July 9, 2025 • 20 mins
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We're coming to you straight from the stunning Sugar Beach, A Viceroy Resort in St. Lucia! In this episode, we dive into our journey getting to the island and share our first impressions of the resort — from the lush, scenic beauty between the Pitons to our thoughts on the service, food, beach, and accommodations so far.Tune in for real-time reactions, what to expect on arrival, and what’s stood out to us already at this luxury Caribbean hideaway!If you're considering a St. Lucia vacation — especially at Sugar Beach — this episode is a must-listen.
🔗 Ready to book your beach escape? Let us help you plan it!
📩 Get a Quote: https://www.PenyakTravel.com/contact
📞 Click to Call: 1-800-674-3278
📧 Email Janet: Janet@PenyakTravel.com
🌐 Book Direct with Sandals (Penyak Link): https://www.sandals.com/?referral=148533
📲 Follow Us for Travel Tips, Vlogs & Deals:
🎥 YouTube: Penyak Travel Channel
📸 Instagram:
📩 Get a Quote: https://www.PenyakTravel.com/contact
📞 Click to Call: 1-800-674-3278
📧 Email Janet: Janet@PenyakTravel.com
🌐 Book Direct with Sandals (Penyak Link): https://www.sandals.com/?referral=148533
📲 Follow Us for Travel Tips, Vlogs & Deals:
🎥 YouTube: Penyak Travel Channel
📸 Instagram:
- @PenyakTravel
- @KnowBeforeYouGoTravelShow
👔 LinkedIn: Penyak Travel Company
📘 Facebook: Penyak Travel
📱 Follow George: @GeorgePenyak on Instagram
We're coming to you straight from the stunning Sugar Beach, A Viceroy Resort in St. Lucia! In this episode, we dive into our journey getting to the island and share our first impressions of the resort — from the lush, scenic beauty between the Pitons to our thoughts on the service, food, beach, and accommodations so far.Tune in for real-time reactions, what to expect on arrival, and what’s stood out to us already at this luxury Caribbean hideaway!If you're considering a St. Lucia vacation — especially at Sugar Beach — this episode is a must-listen.
🔗 Ready to book your beach escape? Let us help you plan it!
📩 Get a Quote: https://www.PenyakTravel.com/contact
📞 Click to Call: 1-800-674-3278
📧 Email Janet: Janet@PenyakTravel.com
🌐 Book Direct with Sandals (Penyak Link): https://www.sandals.com/?referral=148533
📲 Follow Us for Travel Tips, Vlogs & Deals:
🎥 YouTube: Penyak Travel Channel
📸 Instagram:
- @PenyakTravel
- @KnowBeforeYouGoTravelShow
👔 LinkedIn: Penyak Travel Company
📘 Facebook: Penyak Travel
📱 Follow George: @GeorgePenyak on Instagram
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
Welcome to the Note Before You Go Travel Show show
where we share all the latest travel tips, tricks and
insights to make your next vacation the best one. Yeah,
so sit back, relaxed, grab a cocktail and enjoy the
show with Ennac Travels, George Benyac, and our senior travel consultant,
Janet Begnyac.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
What's up everybody? Hey everyone, welcome back to an opposition
of the Note Before You Travel Show. We've got a
show for you to date, and this.
Speaker 3 (00:29):
Is a special show live from Sugar Beach and Taylor show.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
What is an some people want to know. People might
just think Sugar Beach is just actually a beach.
Speaker 3 (00:39):
This is a resort.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
It is an awesome resort. But we are here, we're
having a good time. We are unfortunate in our last day, yes,
but we're in We're in our room. It's a large
room and it's not our podcast studio, so you may
hear an echo. I apologize in advance, but this room
is beautiful and we're having a great time. This is
probably exceeded in my expectations of what I thought it
(01:03):
would be. I mean, it was gonna be great, but
this is this is really special. It's like, yeah, I
mean we're gonna go through early thoughts here on this thing,
but man, we are having such a great time, smooth
trip in. We don't have to leave tomorrow though, which
I'm not looking forward to leaving.
Speaker 3 (01:16):
Yes, So this resort is one hundred and thirty rooms
in suites. All of the rooms come with butler service
in a plunge pool. They're all a great size. So
we are in the luxury beachfront bungalow, and I must
say it's probably one of my most favorite rooms we've
ever had.
Speaker 2 (01:36):
Yeah, I'd have to agree with you there, Like this
is a very special room. Like it just like how
close it is to the beach, how close it is really.
Speaker 3 (01:44):
Everything else, the views from the room all.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
What means a massive room, and we have a huge,
very soft king bed. I've been sleeping. We've been sleeping
in like pretty late for us, like we usually don't
sleep in like this.
Speaker 3 (01:56):
I know, we've been sleeping until like eight thirty. That's
kind of crazy.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
And it still has this crib in charm of like
the white wood on the ceiling. A couple things really
like it's got the private pool, yeah, outdoor shower, yeah,
it's got a huge indoor shower rain shower head, and
its beach front and actually has like a little like
we have our own little private terrace with a little
table out there and a hammock and you can just
walk right out to the beach. And I think so
(02:19):
people asked us. We were getting asked like, oh, where's
your room, and we're like, oh, we have one of
the beach bungalows, and everyone's like, oh yeah, that's like yeah,
really really good because this resort it is, you know,
it is very So we were on the beach, thankfully,
but a lot of the other rooms are up on
the hillside, so it's a law you either have to
take wait for the transfer van or you have a
long walk down. We are already here at the beach front,
(02:41):
which is nice.
Speaker 3 (02:41):
Yes, it's very central location. So a couple things just
on getting here. So the resort is about fifty fifty
five minutes from the airport, so you have the option
of taking a transfer or the water taxi. There's a
couple there's a resort water taxi and there's the ferry,
so there's a couple of options there. But we did
(03:03):
the resorts water taxi because we are traveling with family.
There is a total of eight of us, and so
it made more sense price wise to book the resort
one over the ferry.
Speaker 2 (03:16):
It's faster, it is. Yes, it's a I mean the
resort ones essentially it's a center console. Yeah, and it's
a lot like the boats that we take out in
Charleston all. I mean, I'm very familiar with these boats.
And they go fast, which is nice. Yeah, smooth ride,
deep v hull, which means it can cut through waves,
and they you know, they're just pouring up some local
(03:36):
rum punch for us.
Speaker 3 (03:37):
I did request that, so I'm not sure if that's standard,
but I specifically requested beer and rum punch for the
trans for the water tacky, So I would just recommend
doing that because I don't believe they charged us any extra.
I'll double check that.
Speaker 2 (03:50):
Sound. It was cool, So we were having rum punch
and it was a beautiful ride. Yeah, and it definitely,
you know, Saint Lucia because it is such a mountainous destination,
being a volcanic island, having these little ways to get
to the resort that don't require driving through the island
because driving through the island's hard because it's very hilly.
You have to go around almost the xchier of the
(04:10):
island because it's so mountainous. But boat it's quicker.
Speaker 3 (04:13):
Yeah, if you're prone to motion sickness, you need to
kind of weigh whether you're going to be more prone
driving or if you're riding through the mountains or on
the water. So yeah, the water, it's just something at.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
Note the water is better and you can't do it.
You said on the last podcast, you can't do.
Speaker 3 (04:29):
A hlicutter tour here, right, No, you cannot.
Speaker 2 (04:31):
Yeah that's fine. Boat's a way to go, Yes, a
boat boat every time. Yeah, but it was cool, like
the boat takes you up, but you pulled us right
up to the dock. We got off and instantly you
can just like we're right in between the pitons. It's
just a stunning setting for a resort. Just yeah, it
really is.
Speaker 3 (04:45):
Yeah, it definitely is because you're right in between the
middle of them at the base. The beach here is
absolutely stunning, like.
Speaker 2 (04:55):
For Saint Lucia, Like it's an amazing beach, but Saint Lucia,
I mean it's not like the it's never ranks high
on like a quote beach destination compared to other Caribbean islands.
But man, this beach, I mean this beach here because
it's it's right between the pitons. I think technically we're
on the Caribbean seaside because it's not that you don't
get many heavy waves.
Speaker 3 (05:14):
Yeah, we're on the Cribean sea side, so the.
Speaker 2 (05:16):
Waves aren't as bad and you're just like the water
super clear. We went snorkeling yesterday and we saw octopus
and another thing that I didn't realize, so I knew
this was like it's not adults only, so there are
kids here. But to be honest, like like even if
you like adults only, like the like so quiet, like
you wouldn't even know there's many kids here at all.
Speaker 3 (05:37):
Yeah, the ambiance is you know, very relaxing, a little
bit more like sophisticated. So yeah, there's not like, you know,
a bunch of screaming kids running around at least that
has not been our experience exactly.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
Yeah, Like, I you know, we love adults only trips,
and you know, and I would expect like coming in
not knowing it, you know, some but are like I
definitely just want adults only. I would be more open
minded coming someplace like this because absolutely you can't even tell.
Like it's like so like it's so relaxing. Another thing
I like that they do here that other resorts don't
(06:14):
is a lot of other resorts you can hear some
sort of music by the beach, which I think some
people like that. It's so quiet.
Speaker 3 (06:21):
Yes, you just hear the waves crashing.
Speaker 2 (06:23):
This is the This is a very chill resort. This
is not a place you go to go party, right,
This is pure relaxation. There's not a bunch of late
night entertainment going late into the night.
Speaker 3 (06:34):
Well there was on July fourth, but of course, yeah.
Speaker 2 (06:36):
July fourth was awesome here. But you know it's just
like it's super quiet, super laid back, very relaxing.
Speaker 3 (06:42):
Yeah. But yeah, the kids that we are with, so
we're with our nieces, they are ten and seven. And
at first I started to get a little bit worried
because like we all did a trip a few years
ago to Hiativa kap Kana. You know, they have an
amazing water park. Like, Okay, I know that the kids
club here is great, but hopefully you know, they'll still
(07:04):
have like enough to do and I mean they have
literally just swam in the ocean and snorkeled and just
jumped off the water trampolines and slipping slides in the ocean,
and they've had so much fun. I mean they're worn
out every day.
Speaker 2 (07:19):
They're wearing themselves out yet oh oh yeah. And so
at the end of the day, I love that bar.
I don't know what the bar is called the Sunset Bar.
I called the Sunset Bar.
Speaker 3 (07:27):
Yeah, it's where Jettie Burgers is.
Speaker 2 (07:29):
So it's such it's so beautiful, like you can see
both pitons. Yeah, you can see the sunsetting. You know,
the breeze is just whipping through this like just classic
Caribbean wooden oak bar. It's it's so special. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (07:43):
So there's two beaches here, and a lot of beaches
in Saint Lucia are public, and technically this one is.
But I mean I've seen like one vendor on the
beach the whole time selling tours, but they don't bother
you when you're in your chairs or anything like that. So,
but the other beach is on just like around the
(08:04):
corner and it is totally private over there. And then yeah,
there is kind of like an overwater bar kind of thing.
And then you can see both of the Petons and
that is super chill. We've gone there each late afternoon.
Definitely going to go there again. They have a burger
place there called Jetty's. If you do the all inclusive plan,
(08:25):
which we have done, and we'll talk more about that.
Speaker 2 (08:28):
Ye'll give you the details on that.
Speaker 3 (08:30):
Yeah, but that is not a part of the all
inclusive plan.
Speaker 2 (08:32):
Yeah, so certain things are and certain things aren't, which
we'll go through, like once we get back to the
studio kind of look at all of our notes on
this thing and do some comparisons, we'll give you more
details on everything. Like we're in the moment right now,
which we like doing these live from yeah podcasts, because
we're here really experiencing it. We're looking around. I just
hope that goes too bad, but I don't think it is.
(08:54):
But you know, just being in this room and being
here and then being able to sit down for thirty
minutes and talk about it while we're here, is I
think really helpful to our followers.
Speaker 3 (09:03):
Yes, yeah, absolutely. So there's five restaurants, so one of
them is closed for dinner, is closed for renovations. We
have done the Julu s Grill and then we did
the beach barbecue buffet that they had for July fourth
at the Bonte restaurant, and then Saltwood is their fine
(09:25):
dining and we ate there last night and they were great.
Speaker 2 (09:27):
High end. Yes, yeah, right, this is a not to
cut you off, just to explain how high end some
of the food is here. The food has been. I
mean it's truly five star. So looking at the wineless,
you know, we're big wine drinkers, and I was looking
at the wireless so these sometimes you can like age, Ok,
how sophisticated of a place? Is this? Not that? Like
sophisticated matters when you're in the Caribbean. They had two
(09:49):
bottles of wine on the menu, two Bordeaux. They had
a No. Five Bordeaux and it was like a ninety
two I think Bordeaux. That's crazy twenty thousand dollars and
twenty five thousand dollars bottle. And I was like, holy crap.
Speaker 3 (10:02):
Definitely won't be doing that.
Speaker 2 (10:04):
Yeah, I mean, I'm like, oh my god, I mean, hey,
some people might come here and go nuts, you know.
And then but the wine was really good and.
Speaker 3 (10:12):
It's just the house wine that has been included as
part of the all inclusive package has been good, and
just to give you an idea on cost if you
were not to which will break. We'll do a whole
breakdown of this later because I have pictures of all
the menus with the prices and everything. But the house
wine's twelve bucks gloves.
Speaker 2 (10:29):
So yeah, and so Saint Lucia has a lot of
French influence.
Speaker 3 (10:33):
Yeah, So it's a French cat.
Speaker 2 (10:36):
It was once a French controlled island, and so the
locals actually speak a French creole. If you ever hear
the locals kind of talk amongst themselves, oftentimes they'll speak
in the French creole. And and so because of that,
the relationship is still really strong with France. Like last
night at dinner, I had oysters came from France. Yeah,
(10:57):
the house wine is a French Bordeaux. The wine list
is dominated with French wines. So you're getting like this
really unique experience here, giving a little European flair right
here in the Caribbean.
Speaker 3 (11:08):
Yes, yeah, that's pretty cool.
Speaker 2 (11:09):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (11:10):
Yeah. So and then tonight we are going back to
the Bonte restaurant for their regular menu, and we were
looking at it earlier. It's got kind of like a
wide variety but heavy Caribbean influence at this restaurant. So, like,
they have curried goat on the menu, So you're gonna
have the goat. No, I'm not, but I wouldn't be
surprised my brother does because he literally is a goat everything.
Speaker 2 (11:31):
So I should wash it now with goat milk coat
curran goat milk.
Speaker 3 (11:35):
Yeah, but the food has been fantastic.
Speaker 2 (11:39):
They Wagu steak last night. I had some Wago steak.
I mean, just services top notch. They have a butler.
The butler's been great.
Speaker 3 (11:47):
Are the one who Yeah she's here today when we
had her the first Mikayla. Yeah, she's been absolutely amazing.
Speaker 2 (11:53):
Shout out Mikayla. Just a sweetheart, always helpful. You know,
your parents are a little mobility challenged, and especially for
a resort that I would say isn't the best from
mobility challenge, They've done a fantastic job accommodating them because
you can get a van just about anywhere and it'll
take you to anywhere else at the resort.
Speaker 3 (12:12):
So yeah, I definitely get a couple of things to know,
which again, we'll talk more about this in our Deep
Dive podcast. But this is not a super mobility friendly.
Speaker 2 (12:22):
Resort unless you're this the room category we have probably
the best for it.
Speaker 3 (12:26):
Yes, if you do have some mobility challenges, I think
that the beach front bungalows are going to be your
best option because then you can pretty much walk, you know,
down to the beach to the pool.
Speaker 2 (12:39):
Most of the restaurants are down.
Speaker 3 (12:40):
The restaurants are down near the beach.
Speaker 2 (12:42):
So gym isn't far from here, so it's just easier. Yeah,
so I'd agree with that one hundred percent. The rest
of the rooms are in some way, shape or form
up on a hill. Yeah, they want to be the
big hill. There's some huge hills or some small hills,
but you know, I forget how kind of how how
hilly the terrain is here, right, and then we go
(13:03):
back to Saint Lucias. This is our sixth or seventh
time in Saint Lucians. It's a sixth I guess we're
Saint Lucians now on FI, I guess. So.
Speaker 3 (13:10):
So another thing that I want to mention is if
you are, I guess bothered by heat, that would be
something to take into account. Because all of the restaurants are.
Speaker 2 (13:25):
Open air so yeah, except for the one that was closed.
Speaker 3 (13:28):
Except for the one that's closed. Yeah, but it's all
open air. Which it's been cool at night in my opinion,
and there's been you know a little bit of a breeze.
But the room it can be hot. So that's just
something to know.
Speaker 2 (13:39):
I don't know for sure, but where we ate last night,
they did have some indoor and I had all the
doors open, right that one might be able to be
closed for indoor maybe.
Speaker 3 (13:48):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (13:48):
Yeah, it's kind of like you know, jade mountains like this,
a lot of open air. But the rooms here, I mean,
the air conditioning works so well on the.
Speaker 3 (13:55):
Read Oh yeah, we've got a crank down to like
sixty three.
Speaker 2 (13:57):
Yeah, it's like it's like a walking cooler. So really
really enjoying this. It succeeded my expectations. I would say
initial thoughts are take the boat, transfer food if you're
a foodie, if you really like a culinary experience, you're
going to get that here. Nothing I love about these rooms.
We have our private pool, Yeah, private outdoor shower walk
(14:20):
in intoor it and that's.
Speaker 3 (14:21):
Nice is the outdoor shower. You can walk in from
there into your shower in the room. There's a door.
Speaker 2 (14:27):
It was a door.
Speaker 3 (14:28):
So if you're like super sandy, you can you want
to rent off out there and then just go get
directly in your indoor shower or you can just shower
out there too.
Speaker 2 (14:36):
But yeah, yeah, and they even have your own so
even a part of your outdoor shower, so you have
like you have like a little your own private courtyard
that no one can see in.
Speaker 3 (14:45):
Well, we do not. All of the beach front bungalows
are like this, and we're going to go through today
and walk through some of them or like buy them. Yeah,
take some notes and we'll kind of give you some
ideas on room numbers.
Speaker 2 (14:56):
See you're gonna get all the inside scoop with the
room numbers. But yeah, what was about say is like
the outdoor shower also has a foot shower. So let's
just say you like came back from dinner and you
were in sandals because a lot of the restaurants are
on the beach, like literally on the beach, and your
your feet are sandy and you want to rinse them
off where you go to bed. You have a foot
shower outside. Just walk right out there, rintse off and
come in like I'm like, that's so cool, and then
(15:16):
we have none only I forgot to say, a huge
indoor shower right with a range shower head. We also
have a huge tub inside as well. Yes, huge tub.
Speaker 3 (15:24):
And there's like a whole little kitchen at kitchen area
off to the side that's its own room.
Speaker 2 (15:31):
Souns like snacks and drinks and a fridge and just
all sorts of stuff.
Speaker 3 (15:35):
Yeah, so the room is very, very spacious. I'll have
the square footage on the next podcast that we do
about this, but I absolutely love this room, love the resort.
It's amazing. You know, it's going like yeah, things that
we'll mention on the next podcast, but yes, it is.
(15:56):
It is pricey.
Speaker 2 (15:58):
Yeah, so obviously you're paying for an elevated experience, which
they do deliver. Yeah. Yeah, I'm always skeptical when a
resort is charging so much, like, Okay, are they cutting corners?
Are they really delivering that much in value, because listen,
you can still pay a lot and get a good
value out of it as long as they're delivering such
an incredible product. And I think you're getting that here.
Speaker 3 (16:16):
Oh yeah, I mean this is you know, outside of
Jade Mountain and Ladera. You know, I would say those
two plus this are probably your top resorts in Saint Lucia.
Speaker 2 (16:29):
Yeah, so yeah, yeah, anyways, I'm having a great time.
I can't like we haven't toured or you probably have
the rooms up on the hillside. Did you tour those
when you came here.
Speaker 3 (16:40):
No, anyways, I've got some room videos of them though,
like they're really nice.
Speaker 2 (16:44):
But just being in here by the beach, you.
Speaker 3 (16:47):
Just got to have these reviews from up there are incredible.
Speaker 2 (16:49):
Oh, I'm sure the reviews are great. Yeah, but I
just love that. I just love being close to the
beach like this. Yeah. And I'm not even a beach person,
like I like the pool. I'm usually more of a
pool person.
Speaker 3 (16:56):
Yeah, we have spent every day on the beach so far,
but we did get a pool bana today.
Speaker 2 (17:00):
So those little blue flags are cool. So they have
those little blue flags. So each little beach hut there's
like just your beach chairs, the loungers, there's a there's
a blue flag. Yeah that if you want something, you
can kind of put up a flag and sever will
come right over to you, say they do that lunch great.
They'll bring you a menu for food, drinks, whatever you want.
Speaker 3 (17:19):
They do that at Jade Mountain, and I wish more
resorts would do that so you can it's you're signaling
when you want something and then somebody comes to you
and yeah, that's.
Speaker 2 (17:28):
Great, that's awesome. It's awesome.
Speaker 3 (17:30):
Yeah, and there's definitely an abundance of beach chairs and
pool chairs like we've never seen them, and I'm pretty
sure the resort is at least over ninety percent occupancy
right now. Yeah, but that has not been an issue
getting chairs anywhere. They have plenty of them. And then
as far as activities go, which we'll go through that
(17:52):
in more detail, but they have amazing snorkling right off
the beach. So if you want to be able to
just walk out and snorkle and it's included, this is
amazing and there's great snorkling. Like George said, we saw
an Octopit an octopus yesterday my brother saw on eel,
which we saw on eel the first day. Yeah, tons
(18:12):
of beautiful fish.
Speaker 2 (18:14):
The sun just sea turtles, sea turtles, The sun just
illuminates the ocean floor in the shallow water. So well, yeah,
like a lot of kids were snorkeling and just seeing like,
I think it's a great experience for kids that are
old enough to remember it. Yeah, yeah, they're going to
remember this. This is a This is kind of one
of those core memories you won't forget.
Speaker 3 (18:30):
Yes, I would definitely agree with that.
Speaker 2 (18:32):
So think that about covers it for the live from episode. Guys,
if you want more information while we're here, go straight
over to our Instagram. We've got some stories up there.
We've got a lot of cool stuff up there, save stories,
so we have a safe story. So for a little
late to the party, go to the safe stories on
the Instagram. You'll get to work.
Speaker 3 (18:49):
On I'll get the safe story up yes, yeah.
Speaker 2 (18:51):
And then we will have a YouTube video coming out,
so check uh it. Actually, by the time this podcast drops,
we won't have the YouTube out just yet, but head
over to our YouTube channel link in then just scription
go subscribe. You'll see a super good vlog on this.
This is going to be a very good.
Speaker 3 (19:04):
Vlog, yes, and stay tuned for our deep dive podcast
on this coming up in probably about two weeks, and
we'll go through everything tips and tricks to know about
just traveling to Saint Lucia. Travel extras that are available
like fast track and departure lounge, all the pricing information,
(19:25):
best time of year to travel here, weather and price wise.
Speaker 2 (19:28):
All the note before you go tips.
Speaker 3 (19:30):
Yes, we will give you all of that information and
more so.
Speaker 2 (19:33):
Awesome, awesome guys, Thank you so much for tuning in.
We love you. Go ahead subscribe to the podcast if
you're enjoying the content and joining the information. We bring
you the exclusive details on all the best resorts around
the world here at the NOE before Good Travel Show
and Penac Travel. Check the links in the description. Get
ahold of us, where z here for you traveling? And
see we don't try to dine for our services. You
work directly with us. We're really with Janet the Cribbean
(19:54):
Queen shall help you pick out the best resort for you.
We've been to hundreds and this is just another one
in the books. Here. I'm having so much funn here.
So we're about to go lounde by the pool, then
by the ocean, have a few more pool drinks. Definitely
go watch the sunset at the bar by the beach,
and we're going joy the rest of our trip here.
We love you, guys, See you next time, See you
next time.
Welcome to the Note Before You Go Travel Show show
where we share all the latest travel tips, tricks and
insights to make your next vacation the best one. Yeah,
so sit back, relaxed, grab a cocktail and enjoy the
show with Ennac Travels, George Benyac, and our senior travel consultant,
Janet Begnyac.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
What's up everybody? Hey everyone, welcome back to an opposition
of the Note Before You Travel Show. We've got a
show for you to date, and this.
Speaker 3 (00:29):
Is a special show live from Sugar Beach and Taylor show.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
What is an some people want to know. People might
just think Sugar Beach is just actually a beach.
Speaker 3 (00:39):
This is a resort.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
It is an awesome resort. But we are here, we're
having a good time. We are unfortunate in our last day, yes,
but we're in We're in our room. It's a large
room and it's not our podcast studio, so you may
hear an echo. I apologize in advance, but this room
is beautiful and we're having a great time. This is
probably exceeded in my expectations of what I thought it
(01:03):
would be. I mean, it was gonna be great, but
this is this is really special. It's like, yeah, I
mean we're gonna go through early thoughts here on this thing,
but man, we are having such a great time, smooth
trip in. We don't have to leave tomorrow though, which
I'm not looking forward to leaving.
Speaker 3 (01:16):
Yes, So this resort is one hundred and thirty rooms
in suites. All of the rooms come with butler service
in a plunge pool. They're all a great size. So
we are in the luxury beachfront bungalow, and I must
say it's probably one of my most favorite rooms we've
ever had.
Speaker 2 (01:36):
Yeah, I'd have to agree with you there, Like this
is a very special room. Like it just like how
close it is to the beach, how close it is really.
Speaker 3 (01:44):
Everything else, the views from the room all.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
What means a massive room, and we have a huge,
very soft king bed. I've been sleeping. We've been sleeping
in like pretty late for us, like we usually don't
sleep in like this.
Speaker 3 (01:56):
I know, we've been sleeping until like eight thirty. That's
kind of crazy.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
And it still has this crib in charm of like
the white wood on the ceiling. A couple things really
like it's got the private pool, yeah, outdoor shower, yeah,
it's got a huge indoor shower rain shower head, and
its beach front and actually has like a little like
we have our own little private terrace with a little
table out there and a hammock and you can just
walk right out to the beach. And I think so
(02:19):
people asked us. We were getting asked like, oh, where's
your room, and we're like, oh, we have one of
the beach bungalows, and everyone's like, oh yeah, that's like yeah,
really really good because this resort it is, you know,
it is very So we were on the beach, thankfully,
but a lot of the other rooms are up on
the hillside, so it's a law you either have to
take wait for the transfer van or you have a
long walk down. We are already here at the beach front,
(02:41):
which is nice.
Speaker 3 (02:41):
Yes, it's very central location. So a couple things just
on getting here. So the resort is about fifty fifty
five minutes from the airport, so you have the option
of taking a transfer or the water taxi. There's a
couple there's a resort water taxi and there's the ferry,
so there's a couple of options there. But we did
(03:03):
the resorts water taxi because we are traveling with family.
There is a total of eight of us, and so
it made more sense price wise to book the resort
one over the ferry.
Speaker 2 (03:16):
It's faster, it is. Yes, it's a I mean the
resort ones essentially it's a center console. Yeah, and it's
a lot like the boats that we take out in
Charleston all. I mean, I'm very familiar with these boats.
And they go fast, which is nice. Yeah, smooth ride,
deep v hull, which means it can cut through waves,
and they you know, they're just pouring up some local
(03:36):
rum punch for us.
Speaker 3 (03:37):
I did request that, so I'm not sure if that's standard,
but I specifically requested beer and rum punch for the
trans for the water tacky, So I would just recommend
doing that because I don't believe they charged us any extra.
I'll double check that.
Speaker 2 (03:50):
Sound. It was cool, So we were having rum punch
and it was a beautiful ride. Yeah, and it definitely,
you know, Saint Lucia because it is such a mountainous destination,
being a volcanic island, having these little ways to get
to the resort that don't require driving through the island
because driving through the island's hard because it's very hilly.
You have to go around almost the xchier of the
(04:10):
island because it's so mountainous. But boat it's quicker.
Speaker 3 (04:13):
Yeah, if you're prone to motion sickness, you need to
kind of weigh whether you're going to be more prone
driving or if you're riding through the mountains or on
the water. So yeah, the water, it's just something at.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
Note the water is better and you can't do it.
You said on the last podcast, you can't do.
Speaker 3 (04:29):
A hlicutter tour here, right, No, you cannot.
Speaker 2 (04:31):
Yeah that's fine. Boat's a way to go, Yes, a
boat boat every time. Yeah, but it was cool, like
the boat takes you up, but you pulled us right
up to the dock. We got off and instantly you
can just like we're right in between the pitons. It's
just a stunning setting for a resort. Just yeah, it
really is.
Speaker 3 (04:45):
Yeah, it definitely is because you're right in between the
middle of them at the base. The beach here is
absolutely stunning, like.
Speaker 2 (04:55):
For Saint Lucia, Like it's an amazing beach, but Saint Lucia,
I mean it's not like the it's never ranks high
on like a quote beach destination compared to other Caribbean islands.
But man, this beach, I mean this beach here because
it's it's right between the pitons. I think technically we're
on the Caribbean seaside because it's not that you don't
get many heavy waves.
Speaker 3 (05:14):
Yeah, we're on the Cribean sea side, so the.
Speaker 2 (05:16):
Waves aren't as bad and you're just like the water
super clear. We went snorkeling yesterday and we saw octopus
and another thing that I didn't realize, so I knew
this was like it's not adults only, so there are
kids here. But to be honest, like like even if
you like adults only, like the like so quiet, like
you wouldn't even know there's many kids here at all.
Speaker 3 (05:37):
Yeah, the ambiance is you know, very relaxing, a little
bit more like sophisticated. So yeah, there's not like, you know,
a bunch of screaming kids running around at least that
has not been our experience exactly.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
Yeah, Like, I you know, we love adults only trips,
and you know, and I would expect like coming in
not knowing it, you know, some but are like I
definitely just want adults only. I would be more open
minded coming someplace like this because absolutely you can't even tell.
Like it's like so like it's so relaxing. Another thing
I like that they do here that other resorts don't
(06:14):
is a lot of other resorts you can hear some
sort of music by the beach, which I think some
people like that. It's so quiet.
Speaker 3 (06:21):
Yes, you just hear the waves crashing.
Speaker 2 (06:23):
This is the This is a very chill resort. This
is not a place you go to go party, right,
This is pure relaxation. There's not a bunch of late
night entertainment going late into the night.
Speaker 3 (06:34):
Well there was on July fourth, but of course, yeah.
Speaker 2 (06:36):
July fourth was awesome here. But you know it's just
like it's super quiet, super laid back, very relaxing.
Speaker 3 (06:42):
Yeah. But yeah, the kids that we are with, so
we're with our nieces, they are ten and seven. And
at first I started to get a little bit worried
because like we all did a trip a few years
ago to Hiativa kap Kana. You know, they have an
amazing water park. Like, Okay, I know that the kids
club here is great, but hopefully you know, they'll still
(07:04):
have like enough to do and I mean they have
literally just swam in the ocean and snorkeled and just
jumped off the water trampolines and slipping slides in the ocean,
and they've had so much fun. I mean they're worn
out every day.
Speaker 2 (07:19):
They're wearing themselves out yet oh oh yeah. And so
at the end of the day, I love that bar.
I don't know what the bar is called the Sunset Bar.
I called the Sunset Bar.
Speaker 3 (07:27):
Yeah, it's where Jettie Burgers is.
Speaker 2 (07:29):
So it's such it's so beautiful, like you can see
both pitons. Yeah, you can see the sunsetting. You know,
the breeze is just whipping through this like just classic
Caribbean wooden oak bar. It's it's so special. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (07:43):
So there's two beaches here, and a lot of beaches
in Saint Lucia are public, and technically this one is.
But I mean I've seen like one vendor on the
beach the whole time selling tours, but they don't bother
you when you're in your chairs or anything like that. So,
but the other beach is on just like around the
(08:04):
corner and it is totally private over there. And then yeah,
there is kind of like an overwater bar kind of thing.
And then you can see both of the Petons and
that is super chill. We've gone there each late afternoon.
Definitely going to go there again. They have a burger
place there called Jetty's. If you do the all inclusive plan,
(08:25):
which we have done, and we'll talk more about that.
Speaker 2 (08:28):
Ye'll give you the details on that.
Speaker 3 (08:30):
Yeah, but that is not a part of the all
inclusive plan.
Speaker 2 (08:32):
Yeah, so certain things are and certain things aren't, which
we'll go through, like once we get back to the
studio kind of look at all of our notes on
this thing and do some comparisons, we'll give you more
details on everything. Like we're in the moment right now,
which we like doing these live from yeah podcasts, because
we're here really experiencing it. We're looking around. I just
hope that goes too bad, but I don't think it is.
(08:54):
But you know, just being in this room and being
here and then being able to sit down for thirty
minutes and talk about it while we're here, is I
think really helpful to our followers.
Speaker 3 (09:03):
Yes, yeah, absolutely. So there's five restaurants, so one of
them is closed for dinner, is closed for renovations. We
have done the Julu s Grill and then we did
the beach barbecue buffet that they had for July fourth
at the Bonte restaurant, and then Saltwood is their fine
(09:25):
dining and we ate there last night and they were great.
Speaker 2 (09:27):
High end. Yes, yeah, right, this is a not to
cut you off, just to explain how high end some
of the food is here. The food has been. I
mean it's truly five star. So looking at the wineless,
you know, we're big wine drinkers, and I was looking
at the wireless so these sometimes you can like age, Ok,
how sophisticated of a place? Is this? Not that? Like
sophisticated matters when you're in the Caribbean. They had two
(09:49):
bottles of wine on the menu, two Bordeaux. They had
a No. Five Bordeaux and it was like a ninety
two I think Bordeaux. That's crazy twenty thousand dollars and
twenty five thousand dollars bottle. And I was like, holy crap.
Speaker 3 (10:02):
Definitely won't be doing that.
Speaker 2 (10:04):
Yeah, I mean, I'm like, oh my god, I mean, hey,
some people might come here and go nuts, you know.
And then but the wine was really good and.
Speaker 3 (10:12):
It's just the house wine that has been included as
part of the all inclusive package has been good, and
just to give you an idea on cost if you
were not to which will break. We'll do a whole
breakdown of this later because I have pictures of all
the menus with the prices and everything. But the house
wine's twelve bucks gloves.
Speaker 2 (10:29):
So yeah, and so Saint Lucia has a lot of
French influence.
Speaker 3 (10:33):
Yeah, So it's a French cat.
Speaker 2 (10:36):
It was once a French controlled island, and so the
locals actually speak a French creole. If you ever hear
the locals kind of talk amongst themselves, oftentimes they'll speak
in the French creole. And and so because of that,
the relationship is still really strong with France. Like last
night at dinner, I had oysters came from France. Yeah,
(10:57):
the house wine is a French Bordeaux. The wine list
is dominated with French wines. So you're getting like this
really unique experience here, giving a little European flair right
here in the Caribbean.
Speaker 3 (11:08):
Yes, yeah, that's pretty cool.
Speaker 2 (11:09):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (11:10):
Yeah. So and then tonight we are going back to
the Bonte restaurant for their regular menu, and we were
looking at it earlier. It's got kind of like a
wide variety but heavy Caribbean influence at this restaurant. So, like,
they have curried goat on the menu, So you're gonna
have the goat. No, I'm not, but I wouldn't be
surprised my brother does because he literally is a goat everything.
Speaker 2 (11:31):
So I should wash it now with goat milk coat
curran goat milk.
Speaker 3 (11:35):
Yeah, but the food has been fantastic.
Speaker 2 (11:39):
They Wagu steak last night. I had some Wago steak.
I mean, just services top notch. They have a butler.
The butler's been great.
Speaker 3 (11:47):
Are the one who Yeah she's here today when we
had her the first Mikayla. Yeah, she's been absolutely amazing.
Speaker 2 (11:53):
Shout out Mikayla. Just a sweetheart, always helpful. You know,
your parents are a little mobility challenged, and especially for
a resort that I would say isn't the best from
mobility challenge, They've done a fantastic job accommodating them because
you can get a van just about anywhere and it'll
take you to anywhere else at the resort.
Speaker 3 (12:12):
So yeah, I definitely get a couple of things to know,
which again, we'll talk more about this in our Deep
Dive podcast. But this is not a super mobility friendly.
Speaker 2 (12:22):
Resort unless you're this the room category we have probably
the best for it.
Speaker 3 (12:26):
Yes, if you do have some mobility challenges, I think
that the beach front bungalows are going to be your
best option because then you can pretty much walk, you know,
down to the beach to the pool.
Speaker 2 (12:39):
Most of the restaurants are down.
Speaker 3 (12:40):
The restaurants are down near the beach.
Speaker 2 (12:42):
So gym isn't far from here, so it's just easier. Yeah,
so I'd agree with that one hundred percent. The rest
of the rooms are in some way, shape or form
up on a hill. Yeah, they want to be the
big hill. There's some huge hills or some small hills,
but you know, I forget how kind of how how
hilly the terrain is here, right, and then we go
(13:03):
back to Saint Lucias. This is our sixth or seventh
time in Saint Lucians. It's a sixth I guess we're
Saint Lucians now on FI, I guess. So.
Speaker 3 (13:10):
So another thing that I want to mention is if
you are, I guess bothered by heat, that would be
something to take into account. Because all of the restaurants are.
Speaker 2 (13:25):
Open air so yeah, except for the one that was closed.
Speaker 3 (13:28):
Except for the one that's closed. Yeah, but it's all
open air. Which it's been cool at night in my opinion,
and there's been you know a little bit of a breeze.
But the room it can be hot. So that's just
something to know.
Speaker 2 (13:39):
I don't know for sure, but where we ate last night,
they did have some indoor and I had all the
doors open, right that one might be able to be
closed for indoor maybe.
Speaker 3 (13:48):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (13:48):
Yeah, it's kind of like you know, jade mountains like this,
a lot of open air. But the rooms here, I mean,
the air conditioning works so well on the.
Speaker 3 (13:55):
Read Oh yeah, we've got a crank down to like
sixty three.
Speaker 2 (13:57):
Yeah, it's like it's like a walking cooler. So really
really enjoying this. It succeeded my expectations. I would say
initial thoughts are take the boat, transfer food if you're
a foodie, if you really like a culinary experience, you're
going to get that here. Nothing I love about these rooms.
We have our private pool, Yeah, private outdoor shower walk
(14:20):
in intoor it and that's.
Speaker 3 (14:21):
Nice is the outdoor shower. You can walk in from
there into your shower in the room. There's a door.
Speaker 2 (14:27):
It was a door.
Speaker 3 (14:28):
So if you're like super sandy, you can you want
to rent off out there and then just go get
directly in your indoor shower or you can just shower
out there too.
Speaker 2 (14:36):
But yeah, yeah, and they even have your own so
even a part of your outdoor shower, so you have
like you have like a little your own private courtyard
that no one can see in.
Speaker 3 (14:45):
Well, we do not. All of the beach front bungalows
are like this, and we're going to go through today
and walk through some of them or like buy them. Yeah,
take some notes and we'll kind of give you some
ideas on room numbers.
Speaker 2 (14:56):
See you're gonna get all the inside scoop with the
room numbers. But yeah, what was about say is like
the outdoor shower also has a foot shower. So let's
just say you like came back from dinner and you
were in sandals because a lot of the restaurants are
on the beach, like literally on the beach, and your
your feet are sandy and you want to rinse them
off where you go to bed. You have a foot
shower outside. Just walk right out there, rintse off and
come in like I'm like, that's so cool, and then
(15:16):
we have none only I forgot to say, a huge
indoor shower right with a range shower head. We also
have a huge tub inside as well. Yes, huge tub.
Speaker 3 (15:24):
And there's like a whole little kitchen at kitchen area
off to the side that's its own room.
Speaker 2 (15:31):
Souns like snacks and drinks and a fridge and just
all sorts of stuff.
Speaker 3 (15:35):
Yeah, so the room is very, very spacious. I'll have
the square footage on the next podcast that we do
about this, but I absolutely love this room, love the resort.
It's amazing. You know, it's going like yeah, things that
we'll mention on the next podcast, but yes, it is.
(15:56):
It is pricey.
Speaker 2 (15:58):
Yeah, so obviously you're paying for an elevated experience, which
they do deliver. Yeah. Yeah, I'm always skeptical when a
resort is charging so much, like, Okay, are they cutting corners?
Are they really delivering that much in value, because listen,
you can still pay a lot and get a good
value out of it as long as they're delivering such
an incredible product. And I think you're getting that here.
Speaker 3 (16:16):
Oh yeah, I mean this is you know, outside of
Jade Mountain and Ladera. You know, I would say those
two plus this are probably your top resorts in Saint Lucia.
Speaker 2 (16:29):
Yeah, so yeah, yeah, anyways, I'm having a great time.
I can't like we haven't toured or you probably have
the rooms up on the hillside. Did you tour those
when you came here.
Speaker 3 (16:40):
No, anyways, I've got some room videos of them though,
like they're really nice.
Speaker 2 (16:44):
But just being in here by the beach, you.
Speaker 3 (16:47):
Just got to have these reviews from up there are incredible.
Speaker 2 (16:49):
Oh, I'm sure the reviews are great. Yeah, but I
just love that. I just love being close to the
beach like this. Yeah. And I'm not even a beach person,
like I like the pool. I'm usually more of a
pool person.
Speaker 3 (16:56):
Yeah, we have spent every day on the beach so far,
but we did get a pool bana today.
Speaker 2 (17:00):
So those little blue flags are cool. So they have
those little blue flags. So each little beach hut there's
like just your beach chairs, the loungers, there's a there's
a blue flag. Yeah that if you want something, you
can kind of put up a flag and sever will
come right over to you, say they do that lunch great.
They'll bring you a menu for food, drinks, whatever you want.
Speaker 3 (17:19):
They do that at Jade Mountain, and I wish more
resorts would do that so you can it's you're signaling
when you want something and then somebody comes to you
and yeah, that's.
Speaker 2 (17:28):
Great, that's awesome. It's awesome.
Speaker 3 (17:30):
Yeah, and there's definitely an abundance of beach chairs and
pool chairs like we've never seen them, and I'm pretty
sure the resort is at least over ninety percent occupancy
right now. Yeah, but that has not been an issue
getting chairs anywhere. They have plenty of them. And then
as far as activities go, which we'll go through that
(17:52):
in more detail, but they have amazing snorkling right off
the beach. So if you want to be able to
just walk out and snorkle and it's included, this is
amazing and there's great snorkling. Like George said, we saw
an Octopit an octopus yesterday my brother saw on eel,
which we saw on eel the first day. Yeah, tons
(18:12):
of beautiful fish.
Speaker 2 (18:14):
The sun just sea turtles, sea turtles, The sun just
illuminates the ocean floor in the shallow water. So well, yeah,
like a lot of kids were snorkeling and just seeing like,
I think it's a great experience for kids that are
old enough to remember it. Yeah, yeah, they're going to
remember this. This is a This is kind of one
of those core memories you won't forget.
Speaker 3 (18:30):
Yes, I would definitely agree with that.
Speaker 2 (18:32):
So think that about covers it for the live from episode. Guys,
if you want more information while we're here, go straight
over to our Instagram. We've got some stories up there.
We've got a lot of cool stuff up there, save stories,
so we have a safe story. So for a little
late to the party, go to the safe stories on
the Instagram. You'll get to work.
Speaker 3 (18:49):
On I'll get the safe story up yes, yeah.
Speaker 2 (18:51):
And then we will have a YouTube video coming out,
so check uh it. Actually, by the time this podcast drops,
we won't have the YouTube out just yet, but head
over to our YouTube channel link in then just scription
go subscribe. You'll see a super good vlog on this.
This is going to be a very good.
Speaker 3 (19:04):
Vlog, yes, and stay tuned for our deep dive podcast
on this coming up in probably about two weeks, and
we'll go through everything tips and tricks to know about
just traveling to Saint Lucia. Travel extras that are available
like fast track and departure lounge, all the pricing information,
(19:25):
best time of year to travel here, weather and price wise.
Speaker 2 (19:28):
All the note before you go tips.
Speaker 3 (19:30):
Yes, we will give you all of that information and
more so.
Speaker 2 (19:33):
Awesome, awesome guys, Thank you so much for tuning in.
We love you. Go ahead subscribe to the podcast if
you're enjoying the content and joining the information. We bring
you the exclusive details on all the best resorts around
the world here at the NOE before Good Travel Show
and Penac Travel. Check the links in the description. Get
ahold of us, where z here for you traveling? And
see we don't try to dine for our services. You
work directly with us. We're really with Janet the Cribbean
(19:54):
Queen shall help you pick out the best resort for you.
We've been to hundreds and this is just another one
in the books. Here. I'm having so much funn here.
So we're about to go lounde by the pool, then
by the ocean, have a few more pool drinks. Definitely
go watch the sunset at the bar by the beach,
and we're going joy the rest of our trip here.
We love you, guys, See you next time, See you
next time.
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