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St. Lucia Hotel, Resort & Villa Reviews
Ti Kaye 06/11/2003
Reviewers Rating:  Excellent
We stayed at Ti Kaye for our honeymoon in the first week of June. It was nearly perfect in every way.
After being met at the airport in Castries by the taxi driver, we drove about 45 minutes down the windy St. Lucian roads to the entrance of Ti Kaye. What followed was about a 10-minute drive down a very bumpy dirt road, then up a VERY steep hill to the reception area of Ti Kaye. We were met by Jeanine and escorted to the bar area where we were given a tasty rum punch to welcome us to the island. When we were ready, we were escorted to Cottage C ('C' for Chale, Creole for "hot" or "sexual desire", appropriate for a honeymoon!)
The cottage was roomy and airy, with a large four-poster bed with mosquito netting (which wasn't really necessary, though we did get a few mysterious bites along the way), a bathroom with an outdoor shower (complete with some healthy plants and flowers), a closet with shelves and a lock box, and a nice porch with two chairs, a table, and a two-person hammock with a view of the Caribbean. The double-doors, windows and louvers could be closed and the AC turned on if it got too warm and humid (we used the AC about half the time to sleep).
We had many visitors in our cottage, including bullfinches that would land on the porch railing, the hammock or on top of the minibar looking for food, lizards (eating the small bugs), small tree frogs, and, unfortunately, some rather large palmetto bugs and some tiny ants in the bathroom. Combined with the hummingbird nest in the tree next to our porch, it was nice to have all that nature around (we live in New York City).
The cottages and restaurant and pool are all located on top of a cliff overlooking Anse Cochon, so to get to the beach, you had to descend a flight of stairs with 169 steps. It really wasn't that big a deal, and after a few days, you didn't really notice them (if you think it's a big deal, remember that at many other resorts in St. Lucia, you need carts to take you from your villa to the beach). The beach was very quiet, and there were usually only a few other guests on the beach. Other guests were either at the pool or in Soufriere or Castries. There are 5 umbrellas set up along with about 20 chairs to use. Only on Saturday, did we get down a little late and not get any chairs or umbrellas (I think some non-guests showed up and took the chairs). The local St. Lucians were relatively scarce, except for a few that would hang out at the other end of the beach, waiting for the catamarrans returning from Soufriere to stop and snorkel, and would then paddle out to the boat to sell their wares. On Sunday, a large group of locals showed up, held a small church service, then spent the rest of the day on the beach picnicing. Since all beaches on St. Lucia are public, there wasn't much we could say, but after having a really quiet beach for a week, it was a bit disturbing to have all that noise on the beach. The following day was a holiday in St. Lucia, so I don't know if the beach was crowded again (we had to go home) or if it was crowded on Sunday because they had a holiday the next day).
Right off the beach is some of the best snorkelling and diving on the island. Ti Kaye has arranged with Dive Fair Helen to provice SCUBA services, and the boat shows up every day at 10:00. There was a pier built, but it apparantly wasn't built very well and it partially collapsed, so to get to the boat, you have to swim or use a kayak to get your gear out there (not really a big deal, as the boat comes within about 20 meters of the beach). Even then, the boat doesn't go very far since there's great diving right in the cove. There's a good wreck in about 60 feet of water about 300 meters offshore. I'm a certified diver, but my wife isn't, so we did the Discover Scuba Diving dive together, where you walk off the beach and swim along the reefs for 30-40 minutes, in 30-40 feet of water, and the boat picks you up down the coast when you come up. The reefs are great.
Finally, the restaurant was pretty good. The menu changed daily, and usually had at least one fish and one meat dish each night, and all the food was tasty. The lunch menu was the same each day, but had a good assortment of sandwiches and salads. Breakfast is included with your room, and was a small buffet of juice, fruit, cereal and croissants, along with eggs, omlettes and pancakes and french toast made to order. Dinner will run you about $50-60, plus about $5 per drink (only $2.50 for a bottle of Piton beer; yum!) The service was a bit slow at times, but that was probably our inner-New Yorker coming out.
So, after this lengthy review, I'd highly recommend staying at Ti Kaye. For us, it came down to Ti Kaye and Jalousie after eliminating the Sandals resorts. We wanted to stay on the beach, and Ladera was too far from the water. We picked Ti Kaye over Jalousie when we realized we would pay about half as much and probably have just as good a time with nice facilities (the hotel is only a few years old, so everything is still pretty new). Ti Kaye's location was about 45 minutes to Castries and Soufriere by land taxi, and about 35 minutes to both by water taxi, and if you want to swim next to the Pitons or in Rodney Bay, it wasn't too hard to get a lift.
If you have any questions, feel free to send me an e-mail.
Mike
Michael
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