St Lucia Botanical Garden - beauty on the slopes of the beast

Advantages: Peaceful and colourful stop, very lush
Disadvantages: Few.

...Like several others of the Windward Islands chain, St Lucia was formerly mainly divided into plantations and plantations principally grew sugar (now the main crop is bananas, although tourism is the main source of income). The plantations may have gone but often their names live on (like Sandy Lane in Barbados) and Soufriere is the former plantation in St Lucia which is the home of the St Lucia Botanical Gardens (also known at the Diamond Botanical Gardens). (Side note: If Soufriere sounds French, it is: St Lucia was changed hands repeatedly between the French and the British, belonging to each of the warring nations a total of 7 times each). Soufriere Plantation was part of a land grant by King Louis XIV and it is the descendants of the Devaux family, to whom the land was granted, who still own the land and who therefore own...

andyk910 27.03.2009 · Read review
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Review of St Lucia Botanical Gardens

Club St Lucia

Advantages: A great place when you get out and meet the locals
Disadvantages: very hot and humid and the roads are terrible

...for the return journey. We were greeted by the most unhelpful reception staff you could imagine every thing seemed to be too much trouble for them, t wasn't the best start to our dream holiday. When we got shown to our room almost an hour later I was pleasantly surprised, although basic it was clean and well decorated, with a working air-condition unit. Which having talked to several other guests was a real BONUS! Rather than bore you with all my boring holiday details and itinerary I will go through the Bad points and few good points about Club St Lucia. Accommodation: We had a good experience of this our room was perfectly adequate and kept very clean by our cleaner, I would rate it at 3-4 out of 5. Hotel staff: A mixed bunch the entertainment staff I thought were excellent, they did all they could to look after both adult and child alike...

socialclimbers 23.11.2004 · Read review
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Review of General: St Lucia

Lets go to St Loosha.

Advantages: Lovely scenery, hot.
Disadvantages: Need to be careful of the locals.

.... Initial Impression. * * * * * * * * * * * * * After my suprise on the amount of roads, I was able to take in the sheer beauty of the place. The Island is very hilly and very green. We checked into out hotel which I will skim over as it is general St Lucia. The hotel was lovely, big rooms, lovely grounds. We had a television which, whilst I would rather not have it on, my husband did have a look and we saw the teletubbies and on another channel, there was lots of hard core porn! Something to be aware of if taking teenagers. After we familiarised ourselves with the hotel, we were able to relax in the sun and plan a few excursions to really see the island. We were fully inclusive which meant that we were tied a little bit to the hotel, but we did book a few day trips and visit the beach. The tour guide warned us about the locals...

spottydog2 29.11.2006 · Read review
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Review of General: St Lucia

St Deny's, the clean hotel for my dirty weekend!

Advantages: Polite and helpful staff, clean hotel.
Disadvantages: Bed a bot on the small side for my husband.

...After an incredible weekend away with my darling husband to celebrate our 9th wedding anniversary, I have now decided to do my first and quite possibly my last hotel review! Our destination of choice for this excursion was to be a place new to us, so of course the hotel had to be in a prime location at a price we could afford?fortunately we seemed to fall on our feet so to speak on both of these points. Our destination, to be exact was York, and due to the sheer number of attractions available to us, we wanted a hotel reasonably central, or at least within walking distance of the few sights we wished to see. After some extensive research, mostly through the designated York tourist board site, we came across the perfect hotel. St Denys hotel, a small but very quaint hotel, housing 13 rooms only, but with it?s own parking...

sarahbarrow 28.04.2009 · Read review
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Review of St Denys Hotel, York

Sandals St Lucia

Advantages: All-Inclusive, great food, entertainment, activities, accommodation
Disadvantages: Expensive

...I have just returned from a two-week all-inclusive holiday in Sandals St Lucia Golf Resort and Spar and it was fantastic. VALUE FOR MONEY At first the holiday appears expensive but I’d say it’s worth every penny. The resort is Ultra all-inclusive, which means that you don’t have to pay for a thing, except the presents to bring home! ROOM We opted for the basic room however, you can, for extra money upgrade your room to enjoy various other luxuries including your own private plunge pool! We were delighted with our accommodation. The room was beautiful and clean. It had air conditioning, a lovely four-poster, large TV with Sky, telephone, sofa, a large bathroom and our own patio. The room was on the bottom floor and looked out to the beach and the main pool was less a stone throw away. POOL The resort has 4 whirlpools...

Helcur9 05.07.2001 · Read review
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Review of General: St Lucia

MERTON HOTEL, ST SAVIOUR JERSEY

Advantages: lovely food, polite staff, great swimming pool
Disadvantages: no sea view, small television

...My husband and I have just spent 5 nights at the Merton Hotel in St Saviour in Jersey, Channel Islands. We stayed from Sundary 2 September 2007 to Friday 7 September 2007 and we had a great stay. The Merton Hotel is owned by Seymour Hotels and is a 3 star hotel. Jersey have their own system of rating hotels which is different to the UK, but the ratings are of a very high standard. We stayed in a double ensuite room and we had free half board for the price of bed and breakfast. We booked through Condor Ferries and took our own car and paid a total of £769 for the trip (£79 of which was for the car ferry travel). OUR BEDROOM +++++++++++++++ Our room was plainly and pleasantly decorated, with chrome light fittings everywhere. The furniture was ample, being a built in wardrobe, dressing table and chest of drawers...

kismet 12.09.2007 · Read review
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Review of Merton Hotel, St. Saviour

Lucia, Lucia

Advantages: Great read, wonderful descriptions
Disadvantages: Some sad parts might make you cry

..."Lucia, Lucia" is a novel by Adriana Trigiani. The novel is set in 1950's New York and is based around an Italian family who have now settled in America and own a grocery store. The novel begins in the present day with an old Lucia reminiscing about her past to Kit a young woman who lives in the same apartment block. Very soon we forget about Kit and are immersed in Lucia's world in 1950's New York. Lucia belongs to a very traditional Italian family with its old-fashioned values and the importance of family, respect, traditions and marrying into the right Italian family. The 1950's were however were starting to become a changing time for women and although most pursued the traditional roles of becoming a wife and mother and giving up a career there were starting to become more who held on to their jobs and had a little more...

AJ26 24.11.2005 · Read review
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Review of Lucia, Lucia - Adriana Trigiani

Lucia Leader

Advantages: 50s fashion, Italians
Disadvantages: sad in parts

...A couple of weeks ago my friend and I went on a shopping expedition. We were nearly ready to go home empty handed when pal o?mine spotted a new book shop that boasted a 3 for £10 poster outside. We grinned at one another and walked in. I was overjoyed when my friend handed over the decision making to me. Choose three books for her? OK then ? One was a true crime, one was ?PS I Love You? (even though I haven?t read it yet myself!) and the final one was this book, Lucia Lucia. Pal handed this one over to me as she knows I'm a fast reader. A week later she had it back! * The story * It?s 1950. Lucia Sartori is a 25 year old living in Greenwich Village, New York. She?s still at home with her Italian parents and four brothers, but she?s an independent gal who works in the local department store in the Special Order Department...

kirstymack80 15.02.2005 · Read review
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Review of Lucia, Lucia - Adriana Trigiani

Crowne Plaza St James - A Great London Hotel Happy to See You

Advantages: Great Location. Excellent standard of service. Relatively good value for London.
Disadvantages: No Pool. That's about it!

...INTRODUCTION I booked dinner and theatre for my wife's thirtieth birthday, and needed a relatively up-market hotel in London - with a bit of ?wow? factor - to overnight in. I am a frequent visitor to IC Hotel Group properties on business (these include the five star Intercontinental Hotels, the four to five star Crowne Plaza, and the three to four star Holiday Inn) and am a member of their award-winning ?Priority Club? loyalty scheme, so I decided to use my accumulated points to redeem a ?Reward Night? and stay for free. The hotel is on Buckingham Gate, with extensive frontage featuring an attractive red and white brick façade with decorative arches, reminiscent of Florentine architecture. GETTING TO & FROM The hotel is in the heart of Westminster. It?s a short, three minute, walk from St James? Park Tube...

Hishyeness 20.04.2009 (14.05.2009) · Read review
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Review of Crowne Plaza London St James, London

Cardinal Hotel - Not Bad, Not Bad

Advantages: Reception, Balcony, Breakfast Bar, Rooms
Disadvantages: First Impression

...expensive journey. Luckily the return trip wasn't the same but it's not like you can argue with them nor do anything. So with my first impression of the locals engraved in stone in my mind I got out of the taxi to find the Cardinal Hotel, St Peters. - The Address The address suggests that the hotel is basically on the door step of the Vatican its self. I have no idea why it was so similar to the address of the actual St Peters because the Cardinal Hotel is on the out skirts of the city. Even one or two of the taxi drivers who had been around for a while weren't sure where it was. To get to the hotel you have to turn off a main road after avoiding some mad traffic (that's how they drive there) into a back street which looks like it has taken a beating over the years and could do with someone tearing it apart and relaying the concrete...

burns2007 22.08.2008 · Read review
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Review of Cardinal Hotel St. Peter, Roma