In any traveller’s island-hopping career, Sandy Lane is both physically and symbolically the ultimate destination, for it represents the quintessential Caribbean in terms of both history and splendour. Doubtless many of our readers are familiar with its palatial facade and parklands – part of Sandy Lane’s enduring fame. Perhaps they are familiar with its relatively recent renovations that synergise the traditional munificence of grandeur with the most modern of cutting edge technologies (all the latest gadgets and whatnot that complete our modern demands and expectations) and all the amenities which redefine luxury on a whole new, extraordinary level. After all, Sandy Lane boasts of a returning guest rate of more than 50%, which speaks volumes about its perennial seductiveness despite a famously exclusive price-tag.
There is more to it, however, than the prerequisite 5 star luxuries of grand hotels the world over. There is, for starters, the unquestionable pedigree that comes from decades of hosting many of the world’s most discerning travellers, as well as the original St James’ villa owners. Le beau monde – a mixture of blue-blooded Brits, Jockey Club members, industrialists and sundry wealthy business people – has traditionally wintered at Sandy Lane and the hotel has long maintained a club-like atmosphere.
Jonathon Wright and Dominic Teague, executive chef and executive sous-chef respectively, manage Sandy Lane’s four restaurants that sprawl over the estate. Both Jonathon and Dominic have worked extensively in London’s top establishments in the past, and are intimately familiar with their British-based suppliers of produce. Bajan Blue and L’Acajou are Sandy Lane’s flagship restaurants; the former offers an eclectic fare from the grill – as well as the sashimi bar and pizza ovens – and is described as the more standard option catering to the British traditional taste. Of course, having sampled the exquisite Miso Blackened Cod and supreme sashimi, it is difficult to see how Bajan Blue can be described in any possible way as ‘standard’ – unless one assumes that this is the standard for Sandy Lane.
The pink elegance of L’Acajou, on the first tier of Sandy Lane and overlooking the sea, serves both the buffet breakfast and fine dining. Dominic informs me that in fact Sandy Lane can make almost anything that a guest requests, even if it isn’t on the menu. It is under the candlelight and on the plush armchairs of L’Acajou that I have a little conversation with a couple, property developers in London, off from a cruise to spend a few days at Barbados’ legendary hotel. Quickly the conversation turns to Dominic, who has presided over the kitchens of a number of restaurants the couple has frequented during the great London parties in the hedonistic nineties.
The Spa is a complex in its own right, boasting a massive range of spa treatments both on cultural and methodological lines. Treatments usually last just an hour but can go as far as taking up a good portion of the day all within the exclusivity of each guest’s own spa room.
Each of these rooms, with their own gardens and hydrotherapy pools, is a preserve of calm and quiet dignity. Cohabiting with the spa are the gymnasium, with all the equipment and electronic gadgets that one can dream of in their ideal work-out session, and the restaurant (although there is the option of dining in one’s private spa room). Check out the meditation room, a surreal experience that almost hypnotises one with its Zen appearance.
Anyone who has been to Sandy Lane will know that Golf is synonymous with the hotel. The owners have historically been avid golfers and its present owners have determined to create a Sandy Lane golfing class of its own, marrying the hotel’s long burning love affair with the sport to their own passion.
The personal course of Sandy Lane’s owners and crafted (again by Fazio) with all the passion that one finds in the sport, has just one hour of open playing slots each day and guarantees that you will have much of the course to yourself. Which is just as well, for its vast size and powerful landscaping – recovered from an old limestone quarry, itself currently the site of a lake sheltering below
For the select few that tread upon these grounds Sandy Lane has produced a unique range of Green Monkey golf-wear, unavailable even to other Sandy Lane guests, to proclaim to the world over their privilege. The Country Club is also host to its own restaurant, with food as excellent as anywhere else in Sandy Lane. Here, one can sit after some light sporting activity and have an excellent lunch (I would recommend the grilled Mahi Mahi, tender and rich in flavor), while overlooking the wide-ranging Country Club course, extending almost all the way to the sea on the horizon.
Sandy Lane is my last great splash in a Caribbean voyage that has taken me from the remotest of places to the very pinnacle of high living. Starting from the pale, untouched beaches of Puerto Plata in the Dominican Republic, I have come to end my feature on the pearly shores of Sandy Lane. I would like to thank all the people at Sandy Lane who helped me appreciate the atmosphere of the hotel at its very best. I would also like to credit my parents for narrating to me many a wonderful story from their own recollections of Sandy Lane and Barbados – the kind of stories that belong to another, golden era irretrievably lost to the past. Yet if my brief experience at Sandy Lane is anything to go by, the only things to have changed are the the vintages on the Champagne bottles.
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