A stunning Caribbean island plus an R&B crooner was the ideal recovery program.
Complete loss of control, crying spells, and endless triggers. The grief of heartbreak is neurological thunder. My most recent breakup bleached the color from everything and dealt apocalyptic blows to my self-esteem and mood, so I thought I’d see if travel could finish a job that six months of therapy hadn’t and stitch my broken heart back together.
By the time my plane began its descent over Saint Lucia’s quilt of jungle‑green mountains, I’d already rehearsed every possible outcome of this trip. In the best-case scenario, I’d have the time of my life and dance with wild abandon during the famed annual Saint Lucia Jazz & Arts Festival. In the worst, I’d discover that tropical sunsets are no match for saying goodbye to a man I once plot‑twisted into every future fantasy.
Saint Lucia is a honeymoon poster child with couple‑clad catamarans, stunning views, and more four-poster beds than a Regency romance in dreamy hotels like Anse Chastanet and Stonefield Villa Resort. Even the iconic UNESCO-listed Piton peaks are a pair. And Saint Lucia has been crowned the World’s Leading Honeymoon Destination for seven consecutive years at the World Travel Awards.
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But I wasn’t arriving with a ring or a plus‑one, so I was a tad apprehensive. Plus, this was the exact sort of getaway I knew my ex would have loved. Four-wheeling in tandem through the Mabouya Valley with Eastern Exotic ATV Tours would have been right up his alley, as would slathering on healing mud at Sulphur Springs, the island’s famed drive-in volcano. As a lover of the outdoors, I know he would have adored dips in waterfalls like the 50-foot Toraille Waterfall, and going on hikes to find the “Small Six,” tiny, endemic creatures unique to Saint Lucia, and the island’s own twist on Africa’s Big Five. He was also quite fitness-focused, so he would have been in heaven at BodyHoliday, my chosen Saint Lucia hotel.
Located on a postcard-perfect crescent of white sand and turquoise sea, BodyHoliday is the island’s legendary all-inclusive wellness resort that’s part adult summer camp, part soul spa, and thoroughly energizing. Every guest receives a personalized schedule that includes a complimentary 50-minute massage per day, and there are anywhere from 20 to 35 activities each day, but you can dive into as many or as few as you please.
This unlimited wellness hotel presented the opportunity to work on my physical health and get sparks of dopamine with a menu of niche pursuits like archery, tai chi, Caribbean dance, keel boating, and windsurfing. Throughout the year, the resort’s Wellness Clinic runs an Anxiety and Emotional Balance program, and during my stay, there was a purpose-built experience to address the grief and trauma of loss, with a psychobiologist and Master of Cognitive Neuroscience, no less. I always had someone to chat to and seemed to make friends wherever I went. For unpaired guests fretting about being unaccompanied, BodyHoliday has a communal breakfast table hosted by the activities team, nightly dinners for solo guests, and a themed month (September Solos) with dedicated fitness activities for people coming alone.
And lest you think it’s all detox and deep lunges, BodyHoliday thankfully wasn’t an intimidating clean living cult where fun is confiscated at the front door. My healthy breakfasts, whipped up by Chef Popo, and military-grade personal training sessions with Felix were complemented by fruity tipples during tea time while awaiting the sunset. The Piano Bar swings open at 7 p.m. and stays abuzz until the last cocktail glasses clink. One evening, I went there for a chocolate martini and found myself having a round-the-piano jam session with John Legend’s backup singers, who were all staying at the hotel, along with Mr. Legend himself, the headliner for the 33rd Saint Lucia Jazz & Arts Festival.
Jazz, John, and Just What I Needed
I had long wished to visit Saint Lucia during the island’s biggest multi-day music event, the St. Lucia Jazz & Arts Festival, which has hosted the likes of Babyface, Sting, Shaggy, and Lauren Hill. This time, it would be R&B songstress Summer Walker, Nigerian Afrobeat star Ruger, Trinidadian soca sensation Yung Bredda, and Earth, Wind & Fire commanding the stage, among others. Fortuitously, I’d scored VIP tickets that included access to the pit, where the bass pulses straight through your ribcage and every lyric feels like it’s being sung just for you.
And then came John Legend.
With no buffer between me and the stage, I danced and sang Tonight (Best You Ever Had) and PDA (We Just Don’t Care) at the top of my lungs, and he saw me. Literally. John Legend held my gaze and said, “I see you” mid-song during his rendition of Green Light. In case there was any ambiguity, he actually pointed. At me.
Things like this don’t happen every day, and certainly not during a chapter of your life where you fear you will never feel elation again.
Ironically, I’d spent the previous months wanting to be invisible, retreating from social media after my breakup, ducking invitations, and hiding with my heartache. And now, here I was, gleeful to be singled out by a Grammy winner from a crowd of thousands. John Legend’s three‑word benediction felt like a wink from the cosmos. “Keep going” and “magic is still meant for you,” the universe seemed to be saying.
I left Saint Lucia much lighter, having been seen and held—in conversation, in movement, and in a concert where a superstar’s gaze swept across numerous dazzled faces before unbelievably landing on mine. The trip didn’t erase my heartbreak, but it was a much-needed divorce from despair. If grief is neurological thunder, travel can help to redirect the storm. You can’t control who leaves, but you can choose where you heal.