I think it always helps to know something about the reviewer, so here goes. We’re a married couple, both 30, and have traveled a bit through the Caribbean. We prefer all-inclusive resorts and we prefer smaller resorts, NOT couples only, where we can relax, not worry about how much that pina colada is costing us and where our next meal is coming from. If we’re on vacation, we don’t want to worry about money so we enjoy the all-inclusive. So the things we look for are: not couples only, all-inclusive, good pool (we have a pool at home, so when we travel we want a GREAT pool, several dining options and well reviewed by other travelers.

Overall, we were very pleased with Sugar Bay. Sure, there are some areas where things could be improved, but we enjoyed the area, the grounds and the friendliness of the staff and other guests.

Grounds
Absolutely beautiful. We loved the family pool with the waterfall and volleyball net. Since there were almost no children at the resort, it was still a peaceful and relaxing place to swim and sunbathe. The rest of the grounds, including the adult pool and the paths were beautiful too with flowers, flowering bushes and pretty palm trees. The buildings were fairly well maintained from the outsides too.

Room
We loved our poolside room. It was huge, featured an entryway with a small bed (which provided the all-important extra pillow) and a main room with king bed, nightstands, television, mini-fridge, small sitting area and plenty of closet and drawer space. We did miss having an alarm clock, as we had to check our watches in the dark if we woke up too early and we had to set the alarm on a cell phone for the early mornings when we had plans. Also, coffee lovers will miss that there’s no coffee maker in the rooms too. We did have a fridge, so we’d walk to the Rams convenience store or the Marriott to get sodas for the mornings and late evenings. Also, our room was on the second floor so we had a nice balcony overlooking the family pool. It had a table and two chairs, a chaise lounge with small table and every balcony or patio had a nice potted plant, watered by the condensation from the air conditioner. Very smart! The bathroom was big enough and the room was well cleaned every day – even washing the tile floor every day instead of just sweeping it. These details are appreciated.

Service
The service was great from nearly everyone. From the manager, Andrew, who was very friendly and recognized us even when we were in town or at another hotel to the cleaning ladies, maintenance staff, servers and bartenders, nearly everyone was very friendly and attentive. We appreciated that we got the same service as the non-all-inclusive guests which is rare. Usually the all-inclusive guests get lesser service since we tend to tip less. The only place where we had issues with service was the front desk. We were awaiting a receipt from a cab driver and when we’d stop there to ask if it was there, they’d glance around and tell us no. Finally we found the cab driver and he told us the receipt had been there for days. When we went back, they still said it wasn’t there. When we went out and asked the cab driver to walk to the desk with us, it was suddenly there. Also on our last day we were expecting a departure notice from our transportation company. I asked if anything was dropped off for our room and he said no. When I pressed about it, asking what time they were usually dropped off since it was 4:00 already and we were scheduled to depart in the morning, he found it. It just seemed that it was easier to say no then to actually look around and find something. This was not everyone at the front desk, just two people in particular.

Food and Drink
We were pleased with the quality of the food but felt that more variety would have been appreciated. Breakfast was a buffet but you could always order an omelet or eggs from the kitchen. But it was basically the same every day. Lunch was a buffet but on most days you could order from a small menu from the kitchen – burger and fries, fish and chips, sausage sandwich, pita sandwich and one other thing. Since we’re not huge buffet people, we liked this option, and did this every day that we had lunch at the resort. Dinner was supposed to be buffet five nights with ala carte two nights. We didn’t see this and saw buffet every night. Most nights were good, some nights were great and one night nothing appealed to us. And this is the night that we chose to leave the resort for dinner, so that was fine. They put up a sign every morning showing the night’s dinner selections, so that was nice. There was always a fish and then two other main dishes – beef, chicken or pork. Desserts were good but it seemed that there were some things that you just had to see others doing or have server tell you. Like if you didn’t know about the omelets in the kitchen, you’d have to see someone else with one and ask if you could have one too. Also there was delicious ice cream available if you asked but we were there for a few days before learning that. I called it the secret ice cream. But again, the quality was great and I did try some things that I enjoyed that I might not have ordered from a menu. The bars were nice, the bartenders were friendly. We did feel that having a few extra items would help make drinks with more variety. Adding just some Blue Curacao, fresh strawberries and bananas and vanilla vodka would add considerably more drinks to the possible list. Also, other resorts we’ve visited have featured a big board of fun drinks – names and descriptions. This would help because guests could find ideas of new things to try and know that 1) the bartender knew how to make it and 2) the stuff to make it would be available.

Cats
The resort has a number of cats, all there to keep the rodents at bay I’m sure. Some cats are very friendly, rubbing against your legs for attention and others are more timid. We loved having the cats there, as we really missed our cats at home and it was fun to play with the island cats. One of our favorites, whom we called Funny Face, had a very bad infection that I won’t describe. We talked to the manager, Andrew, and begged him to get medical attention for Funny Face and even offered to contribute some money toward his care. He said that he’d make sure he got some attention from the vet school on the island this week, so we’re really hoping that he sticks to this. Andrew, if you’re reading this, we’d love to know how Funny Face is doing!!!

Other guests
We had so much fun meeting new people and learning about their lives. We were among very few Americans at the resort, which we liked. The other guests seemed to be mainly British, with some guys from Barbados, a family from Puerto Rico and people from some other places. We loved meeting everyone and I must say that by the end of the week it was like a small college dorm, as we recognized everyone and everyone was friendly. I can’t see this happening at the Marriott or any of the larger resorts – this is something we love about small resorts and we really had fun talking with everyone else. As for kids - there were only two kids that we saw the whole week. One six year old and one sixteen year old. Yes we were there in the off season but the hotel did fill up, mainly with people in town for conventions and cricket. I think children might be bored here, at least they would have been while we were there.

Again, we very much enjoyed our visit to St. Kitts and Sugar Bay. Would we stay here again? Probably. And we’d do all-inclusive again as it was only $200 more for our package than not doing all-inclusive. It will be interesting to see what happens to rates as more competition comes in from the newer hotels.

My boyfriend and I spent a wonderful week in St. Kitts, at the Sugar Bay Club. We could find no reviews for this resort but decided to book it because the price was right. This was our 5th winter south and we were not disappointed. The island is so safe and the people are so friendly. There was no pushiness or running after you to get you to buy something. If you just wanted to chat to a shop owner they were so happy to share their love of their island with you.

The Sugar Bay Club is on the Atlantic Ocean and the waves can be pretty big at times, but we found it was great for splashing around and cooling off. You can walk north along the beach for quite a ways, if you want to climb over the bolders that the Marriot hotel has plopped down. I heard there were people from our hotel who just walked right through the hotel to bypass the bolders; good for them. I would never go a Marriot hotel ever in my life when I saw what they had done to the natural formation of this particular beach. They built breakwaters out in the Ocean to stop the sand from being washed away. Who knows what that did to natural habitats. There is a law in St. Kitts that there are no buildings over 3 stories...so who did the Marriot people bribe to get their mall like hotel built up to 6 stories? Enough about rude developers!

The Caribbean Ocean is just a short walk away and almost everyday we went there for a swim and to watch the sunset. There was also some fair snorkelling at this beach. There are often evening bonfires here and it was a nice change from sitting at the hotel bar. Our room was simple and clean. We are not high maintenance people so as long as our basics are taken care of we are happy. The resort is small, only 100 rooms and it was not even at 50% capacity during our stay. The staff were very friendly and happy to accomodate your needs. We enjoyed the casual atmosphere and being left alone during the day to do what we wanted. The food was fine. Nothing to write home about but it filled us up. There was always a good selection, and the table staff were the friendliest I'd ever seen.

Our Signature Rep Pam and was happy to greet you at the airport and always at the hotel when she said she would be.We booked several day trips. A catamaran cruise - lots of fun. The crew on the Spirit of St. Kitts were a barrel of laughs and really knew how to get everyone in the party mood. We did some deep sea fishing which was a new experience for us. Our captain, Sam was very funny, and kept us out for longer than we were scheduled because he wanted everyone to have a catch. And we did! There were 6 of us and each of us caught a baracuda.It was very exciting. The most exhausting but exhilerating tour was the rainforest hike. Only book this trip if you are in pretty good shape! It was 2 hours up, and 1.5 hours down. It was worth every sore muscle in my body! The view was great. The photo opps are spectacular and just being surrounded by the dense lush forest without being invasive was a great feeling. It was also made more comfortable by the fact that there were no plants, animals or bugs that would harm you. I must have sweat a couple of pounds that day. Our guide was Chris and he was very chatty and had lots of funny historical details about the island and the forest too. We went into the capital, Basseterre on our own and spent a whole day wandering around. It is a very pretty city, again with everyone being pleasant and full of smiles.