Many travel agents report that the rooms have been upgraded during the recent $15 million refurbishment, this is not true the bathrooms in the ocean front rooms are exactly the same as in 2004 and need some tlc, the most that has been done is that they may have received a lick of paint.
Rooms:
The trysting place is a very nice restaurant the air conditioning works a little too well so a light wrap or similar would be advisable. The terrace dining area has been refurbished and is very nice but is too bright in the evenings to even be close to romantic. The food in both is very good considering it’s an all inclusive as they can vary greatly.
Beach and Pools:
Malabar beach is a very nice beach nearly 2 miles long of mostly soft sand the locals play football and bring their families at the weekends as with all beaches on st Lucia it’s a public beach. No one bothers you much a couple of hawkers Paul and Jimmy but they don’t hassle you. There are plenty of loungers on the beach and a flag system is operated for drinks, just stick your flag in the sand and someone comes to take your order. There are 2 pools the beachside pool with a swim up bar which could do with some tlc but it’s quite nice with more comfortable loungers than on the beach. The second smaller pool is what’s called the activities pool where they do water arobics twice daily then it’s quite quiet and has new loungers and chairs which are very comfortable and the pool has just been retiled and the new spa has just been built overlooking the pool, I can’t comment on the spa because it wasn’t finished when we stayed, nor was the running river or the gym.
To do: The grounds are lovely but to mind they’ve ruined part of it by building a running river with wading pools? older photograghs show this area as a green planted lawn with hammocks dotted around between the trees there are no longer any signs of the hammocks but as I have said the running river was nowhere completed when we stayed. There is plenty to do here or not whichever is your choice.
There is snorkelling and scuba diving, sailing, kayaking, pedalos, doughnut rides, water skiing with qualified instructors even for beginners, these are all very good. There are also archery lessons and golf along with other fun games and antics which are also very good fun. An island tour is a mustvisiting the drive in volcano and the botanical gardens and the waterfall where you can swim and a water taxi to swim between the Pitons and snorkel. We also chartered a speed boat for an afternoon from Rodney Bay called Trade Winds and the guy’s name was Alvis, well worth the money and local piton beer all afternoon or wine or soft drinks, we went into small coves and fishing villages that you can only really see from the sea.
Tours:
The island tour we did with Cosol tours they are very good and knowledeable about their island again plenty of beer and rum punch you can do a private tour or a group tourwhichever you prefer, also fresh local bread and biscuits. Cosol’s number is 758 7196697 or 758 4506848 his email is cosol966@hotmail.com he also has a website cosol-tours.com well worth checking out. It’s also possible to do a helicopter ride around the island which I’m told was excellent.
Rendezvous Resort:
When we booked our holiday at Rendezvous we were told that the revamp had been completed this was nowhere near the case we had to walk over planks and through mud to get to our room because they were building the running river many of the paths were unusable because they were working on them, there were diggers outside our room when we arrived and also on the beach moving sand to cover cables and large parts of the garden were being dug up to replace drainage piping. We were in a verandah suite which was very nice with a bottle of bubbly waiting for us on arrival,unfortunately as I’ve said it was quite difficult to get to and noisy,they also started working on the gym which was next door so they were hammering and banging and angle grinding until 10.30 at night.After 3 days we were moved to an ocean front room which was quiter but also smaller and the bathroom needed some tlc as I’ve already said. We also had a powercut for 24 hours so had no airconditioning. In view of all this the management organized a catamaran trip for everyone who wanted to go, we wentto pigeon island and had a barbeque on the beach and plenty of music and rum punch. All the negatives aside I’m sure Rendezvous will once again be as beautiful as it once was and it truly is a wonderful place and what makes it so special is the staff, some of them are truly exceptional and have worked at Rendezvous almost as long as it’s been open, they truley are like a family and this shows in their work. Nothing is too much trouble and everything is delivered with a smile and a "you’re welcome" and it is meant. If they haven’t got it they will endeaver to get it for you. This is why we will be returning to Rendezvous in March 2010 for 3 weeks. It will also be nice to see the refurb finished.