Hello Everyone! Sorry it has been so long since I have posted. As I'm sure you know a lot has happened since then! I will give you a brief recap:
Last time I wrote I told you my bridesmaids were throwing me a kitchen shower at the end of July. They all came into town and we got to spend the whole weekend in Greenville together. It was a lot of fun and was so great to see them! The shower was perfect and I got a lot of great stuff! It was also Brittney's 24th birthday the weekend we were there so after the shower we all went out on Saturday to have some fun! Shower picture:
Last time I wrote I told you my bridesmaids were throwing me a kitchen shower at the end of July. They all came into town and we got to spend the whole weekend in Greenville together. It was a lot of fun and was so great to see them! The shower was perfect and I got a lot of great stuff! It was also Brittney's 24th birthday the weekend we were there so after the shower we all went out on Saturday to have some fun! Shower picture:
Then basically all of my free time in the month of August was spent finalizing the final details for the wedding and planning! Matt's mom also threw me a linen shower in Spartanburg the weekend before the wedding which was great and we got a lot of great stuff we really needed! Here is a picture from the linen shower:
Matt and I have been married for a little a month now! We got married on 8/21 so I am officially Ashley Kern now! I am going do a post about the wedding as soon as I have access to and can post my pictures, so hopefully I will have that post up soon!
Now for the honeymoon! We had such an amazing time there and we did not want to leave! After much research we decided on St. Lucia. We decided to split up our time between 2 hotels, 4 nights in one then 4 in the other. We did this for a couple of reasons: One hotel, Jade Mountain, was a very remote, private getaway experience (no internet, AC, TV, phone etc.) The other, Calabash Cove, was a totally different scene near all the nightlife and a more "fun" atmosphere (AC, TV, WIFI included :). And lastly because one of the places we went we would never have been able to afford if I did not get a great industry rate through my job. However, even with the amazing rate, staying over 4 nights would have been out of our budget! Both hotels were amazing in different ways and we hated to leave them both!
I like to travel a lot (for work and play) and I like to post about about my trips. I want this blog to be a little bit of a travel blog where I can write "reviews" and details about destinations, venues and hotels I visit. So I will break down the two places we went to on here. I have uploaded pictures from both hotels on facebook. After I posted pictures I got a lot of questions about where we stayed etc. I know there might be a lot of people searching for places to go on their honeymoon or vacations and maybe this will help them if they are thinking about the Caribbean or St Lucia. If you are anything like me, I love to stalk pictures and hear all about other peoples trips, vacations, honeymoons etc.
JADE MOUNTAIN-When we arrived in St Lucia the first 4 nights of our stay were spent at Jade Mountain. Jade Mountain is in Soufrieie, St Lucia. It is located on a cliff/mountain so you get some amazing views there. It is designed to be an extremely remote, private and romantic experience with a lot of pampering. Every room has a view of the Pitons (St Lucias 2 mountains). The entire property consists of 29 "sanctuaries". 25 of those 29 rooms have your own pool. These are much different than a "plunge pool" as all of the pools are pretty big and the higher the room category you reserve at Jade the bigger the pool. Every room has a jacuzzi tub and shower which also have a great view of the Pitons. Really from anywhere you are in the room there in an amazing view in front of you- it is truly breath taking! Jade Mountain has an all inclusive package you can chose to purchase if you stay there and if you go there it is definitely the best bet. The only thing not included in the package is champagne and high end wines. All food on their menus, room service, premium liquors and house wines etc are all in the all inclusive package. It also gives you access to Jade Club (Jade Mountains main restaurant), The Beach restaurant, all the restaurants at their sister property, Anse Chasnet (right beside Jade) and beach service. Anse Chasnet and Jade Mountain share their own beach which is amazing! The beach has a great water sports shop where you can book tons of excursions or get free snorkel/kayak rentals. There is really good snorkeling right off the beach there. Jade Mountain is in a very remote location and it would probably take you about 15 plus minutes to get anywhere else by car. Also if you get car sick easily it is not a great ride to the resort. So if you want to leave the property a water taxi is the best way to go. But there really is NO reason to leave the property. The food at the resort is far better than you would be able to get at a local restaurant and they provide every excursion or activity you can think of on site. Every room at Jade Mountain has its own bridge for ultimate privacy so you have no 'neighbors' and every room is at least a bridge away. Jade Mountain also has Major Domos. Each room you are assigned one Domo and one asst. Domo. They give you a firefly walkie talkie thing that you use to get in touch with your domos at any time anywhere on property for literally whatever you want (room service, can you buy me some sunscreen, I left my book in the room can you bring it to the beach for me etc.) It definitely took some getting used to but they make you pretty lazy there. I should also mention that this resort has no AC and every room has only 3 walls. Our infinity pool flows out into the open air. I was worried about this before coming there but it was really never an issue. Every night we would make dinner reservations and while we were gone housekeeping would come and spray our entire room for bugs as well as light coil candles around the room to keep bugs away. We also obviously had a mosquito net around our bed. Bugs or Mosquitos were never a problem for us at all. Birds on the other hand were a different story. If you are a light sleeper this may not be the place for you. The sun is in the room and the birds start chirping very early. Fortunately, I can sleep through just about anything so this never stopped me from sleeping in. Also, the resort is pretty much dead by 10:00 or 11:00 so you always go to bed early anyways. As for no AC, there are ceiling fans all over our room and above the bed for the heat. They kept the pool pretty cold so if we were ever hot the pool was a great relief. I am very cold natured so the heat never really bothered me. The room got a great breeze because we were so high up and if I ever got hot I would go for a swim or stick my feet in the pool. Matt did say he would get a little hot sleeping at night though. As I mentioned before there was no TV or Internet. I thought this would be a much bigger deal than it was and I barely noticed! Jade Mountain was incredibly amazing, relaxing and pampering. We will probably never get to stay in a place this nice again (until we go back of course!) We had some cool activities included in our package so here's a breakdown of our days there and some pictures!
Now for the honeymoon! We had such an amazing time there and we did not want to leave! After much research we decided on St. Lucia. We decided to split up our time between 2 hotels, 4 nights in one then 4 in the other. We did this for a couple of reasons: One hotel, Jade Mountain, was a very remote, private getaway experience (no internet, AC, TV, phone etc.) The other, Calabash Cove, was a totally different scene near all the nightlife and a more "fun" atmosphere (AC, TV, WIFI included :). And lastly because one of the places we went we would never have been able to afford if I did not get a great industry rate through my job. However, even with the amazing rate, staying over 4 nights would have been out of our budget! Both hotels were amazing in different ways and we hated to leave them both!
I like to travel a lot (for work and play) and I like to post about about my trips. I want this blog to be a little bit of a travel blog where I can write "reviews" and details about destinations, venues and hotels I visit. So I will break down the two places we went to on here. I have uploaded pictures from both hotels on facebook. After I posted pictures I got a lot of questions about where we stayed etc. I know there might be a lot of people searching for places to go on their honeymoon or vacations and maybe this will help them if they are thinking about the Caribbean or St Lucia. If you are anything like me, I love to stalk pictures and hear all about other peoples trips, vacations, honeymoons etc.
JADE MOUNTAIN-When we arrived in St Lucia the first 4 nights of our stay were spent at Jade Mountain. Jade Mountain is in Soufrieie, St Lucia. It is located on a cliff/mountain so you get some amazing views there. It is designed to be an extremely remote, private and romantic experience with a lot of pampering. Every room has a view of the Pitons (St Lucias 2 mountains). The entire property consists of 29 "sanctuaries". 25 of those 29 rooms have your own pool. These are much different than a "plunge pool" as all of the pools are pretty big and the higher the room category you reserve at Jade the bigger the pool. Every room has a jacuzzi tub and shower which also have a great view of the Pitons. Really from anywhere you are in the room there in an amazing view in front of you- it is truly breath taking! Jade Mountain has an all inclusive package you can chose to purchase if you stay there and if you go there it is definitely the best bet. The only thing not included in the package is champagne and high end wines. All food on their menus, room service, premium liquors and house wines etc are all in the all inclusive package. It also gives you access to Jade Club (Jade Mountains main restaurant), The Beach restaurant, all the restaurants at their sister property, Anse Chasnet (right beside Jade) and beach service. Anse Chasnet and Jade Mountain share their own beach which is amazing! The beach has a great water sports shop where you can book tons of excursions or get free snorkel/kayak rentals. There is really good snorkeling right off the beach there. Jade Mountain is in a very remote location and it would probably take you about 15 plus minutes to get anywhere else by car. Also if you get car sick easily it is not a great ride to the resort. So if you want to leave the property a water taxi is the best way to go. But there really is NO reason to leave the property. The food at the resort is far better than you would be able to get at a local restaurant and they provide every excursion or activity you can think of on site. Every room at Jade Mountain has its own bridge for ultimate privacy so you have no 'neighbors' and every room is at least a bridge away. Jade Mountain also has Major Domos. Each room you are assigned one Domo and one asst. Domo. They give you a firefly walkie talkie thing that you use to get in touch with your domos at any time anywhere on property for literally whatever you want (room service, can you buy me some sunscreen, I left my book in the room can you bring it to the beach for me etc.) It definitely took some getting used to but they make you pretty lazy there. I should also mention that this resort has no AC and every room has only 3 walls. Our infinity pool flows out into the open air. I was worried about this before coming there but it was really never an issue. Every night we would make dinner reservations and while we were gone housekeeping would come and spray our entire room for bugs as well as light coil candles around the room to keep bugs away. We also obviously had a mosquito net around our bed. Bugs or Mosquitos were never a problem for us at all. Birds on the other hand were a different story. If you are a light sleeper this may not be the place for you. The sun is in the room and the birds start chirping very early. Fortunately, I can sleep through just about anything so this never stopped me from sleeping in. Also, the resort is pretty much dead by 10:00 or 11:00 so you always go to bed early anyways. As for no AC, there are ceiling fans all over our room and above the bed for the heat. They kept the pool pretty cold so if we were ever hot the pool was a great relief. I am very cold natured so the heat never really bothered me. The room got a great breeze because we were so high up and if I ever got hot I would go for a swim or stick my feet in the pool. Matt did say he would get a little hot sleeping at night though. As I mentioned before there was no TV or Internet. I thought this would be a much bigger deal than it was and I barely noticed! Jade Mountain was incredibly amazing, relaxing and pampering. We will probably never get to stay in a place this nice again (until we go back of course!) We had some cool activities included in our package so here's a breakdown of our days there and some pictures!
The Beautiful Hotel!
Day 1: Arrive at Jade Mountain to this beautiful view in our amazing room! We promptly ordered room service for lunch and drinks, swam in our pool, walked around the property and had dinner at the Jade Club.
The beautiful view from our bed we woke up to every morning!Day 2: Sleep in, room service breakfast, relax by the beach all day drinking frozen drinks (me!) and piton beers (Matt!) followed by delicious burgers on the beach for lunch. After that we did a site tour of Jade Mountain as well as their sister property, Anse Chasnet. Dinner at Jade Club again!
The Beach at Jade Mountain!
Day 3: Breakfast, Beach, sailing excursion around the north half of the island followed by snorkeling at Marigot Bay. Came back just in time for a couples massage in our room. Branched out to Anse Chasnet for dinner (not nearly as good as Jade Club), went swimming in our pool, decided at about midnight we wanted room service because we were missing the food.
Beach, sailing and midnight snack!
Day 4: Breakfast, morning snorkel at the base of the Pitons, beach, lunch, went kayaking to another nearby beach, back to our beach, dinner at Jade Club (we were not about to branch out again on our last night!)
Day 5: Breakfast, swimming in our pool, lunch, drive to Calabash Cove, check in there, relax, dinner.
Last picture in our room (above) then stopping at an overlook on the way to Calabash (below).
CALABASH COVE-We spend out last 4 nights here. Calabash Cove is located in Gros Islet. Which is right between Castries and Rodney Bay. You can get to either town in less than 10 minutes. Calabash Cove has a great view of Castries across the beach. At night you can see all the lights of the town and it is so beautiful! Calabash Cove is also a small "boutique hotel". They have regular rooms, swim up suites that go right out to the main pool, and 9 cottages each with their own plunge pool, deck, hammock and porch with amazing ocean views. We were in cottage 4 but if you ever go, request cottage 5 -definitely the best. There was also a table and chairs on our porch which was great because we got to have breakfast out there every morning and dinner one night. The resort also gives you the option to buy an all inclusive package if you wish and again its definitely the only way to go. This package includes everything (wine and champagne please!) The resort has one main restaurant which is supposed to be the only 5 star restaurant on the island. But to be honest, if I had to pick, I would say I liked the food at Jade Mountain better (however, I think Matt might disagree). The restaurant has breakfast, lunch and dinner there. There is also a swim up bar at the pool where everyone hangs out. The bartenders are awesome and made the BEST drinks. They were always creating new drinks and giving little samples to everyone. If you ever go order the club special cocktail (amazing!!!!) You can order lunch at the swim up bar which is what we did everyday. The pool, restaurant and room service menu were all different although they all came out of the same kitchen which is odd but good for variety. The beach here is awesome and for some reason no one staying at the hotel goes out there! Matt and I talked about how weird that was. They all hung out at the pool. So every morning we would start off there and spend at least of couple of hours there and have the beach all to ourselves. We would pull our chairs right into the water-paradise! Locals would come up to the beach via jet ski or boat selling jet ski rides or fruits etc. I felt bad saying no to them considering they came all the way over and we were the only ones out there haha. One negative at this hotel was all the front desk staff left at 11:00 pm and you didn't see them until 7:00 am which was a problem when we were trying to set a wake up call the morning we had to leave. This resort had great views and a really young/fun vibe. Here are some pictures of the resort and what we did during the rest of our time here.
.jpg)
Top: Pool, swim up suites and main restaurant. Middle: the view of Castries from the Cottage porch at night, Below: view from our porch.
Day 6: Room service for breakfast, beach, lunch, pool, pool bar, dinner, went with a group from the hotel to the Friday Night Jump Up in Rodney Bay, St Lucia for a street party
Shots at Rollover Bar in Rodney Bay and Matt and I at the Street Party.
Day 7: Breakfast, beach, lunch, pool bar, shopping trip to Castries, room service for dinner/drinks and swimming in our pool.
Day 8: Breakfast, beach, lunch, pool bar, hanging out in our pool and dinner.
Day 9: airport, find out flight is canceled, back to hotel, breakfast, sleep some more. Drive to airport on other side of the island before heading back to Charlotte!
Both hotels were amazing. Jade Mountain was obviously my favorite of the two but Calabash Cove was awesome too! The weather in St Lucia was great and the water there is so calm, its like a lake. The one day we had "bad weather" it was just windy and there was a yellow flag on the beach but the waves were about what you could expect at any beach in Charleston-haha. I guess compared to every other day there the water was 'rough'. St Lucia was beautiful and romantic. I liked it better than everywhere else I have been in the Caribbean (Bahamas, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Jamaica, Grand Cayman etc.) We had such an awesome time and I cannot wait to go back one day!
