Park Hyatt St. Kitts Christophe Harbour

November 28th, 2019

Enroute:

Park Hyatt St. Kitts Christophe Harbour is one of the newer Park Hyatt resorts. This hotel has been running a complimentary 4th night promotion with resort credit for a couple of years now, so for this Thanksgiving, my boyfriend and I jumped on this opportunity and hopped on a plane to St. Kitts.

We booked our stay through Hyatt Privé, which is Hyatt’s travel advisor program. Through this program, you can receive perks like free breakfast, hotel credit, early check-in/late check-out and more at certain Hyatt hotels. This is similar to American Express Fine Hotels & Resorts, only you have to book through a travel agent. Our rate included a $100 resort credit. The hotel was also offering a $300 resort credit, so in total we had $400 in credit which could be used towards our final bill. We also received free breakfast, a room upgrade from a Park King to Beachside King, welcome amenities and late check-out. All things considered, this was an amazing deal.

Getting to the island was a bit more challenging than booking the hotel. During this time of the year, only American flies to St. Kitts from the US. Paid fares from DC to St. Kitts during Thanksgiving were over $900/person with brutal layovers. I decided to use British Airways Avios points for the flights between Miami and St. Kitts, which cost 11,000 Avios per person per way in economy. The schedule worked out perfectly, as we were leaving Miami around noon and arriving into St. Kitts at 4pm. While on the way back, the plane didn’t leave until 5pm and arrived into Miami at 7:30pm, giving us plenty of time on the island and a reasonable amount of time to connect to the last flight to DCA. St. Kitts is an hour ahead of East Coast US.

The jaunt from Miami on AA was easy enough. The cabin wasn’t full, and everybody seemed to be escaping the cold in the North. We first flew over the Bahamas, which was stunning.

On approach into St. Kitts Robert L. Bradshaw Int’l Airport (SKB), the island surfaced below. I had not realized St. Kitts and Nevis were so mountainous.

Soon enough we landed safely at SKB. There’s no taxiway at this tiny airport, so we made a u-turn at the end of the runway and taxied back to the remote stand. Our plane was also sporting the Oneworld Alliance livery.

As you’d expect, the terminal was small and easy to use. We were through immigration within minutes as we were the only flight arriving.

Outside the arrivals hall, there was a Park Hyatt representative holding the hotel sign. He checked my name on his notepad and fetched us a taxi. The taxi fare to the hotel was $40. However, it had to be paid in cash rather than charged to the room. The drive took a bit more than 20 minutes and was beautiful. The road zigzagged the whole way, and we gained elevation at several vantage points, so we saw as far as Antigua and Barbuda. All the taxi drivers in St. Kitts were really nice. We were told that the island had stopped sugar production several years back as we were passing some abandoned sugar mills.

Park Hyatt St. Kitts sits on the southern tip of the island, in a new development called Christophe Harbour. The hotel is only 1 mile away from Nevis.

Check-in:

Upon arrival, the bellman took our luggage and escorted us to reception. The entrance was gorgeous - minimalist architecture with a Japanese-style garden/fish pond complex.

Given that there’s only one flight arriving at a certain time, the reception was busy. There were four front desk agents but the line still went out the door, with another dozen people waiting. There was only two couches and four chairs in the reception area, so most people had to stand while they waited. However, the front desk manager Cheramie stopped by to let us know somebody would be with us shortly. She also offered us a cold towel and a rum punch, which was a nice touch.

Once it was our turn, the agent quickly swiped my credit card for authorization. The whole process took about maybe 2 minutes before she sent us onto the golf cart to our room. I couldn’t help but felt a bit rushed - the hotel should be fully aware that guests would all be coming at the same time due to sparse arrivals at the airport. The agent, while friendly, did not walk us through the facilities of the hotel or the benefits we’d be receiving, which later caused confusion at breakfast. The check-in experience felt like we were checking into a convention center hotel when there wasn’t a convention going on, well, other than the rum punch part…

Unpack:

We were driven to our room, which was on a hill leading up to the adult pool. The room was nicely appointed and of a good size. The basic color scheme was white, with little pops of color on furniture and walls. The cottage style felt appropriate for the island - clean, bright, and airy. How cute are the blue chairs!

The bathroom was elegant as well, with a soaking tub big enough for two (personally tested). I especially liked the sky blue tiles in the bathroom, which put me in a good mood every time I showered, with natural light shining through the frosted glass.

The toiletries were all from Le Labo, however, this specific scent for Park Hyatt St. Kitts was just meh. When looked closer in the first picture, there’s a cleaning rag left on the sink by the housekeeping. Oops. While still a fairly new hotel, the rug was already showing some disgusting stains…

The room was otherwise spotless. By the entryway, there was a water closet.

On the other side of the entryway was a walk-in closet, with bathrobes, slippers and a bug spray, which I’ve learnt in the hard way…

The minibar in the room was equipped with all the essentials, including a complete Nespresso set.

By the lounger was the in-room dining menu, which read as follows:

Our room had a terrace, with a table and a pair of chairs, as well as a daybed. These were used to dry our swimsuits since we were mostly gone during the day…

The view from our room was gorgeous, with the island of Nevis in the close background, which always had clouds surmounting its peak.

The hotel had prepared us a welcome letter, which was handwritten by the GM in entirety, rather than printed and then signed like most other hotels.

Along with the welcome letter was a fruit plate, and a bottle of 2015 Sebastiani Pinot Noir, which retails for $16.99 in the US. Interesting enough, the hotel restaurants were also selling this wine at 4x mark-up.

I thought the room was very nice. It was spacious, the linens were soft, and the wine was very generous on the hotel’s part as I had no status with Hyatt.

Refuel:

Since we arrived on Thanksgiving Day, the hotel had a special Thanksgiving dinner at the Great House restaurant, which was also where the breakfast was served. We called the hotel to make a reservation for dinner but were told that there was no availability… Never been good at taking no for answers, I checked out Open Table, and there was literally availabilities every 15 minutes… It felt a bit uncomfortable since the girl on the phone seemed very adamant that we didn’t stand a chance of getting in.

That little hiccup did not ruin our vacation mood. We showed up at the restaurant and were escorted to our table. The restaurant was busy, but not overly so. There were tables that remained unoccupied the whole time we were there. From the moment we sat down I could tell the service was gonna be lacking - the waiting staff were scrambling, and they gave off a temporary help vibe.

The table was set with festivity in mind - there was a bouquet with fresh flowers, sitting on top of a drape that fell onto the floor, which was way too long that it became a safety hazard - the drape on the table next to us was stuck under the wheels of a guest’s stroller and all the glassware, cha-ching!

The menu was also placed on the table, which read as follows:

Our waitress came by to take our drink orders. The waitress, whose name shall remain anonymous, and whom we had encountered once more during breakfast, was not the friendliest in the world - there were several times after she served us something she would say “you’re welcome” before we even got a chance to thank her…

Before anything else, we were brought a glass of complimentary pre-poured sparkling to get the feast started. First up was the trio of appetizers, which included heirloom beets with caramelized bûcheron, toasted hazelnuts and frisee zinfandel blackberries, Kittitian lobster and corn fritters with lime and pepper emulsion snipped chives, and roasted pears and chestnut toasts with pomegranate, ricotta and black truffle honey.

The appetizers were extraordinary. Everything was carefully presented, which was unexpected given how swamped the kitchen must be. We were then served the pumpkin velouté with garam marsala and toasted pumpkin seeds, which was poured table-side.

Now for the main event of the evening, the slow roasted heritage turkey breast and leg with roasted corn and breadfruit, stuffing cranberry orange relish and sage jus. The sides were haricot verts and brussel sprouts with onion soubise and silvered almonds, pommes purée, coconut farm’s vegetable farrotto with island sweet potatoes, crispy kale and poached quail eggs.

Everything was phenomenal. Not having grown up in the US, I’m not normally a turkey fan. But this turkey was juicy and tender. The sides were creative, and the gravy was to die for. During our meal, the Indian executive chef came by to ask how our meal was, which was a nice gesture.

To finish off the meal, there’s a dessert buffet. We went in with no reservation…

Words could not describe the pure bliss from the sugar high… The oreo cheesecake, banana bread pudding, coconut roll cake, mango gelato, pumpkin pie and bourbon chocolate orange tart. You name it. We didn’t have high expectations for food on these island resorts, but we were utterly surprised by our first meal at the Park Hyatt. The F&B put a lot of thoughts to make it a special experience for the guests, and we felt their efforts.

The dinner was $85/person, which wasn’t bad at all. We also took the leftover back to our room and ate it for dinner the next day. Like most islands, the prices didn’t include the 10% service charge and the 12% tax.

Our room was turned down when we got back, with a cute little bag of Thanksgiving truffles on the dinning table. However, this was the only turndown service we received during our stay, as the housekeeping had skipped all of the subsequent ones.

After a night of restful sleep, we woke up at around 10AM to, well, eat again. I mentioned that the front desk never explained to us what our free breakfast entailed, so we went to the restaurant with the same expectation that we read from other blog reviews - a full buffet plus one a la carte item per person. As luck would have it, the a la carte item was no longer included when we visited. For what it’s worth, the buffet itself was on the better side. It wasn’t a buffet you’d find in a 5-star hotel in SE Asia, but it was better than average nonetheless.

There was a pressed juice station with white girl items such as avocado kale pineapple juice, a made-to-order egg station, cold cuts, fruits, bacon, potatoes and god forbid, the pastries. There were some atypical items as well, like smoked duck breast, and unagi… on a Caribbean island...? It’s like the Ritz-Carlton Kyoto is serving injera with carnitas… But hey, I’m all about inclusiveness.

Misguided as we were, we also ordered off of the menu. My first preference was the Kittitian spiny lobster benedict, but they were out of it that morning, and the morning after, and the morning after, and our final morning… I had to go with crabmeat benedict, served with a side of hash brown - talk about making compromises! My boyfriend had the stewed fish jonnycake, which he thought was too fishy, but I liked it. Apparently jonnycake was a popular dish on the island, but it was more of a fried dough actually.

On our last morning, we shared some pancakes.

The a la carte dishes were absolutely delicious. The benedict had generous portion of crabmeat, and the eggs were poached to perfection. The avocado was super fresh in the jonnycake, with a spicy kick from the salsa. And lastly the pancakes were just the fluffiest dreams… The food at the Park Hyatt substantially exceeded our expectations so far.

Every morning at breakfast I would gaze out into the ocean through the looking glass of my Versace shades with unpolluted sea breeze gently caressing my cheeks and couldn’t help but feel grateful: no kids, no student loan, and no responsibilities to anybody whatsoever. If being gay is a lifestyle choice, y’all should get on it 😉.

One of the evenings we also decided to just be bums and order room service, which was pretty good for what it was. We shared some mahi mahi skewers and a jerk chicken wrap.

On our last evening, we had dinner at the Fisherman’s Village. The mise-en-scène was adorable, as the premise sits right next to the floating dock for the water taxi to Nevis and was very ambiently (dimly) lit.

The service was slow from the beginning to the end. We started with the ceviche of the day, which was some ahi tuna, served with tortilla chips and a side of moonlight.

The ceviche was fantastic - the tuna and veggies tasted fresh. It was such a great dish to have on an island. I do have to note again that the setting was EXTREMELY romantic and intimate. I would not recommend this for a first date.

For our mains, we had the Kittitian lobster, served with charred vegetables and butter rice, and the banana leaf-wrapped grouper. Both dishes were splendid, especially the grouper - it was such an interesting way to grill it inside the banana leaf, infusing the herbal aroma deep into the fish. I also liked there’s some roughly chopped pepperoncini in the salad, which added some sophistication to an otherwise bland salad.

To end the meal on an even higher note, we ordered the espresso crème brûlée, with chocolate ice cream and almond biscotti. The dessert was again, to die for, and I was completely transcended at this point.

Rewind:

Even though we didn’t spend as much time at the pool and beach as we would’ve liked, here’s some pictures.

Depart:

All good things must come to an end, so did our time on the beautiful island of St. Kitts.

Cons-adjusted, the hotel was great. Many people had written that this was not a beach hotel, as the water would get rough and there would be seaweed. Fortunately for us, that was not the case at all. The beach was stupendous - calm, crystal clear and free of seaweed. Admittedly, there were quite some service issues with the hotel, but they were all inconsequential - the housekeeping was relatively dishonest as they skipped all the turndown services knowing we would be gone, and the restaurant staff could be better trained to at least be more covert with their attitude. On the plus side, the room was charming and spacious, the beach and pool staff were all class acts, the food, oh LAWD the food. Combined with the promotion they were running, I’d say it was one heck of a deal.

Other random and trivial things that only I would notice are: the crowd at the hotel was definitely on the tamer side - you would not hear people blasting Major Lazer on their JBLs by the pool for sure. Well, with the exception of this one guy who was playing music out loud by the adult pool, but what do you expect from somebody with a calf tattoo listening to Imagine Dragons… and there’s like, a lot of gays there, tamed gays obviously. One couple was on our flight from Miami, and we kept running into each other like ALL THE TIME. Then there’s at least three other couples, and some by themselves. Since when do gays travel to any island that’s not Mykonos…

The island of St. Kitts itself was magnificent. We were there to dive. While the water was not the clearest, the reefs were full of marine lives - eels, lion fish, stingrays and lobsters. We even got to swim alongside 5 Caribbean reef sharks! The terrains were also gorgeous - the drive up and down the hills with mountaintops eclipsing the oceans never gets old. The town in St. Kitts didn’t have much other than, emm, an open sewage. But there was a street barbeque stand by the cruise ship port owned by, whom the locals addressed as “the chicken man”. That was some delicious grilled bird.

We had a really nice stay at the Park Hyatt St. Kitts, even though we probably wouldn’t return anytime soon since there is a Four Seasons on the sister island of Nevis, which we would love to check out as well. I definitely would recommend the Park Hyatt if you are looking to just recharge in an upscale resort and not do much.