Some family-friendly resorts can be boisterous, and some of their adults-only counterparts can feel a little too subdued for me. But at the Coconut Bay Beach Resort and Spa in St. Lucia, I found a place where the two happily coexist.
The 85-acre, all-inclusive resort sits on the site of a former Club Med. But the privately owned property, which opened in 2005, brought its own ideas and atmosphere to the space, offering a stay that is welcoming and authentic and not the least bit stuffy. Many resorts greet you upon arrival with a “welcome home,” but this time, I really felt at home. Even the resort dog, Lucy, may walk up and greet you.
So how has Coconut Bay mastered the kids/couples equation? Simple: divide and conquer. The resort is split into two sides: The adults-only Harmony and the family-friendly Splash wings, with all rooms including private balconies or patios and some Splash rooms offering two-bedroom connecting units. There are nine room categories between the two wings.
The resort has made numerous renovations in the past year, from expanding the lobby to adding new outdoor massage cabanas as well as a new wedding cabana.
The resort’s nine dining establishments and seven bars all but guarantee that a cold drink or a hot meal are not far away. A dip in the resort’s five pools (two reserved for adults) don’t require much walking, either. The lazy river and waterslides at CocoLand, on the family-friendly side of the property, enable guests to go as fast, or as slow, as they want.
While the resort sits on a milelong span of beach on the island’s southern coast, the more pristine area is Paradise Beach, toward the easternmost end of the property.
The resort’s activity pool offers daily activities, including volleyball and water aerobics. Photo Credit: Omar Perez
Jerk on the menu
Casual dining options include the Jerk Treehouse, which serves spicy staples like jerk chicken and pork with rice and peas; Flip Flops, which offers quick bites such as burgers, wings and pizza; and the main restaurant, Coconut Walk Marketplace, open for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
Other dining options are the Creole-Latin American restaurant Calabash, the Asian-inspired Silk (dinner only), the Italian-influenced Trattoria, the adults-only Veranda (which combines menus from Silk and Calabash) and the fine dining, oceanside La Luna ($159 per couple).
The resort hosts weddings (just one per day) on a new oceanfront gazebo that faces the verdant hills of the nearby Maria Islands Nature Reserve, which is about 3,000 feet from shore.
The resort’s new wedding venue. The property hosts just one wedding a day. Photo Credit: Omar Perez
Near the gazebo, the Sanctuary Spa offers various types of massages, facials and body wraps. Treatments utilize a variety of local ingredients like St. Lucian cocoa, St. Lucian dark rum and Coconut Bay’s own spiced coconut milk body lotion. What stood out from the Sanctuary Spa are the vast number of treatments they offer (10 pages’ worth of treatments). The resort recently debuted six spa cabanas.
Parents looking to keep the kids entertained will appreciate the Coco-Land Kidz Klub, which offers three age-appropriate categories that offer activities like arts and crafts, movie nights and a kids-only water playground. It also offers a napping room for babies at least 3 months old and private babysitting services at an additional cost.
Daytime activities aren’t limited to children. Adults can partake in nonmotorized watersports, court games, aqua aerobics and yoga classes, among others.
The resort’s weekly Carnival Night, on the Splash Pool Deck, combines live steel drum and reggae music with fire dancers and stilt walkers in a festive event that usually results in guests forming a conga line; it also features a lengthy buffet spread. Coconut Bay also puts on a weekly country-and-western night. The open-air Sand Bar televises various sporting events and hosts fun activities like karaoke, live entertainment and country line dancing.
The newly remodeled Peter John’s Rum Bar doubles as a piano bar and club, serving a wide variety of Caribbean rums and samplings of their inventory, including a Chairman’s Reserve St. Lucian rum selection made specifically for the resort.
An updated room at the resort, which expects to have renovated 25% of its rooms by its Oct. 12 reopening. Photo Credit: Omar Perez
Refit in the works
The resort, which will celebrate its 20th anniversary next year, has begun a renovation of all its 250 rooms that should be completed by the end of 2025. By the time it reopens from its seasonal closure on Oct. 12, the resort expects to have refurbished 25% of that inventory, with new layouts that will give rooms an open-floor-plan feel; modern bathrooms fixtures and tiles; and new balcony doors and flooring.
The reopening next month will also bring the fourth annual Rum & Rhythms Festival (Oct. 19 to Nov. 2), which combines musical performances with a showcase of regional rums and nightly tastings.
Coconut Bay and its five-star sister property, Serenity at Coconut Bay, have launched a travel agent portal that the resort said will give advisors the lowest guaranteed rates as well as offer air and hotel packages and travel insurance. Advisors earn up to 15% commission and additional bonuses on bookings of five or more nights. Visit cbayresort.com/traveladvisor for more information.
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Publish date : 2024-09-13 17:00:00
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