Island Escapes

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Sun, sand, sea and quite possibly the most memorable time you’ll ever have together . . . what’s not to love?

Jade Mountain
St. Lucia

Picture the coolest, sexiest spread you’ve ever seen in Architectural Digest: Behind a towering door accessed via a 50-foot bridge, a grand space with soaring 15-foot ceilings, tropical wood furnishings, stout stone-faced columns and a canopy bed afloat in imported linens just barefoot steps away from a shimmering emerald-green mosaic-tile infinity pool.

Easily overshadowing even this, however, is the knockout view of St. Lucia’s twin pitons rising out of the Caribbean Sea—a Unesco World Heritage Site (the Taj Mahal is another)—which forms the completely open-air “fourth wall” of your room.
But the term “room” is so inadequate here; at Jade Mountain they’re called “sanctuaries,” which is exactly what they become in no time because, believe me, this is where you’ll be spending most of your time. They’re deliberately techno-free—no radios, TVs or even phones—the better for you to commune with that view and each other.

There are 24 infinity-pool sanctuaries at Jade Mountain, dubbed “Sun,” “Moon” and “Star” according to their square footage and pool size. Our “Star” sanctuary, one of the smallest, really could not have been more perfect. The extravagant indoor pool (at 400 square feet, this makes the typical plunge pool look like a birdbath!), enhanced by fiber-optic lighting, is lined with iridescent green glass tiles the color of hummingbird wings, which, looked at another way, reveal prismatic purples, blues and ambers. Skinny-dip to your hearts’ content, there’s no one to see you but the birds. Each sanctuary has a different pool color that is carried through in the bathrooms, which are up a winding little stair and, again, totally open to that same view.

Jade Mountain was conceived, designed and built—literally eked out of a mountainside—by architect/hotelier Nicholas Troubetzkoy, who with his wife Karolyn oversaw every aspect of the process. Rising majestically above the couple’s renowned beach-front resort Anse Chastenet, it is an architectural work of art built entirely of natural, local materials, with criss-crossing walkways, koi ponds and fragrant tropical gardens, meant to put guests in close touch with nature and St. Lucia’s stunning scenery, possibly the most dramatic in the Caribbean.

You are quickly on intimate terms with those pitons, and it is difficult to overstate their mesmerizing effect. They’re the first thing you see when you open your eyes in the morning. At night, they loom against a canopy of stars. Whether you’re standing in the rain shower or floating in the pool, there they are, fabulous and immutable. There’s no question that this much beauty 24-7 is good for the soul.

By the way, the sanctuaries are techno-free, as I’ve said, but what you do have is a “firefly” phone exclusively for contacting the two major domos who will attend to your every need great and small.

When you do venture out, there’s a very nice restaurant/lounge up top with a communal glass-tiled pool of its own, and down the hill a small spa (though many opt for treatments in their rooms). But the great thing about the setup here is that you also have access to as much of Anse Chastenet as you want—a lovely beach (great snorkeling), mountain biking trails, all kinds of water sports, a beachside spa and five restaurants.

So there’s lots to do at Jade Mountain—just don’t be surprised if you don’t find yourself doing much of it. You’ll be far too busy luxuriating in that aphrodisiacal honeymoon hideaway—wafting in the pool, sipping mojitos, planning your lifetime together . . . and have I mentioned the view?

—Valerie Schroth

For more information on Jade Mountain, call 758/459-4000 or visit ansechastanet.com.

Author’s note: John and I have been to a lot of great Caribbean spots over the years, but I suspect that henceforth our Star sanctuary at Jade Mountain will be the room against which all others are measured (and found wanting). Indeed, how romantic was it? Reader, I married him. (I’ve always wanted to write that!) We were so entranced with the place we decided to get married then and there.