogis ready to practice on their beautifully named Celestial Terrace as the sun rises over the island
Each shrine has its own attentive private butler, or Major Domo, which in Latin means principle of the house, which will provide for all your needs 24 hours a day. They can be contacted via mobile phone (which you will receive upon arrival) or via the iPad in your room and will help you with an in-room dining service, a Pina Colada, if you wish, or even a water pistol to keep the pesky birds trying to steal your indoor herbs.
If you want to live like a rock star for a few days, push the boat out (you may need to book a year in advance) and then apply for JC1. The breathtaking Galaxy Sanctuary and the highest category rooms at Jade Mountain have the best panoramic views in the hotel stretching over the Caribbean Sea. The floor area is approximately 2,000 square meters and an infinity pool of 900 square meters.
Eat Drink
You'll be spoiled for choice where to dine across the road from Jade Mountain and the Anse Chastanat resort. The 600-hectare estate includes the old colonial plantation of Anse Mamin, which was used for sugar cane in the 18th century, but today serves as a coconut plantation and a beautiful organic resource for the numerous restaurants that guests have access to. It is used to grow everything from turmeric to cashews, tamarind, mango and avocado to breadfruit, yams and sweet potatoes, with all the ingredients ending up on plates.
From a six-course meal in your sanctuary to private dinners on their romantic Celestial Terrace, you can enjoy the best food St Lucia has to offer under the Milky Way (on a clear night).
Sister resort Anse Chastenet has the unforgettable option of a seaside Lion Fish dinner, where each course is paired with a bottle of wine chosen by their sommelier, which you can enjoy while watching the sun set on a beach only accessible by boat . it makes for an unforgettable evening.
Jade Mountain's Chef Elijah is visible most evenings and greets his guests like old friends. The desserts were also a real treat as the hotel has its own chocolate factory on site.
The Troubetzkoy family has also set up their own organic farm on the island's Emerald Estate, which produces 40% of the food served at the resort. Set in the Soufriere hills, just 30 minutes from the resort, it plays another important role in their farm-to-table approach.
Together with the farm, the resort now bottles its own locally produced drinking water from a recently discovered spring on the property into recycled bottles. Anse Chastanet and Jade Mountain are currently only available in your accommodation and plan to be 100% self-sufficient with their bottled water in the not too distant future. Both resorts have introduced Travel With IMPACT, where guests can instantly calculate and offset their stay through verified carbon offset projects.
The resort has an almost obsessive interest in sustainability.
Extracurricular activities
After wandering the lively streets of Soufrière, a single long road winds its way to paradise, or, if your wallet is deep, you can take a short helicopter flight that lands directly on top of a helipad in the resort (previously used by Prince Harry).
There is plenty to do on this small island. A must are the Diamond Botanical Gardens, the waterfall and the mineral baths. Located on the historic Soufrière estate, the six-acre site was gifted to three brothers by King Louis Botanical guide Alex, a real character, claims to have climbed both Pitons in one day (there's no reason not to believe him) and proudly boasts that National Geographic named him Alexander the Great for his super-athletic feat.
Close by is another must-see if you are on the tourist route. The Sulfur Springs is a geothermal field (also known as a collapsed crater) billed as the world's only drive-in volcano in the southwestern district of Soufriere.
There is no need to panic as the last volcanic eruption in the area was recorded in 1776, but it is still located on the most active geothermal site in the area. The smell that hits your nose, often likened to rotten eggs, can be a turn-off for some, but you'll only be there for an hour or so.
Whether you're a diving enthusiast or not, the award-winning reefs just 10 meters from Anse Chastanet's coastline are not to be missed. The reef is home to over 150 different species of fish and makes for a great dive day or night (yes, you can choose to dive under the stars). Divers travel from all over the US to put on their masks and snorkels here.
The dive school staff also offer a 'turtle lesson', which will help you identify all the local species in the nearby waters. If you're lucky, you might even see a turtle hatch and stroll down to the water's edge to begin its new adventure. The resort is also offering divers the chance to participate in coral planting at their two new coral nurseries.
Nightly rates at Jade Mountain start at £865 in a Sky Sanctuary based on double occupancy. jademountain.com
