Featured Writer: Matt Goff

Bit of a cheat I know, starting off a travel blog called “Back in Time Travel” with my most recent travel experience, but that’s how I roll. And this one isn’t going to win any awards for educating the average person on the history of a beautiful Caribbean island that is just 617 square kilometres big with a population of 174,000 either. But that’s where Wikipedia comes in my young padawans. Knock yourself out. And then read on about “The Land. The People. The Light” as experienced by Goffy.

My lovely travelling companion Jacki and I stayed at the ‘Le Sport – Bodyholiday’ resort, tucked away in the North West part of the Island. Secluded in a beautiful cove, Cariblue Beach provided the backdrop (depending which way you are facing of course) for a truly fantastic Caribbean experience. Now, I don’t work for the Le Sport and I don’t think I earn any commission for plugging their resort – if I get any freebies I will of course let you know – but it truly was a magical seven days. Aside from a little cycling retreat to Cotton Bay, we never left the confines of the grounds. I am sure St Lucia as an Island has thousands of amazing features just waiting to be discovered, however they will have to wait for another time. Le Sport kept me busy and relaxed in equal measures for the entire trip.

A little cloudy to start with…

Le Sport in a cove

The Resort

The only bummer about the resort is the transfer – about 90 minutes from the airport. So go to the loo before you get on your transportation. One of the first thing you notice when you start on your journey is just how lush and green the Island is – truly remarkable. Although I was very excited to see the Island on route, I do admit that I nodded off for half an hour or so – one rookie mistake was staying out too late the night before for a friend’s birthday party. Oh boy was my tummy upset with me. Anyways, the 90 minutes didn’t take as long to go by as I thought and before we knew it, our mini bus posse were being greeted with cold towels and cocktails at the welcome desk. Nice.

Iced Cold Flannels…ok face cloths for the North Americans

Infinity Pool View

Sandy Beaches

The hotel rooms were excellent – we had second floor Ocean view. Bar fridge, wonderful King Size bed, bath robes etc. Perfect. The whole idea of Body Holiday is “Give us your body for a week and we will give you back your mind”. Now for all inclusives for me, this usually means 7 days of stuffing my face with all you can eat buffets and cheese trays, washed down with a VAT of wine. But here, you really can decide on how much you eat, when you eat, when you want to relax, when you want to be active etc. I’ll get to the activities later – but the food here was excellent. Breakfast provided a huge range of continental options, plus chefs on hand to rustle up a nice egg white omelette with ham and cheese for Goffy most mornings. Lunch – several options. Sit down buffet at the Cariblue Restaurant, a healthy deli with various options on hand for the truly health conscious (i.e. cucumber and carrot shakes –which to be honest, gave me facial spasms), the club house Pavilion serving up made to order pizzas and burgers (including the yummy local hot sauce) and then a nice ‘High Tea’ served at 4pm, complete with scones, jam and cream. All washed down with a champagne cocktail. Delish. I’m hungry now.

Jacki on her personal beach ponders lunch options..

Pizza and Service: Excellent!

Can you bring my lunch here pretty please..?

Dinner included the venues above but you can also posh it up a bit and dine at Tao – the jewel in the crown of the resorts gastronomy – throw on a nice shirt and order some expensive wine (I’ll get to that in a minute). We made a reservation for here before we arrived and I would advise you do the same. The food was excellent and the ambiance – complete with “ocean view” view was perfect. I think we got carried away with everything the restaurant had to offer as I was photographed doing the conga with strangers in the club house disco about 90 minutes later – which is a bit odd. On the Friday night, we were entertained on a boat cruise to watch the sunset, and then treated to a BBQ on the beach upon our return. I think I was spotted on the dance floor that night too. Sigh.

This boat cruise snap likely will not win any international photography awards…what happened?

Plenty of Dining Options

Gimme Steak Man

Dinner at Tao

Cheeky Kiss Time

The Wine. Well for our posh Tao dinner, we had pre-ordered (through the wine tasting room service they have nearby – which was excellent by the way) a very nice 2007 Joseph Phelps Innisfree Cabernet Sauvignon, which they decanted for us. We actually bought two bottles of red wine with us from home, as I have been disappointed on occasions with the wine provided by All Inclusives. But the house wines were actually very good – Chilean Sauvignon Blanc and Chardonnay for white and Cabernet Sauvignon & Shiraz for red. Plus around 25 or so wines to buy for restaurant options, plus others such as the Joseph Phelps wine we had in addition to some top Bordeaux’s (i.e. Rauzan Segla). Nice touch. We didn’t drink the wine we brought to the last day, and even then they decanted it for us. Nice touch again. All done with a smile and fantastic service. All local beverages were very nice – the beer Piton, light and refreshing. And of course, on tap whenever you wanted it. Which when you have nose dived 15 times in 10 minutes into the salty ocean trying to water ski, was very much appreciated.

.

Amazing Wine

Service with a smile

Keep it coming Smiley…

You can also relax for some cocktails and champagne in the Piano Bar – where the dude (can’t remember his name) will play renditions of Adele (if you can still listen to Anyone Like You for the umpteenth time without rolling your eyes), Sinatra and yes I am not joking, Tiffany! Skills, the man has skills.

Activities

Le Sport has an excellent Spa and our package included a treatment every day. Massages, facials, wraps – all sounds wonderful eh? The Spa building was amazing too as I am sure you will agree. It is located up a hill behind the main buildings. And it’s a good 60 second hike up dem stairs people – so be prepared. That was a work out in itself. Attached to the Spa is a brand new training gym with state of the art equipment, with Felix who will help you plan to lose the bulges you may acquire from Tao. I did a couple of work outs there in the morning – it was awesome in there. Also attached to the Spa is the main fitness studio, where you can sign up for a plethora of classes – from Yoga, to Spinning, to Spoga, to stretch classes, meditation classes (i.e. fall asleep and snore in front of strangers), circuit training and pilates.

Yes I look a bit dorky showcasing the Spa building..

Brand new. Perfect. I was impressed.

Other optional activities include water sports such as Water Skiing (I was crap at this), Sailing (I was good at this), Tubing (I didn’t capsize or lose my swimming shorts), Windsurfing (I watched some of this), Stand up Paddling (I wasn’t very good at this, but Jacki was) and Snorkelling (I was ok at this). You can also do Scuba diving too. Or just doggy paddle around in the ocean like I did for a bit too. Non water sports activities included Archery (I was freakin great at this), Golf (lessons available), Tennis (Jacki and I were terrible at this), Water Aerobics (Jacki and I were good at this!) and bike rides.

Jacki Paddle Boarding. Honest.

Auditioning for The Hunger Games

Golf lesson. Instructor not technically safe where he is standing with my slice.

Deb, Matt, Bernadeen and Derek strike a pose..

Tubing’s next victims..

The Cats and I pose

The latter, we went on an organized excursion to Cotton Bay, which provided us our own little Tour de France mountain climbs. Respect to the Peloton. The bay, cute and breezy with views to the Atlantic Ocean, has a piece of rocket that fell from one of the Space Shuttles voyages years ago – not the one that blew up all over Florida (I think). Pretty cool. Dummy here didn’t get a picture of that though.

Lance & Miguel

And then there is the sunset on Cariblue Beach, which was stunning. A lot of people gather around 5.30pm to share a glass of wine and watch it all unfold over the next hour or so. One of my favourite parts of the trip. In general, I did get a bit of a pasting from the Mozzies – I wouldn’t say they are everywhere, but at night – do wear repellant and do keep your doors shut in your room. School boy error on the first night was to keep door open to hear the waves – romantic yes, open season for the Mozzies on Goffy’s arms and shoulders, yes. Sensible? No.

Worth waiting all day for..

Stunning.

Captivating

At the resort we met all kinds of people from all walks of life. Singles, couples, young and old. It’s a great environment for being either reclusive in a hammock, or to meet people and enjoy some drinks and tom foolery on the dance floor. We were lucky to meet some great peeps from Toronto and London.

The Cycling Crew Reunion.

At your service me lady…

Final evenings’ drinkee poos

Definitely a place to return too. I think you immediately know when you fall for a place for your own personal reasons. And this did it for me and thats what matters right? The world is big and life is too short (for cheap wine) – however, Body Holiday St Lucia is top of our ‘let’s go back’ list! I would say ‘Cue musical interlude’ but haven’t got that multimedia add on yet. Perhaps the excellent folks at ‘WordPress’ could give it to me? So in the meantime, cue ‘Palm Tree Breeze’….

Hammock. Sun. Breeze. Relax. Hummmmm.