We have recently returned from a two week stay in St. Lucia at the East Winds Inn. We have been to a few Caribbean Islands and so far have found St. Lucia to be the most scenic with the friendliest people.

Having done extensive research before our trip, East Winds was everything we expected. It is a very quiet idyllic setting for those looking for a very relaxing laid back holiday. Our days were spent lounging on the beach and taking the occasional excursion around the island.

Although people talk about "Caribbean time" (where things happen much more slowly and late in comparison to western time) our experience in St. Lucia was that everything was on time or early. This included meals at the hotel and various excursion activities.

The meals were fabulous and varied, well mixed with local ingredients. There was a very well stocked bar and champaigne was served every night with a lovely selection of wines for dinner. There was a variety of entertainment from local folk singers to a steel band which we thoroughly enjoyed (having bought a few of their CD's).

All the staff were exceptionally friendly and helpful and unobtrusive. The rooms and grounds are very well maintained and clean. We used the free WIFI on a number of occasions and there was computer internet access for the guests at reception, which was useful as well. The beach is fairly private and we were never bothered by beach traders as there is a subtle security prescence on the premises.

There were a lot of really nice touches around the hotel which made the place special, and explains why we met a number of repeat visitors; the guests seemed mostly to be made up of repeat visitors and honeymooners. Therefore if you are looking for quiet romance in a very beautiful setting this is your place. Saying that, this was our first visit and we were not on our honeymoon.

Just one last note, if you have the chance to take the helicopter transfer from the airport we highly recommend this as you get gorgeous views of the island scenery.

We arranged our wedding at the East Winds Inn based upon many things, one of which was the comments and reviews from trip advisor. The East Winds excelled in everyway possible.

We wanted a place that was quite and romantic, intimacy was essential and it delivered in everyway.
Everything about our day was amazing the staff were fantastic and couldn't do enough for us.We were relaxing in the pool 2 hours before the wedding while the gardners and staff prepared the beach setting, which was stunning.
Our photographs were taken by Bill Mortley, a local photographer whos work we found to be very proffesional, he captured the occasion perfectly. If you are considering a wedding here you will not be disappointed.

Away from the wedding, the hoilday/honeymoon was outstanding in every sense. Everything was just amazing the food, the room, the staff ,the grounds and gardens.
We also met some great people whom were very friendly, this contributed to a relaxing happy atmosphere.
We loved the East Winds so much we will be returning at the same time next year to celerbrate our 1st anniversery.

We stayed at Eastwinds for the second week of a 2 week visit to St Lucia in March 2008. Our first week was an active walking holiday so Eastwinds was intended as chance to have a completely lazy week. It completly met this objective for us.

We stayed in one of the Deluxe villas, which was clean and comfortable. The 'outside' shower is an interesting idea but if the bathroom is used at night with the light on the screen doesn't provide much privacy!! Our only negative comment on the room is that the TV (and DVD) picture quality was very poor, although we spent very little time watching television so it really wasn't an issue. As mentioned by other reviewers we were disturbed occasionally by dogs barking in the vicinity, but there is little the management can do about this.

The grounds are very attractive and well maintained, the beach areas were clean and provided with plenty of good quality loungers and shade. Eastwinds offers a few facilities such as snorkels and kayaks on the beach, which in our week were little used and always available if we felt like being slightly energetic. We were however surprised to find that there was no waiter service to the beach areas, not a big problem as it's only 50 yards to the bar, but given the number of staff around we thought this could easily have been provided.

Overall we found the food to be good but not great. In general the barbecues were very good, in particular the fresh fish that we had watched the fisherman land that morning was always good. The dinner menu was a bit limited, offering only 3 choices for started and main course, but with one exception all the food was very enjoyable. The exception was one beef dish that definitely used the wrong cut of meat.

We found the staff to be courteous and helpful without being overly friendly, which given the style of the resort we felt just about right.

The only other point to note is that the resort is just round the bay from Windjammer Landing so there is a steady stream of water skiers and jet skis in the bay, however the area off Eastwinds' beach is cordoned off and no one seemed to encroach on this while we were there. At night the music from Windjammer Landing can be heard but this was seldom intrusive and always seemed to finish by 11:00pm.

Overall we thoroughly enjoyed Eastwinds which hit the mark as a place to relax and do as little as you want.

Liz & Pete
Bath, UK

My wife and I stayed at the East Winds Inn during the second half of April 2008.

We have wanted to visit St Lucia for some time and selected the East Winds after extensive research on line, particularly Trip Advisor. We were very impressed by previous reviews especially the positive comments about the staff and food.
Our expectations were very high and we were expecting to ‘have our socks blown off’. Sadly they were not and we were a little disappointed. After travelling extensively, I always take the view that you make the best of things. I certainly do not mope around complaining to everyone. It was interesting to note however that many of the guests we spoke to shared our views. All had used trip advisor and their expectations were also very high. We were only aware of two other guests who had stayed at the resort previously.
This raises an interesting new phenomena. Exceedingly high expectations due to web review sites such as this one.
Don’t get me wrong. It was not a dreadful holiday. It was just not as good as we had expected.
First of all the positives.
• Very laid back atmosphere.
• Wonderful tropical gardens which are well laid out and maintained.
• Good location, just south of ‘Windjammer Landing’.
• Excellent sun loungers and large parasols.
• Very clean room, grounds and beach
• Nice pool area
• No beach traders
• Evening entertainment very laid back but enjoyable
For information:
• The electrical sockets are 13amp English type
• Hairdryers are provided
• The Dine Around Scheme was no longer available. This enabled guests staying more than 6 nights to eat at an alternative restaurant in the area.


Sadly, we did not find the staff to be as friendly and attentive as previous reviewers. All were polite, including the gardeners. Some were very friendly other less so. One of the head waiters who took our order each evening did not even make eye contact and it wasn’t for want of trying.

I suppose the biggest disappointment was the food. Breakfast was ok with a selection of egg dishes, including freshly made omelettes, bacon, sausage, baked beans, ham, cheese, fruit and cereals. The sort of think you see in any hotel in the world.
Lunch was either a choice of three main dishes from a hot buffet or a barbeque served with salad and/or vegetables.
Dinner was either 4 course table d’hote style or a barbeque. On one evening we were offered stir fried conch creole style, poached stingray in a nutmeg sauce and squid. Not being a fishy person I opted for the vegetarian option which was a stuffed pepper.
This is the full menu offered the night before we left:

Sauted Squid with barley and basil
Or
Pan fried duck foie gras with Marsala wine
Or
Cucumber carpaccio with mint and lime dressing
*******
Yellow split peas soup
Or
Salmon pasta
*******
Stuffed chicken breast with curry sauce
Or
Pan fried salmon with seasoning pepper sauce
Or
Vegetable fajitas
********
Fresh fruit salad
Or
Banana doughnuts with spicy toffee sauce
Or
Chocolate tart
********
I thought it might be useful to reproduce this in full so that readers will know what to expect rather than relying on my subjective views. Some of the dishes were excellent. Others were ‘weird’.

The wines offered at lunch and dinner were very acceptable. There was an impressive range of drinks available from the bar. Cocktails were made with branded spirits as opposed to local and champagne was served every evening.

We stayed in one of the 3 Ocean View rooms. I think we were very lucky staying in room 27 which turned out to be the largest. There was also an Ocean View suite which I understand was also very nice. Rooms 28 and 29 looked very small. Our room was very nice with a seaview, ceiling fan, air conditioning and a fridge on the small balcony stocked with beer, water and soft drinks. There was also a coffee maker. The furniture was showing its age but we were told that it is being gradually replaced. Two new chairs and a table appeared on our balcony whilst we were there.

We slept well but several other guests who were staying in the deluxe rooms further away from the beach were disturbed by barking dogs. On one or two occasions during the day there was also some loud drum ‘n bass music filtering down to the beach from the villas higher up the hillside towards Windjammer Landing. The noise was entirely out of the control of the hotel management and I suspect there is nothing they can do about it. There was some evening entertainment at Windjammer Landing but this was usually over by 10pm.

Whilst we were staying my wife celebrated her birthday so I told our Virgin rep who arranged for someone from reception to call me. They did and said they would provide a cake but that flowers would be at a cost which I agreed. When I went up to reception to collect the flowers they had not been ordered. The cake arrived the night after. Not very impressive.

The staff usually dine in the main and only restaurant at lunchtime. This is not a problem but I have never seen so many back office staff. On one day I counted about 10 suits, male and female. We couldn’t’ work out where they all worked.
Every good hotel I have ever stayed in usually has a high management presence. The manager of a hotel we once stayed at in Barbados used to walk the floor at least three times a day. No matter where you were you would see him. I never saw either the manager or deputy manager walking the floor at East Winds. We met Pearl, the deputy manager at the managers cocktail party (we heard that the manger was back in the UK). She was very personable and greeted us warmly saying we must try and get up to reception to say hello..... If the management were walking the walk and talking the talk they would be coming down and saying hello to the guests not the other way round. I got the impression they managed from their bunker up the hill.

I suspect that previous guests may not share all my opinions. Ce’est la vie. What I will say is that at least 5 other couples, unprompted by me, also said “not as good as they were expecting”.

If you are already booked don’t panic. Just be realistic about your expectations.

Barry and Sarah
Sheffield. UK