Exceptional Vacation Resort
Apr 17, 2024 richandjulie Scottsboro, Alabama
Anse Chastenet was an exceptional vacation for us in Feb 2024 - A small resort in number of rooms, but Large in acreage and beachfront. The resort sits on a VERY steep hillside, with Lots of steps - but a very prompt car shuttle service is available to get up and down the hillside (a portable phone is provided to call for car service, or to…
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Anse Chastenet was an exceptional vacation for us in Feb 2024 - A small resort in number of rooms, but Large in acreage and beachfront. The resort sits on a VERY steep hillside, with Lots of steps - but a very prompt car shuttle service is available to get up and down the hillside (a portable phone is provided to call for car service, or to make dinner reservations). Its definitely not a place that would be wheelchair friendly, but I did see a few folks with canes, and I have very arthritic feet, and managed just fine with the ride service.
The beaches are beautiful and the iconic Pitons are in the next bay over. The beach has very dark volcanic sand - bring sandals or you'll burn your feet. The water is clear and calm, and easy to get in and out of even if you aren't a fit 25 yr old anymore. The Chastenet beach is directly in front of the property and has a large restaurant and bar. There is a small snorkeling area set aside here that prohibits boats - but this can get crowded, as the beaches are public and many tour boats bring their passengers here for a short snorkel. Too crowded for you sometimes? Walk about 10 min or take a water taxi to the Mamin beach. It's never crowded over there, and a great lunch service and bar are available on that beach. The snorkeling area is considerably larger here, and there's so much coral, turles and fishes, etc to see. Snorkeling gear is available or bring your own. We brought foam noodles too - very light in the luggage, and great for floating in the ocean. Both beaches have very comfortable padded beach beds, with towel service, and plenty of umbrellas or thatched structures - NO having to reserve a bed early in the a.m. or such nonsense that goes on in resorts that do not have enough beds to accommodate all their guests. There are a couple vendors at the main beach - all low key and not at all pushy. We saw no noisy jet skis : )
The majority of the rooms are on the hillside, and have open 'walls' to get sea breezes in (no a/c, but lots of fans). The views are best on the hillside. We stayed in one of the 12 rooms on the beach - these have a/c, due to less air flow at the lower level. We picked the beach rooms because the Beach is where we wanted to spend our time - and there's good food and drink available there. We really only used the shuttle service when we wanted to have dinner at the upper level restaurant a couple times. The bed was comfy, the bathroom very nice and plenty spacious for us, with double sinks and a large shower. No TVs (we didn't miss that), but decent Wifi. Rooms come with a tablet for the activities and restaurant schedule and several news sources. A mini fridge, keurig type capuchino maker and an electric kettle were on the patio. We never made coffee with a kettle and a funnel filter before, but we figured it out. The outdoor patio lounging area was great for morning coffee, but ours was on the sunny afternoon side of the building and a bit hot later in the day. No worries, the bar was available for a pre-dinner drink and sunset viewing, once we got cleaned up after a day on the beach. Men can wear nice shorts to dinner here, with a collared shirt - something I wish other resorts would do! My husband hates having to bring long pants to a tropical location for dinnertime elsewhere.
The food was very good, with plenty of variety. Vegan options were plentiful. The restaurants were menu service only - except for a nice buffet at breakfast (which also had menu options). We had fish, pork, beef, shrimp etc. Some of the dishes were Indian/Caribbean style, and others more traditional fare - sample menus are online. Fruit and vegetables are fresh from a nearby garden. Lunch was very good - and could be eaten on the beach or in the restaurants. Just place an order from your beach bed, and it arrived soon afterwards - Excellent burgers at Mamin (and I generally won't get a burger in the Caribbean - but do make an exception here!), and I also liked the fish and chips, with local Piton beer batter. The local craft beer was very good - especially the Chocolate Stout in a frosty mug! We mostly are beer and wine folks, but had a few mixed cocktails - and had no complaints about selections. The house wine was very good, imho.
Staff was very friendly and accommodating. The beach, rooms and grounds were nicely kept. Between the two beaches is the remnants of a sugarcane plantation, and 12 miles of jungle biking or walking trails. Highly recommended is the tour with Meno, who's an exceptional guide. Some trails are easy and others challenging - bring good footwear for the more challenging trails. Bikes are available to rent, if you prefer. There was entertainment after dinner nightly - varied styles, and generally the resort was quiet by 10 pm.
We had no trouble with bugs, and skipped the bug spray and room coils available for use. The resort does spray the whole area once a week.
There are lots of ‘green’ efforts at the resort, from the water provided by their own collection systems to cloth napkins, trash liners, and coasters being used, etc. Young children are not allowed at the resort, and its mostly couples who stay here - some are newlyweds, and others are in the retiree age range.
The Art Collection! – such a wonderful feature of this resort is the collection that has been decades in the making. There is a Huge collection of carved wooden figures and fish carvings by Lawrence Deligny, along with numerous carved support posts, frames and railings. Also, Lots of paintings by various artists, including canvases in each guest room, besides all those in the public places. More recently, local artist Sakey has painted murals outside the tennis courts, and he has a weekly art class at the resort. There is a small art gallery on site, with pieces for sale.
The ‘Road’ into the resort, off the winding main streets from the airport, is very primitive and bumpy as many have said. Depends on your taxi driver how the ride to and from the airport is ………. Coming in we had a chatty driver who pointed out all sorts of landmarks, a car with a decent suspension and he was careful at large bumps. On the way back, a silent driver who had a much lesser suspension in his car and didn’t use as much caution on the bumps. Night and Day on those rides…..fyi. Helicopter rides or luxury vehicles are available for an upcharge over standard sedan.
What would we change if we could? Not much at all – we were on the All Inclusive plan (recommended), and would have preferred an arm band to having to sign for each and every drink or food order. (There are a few non included, upcharged items, but we never ordered those.) We’d have liked to be able to take a small carafe of house wine to the room for a nightcap, but it was available by the glass only. A small buffet of simple breakfast foods/muffins in the lower beach restaurant would be nice, instead of breakfast being available only at the upper level. Small changes certainly, and nothing that would remotely keep us from returning again.
Overall, a wonderful experience, and we hope to come back again soon.
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