Marriott's St. Kitts Beach Club

Exceptional hotel! Amazing health club! Tons of palapas on the beach! beautiful expansive property!!

We have just returned from St. Kitts. St.Kitts is an island in transition. Its economy was driven by the sugar cane industry for hundreds of years. It is now transitioning into a tourism economy. This island is on the verge of becoming a major player in the Caribbean economy. I wonder what 10 years will do to St. Kitts. It is still in its growth infancy, soon the developers will pounce and the island will change. I hope the natives "do it" right.

We own several timeshares through Mattiott and over the years have maximized the usage of them. Having visited Aruba, Orlando, Ft.Lauderdale, Palm Desert, and Pheonix we can honestly state that this was our best vactaion yet. The resort consists of a Marriott resort/Casino that is surrounded by 9, 3 story complexes there are no elevators in the villas. We never found that to be an issue,we were located on the third floor, the oceanview value incresed as we went up. Something to remember.The villas were spacious and accomidated our family perfectly. A king sized master bathroom for Mom and Dad with shower and juccuzi. The junior suite had 2 queens/doubles with a full bath for the kids. A fully equpped kithchen with stainless appliances. We breakfasted in the room (brunch) and dined early. As previous reviews have detailed the resort in detail I will not go into those details except to say "dittos" This resort was the 2007 Mariott Service Award winner.

There are a few aspects to our trip that could have improved our experience. A direct flight from Atlanta, Miami or other US hubs would enhance your experience. We "layed over" in San Juan for 5-6 hours which made our travel days very long to say the least. St. Kitts airport is functional and is in the process of being improved, the customs check went smoothly. Please follow the customs paperwork correctly. Each individual must fill out individual paperwork. As previous reviews have stated there is no need for personal transport. Cabbies are everywhere and very friendly. Make sure you get the fare up front as there are no meters in the cabs. Most cabs seat 6 easily. A trip to the airport typically costs $20.00 American. We felt quite comfortable in our travels and we did venture out of the resort on a daily basis. Standard safety procedures should be followed and a safe is provided for in each of the villas. The locals were friendly and helped immensly. They do speak English, but their dilect has a distinct Carribean flavor. Don't be afraid to ask them to repeat themselves SLOWLY.

The restaurants at the resort were "average" and I thought they were nothing special, our best on site diner was at BLU the seafood restaurant. I did breakfast seveal mornings at La Cucina (Marriott resort) omeletts, waffles made to order, fruit bar etc. If I were Mr.Marriott I would definitely look to improve the cuisine. I'm not sure I would cut the operator any slack as to the "foodstuffs" being "flown in." Better to hit the "grocery store" have the cabbie "wait" for your basic provisions. Food on the island is expensive and the store prefers cash.

Once we ventured off site the cuisine dramtically improved. We dined at Marshalls, Serendipidty and Ottneys Plantation, each of them upscale with great cuisine and reservations are recommended. The dress is resort casual. We also dined at The Monkey Bar and Shiggady Shack (sp) to get a taste of local fare. Flip flops and T-shirts and suits are fine here. Each of them were very good. Plan to spend several hours at each. Seafood at Marshall's, steak/duck at Serendipity, Ottneys was by far the best experience. The local drink speacials at the beach clubs Monkey/Bar/Siggety Shack.... well.....we were in walking distance from the resort. Thursday at Shiggady Shack is particularly busy as this is lobster night...Get there early. (5:30 PM.) We rode horses into the rainforest. Make sure that if you do this to bring cash $55 (plus tip) US per person and do it early in your trip. This gives those of us who are not cowboys a chance to recover from the trip (lol). We brought our Scuba gear and ventured deep once. Its not Bonaire but we didn't expect it to be. Both of these charters were booked through the hotel and were professional. We spent an afternoon at Port Zante (cruise port) and visited all the gem stores/tee shirt shops there. If you want to purchase a bottle of your favorite adult beverage, this is the place to do it...duty free.... We snorkeld down the street in the Caribbean by the Monkey Bar and enjoyed that experience too. We tanned by the pool several days and found lounge chairs easily. The swim up bar was well visited and the bacon cheeseburger and fries were good. The on site pizza was good, I ate the meat lovers pizza several days at lunchtime. Warmed it up in the microwave for the breakfast of champions too. The service throughout the island is slower than in the "States" but when in the Caribbean do as the islanders do and slow down and enjoy life. Our flight back was a repeat of our flight down. Be sure to save $22.00 American per person for the departure tax. It must be paid before you get to security checkpoints. Many great memories were made on this trip. Our overall rating on this trip was first class. In the Caribbean, Aruba had better food but the development was at least 5-10 times bigger and you must expect the problems that size brings. We will visit this resort many times in the future. I would be willing to answer any further questions you may have.

Our family of 4 just returned from an outstanding Spring Break at the new villas at the Marriott St. Kitts. I'll just say "DITTO" to everything Darcy says below. What a great find - the largest and prettiest Marriott villas we've stayed in located on an as-yet undiscovered island of paradise. We loved it!

This is a Great Resort. Just returned last night from Spring break, March 31-April7,2007. You won't be disappointed. The timeshare units are the top of the line. Absolutely beautiful!!! We loved this resort and will be going back in the future. If you have the opportunity to go to this property, take the trip. It was beautiful, the staff was friendly, and the property was kept very clean. Have fun!!!!

Disappointing.........Missing articles from our room......

I just returned from St. Kitts and this resort is among the most spectacular I have visited in the Caribbean. My expectations were very high, as I had heard nothing but great things, but they were exceeded by what I found at this Marriott resort.

The timeshare units are brand new. I travelled with my husband and two kids and another couple with the same and we found the facilities to be extraordinary. The Beach is georgous and the surf is gentle. The main pool wanders off in many directions and there are two very large additional free-form pools that were larger than most you will find.

We travelled on President's Week and the entire place was sold out yet the property is so large that you never felt crowded. For the first time in all of my travels there was no concern about getting chairs by the pool or a cabana at the beach as there are more available than there are users.

The food was outstanding and far more reasonably priced than I have found in any of the US Virgins, other British Virgins, Aruba, Puerto Rico, Turks...etc. There is something for everyone at this resort including the most beautiful and challenging golf course I have seen in the Caribbean along with the largest casino outside of the Bahamas.

The units themselves were easily 1500 square feet and included 40" Sony LCD TVs in the living room and 27" ones in each bedroom along with DVD/CD players to go along. Internet access was free. The rest of the unit was equally spectacular with granite counters and all GE stainless steel appliances.

I cannot speak highly enough of this property and cannot wait to return. One observation about St. Kitts is that it is just now entering an era of commercialization. The airport is small and that is positive to some degree. However, we had a long wait in immigration for no apparent reason that was just awful. It would appear that we were just unfortunate that something was wrong at the time of our landing because we did not find anyone else, other than those on our plane, at the resort who experienced the long delay we suffered.

The infrastructure is poor with respect to the roads and the ride to the property - perhaps 3- 4 miles takes 15 minutes or so because there is construction and paving going on. I did not mind this as it provided the opportunity to take in the beautiful landscape for a few minutes.

Speaking of the landscape, from the beach you can see virtually no other development of any substance for miles and the horizon is filled with beautiful mountains in either direction, several of which summit at the clouds.

The weather for President's week was ideal - low 80's every day and low 70s every night. It was not humid day or night and a gentle breeze eased even the hottest part of the day and cooled the night even more. Just ideal. There were a couple of brief showers on two of the days that lasted for several minutes that were actually refreshing to experience rather than running for cover.

If you are travelling with children you will find a terrific Kid's Club and daily activities as well as food options that are extremely reasonable. There is a Pizza Shack that churns out pizza all day and into the night and kid's meals available in and outside the various restaurants. Both the seafood and italian restaurants were terrific - did not make it to the steakhouse and Calypso - the main dining hub was outstanding as we took a number of dinners to go - again - due to the youngsters. Inside the main hotel there is the best sushi that we have ever had along with a Cigar Bar featuring a wide selection of fine Cubans at very good prices. This resort actually features a duty-free shop in the hotel along with a number of fine stores. However, the duty free prices are actually very good. This saved us a fortune as we made a number of purchases of wine and liquor without leaving the property and without paying more than what we could find off the grounds. For smokers, the prices for cigarettes were the same as in the airport duty-free shop and there were Cubans available as well and delivery of other brands upon request.

I have only high praises for this resort. I own timeshares with Marriott in St. Kitts and Aruba and while we will be spending next year in Aruba (first year's use) we will definitely return to St. Kitts many times in the future.