If there’s anything lovelier than taking your breakfast with a hummingbird, I don’t know what it is. Unless it’s gazing at the stars above the Caribbean sea as you swing in a hammock, or snorkelling with a shoal of comical trumpet fish so elongated and silvery it looks as if someone’s tipped the contents of a cutlery drawer into the water. The island of St Lucia may have been the blueprint for paradise but that didn’t stop the BodyHoliday resort, situated on Cariblue Beach, from gilding the lily and turning a naturalist’s dream into a sybaritic pleasure dome.
If there’s anything lovelier than taking your breakfast with a hummingbird, I don’t know what it is. Unless it’s gazing at the stars above the Caribbean sea as you swing in a hammock, or snorkelling with a shoal of comical trumpet fish so elongated and silvery it looks as if someone’s tipped the contents of a cutlery drawer into the water. The island of St Lucia may have been the blueprint for paradise but that didn’t stop the BodyHoliday resort, situated on Cariblue Beach, from gilding the lily and turning a naturalist’s dream into a sybaritic pleasure dome.
I was attracted to this particular destination by the hotel’s credo: “Give us your body and we’ll give you back your mind” and the resort’s emphasis on filling their guests’ days with activities ranging from the vigorous to the serene. On arrival I was presented with a timetable of classes I intended to take full advantage of.
I’ve been to plenty of yoga classes in my time but I’ve never tried Bikram yoga – the kind practiced in a hot humid room of 105F. The class I opted for on my first morning wasn’t strictly “hot yoga” but due to the natural tropical climate, even with the doors and windows of the studio flung wide open, everyone in the class was dripping sweat onto the wooden floor. I found I was able to get much deeper stretches in the heat. There’s something to be said for unfurling limbs and easing muscles and tendons that have been wound up for hours on a long-haul flight.
The yoga takes place in a studio at a slightly incongruous-looking, but quite lovely, Indian-style temple they call the “wellness centre”, set a little apart from the resort proper and with an incredible view over the palm-fringed bay. The centrepiece is a clear, still pool lined with topiary trees. There’s even an Ayurvedic temple featuring beautiful carved wood and stone, solely intended for the purpose of administering Ayurvedic massage. You could easily pretend you were in the grounds of an Indian palace, although why someone would feel the need to do that while in the Caribbean is anyone’s guess.
As well as the yoga studio, the wellness centre houses a small gym presided over by one of the stars of the resort, prizewinning bodybuilder and eight-time Mr Caribbean champ Felix. He’s very much in demand at the resort, and although I was dying to, I didn’t manage to snag an appointment with the legend.
Guests are encouraged to take advantage of one complimentary spa treatment per day – from an extensive list which includes full body scrubs, wraps, massages, accupressure for hands and feet, hydrotherapy and facials.
Preferring to check out the exotic flora and fauna of a new destination rather than the underside of a beauty therapist’s table, I availed myself of the more outdoorsy options on the activities menu, while my friends opted to check out the treatments, from the sublime – Ayurvedic massage (“unbelievable”) to a fat-loss wrap (“funny and a bit painful”). I’m not entirely immune to the draw of a skilled masseuse, though, and indulged in a powerful deep tissue massage so fantastic I returned the next day for another pummelling.
This being the Caribbean, there’s also a varied programme of watersports tuition. You can even learn to scuba dive and get your PADI certification (Professional Association of Diving Instructors) here. I suspect you need to sign up for this class on booking, as the activity was so popular I couldn’t get on it. I decided to try out windsurfing instead. I met Joe, my teacher, at the beach hut and he proceeded to educate me about the ways of the surfboard on the soft, hot sand, before I attempted anything in the water. Like everyone on the resort staff, Joe was super-easygoing, a priceless quality in a teacher when you’re learning something frustratingly hard to grasp. In the water I took turns with the other student, bobbing up on the board and making painstaking turns using the light breeze. After about 20 minutes we started to make slow but exciting surfs with the wind, on the end of a long rope. After an hour’s lesson, we were surfing, albeit tentatively.
The beach hut also houses stacks of snorkelling equipment and sea kayaks. Although guests are free to borrow these items at any time, the staff prefer you to stay within view, so I wasn’t able to take myself off for a day trip exploring the island. For that, my fellow guests and I booked a guided tour on a speedboat. Our guide took us to view the Pitons on the southwest coast of the island: the famous volcanic plugs that are a world heritage site and listed in Oprah Magazine as one of the five things to see before you die. You smell them before you see them, as the springs that bubble down from the volcanic rock are rich with sulphur. It was within sight of these wonders that I saw another natural phenomenon – a flying fish coasting along inches above the sea.
Before we returned to the resort we were taken to a couple of choice snorkelling spots. At one of them, seemingly from nowhere, a man in a kayak appeared selling conch shells and fresh coconuts. Just before dusk we pulled up outside a deep sea cave which, on closer inspection, was lined with gently undulating grey fluff – millions of bats.
While a holiday at this resort is indulgent, it’s also (for the most part) exceptionally wholesome. Mind, it would take an iron will not to take full advantage of all the dining opportunities on offer. There are four different restaurants. My favourite, by far, was the laid-back Clubhouse, perfect for inveterate grazers such as myself. At lunchtime I liked to sit in the colonial style, partially open to the elements dining room, and sample the self-serve buffet where the food is fresh and nutritious with plenty of naughty indulgences to remind you you’re on holiday. Although the food was delicious, I was disappointed at the lack of actual Caribbean dishes on the menu. “Themes” included Asian, Mexican and British, but sadly of St Lucian cuisine I am still ignorant – although to be fair, a lot of the fish comes from the sea directly outside the hotel.
If you want to dress up and eat a lobster, the hotel’s fanciest dining option, Tao, is the place to go, although the sushi I had there one evening was pretty average for a top class restaurant. The fine dining may have been a bit of a let-down, but the afternoon teas served up every afternoon were delightful. If I hadn’t been wearing a swimsuit for much of my visit, no doubt I would have scoffed mountains of the home-baked treats.
After giving St Lucia my body for a week, and experiencing real luxury and unimaginable beauty every day, the tropical haven didn’t so much “give me back my mind” as blow it entirely.
THE FACTS Seven nights at The BodyHoliday, Le Sport, St Lucia, including flights with BA from Gatwick with transfers in resort are from £2445 pp, based on two sharing. Tel: 01306 747008 or visit www.kuoni.co.uk