Sugar Beach A Viceroy Resort

My wife and I have traveled extensively for many years and in all those 40 plus years, I have never written a review. Not a good one, not a bad one, I've seldom even filled out a survey but after a couple days contemplation after returning home, I feel compelled to share our experience. First, the resort is lovely. It is not new but that in itself is one of it's many attributes. it exudes luxury and refinement and a charm of days past when things were slower, people were kinder, things were built to last and effort and focus were put into every detail. We stayed in a luxury villa and it was lovely. It met all of our needs and wants. The unit was spacious and everything you would expect was right where it should be. The paint looked like it had just dried, the floors shined and the linens were of good quality. The outside decks and the view would have made the stay worth the trip if we'd slept in a tent! The food was very good. I was concerned on this point because I had read some reviews speaking to disappointment in this area from recent guest. Yes, the menu is limited but during our five day stay, we sampled many different items from both the Bay Side and The Great Room. All was thoughtfully prepared and tasted great. Both the housekeeping staff and the employees of the restaurants were so very kind and seemed very happy to have us there. We got to know several of them and they always made an effort to come by our table and have a short visit even if they were not serving us that meal. We felt so at home and cared for while at Sugar Beach. Unfortunately, that all changed when we went to check out our last morning and all because of one person, the resort manager. During our last night at the villa, around midnight the smoke detector directly over our bed (an eighteen to twenty foot ceiling) began beeping. This occurred every 30-45 seconds all night long. Obviously, I couldn't reach the extinguisher to remove the battery and as we were in a one bedroom unit, there was simply nothing to do but try to sleep through it. Unfortunately, we were unsuccessful. It was very frustrating, irritating and not what you expect to deal with when you pay the rates at Sugar Beach. The next morning, we packed, left for breakfast and afterwards went to the front desk to check-out and confirm the details of our transfer to the airport. When the young woman at the desk was preparing our statement, she casually asked if we enjoyed our stay, I told her we had loved Sugar Beach and the experience until last night. I related what had happened and she said, "Oh, would you like to speak with the manager?" Understand, I had not asked for anything whatsoever nor was I. Secondly, I certainly did not ask to speak to anyone above her nor would I. I simply responded to her question and I suppose she, not being coached properly on how to respond, did the only thing she knew to do, "call the boss". This is where my only complaint with Sugar Beach finds it's beginning. A few minutes later a woman came into the reception area. She did not give her name but said she was the "manager" and said that she understood I had had a problem. In a few words, I shared with her our experience with the smoke detector and her response was a rather curt, "we keep a maintenance employee available 24 hours a day. We can't know when batteries will go out. You should have called and someone would have come and replaced the battery or moved you to another villa". There was no "I'm sorry", no "That's awful, I am so sorry". Instead there was simply a response that somehow my inconvenience was my fault because I failed to know how Sugar Beach senior management staffed the resort. First, at one o'clock in the morning, I have no interest in some stranger coming into our room, either moving our king size bed out of the way so he can set-up a ladder and climb up and replace a battery. Even less appealing was her second idea of dressing, being driven to another villa (after one was located) and trying to sleep only to wake and realize all of our personal belongings were back at the villa we'd had to vacate. I've spent over 40 years in the business world and any employee, much less a senior manager who handled a customer concern in such a manner would either be scheduled for extensive customer contact skill training or terminated. This woman neither apologized not empathized with the situation. Instead, she then asked, "what would you have me do?" I was rather frustrated at this point and told her that there was absolutely nothing I wanted her to do. Her colleague had simply asked me about my experience and I told her what had been a frustration on our last night. Her final sad attempt to make things right was to say, "she'd like to provide lunch at no cost". Someone needs to explain to this person that many folks, I would think many of the guest to resorts on par with Sugar Beach don't want something for free, they simply want to have their inconvenience acknowledged and a sincere apology offered. After my wife and I declined her offer for lunch, she turned and walked back to wherever she had come from, never to be seen again. In closing, batteries run-down......we all understand this. Maybe they could regularly change them, maybe that is overkill, maybe it's not overkill at such a place like Sugar Beach. I don't really know the answer to that but I know in all these many years of traveling all around the world, to resorts with similar offerings or exceeding those of Sugar Beach, this has never happened before. All I know is that at a such a lovely place, with such wonderful service "where the rubber meets the road" in restaurants and housekeeping services, it is truly a disappointment that senior management views this type of exchange with a guest as a way to exceed expectations and hopefully build return guest relationships. She truly tainted the overall experience and it so easily could have been put to rest with a simple and sincere three word statement........."I so sorry".

Fantastic stay. Great location, staff and service. They did a great job managing COVID procedures. Will visit again. We extended our trip twice. ..... .... The dive shop team did a great job. ........

We spent six days and nights in an exclusive beachfront bungalow at Sugar Beach--literally between the scenic Piton mountains--from December 6-13, 2020. We came in search of beautiful sunsets, calm water, white sand, luxury, and serenity in the age of COVID-19; we got all of the above and then some. The room we were assigned was huge and lovely, with a private patio just steps to the beach, plus an enclosed courtyard with a hot tub under the stars. Our butler team, Michaela and Ayamka, made dinner reservations, scheduled us for a sunset cruise, escorted us around the resort, planned special birthday surprises for my husband, and generally took care of anything we requested. We enjoyed meeting them and want to thank them for making our stay at Sugar Beach special. We did not meet our great housekeeping staff, who came discreetly while we were sitting on the beach, but we would also like to thank them for their hard work, especially with extra precautions and procedures required because of the pandemic. This resort has location, location, location! It sits on what was once a sugar plantation located between the Piton peaks. A beautiful view can be had no matter where you go on the property. The beach is calm and beautiful for water sports. The sunsets are spectacular, and you can watch sailboats and the occasional yacht from your sun bed. The beach staff will spoil you with banana daiquiris or any other tropical drink, and be sure to try the watermelon salad for lunch on the beach. In the afternoon, a guitarist performs for beachgoers, and every evening (at least during the holiday season) the resort has musical entertainment at the beach restaurant. Breakfast is on the verandah of the Great House, looking out over a water lily garden and framed by the two mountain peaks. The formal restaurant in the Great House is beautiful and don???t forget to walk around the building to admire all the original artwork on the walls. The pool looks like a page out of Town and Country Magazine, with one of the Piton peaks rising straight up behind it. The Rain Forest spa looked very intriguing with its thatched hut entrance, but we saved that for a future visit. While we had beautiful scenery, great butler service, and a gorgeous room, there were some negatives at Sugar Beach. What we liked the least was the fact that families with children started arriving as our week progressed. We encountered a screeching toddler, a crying baby at breakfast, pre-teen girls who gabbed non-stop, teenage boys goofing around in the pool, and a running preschooler who nearly crashed into me on the boardwalk. When we arrived, the clientele were mostly honeymooning couples, but the families started arriving later in the week, and that changed the resort atmosphere considerably. There are no adults-only hours in the pool, so when we went over there to get away from the noisy kids on the beach, we soon had splashing kids in the swimming pool. At such an expensive resort, it would seem appropriate to us to have a pool for kids, or at least restricted times in the resort pool for adults to enjoy without other people???s kids running around. Although no families had a beach room while we were there, it is possible that a couple with a small child might take a beach room. To us, having kids next door or nearby would significantly reduce the enjoyment of our vacation and, I suspect, honeymooning couples would feel the same way. Let???s talk about the food. The menus had a lot of choices, but we felt they were heavy on meat and did not have enough seafood and local cuisine options. The food was presented beautifully in all cases, but we were not impressed with a tough pork chop and nearly impossible to cut vegetables, and ribs that were very tough. Food and drinks are quite expensive, with steaks in the formal restaurant $90, $120, and $150 depending on the size. There is a notation on the menu that guests who are on a meal plan would get a $100 credit on their dinner bill, so be aware of that when you are making decisions about which, if any, meal plan to book???it???s not the same as the all-inclusive plan you get at places like Serenity or Sandals. We had a plan that included full breakfast with our room, and on top of that we spent about $500 a day for food and drinks. The resort itself has some issues for guests who have physical challenges or bad knees. For one thing, it is built on a steep hill, and if guests stay in the hillside cottages, they will be transported by Sugar Beach vans around the property???walking on narrow and steep roads and uneven paths could challenge some guests. Even guests in the beach villas will need the vans to get up to the exercise facility at the top of the hill. Also, the beach villas are connected by a boardwalk which needs some maintenance. There were many places where boards were popping up and could pose a tripping hazard. (Due to the tropical climate, our opinion is that the boardwalk should be replaced with a hard surface walkway that will not be subject to warping.) In addition, the many stone staircases had no handrails, and there is only one handicapped ramp on the property that is so steep it is dangerous for a wheelchair. I cannot over-emphasize the beauty of this resort and the amount of landscaping and gardening work necessary to keep it that way. But compared to the Sandals properties we have visited (Grande St. Lucian and La Toc), Sugar Beach was not as well groomed. We saw weedy grass in front of the Great House that was not mowed for two days, and there were a lot of weeds around the water garden. If you are a family with kids traveling to St. Lucia, please instead go to Coconut Bay, which is designed with pools and activities specifically for kids and families. The incredible beauty and luxury of Sugar Beach really should be reserved for honeymooners and adults who can appreciate how special it is.