Anguilla

Author: jaba
Date of Trip: April 2004

Cap Juluca Hotel
This is the best hotel I have ever been to! In April 2004 my sister and I went to a little island in the Caribbean called Anguilla and stayed in one of the two big hotels on the island, called Cap Juluca. We found out about this hotel from an online travel report. We are used to staying in very good hotels like the Ritz Carlton and the Hyatt resorts, but Cap Juluca topped all of them.

When we arrived by plane on the neighbouring island of Saint Martin, we almost dreaded taking a taxi to the port and then the ferry boat to Anguilla. At the airport a couple invited us to take a private boat to Anguilla. It was a very pleasant ride of about 20 minutes. Immigration and customs took place in a small wooden house and was pleasant as well. When we arrived at the hotel we were taken into a nice meeting room with soft leather sofas, given an excellent fruit punch and were introduced to the hotel.

Our room was very spacious and had a private terrace on the ground floor overlooking the beach. There is no TV in the rooms, but when you are looking for serenity, quiet time, you don’t want to watch a blaring TV set. It would destroy the relaxed calm. The sand on the beach is the softest we have ever experienced. The water is clear, clean and calm like in a swimming pool. The attendants brought us drinks, ice cream and chilled towels, and the beach chairs were far apart from the others to ensure privacy.

Dining
Breakfast was brought to our room every moring and set up on our terrace. Lunch at the beach restaurant was excellent and also dinner at the nice open air dining room overlooking the lagoon was excellent as well. Even the dinks were the best we have ever had. Having grown up in Switzerland, across the border from France we are used to very good food, but Cap Juluca and also the restaurants on the island of Anguilla could match any restaurant in France and Switzerland. There is one restaurant in Anguilla I would like to mention in particular. It is called Mangoes. It overlooks the beach, is open air and offers a great atmosphere. A few evenings a week a band plays favorite songs and does a kind of karaoke involving the guests. The food of course was great too.

Conclusion
Being in Anguilla you feel like you are treated like family. The island doesn’t have many inhabitants and one senses that everybody knows everybody and the whole island is like one big family. During our stay of eight days, we got to know several Anguilland who showed us around, took us to concerts and gave us Tennis lessons. We went swimming with sting rays and dolphins.One of them even paid us a visit in our Florida home while travelling there. When we left, we took a boat from the hotel beach right to the airport. We left with sadness in our hearts and the resolve to go there again some time.