June 2023
Back in August 2018, we were reading the Sunday New York Times and came across an article headlined “10 Travel Writers, 10 Hotels.” We saved the article and marked the St. Regis as a property we’d love to visit someday. The Times article highlighted the property’s status as the first and only certified gold Audubon international signature sanctuary in the Caribbean, and we loved the idea of combining a resort vacation with adventures in nature.
Five years later, we finally managed to book the trip. Because this was our first visit to Puerto Rico and because we tend to like city vacations, we preceded our stay at the St. Regis with five days in Old San Juan at the Hotel El Convento. (Read more about the El Convento in this post.) The combination ended up being terrific: exploring a bustling city and then moving into full relaxation mode on the beach.
Truly spectacular environs
The 2018 Times article described driving through the gates as “feeling like penetrating a secret world: Lush tropical plants and flowers flanked quiet footpaths that snaked around palm trees and low-slung buildings.” We had the same experience; everywhere we looked was green, green, green, punctuated by bright reds, oranges, and yellows of seasonal flowers. During our five-day stay, we spent a lot of time meandering slowly down the paths between the resort’s buildings, keeping our eyes open for lizards, frogs, and birds of all kinds. While the iguanas got the most attention (a favorite memory is watching one swim across the pool among the guests), we loved the smaller lizards and the resident chango birds with their recently hatched chicklets that were just learning to fly.
With 483 acres to explore, we found lots of ways to keep busy. We biked around the entire property, making stops at the organic farm, the dog shelter, the inflatable water park, the bird sanctuary, and the tennis center. We walked along the two-mile beach, finding sand dollars to decorate the roped-off areas where sea turtles had recently laid eggs. And we peeked at the multi-million-dollar vacation homes under construction on either side of the resort. The ocean was calm and warm, so in between adventures, we waded in to watch massive brown pelicans dive for fish. And, of course, we found time for dips in the multi-tiered pool and for lounging poolside under the shade of an umbrella.
A cool (in many ways) escape from outdoor adventures
Our room – a garden-view king suite – served as a nice retreat when we needed an air-conditioned break from the sun. The welcome foyer with honor bar; the sunny bedroom; the walk-in closet; and the roomy, spa-like bathroom with a deep tub and one of the biggest showers we’ve seen (really, a shower room)…all were functionally just right. The spaces had a focus on rest and revitalization with plenty of life’s little luxuries: Frette linens, polvorones (a Spanish cookie) delivered nightly, Nespresso coffee, Sodashi and Sachajuan bath and body products, a stack of current magazines (Vanity Fair, Architectural Digest, Bienvenidos), a well-stocked liquor cabinet, and Bluetooth speakers. Loads of storage made it easy to hide any evidence that we were visitors rather than residents, and the patio with a lovely garden view was sheltered from the sun and featured a cushiony daybed.
The room wasn’t quite pristine – the wallpaper in the separate toilet room buckled a little, and there were a few small scratches in the bedside tables – but it was clear the room received regular attention from not just the housekeepers but from maintenance staff as well. Design-wise, the choices were safe – what we’d call beach neutral – but that approach left more attention to be given to the stunning gardens outside.
Butler service?
The St. Regis makes a big deal of its service. We received several emails in advance of our stay asking for preferences and offering to assist with any of our needs. And when we arrived, we were walked to our room by our “day butler,” who introduced us to all of the room’s features and made arrangements for morning French press coffee, dinner that night and preferred times for daily housekeeping and turndown services. The butler was lovely, and we expected we would be seeing her or a colleague in future days when we had a request. But that didn’t end up being the case, and while we called the butler number on the phone a few times, we never saw our butler again. This isn’t a complaint; we really don’t need someone at our beck and call, but it did seem a little odd. And it also seemed odd that the arrangements we made on that first day seemed to get lost in the system; our coffee never arrived; the housekeeper arrived early; and our dinner reservation was missing. Other service confusions during our stay made us think this is an issue with the system, not with any individual staff member. It may also have been that our last name was quite similar to another guest. On a handful of occasions, we were greeted by that guest’s name, and we think some of our arrangements may have ended up there.
Setting aside these mix-ups, which were really not a problem because they were always quickly remedied, every staff member with whom we dealt, without exception, was delightful, and we had fun conversations with several members of the St. Regis team. It was pretty obvious that all employees were expected to say good morning/afternoon/evening to every guest they encountered, but the friendliness from folks we exchanged more than a greeting with seemed genuine, and we loved getting to know them just a bit. Special thanks go out to everyone who shared their sea turtle stories with us!
Puerto Rico bonus entry: Because of a cancelled flight on the way back to Minneapolis, we stayed an extra night in Puerto Rico at the Condado Vanderbilt.
Stay details:
- St. Regis Bahia Beach Resort, Rio Grande, Puerto Rico
- 5-night stay: May 29 – June 3, 2023
- Deluxe king, garden view, Room # 711
What we did, where we ate:
- Pool and beach time — swimming iguanas, diving pelicans, nesting sea turtles, baby birds just learning to fly, sand dollar searching
- Breakfast and lunches at Seagrapes
- Dinner at St. Regis Bar
- Cycling around the resort
- Farm at Bahia
- Dog shelter – Alma de Bahia
- Bird sanctuary
- Tennis courts
- Inflatable water park
- Dinner at Paros
- Visit to El Junque Rainforest with guide Ricky
- coquis, snails and lizards
- rainbow trees, torch gingers
- Torre Yokahu tower, CCC Grande Bano, La Coca Falls
- Dinner at the Beach Club
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