My holiday experience was just great. Its not a four star hotel but its very local and the view of the Marigot bay is excellent. food was
also very good. The owner JJ was a great entertainer, he actually cooked us his famous creole crabs. They really have nice cozy bungalows

i stayed at jj's paradise and it started out good enough to wonderful thanks to the staff especially Stella she is polite and very proffesional and made me feel like am at home. However if you just looking to get out of the city jj's Paradise is just right for you.

As part of our monthly outings seven of my friends and I decided to make reservations for the Buffet at your establishment after we received such great reviews and excellent past personal experiences from other collegues, and I must say, I was rather impressed with the whole layout of the restaurant. Unfortunately, this is where it ends.

The service we received can only be described as atrocious and to this point I am still unable to comprehend what transpired. It started off smoothly, we were seated but then, the hostess just walked away. For about five minutes we sat there catching up and when it was clear that she would not be returning any time soon, I took it upon myself to serve myself from the buffet.

After we had already gotten our meals and returned to our seats, the hostess approached us and rudely stated that we did not wait for her to explain what was happening that evening. We made reservations for the Buffet as I previously stated, which, to me does not need any explanation, but in any event, if any explanation was needed it should have been done at the point when we were seated and not when she felt like it.

If our table was attended to at least five times I would be telling a lie. We were only asked one time how we were doing and when we stated clearly that we were not satisfied, it was just shrugged off by the hostess. She even actually said to one of my friends who told her that the bread was a bit too hard, and I quote;"That's it?". The waiter who served us water seemed quite unsure of himself as well and actually wanted an estimate on the amount of water we thought we needed. If one of the ladies did not ask him if the water was priced, we would have never known that it would be part of the charge. Another waitress came to us too, but that was only in error as we were not the ones who ordered ice cream and there was another waiter who seemed to avoid our table like we had the plague. We had no wine yet the wine glasses remained on the table and our dishes were not cleared in a timely manner. I may not be familiar with how a restaurant is run but I don't beleive that this came remotley close to what it should be.

From then it only gets worse. The food was not all that great, actually, it was rather unsavory. Not quite the buffet selection we imagined. There were three types of Garden Salad, spicey fried potatoes, rice with hopefully what was parsley dotted with a few black eyed peas, barbequed spare ribs, chicken and grilled fish. I am an avid barbequed chicken fan but after this meal I am not so certain anymore. Persons who had the fish complained about its lack of flavour and even in an effort to add some piquancy we were unable to get the salt out of the shaker!

At the end of it all, we could have just walked out of the restaurant without paying for our dinner because it took at least twenty minutes before we were presented with the cheque. However,they did not negelect to put in the service tax on the bill although we received the worst service ever so at that point we decided to pay for our meals but exclude the service tax.

Hopefully we will never come across this type of service again which would cause us to take such action and we will not be returning to your restaurant ever again.We will definately not recommend it to anyone else.

I hope your staff clean up their act and learn to provide a proper customer service.

Yours Sincerely
Ms. Joseph

After spending 2 disappointing days in St. Lucia and being fed up with rude people, high prices and lacking facilities, it was nice to come to JJ's in gorgeous Marigot Bay.

Now, this hotel is not what I am used to for a vacation, but it was better than the others we stayed at in St. Lucia and the staff was VERY friendly, from the maid to the desk clerk to the servers. Everyone there was very friendly.

We were traveling with our 2 teen boys so we got an apartment that had a large bed and then a twin bed and a sofa bed. It was tight, but it worked well for us for 1 night. The room wasn't really an apartment though, it only had a mini-fridge that really didn't work and the A/C SUCKED. Even after being on "high" for 20 hours, the room was still smoking hot.

But the view. It's amazing. The room has a patio and you can see all the way down into the bay. Let me warn you, the walk to the apartment from the main part of the hotel is on a STEEP, bumpy road. After nearly dying the first time I walked it, I drove up and down each time after that, which was kind of a pain.

The bungalows do not have this great view but they are not at the top of the hill either.

The hotel had 2 pools, one in the middle of the bungalows which was cute and the other in the middle of one of the restaurants which was weird but funny when all the drunk people started jumping in it at the end of the night.

We happened to be there on JJ's birthday (you'll know it's him from the giant gold JJ emblem around his neck) so after dinner everyone there was really drinking a lot and partying. It was very entertaining and our boys, 14 and 13, thought it was hilarious.

Again, be prepared for the steep, pot-hole filled road leading to the hotel. It was almost impossible to find the desk clerk, but when she finally showed up, she was great. Very nice and helpful. They need a buzzer or something so the staff knows when someone is waiting, we waited forever!

From the main area of the hotel, you walk back on a bride that is over this strange swampy area to the back part of the hotel. The boys loved climbing on these weird trees that grow in the mud/water, depending on the tide, and dodging the yellow sea crabs.

This back part of the hotel is basically built on a dock over the water and is a the main bar and restaurant. It's all open-air and has a great view of the entire bay. JJ's place also seems to be a primary point for boats to tie onto and then drive into town for supplies.

There is no beach here. In fact, the only beach at Marigot Bay is this really small beach area on a sort-of peninsula. You have to take a water taxi to get to the beach for $10EC/RT. Again, kind of a pain to lug all of your swimming stuff all the way down the hill from the room and then onto a boat to cross the bay just to lie on the beach and swim in the water.

And if anyone offers to take you on a snorkeling trip, DO NOT WASTE YOUR TIME OR MONEY. We did this the morning we were leaving. The guy charged the 4 of us $60USD and drove us on this tiny fishing boat in the super choppy ocean and it took forever. Then he pulled into this silly area saying it was a reef. It was not a reef and the water was so rough that the visibility sucked and I got seasick. Not a fun 2 hours.

JJ's actually had fair prices on the food and drinks, and the menu, while still small, had much more typical tourist food. I was so happy to finally get a cheeseburger and fries! After 7pm they also have pizza which was OK, but still a little strange. Who puts canned corn and hot dogs (they call it sausage) on their pizza?? I guess maybe St. Lucians do. I really don't think they know how to cook in St. Lucia.

We met some interesting people that had been traveling on a huge boat that was docked at JJ's, and then saw some really stupid, drunk east coast rich kids act like total idiots. It was a very entertaining night.

So, overall, JJ's was still not the standard type of vacation hotel I am used to. The apartment rooms had very limited facilities and are very far from the main area of the hotel and ages away from the beach. But the staff is the nicest we encountered in St. Lucia and the food/bar prices are fair. Our boys had fun swimming and exploring and there weren't locals hanging around staring at us and making us nervous the way they did in the other areas of St. Lucia we visited.

If we do go to St. Lucia again, which is highly unlikely, we will definitely stay at JJ's again.