Ladera Resort (St. Lucia)

MsJuneBride2012

For anyone who is interested in honeymooning at the Ladera resort in St. Lucia, there is a pretty amazing deal on ideeli (www.ideeli.com). 7-night stays are pretty heavily discounted, and the deal appears to be valid for the next five days (I'm not sure if there is a possibility of it selling out before then, though). I hope this is helpful to someone!

StephBeanWed61502

Just wanted to say I've booked a vacation through ideeli before and had a great experience.

MsJuneBride2012

@Steph: I'm so glad you said that. I have never booked a vacation through one of the deal sites and have wondered if people generally had good experiences doing so.

chrissyb1113

This place looks amazing! But, this whole missing fourth wall thing... air conditioning? Fan? What happens in the rain? Has anyone stayed here before? I'd love to hear about this place!

cdubs2011

I have some friends that stayed there for their HM and they loved it but did mention there is no beach...you have to go to a sister property for that, so if you are looking for beachfront or if that is important to you... might not work. They loved their stay though!

StephBeanWed61502

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-boards_honeymoon_ladera-resort-st-lucia?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding BoardsForum:11Discussion:7d394154-b763-4bcb-a3c2-bf48ea24607bPost:ef2b4117-95d3-4960-9b1d-af7b3f31ca23">Re: Ladera Resort (St. Lucia)</a>:
[QUOTE]@Steph: I'm so glad you said that. I have never booked a vacation through one of the deal sites and have wondered if people generally had good experiences doing so.
Posted by MsJuneBride2012[/QUOTE]

I've heard negative things about Groupon deals - it sounds like Groupon sometimes oversells and then the properties can't always meet requests for specific travel dates.  Ideeli, though, has you book your travel dates immediately, so you'll know right away (before you buy) if the dates you want are available or not.  Jetsetter (another discount luxury travel site) does the same thing, and I've had good experiences with them as well.

MsJuneBride2012

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-boards_honeymoon_ladera-resort-st-lucia?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding BoardsForum:11Discussion:7d394154-b763-4bcb-a3c2-bf48ea24607bPost:4abfc520-1a3a-4f82-8be5-a67efbea1e7d">Re: Ladera Resort (St. Lucia)</a>:
[QUOTE]This place looks amazing! But, this whole missing fourth wall thing... air conditioning? Fan? What happens in the rain? Has anyone stayed here before? I'd love to hear about this place!
Posted by chrissyb1113[/QUOTE]

The missing fourth wall makes me hesitate as well, but the place does seem amazing! And most people seem to really love their time there. Here's a link to the Tripadvisor reviews if you want to check them out - <a href="http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Review-g147345-d149079-Reviews-Ladera_Resort-Soufriere_St_Lucia.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Review-g147345-d149079-Reviews-Ladera_Resort-Soufriere_St_Lucia.html</a>.

MsJuneBride2012

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-boards_honeymoon_ladera-resort-st-lucia?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding BoardsForum:11Discussion:7d394154-b763-4bcb-a3c2-bf48ea24607bPost:cce7ce2c-7ea2-4666-8ce0-41a3ff0d0b57">Re: Ladera Resort (St. Lucia)</a>:
[QUOTE]In Response to Re: Ladera Resort (St. Lucia) : I've heard negative things about Groupon deals - it sounds like Groupon sometimes oversells and then the properties can't always meet requests for specific travel dates.  Ideeli, though, has you book your travel dates immediately, so you'll know right away (before you buy) if the dates you want are available or not.  Jetsetter (another discount luxury travel site) does the same thing, and I've had good experiences with them as well.
Posted by StephBeanWed61502[/QUOTE]

Thanks once again...that is so helpful! And I'm off to check out Jetsetter! ;-)

shelby8020

ladera is amazing, we wanted to go there for our honeymoon, but its pretty pricey PLUS it is not all inclusive......although they do have the option available, it ups the price by well over $2k. also, there is no A/C, tv, radio, etc. You can u-tube it to get a better idea of the room. also, you have to take a shuttle down the mountain to get to the beach which takes about 15 minutes one way. We were going to stay for 2-3 nights, and then go down the mountain to Jalousie Plantation which is directly on the beach. We wound up booking secrets jamaica though!

Bubbalub

We stayed at Ladera for the second half of our honeymoon and it was stunning. 

The open-air rooms mean no A/C, but there is a ceiling fan and a standing, oscillating fan in each room. Plus you have the plunge pool in each room which is awesome. If you really hate bugs, though, I would not recommend it. Because there is no fourth wall at night when you turn on the lights the bugs come in. Each room has a mosquito net over the bed and that worked just fine, but I did make my husband remove a bug or two from the outside of the netting that was just freaking me out. You also get lizards in the room. Small ones, harmless and they stick to the walls for the most part.

The food is AMAZING. Even if you don't stay at Ladera, if you are at a nearby resort like Jalousie or Chanse Maison I would highly recommend booking a dinner at Ladera. 

It is on top of a ridge between the twin Pitons. When you look down at the bay you see Jalousie Plantation and its beach. This is one of two beaches for which there is free shuttle service from Ladera. We were there during the off season so we snuck onto the nice, big lounge chairs under the palapas each time we went. During the heavy tourist season non-Jalousie beach patrons need to use the lounge chairs in the back, under the coconut trees. The food and beverage service is fantastic.

The other beach is Chanse Maison. The road leading there from Soufriere washed away in the last big hurricane (Sept 2010) that went through so to get there you would take the shuttle to Soufriere and then a water taxi around the headland to Chanse Maison. We didn't go there so I can't tell you much about it.

If you stay at Ladera, don't bother booking spa appointments there. The facilities are old, though the staff is wonderful. They really need to update the spa house to match the level of excellence and architectural beauty of the rest of the resort. I would recommend getting your spa treatments at Jalousie instead.

If you have any other questions, let me know!