Royalton Saint Lucia Hotel Review

If you follow me over on Instagram, you probably got sick of my endless Saint Lucia updates that started at the beginning of the year and haven’t stopped since (because I’m now back in the freezing UK and throwback pics are all I have right now).

I was there for a fortnight with my fiancé and his family, and we stayed at the Royalton, an all-inclusive resort in the north of the island.

Our holiday was booked through TUI, our go-to travel agent for relaxation holidays. I’ll write a post soon about everything we did on the Caribbean island, but I thought I’d share a review of Royalton Saint Lucia first since I had a lot of questions about the hotel resort.

Hopefully this will be useful to anyone planning a visit to Saint Lucia who is looking for a luxury hotel and to lucky people who have already booked.

Even if you’re not going to Saint Lucia any time soon, it’s nice to have a nosey at a fancy resort, isn’t it?!

My review of the Royalton Hotel in Saint Lucia

There’s a full Royalton Saint Lucia review below but please also check out my post on the best things to do in Saint Lucia if you’re planning a trip!

After a slightly car-sick-inducing transfer from the airport, we arrived at the hotel just after nightfall.

During check-in we were immediately upgraded to Hideaway, which is the more exclusive side of the hotel – I’ll go into detail about that later. (I should point out that this was pure luck and nothing to do with my being a travel blogger, so I’ve got no affiliation with the Royalton at all.)

Our first impression of the resort was pure awe and had I not been shattered after the long flight from London, I might have been able to express how excited I was.

I walked through the vast lobby, with its elegant decor and high arched ceiling, in a complete daze, unable to believe this was home for the next two weeks.

Our bags were taken from us at the airport and they arrived in our rooms shortly after we did, which made me feel very pampered. I’ve never not had to drag my own bag to my room before!

Royalton Saint Lucia Bedrooms

One thing I really liked about the Royalton straight away was that your all-inclusive band, which is actually more like a bracelet, doubles as your room key.

It made such a nice change to never have to scramble for the key in my beach bag or remember to bring it everywhere!

We stayed in block four on the third floor, but I don’t really think it matters which room you get at this hotel because all of the rooms at the Royalton have a full sea view.

The room was one of the best I’ve stayed in, perhaps only on par with the RIU in Sri Lanka, which was brand new when we stayed.

The Royalton rooms are large, very modern and the pillows are super comfy.

All of the information you need about the hotel, including the room service ordering system, is on the big TV.

The mini fridge is constantly replenished with beer, water and soft drinks, as were the coffee machine pods.

The bath (with jets!) is the focal point of the room, but there is also a large walk-in shower with no less than THREE shower heads (two are rain showers), plus a double sink.

We had bathrobes, which we donned for sundowners on the balcony some nights.

The whole place was spotless and the maid visited twice a day: once in the morning and once for turn-down service in the evening.

Ladies (and suave gents), the hairdryer is good. Like, it actually dries your hair quickly. Other hotels, take note.

You can upgrade from a Junior Luxury Suite to a Swim-Out room, which I think are best suited to older couples or young families who prefer their own space.

Hotel grounds and amenities

The Royalton’s hotel grounds are meticulously cared for – the gardeners and caretakers do an excellent job. The resort is actually quite small and doesn’t take at all long to walk around, but there are plenty of pools – I think I counted six – in the main part of the hotel.

There’s a large kids’ pool with an adjacent play area, a pleasing distance away from the main pools.

I’d say the pool is more for bigger kids – we were a large party with a baby in tow (approx 18 months) and the pool was a bit big for him. There weren’t many kids at the hotel during our stay, but the ones we saw were all very well-behaved.

Thank god.

The Diamond section (where guests get their own butler) is situated off to the left, and the Hideaway Pool and beach area are on the right.

The Hideaway pool was probably my favourite because it’s much more chilled, and who doesn’t dream of floating in an infinity pool at sunset, cocktail in hand?

I figure it’s okay to post pics of Tom now and then, since we’re engaged. Here he is!

Most of the pools have swim-up bars but there are also plenty of bars dotted around the resort.

We were pleased to find that the cocktail lists are decent and made with top-shelf spirits. The ginger and rosemary martini was my favourite!

The Royalton has done away with plastic straws but we were only offered paper straws a handful of times, so I recommend packing a metal straw. Trust me, there’s nothing fun about getting hit full in the face with an iced drink every time you try to take a sip!

There are plenty of loungers and parasols to go round, but I would always be on the hunt for a canopy, purely for the photo opps! Can’t take me anywhere…

You can hire a cabana for around $85, which has its own little heated pool and a TV.

The Royalton Saint Lucia Beach

The hotel has a small private beach in Smugglers’ Cove with soft white sand and clear water.

After stormy weather, swimming in the sea isn’t allowed because jellyfish come in. The water was pretty choppy for a few days during our stay and I read this is because the hotel is located in the area where the Caribbean meets the Atlantic. Now we know.

Luckily, the water was calm the day we did a boat trip, which we booked with a guy on the beach. It was the BEST day!

Check out my guide to what to do in Saint Lucia if you’re looking for things to do on your holiday.

Food and drink at the Saint Lucia resort

The Royalton resort is 24 hours all-inclusive, even for room service. I took full advantage, obviously.

There are seven restaurants. For breakfast, there’s the buffet (Brits, it’s American bacon. You have been warned), or Hideaway guests can use the Dorado restaurant if they’d like to be served their food – but I don’t recommend it due to long waiting times.

The buffet restaurant has the best lunchtime offering I’ve seen at a hotel. There are live cooking stations for pasta, teppanyaki, meats and fish and even a sushi or poke bowl station.

You can also go to the Italian or order food at the sports bar during the day.

For casual light bites during the day, there’s a jerk chicken and burger van near the kids pool and a separate grill in the Hideaway section with burgers, nachos etc.

Because we were at the hotel on New Years Eve, we experienced a spectacular gala dinner in the main lobby.

I thought I’d never see a buffet as extravagant as the ones I frequented on Dubai’s brunch scene, but the Royalton lived up to the sandpit!

The rest of the specialty restaurants (all-inclusive) were: the Tex-Mex, Hunters Steak House, a dedicated Teppanyaki restaurant which I highly recommend if you’re in a group and want an entertaining meal, and a Creole restaurant.

We never had a bad meal and definitely didn’t get bored thanks to the multitude of options. There really is something for everyone, and there’s no limit to how often you eat in any of the restaurants.

If you want to eat steak every night, nobody’s stopping you (okay, I stopped Tom).

Entertainment and activities at Royalton Saint Lucia

Everton, the fitness trainer, is a credit to the hotel. I did morning or sunset yoga with him on the beach a few times, and also saw him leading more eager exercisers in boot-camp style classes with all the proper torture equipment.

I heard the gym exceeded people’s expectations too – but I didn’t darken its doors.

On my last day, there was a pool yoga session to help everyone stretch out before the flight home, and there was aqua-arobics most days. I’ve never been so involved in the activities at a resort before!

I noticed a few more unusual activities like sushi-making workshops happening during our holiday, but didn’t sample anything like that myself.

The beach had a volleyball court and a booth where you could hire jet skis, as well as a few other watersports.

The Vibe team kept the kids happy and their dance competitions entertained everyone around the pools, but the team weren’t pushy or too in your face, which was nice.

I’ve stayed at hotels where they hound you to join in and that’s just not what I need the morning after an all-inclusive boozing session!

Nighttime entertainment was of a higher standard than most all-inclusive resorts I’d stayed at too, with the usual Michael Jackson tributes and dance shows.

Service

The only negative thing I could say about the Royalton Saint Lucia was that the service really wasn’t five-star.

With the exception of a few staff members, most of whom worked in the Hideaway, we found the staff quite uninterested in the guests. I

wondered whether maybe that was because it was a slightly more upscale resort than we were used to, so the staff might have been trained not to get too personal with guests. That theory might be way off though!

I couldn’t help but compare the service to the welcome we experienced at the RIU in Ocho Rios Jamaica, which was much more friendly.

If you stay at the Royalton in Saint Lucia, you have to be prepared to adjust to Caribbean time. Service was very slow during our stay, especially at the bars (except Hideaway bars).

It was particularly bad in the Italian restaurant at lunchtime and Dorado, the Hideaway’s seafood and grill place, at breakfast time. We waited around 45 minutes for a smoothie (one didn’t make it to the table) and even longer for breakfast to appear – more than once.

The slow service didn’t impact how much we enjoyed ourselves at all because it’s not like we had anywhere to be, but if you’re the kind of person who gets frustrated about slow service, it’s something to note.

We didn’t feel like there was much point in complaining because we were on holiday and didn’t feel the need, but also because it was a resort-wide problem and not something that was going to be fixed during our stay.

Is the Hideaway at Royalton Saint Lucia worth it?

Upgrading to Hideaway gives you access to an exclusive part of the hotel and beach. We were able to use three different bars: the beach bar where Bryan kept us topped up during the day, Aquarius where the nightly shot contests and vibe were the cause of a fair few hangovers, and the pool bar at the Hideaway infinity pool.

There’s also a large hot tub/jacuzzi pool that’s heated in the Hideaway area, but there’s one of those in the main hotel pool area too.

With Hideaway you can order or graze at the grill on the beach and sit in the slightly quieter beach area.

If you want an adults-only space and better service, plus the option to dine at the Dorado Seafood and Grill restaurant (which I highly recommend for dinner, but not breakfast), Hideaway is probably worth the upgrade.

But keep in mind that the rooms are exactly the same as the rest of the hotel!

Check prices for Royalton and Hideaway

Search for travel insurance quotes for Saint Lucia and check safety info

Love all-inclusive resorts? Check out my review of El Dorado Royale in Riviera Maya and whether it’s better to stay at El Dorado Royale or El Dorado Seaside Suites in Mexico.

We had a fantastic holiday at the Royalton in Saint Lucia and I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend the resort to anyone planning a Caribbean holiday.

You can follow me on Instagram for more pictures of the hotel, and I’m also on Twitter and Facebook. If you’d like to keep up to date with new blog posts, sign up to my email list!

Pin this for later