Back to Anguilla

We skipped off to our favorite place in the Caribbean, Cap Juluca in Anguilla. There really is no place else where we feel so relaxed. I don't know if it's the calm water, the soft sand, the friendly people, but you just can't feel anything but calm, relaxed and happy here. It's the perfect place to go when you want/ need to unwind. Basically, a typical day in Anguilla:  stunning beach, fine dining, beach bar with live music, repeat.  

Stunning beaches: 

Fine dining:

Our favorite restaurant on the island is Veya. 

This place is really something, the food is so creative and delicious, 

and the setting is so romantic.  

We dined at and highly recommend Veya, Jacala, Davida and Mango's 

among many other great restaurants on the island.  

Also, make sure you try the local lobster! 

Live Music:

Nightlife on the island is a beach bar with live music.

Bankie Banx at the Dune Preserve. 

He's really so good and no one should visit this island without seeing him.

Bankie Banks' son, Omari Banks is another must see.

Even at lunch one day... 

Some other things we did on this trip:

We did also check out the new hotel on the island, the Viceroy, which reminded us a lot of the D Hotel in turkey.  It was beautiful, but again, I don't think you can reach that level of relaxation there like you do at Cap Juluca. It's a stunning place set on a cliff, so you don't have the beach just outside your room like we do, but it really is pretty.  And it turns out my interior design crush, Kelly Wearstler, designed it.  Just beautiful!

We also wanted to do some adventuring and to check out other parts of the island we haven't seen before, so one day we rented a car and took it to the undeveloped eastern part of the island to do some hiking. We started out by driving as far as the road would take us, which brought us past some stunning homes, then we set out on foot. 

First we passed by Captain's Bay

Then through beautiful dessert. It actually kind of reminded me of Palm Desert in Palm Springs. 

We wanted to get to Windward Point, so we tacked on through the dessert, trying to be careful to not step on any cacti. They were everywhere!

Then we headed toward Savannah Bay, but man was it HOT! We kept seeing it off in the ditabce, but like a mirage in the desert, it was so close, yet so far. When we finally got there, we ordered food at this sweet little place called owned by this sweet little guy named Nat. 

And while Nat was cooking, I jumped into the water. 

After a refuel and recharge we headed to our car and back to our luxurious hotel. All told we did about 10 miles of exploring on foot. In the desert heat. Phew! 

We'll leave you with this sunset from our last night.  Cannot wait to go back!

Sailing the Caribbean

Day 2: Cap Juluca to St Thomas Today we spent the day enjoying the resort and the weather. It started with breakfast on our terrace, then we headed to the beach for the day. Not sure why the sand doesn't look white in these pictures, bit the sand was whiter and rather water was lighter...  

Breakfast on our terrace

Relaxing on the beach

Jason's in the water, can you spot him?

We had a 6:10pm flight to St Thomas so we checked out and left the hotel for the teeny tiny Anguilla airport. You really have to understand "island time" -- even at the airport. Our flight was nearly an hour late and there was not a mention about it. We just waited and eventually we took off. It was all very relaxed.  

The smallest "airport" we've ever been to

We arrived in St Thomas at night, so we really couldn't get a feel for the island, we checked into our hotel, grabbed a quick dinner, and headed back to bed. Tomorrow we sail!

Sailing the Caribbean

Day 1:  Cap Juluca, Anguilla

It took us a car, two planes, a ferry, and a taxi to get to my favorite hotel in the world, but its worth it.  We were here 10 years ago for our amazing honeymoon and we decided to spend one night back here at Cap Juluca in Anguilla. Of all the places we've been in the world, this is the only place we've ever been to twice, because its that special. Of all the islands and resorts we've been to in the Caribbean, this is the only one we've written about, because its that special. Getting here was no picnic, though. We arrived at the airport in Philadelphia at 5am for our first flight to Charlotte, then changed planes to get to St Martin, then took a ferry to Anguilla, then a cab to the hotel. The whole way I kept asking Jason if he was getting excited yet and the whole way he wasn't, until we were on that ferry. He had this look of happiness and relaxation on his face that I haven't seen in many years... I love vacation Jason.

St Martin as we left it for Anguilla

View from our room

We immediately got into our bathing suits and hit the beach. It's every bit as amazing as I remember. Baby powder soft white sand that goes out into the crystal clear, warm turquoise water. No algae, no rocks, no fish, just soft sand and water as far as you can go. The beaches on this island are really spectacular. 

Our attendant brought us fresh towels, rum punches and a cooler of waters. After floating around in the impossibly clear water for a while, we decided it was time to go, so we went back to our room, showered, and dressed for dinner. After an appetizer and drinks at our resort, we went to a restaurant called Veya for dinner. It was amazing, we shared a steak lettuce wrap appetizer that was phenomenal, then I had the best snapper in the world and Jason had a delicious tuna dish. Both our fish were caught right off the island, never frozen. It was an amazing dinner. We asked our waitress to find us a taxi to take us to Pumphouse, she came back to the table with one of the chefs and said he would be driving us! The people on this island are really special. 

Chef took us into his car and drove us to my favorite bar, but first he wanted to show us a new bar called Elvis' Beach Bar. He came in with us, we bought him a drink and he introduced us to Elvis, then the three of us walked across the street to the Pumphouse. It was packed! there was a reggae band playing and the rum punches were strong. Did you know that vacation Jason dances?

The Pumphouse

At the bar, we saw a couple from our resort that we met on the ferry over and they gave us a ride back to our room, we had a nightcap on our roof deck, and hit our pillows at 2am. What a long day! 

Tomorrow we will be enjoying the resort some more, then heading to St Thomas in the evening. I'll post more pictures of the beach and the resort then.

Sailing the Caribbean

We're in the Process of booking our 10th anniversary trip, it was going to be Rio DeJaneiro, but Jason was offered some work then that he couldn't turn down.  So we starting thinking of what else we could do when he was more free, in the summer.  While I generally don't like going to the Caribbean in the summer, Jason was pretty keen on going someplace tropical, so we started planning and this is what we've come up with.  Check back in August for my trip reports!  We likely won't have wifi many places, but when I can I'll write in. 

Arial View of the Virgin Islands

Aug 1:  Stay in Anguilla.  It's the place we honeymooned 10 years ago, so we decided to add a night and revisit Cap Juluca in honor of our 10th anniversary.

Aug 2:  Fly Anguilla to St. Thomas in the evening.  Spend the first night in St. Thomas.

Aug 3:  Go shopping for our trip while Ian and Leah land, then we set sail.  With Ian as our Captain, we get to sail the Virgin Islands until the 13th.

Our Sailing Itinerary

Aug 13:  Bring the boat back in and fly to St. Maarten to spend our last leisurely night in the Caribbean.

Aug 14:  Fly home.

Honeymoon in Anguilla

Cap Juluca, Anguilla

This was our most crowded beach day.  Off to the right, that white tent is the burger "shack"

The sand literally felt like baby powder.

Hired a boat to take us out snorkeling

next to the tub there is our open air shower

night time bbq

hanging at the pumphouse

Jason couldn't part with his beer