eckero

Planning a trip to St. Lucia in December. I see package deals right now for Ocean-view villas at Jalousie are running around $3,200 including airfare from Chicago. Are there any times of the year, prior to December, that these type of packages drop even lower? Or are these prices pretty good??

Also, how's the babysitting service at Jalousie as we will have a toddler with us and will want to dive at least one day.

sailor

eckero, I've been keeping pretty good track of the prices for the Jalousie. That isn't to bad of a deal for the Ocean-view, but... I would suggest that you play around with your dates on the hiltoncaribbean.com site. Check under the Hot Caribbean Deals, for Hotel only (for what the room rates are at that time), and then Flight and Hotel from Chicago. You could possible come up lower by booking separately, although, airfare to St.Lucia has been quite high! The package rate with airfare, also includes, transfers to and from the Hotel (if I am not mistaken). Transfers to and from the Hotel, from UVF would have the value of about $60 one way for two. At least this will give you an idea of what the airfare is costing you.

Also if you are willing to take your chances, that the resort won't be at full occupancy at the time you will be traveling, you can book a lower category, room or cottage room, and upgrade when you get to the resort.

Also, the "Ocean-view" of the ocean-view rooms can vary greatly. This property is heavily vegetative and some of the ocean view rooms can and will have obstructed views of the ocean.

Also be aware that the water at the beach at the Jalousie does get very deep, very quickly. Something to consider with a toddler.

Wonderful resort!

Donna

ejcrowe

That seems to be a pretty good price for one week in an ocean view. I agree with other posters who suggest booking a mountain view villa or villa suite instead and then ask about an upgrade upon checkin. When we visited in July 2001, we had booked an ocean view villa and were upgraded to the ocean view villa suite upon arrival, ostensibly because my husband was a repeat guest. We loved the cottage but the view of the ocean really are fleeting amidst the vegetation--which was fine by us because we enjoyed the privacy around the plunge pool.

The dropoff from the beach is indeed steep, but the water there is extremely calm so at least you don't have that to worry about with a toddler.

The Hilton chain frequently runs ads in Caribbean Travel & Life and other magazines promoting offseason specials--such as free breakfast buffet and reduced prices. You might want to keep an eye out for these if you and your partner are breakfast eater--I remember the breakfast buffet being ridiculously expensive at around $25pp.

Although we were not traveling with children when we stayed there, I imagine that they could arrange babysitting during the day or evenings. Also, depending on how old your toddler is, s/he might enjoy the Wednesday night jump-up at Bang, the restaurant next to Jalousie--live music, magic, firedancers, etc. Reasonably priced 3 course prix fixe with all the rum punch you can drink, but reservations are very important. Every other night there seemed to be pretty slow. Hope you have a great time and enjoy the incomparable beauty of St. Lucia!

eckero

Thanks Donna. I see the hiltoncarribbean.com site package reservations are actually Expedia.com based, so I'm basically looking at the same thing. Playing with room rates sans/ airfare brings up no bargains at this time. You are given the option to waive the ground transportation transfer($62), which I'll do since we plan on taking the helicopter anyway. Any experience with how crowded it is in early December? Just nervous about booking a package that will cost me to cancel if another comes up cheaper later.

As far as the baby, she'll be just under 2 yrs old at that time, so we won't let her more than an arms length away when we have her on the beach. Thanks for the heads up though.

BTW any good hiking nearby the resort? i.e. up the Pitons? I have a child-carrying backpack, so she can go along for the ride.

ctkathy

Just returned from a 6 night stay at this Hilton. Our villa was categorized as a mountain view, but also had a nice view of the ocean--villa 903.

There is organized hiking and trails on the property--some to waterfalls and also up the Piton. I heard the Piton hike is very strenuous and basically a vertical hike.

I thought the Bang show was not very entertaining, food really bad and only one complimentary and small rum punch. Lots of kids out in the middle of the 'stage' area running around while the entertainers were trying to do their show. Same situation with the Friday night dinner/show at the Hilton.

eckero

Thanks for all the feedback everyone. It's been extremely helpful. Keep it coming!

ejcrowe

ctkathy, I'm sorry you didn't enjoy your experience at Bang. When we stayed at Jalousie back in 2001, the food there was such a joke that we thought the food at Bang was much better by comparison. I do recall that the rum punches were flowing freely and for free the night we were there, but that might have been because we were there during low season and Lord Glenconnor felt he could woo us away from Jalousie to dine at Bang more frequently. In retrospect, maybe it was the rum punches that made us enjoy the meal so much.

How was the food at the Pier and Plantation Room when you were there? During our stay the food was pretty bad and lots of other guests were grumbling about it, too. But recent reviews suggest the quality may have taken an upswing. Did you get to Ladera and dine at Dasheen when you were there? That was probably our favorite meal of the week during our stay!

ctkathy

ejcrow,

My husband and I thought the food was fine at the Hilton, and we are pretty fussy. The Plantation was very enjoyable for service and the serenading guitar player, and food was quite ok. My fish was a little dry, which seemed to be par for the course in the Caribbean for some reason. The chef made my husband a special and fabulous dessert. First night we had a buffet at the Pier and that is the only time we ate there. Just average.

We ate lunch at the Bayside most days, one day ordered the box lunch and stayed on the beach. The menu changes twice weekly--Tuesday and Friday. My husband got hooked on the lobster salad and I tried various things. The grilled chicken sandwiches were great and they will substitute a salad for fries. Hamburgers seemed very popular, but I never ordered one. I would say the prices are like US prices for a comparable restaurant in a place like Miami or other metropolitan area. Service charges are added to all the restaurant checks, and we rarely left additional gratuity on top of this.

Two tips--if you would like anything special such as roti (highly recommended)or souffle at the Plantation just order it one day ahead from someone in charge. Ask for the box lunch menu when you check in. You get TONS of food for $25, so just order it for one. They will deliver it to your room, the beach, dock or anywhere on property you like. Most likely there will be enough left for the next day lunch.

Bang food: choice of fish or chicken. Both were served barely warm and chicken was dry, dry, dry. Fish was an awful dark fleshed fish steak, so I sent it back and got the dry chicken. That was the only time we went to Bang, and I would have much rather have gone to Dasheen or even ordered room service!

We went to Dasheen one night and it was great--good food and atmosphere. Another evening we went to Hummingbird in Souffiere and it was very good, but those water taxis get expensive.

It was a great trip and I would consider returning to the Jalousie Hilton in the future.