Last month I took a quick solo trip to visit the Park Hyatt St. Kitts for two nights. The trip was a product of multiple construction delays which saw me having to postpone our stay twice. The Hotel ultimately was gracious enough to comp our stay. By the time we were able to stay, my wife had just given birth to our second child and was not ready to travel. Not wanting to miss out on the opportunity to check out the hotel for free, I decided to go by myself.

The hotel is a category 7, Hyatt’s highest tier, which cost 30,000 points. During the winter it can easily retail for nearly $1,000 per night. As I mentioned, I paid neither.

After arriving in St. Kitts on American and clearing customs, I grabbed a taxi outside, which quoted me $35 (on the high end of what I was expecting), since he was driving a minivan and carrying no other passengers. For what it’s worth, the hotel called a taxi on the way back and that van was much nicer, I was also by myself, and was charged $30. I tipped both ways.

Arrival and check-in:

The hotel has a beautiful lobby with a narrow and long pond with some fish, which you will only see when arriving and departing for the most part, since everything else is further away and there wasn’t anything else in the main building, as far as I could tell.

The check-in area had a couple of nice chairs, it was open air, and featured a couple of unusually wide desks that felt awkward while checking in, so I ended up standing on the side of the desk to be closer to the check-in agent.

During check-in I was offered a cold towel and water, and also a glass of champagne. I declined the latter since I had not slept all night the night before and just wasn’t on a drinking mood. The front desk clerk was very friendly and knowledgeable, thanked me for being a Globalist and went over all the Globalist benefits with me, and told me I had been upgraded to one of the hotel’s Executive suites, which features a private plunge Pool. I was like a kid at a candy store.

After check-in was completed, one of the employees met up with me at the lobby and drove me on one of their golf carts to the room while also pointing out different buildings along the way (gym, restaurants, etc). He then escorted me up to my room to show me the room’s features.

Executive Suite:

I was assigned to room 521, toward the end of the hotel.

At first impression all I could say about the suite was, WOW. It looked as great as it sounded when the hotel staff described it to me. Once inside, you could either make a left or a right. Starting counterclockwise, immediately to the right there was the dining area, with a dining table for six and a bar station.

The bar had a large Nespresso machine with pods as well as cups and saucers, four large Park Hyatt-branded complimentary bottles of water, alcohol and snacks with prices too obscene to post here. I only used the waters and the Nespresso pods during my stay.

Behind a wall, almost out of sight and easy to miss, was a half bathroom with a sink.

Past the dining area was the main sitting area, with a large couch, a chair with coffee table and a TV.

The bedroom was behind the TV wall, and it had one entrance on either side, both with sliding doors. The views were something incredible to wake up and having a cup of coffee to.

Behind the bed was a partition and a walkway of sorts with a large bench that could be accessed from either side of the bed, again with double sliding doors accessing the bathroom and completing the loop around the suite, with another door leading back to the main entrance hallway.

Toiletries were the Park Hyatt trademark Le Labo Santal 33, which my wife loves and I made sure to stockpile a supply large enough for a small army to bring back home.

The shower had a rain shower and handheld shower head with great pressure, although once you switched from rain shower to handheld by using the shower button, the button would not reset back unless you turned off the shower if you wanted to switch back to the rain shower feature, so this was a minor annoyance.

Off to the left and inside the bathroom was a large walk-in closet with bathrobes, slippers, drawers (one of which contained the safe), and other items such as a large umbrella, flashlight, bug spray, iron, shoe care items and a shopping style bag, which I used to carry my book, phone charger and some other items when going to the pool. There was also a card advising that the hotel provided complimentary shoe shine service, which I did not take advantage of.

The highlight of the suite were the views, with Nevis right on the foreground, along with the Private Plunge Pool and wooden lanai porch.

There was an outdoor shower as well.

I got in the private pool for a minute the day of arrival just to say I used it. It would have been silly not to. As prior reviewers have commented, the water was too cold for my taste. For safety reasons I generally avoid getting into pools when no one else is around, which was the case this being a solo trip, so the rest of my stay I just used the main pool, which was much warmer and comfortable to be in anyway.

The suite retailed for $3,267 per night for the weekend I was in town. Not bad for a completely free stay.

There were a couple of issues that were problematic. The Do Not Disturb sign, which was electronic (instead of the door hanger that most people are familiar with), kept turning itself off every few hours for no apparent reason. I noticed this even overnight when I woke up one night at around 4:00 a.m. After the first night I found housekeeping cleaning my room after I got back from breakfast, which was inconvenient since I was planning on spending some time in the room at the time. Even then I did not report the issue to maintenance. I do prefer electronic privacy signs, but one that did not work as intended was pointless and was compounded by the fact that the front door did not have a manual security latch. The other issue was that the AC unit seemed to go into energy-saving mode while I was outside the room for an extended period of time, and it would take quite a bit to get the room to cool down again. Other than that the accommodations were phenomenal and I enjoyed just relaxing in the room.

Beach, pool, gym and other amenities:

The hotel has a main infinity pool with zero entry, and an adults-only pool further back away from the beach, on the second floor.

There were a few water, sunscreen and towel stations throughout the pools, which I appreciated.

There were also a few cabanas for rent, but with such a large pool and so few rooms, space wasn’t really a problem. You could have as many chairs as you wanted.

The beach isn’t the best quality and the water is somewhat rough in that area, but it was fine for a dip.

You can also take a quick 10-15 minute boat ride to Nevis, which I might have done if I would have had a longer stay. I believe it’s about $50 each way.

There is also a kids camp, which I don’t recall seeing anyone in (or any kids at the resort, for that matter).

The fitness center was near the kids camp, and it was well equipped, clean and each machine had a towel and water set up. There were also plenty of bottles of water in the fridge, so this was a nice supply source if you ever ran out in your room.

I considered visiting the spa section, but I can never bring myself to spend $200 on a massage, although they do have complimentary access (for Globalists, I believe?) to some areas like the steam room.

Food:

The main restaurant is the Great House, which is where breakfast, lunch and dinner is served. It also doubles as a lobby of sorts where you can hang out, have a drink or do some reading. I had breakfast there both mornings, as well as dinner. There is also the Stone Barn, which is a more upscale restaurant, and also much smaller. I had wanted to try the Stone Barn on my second night, but it was closed for a private event, so I ended up having dinner at the Great House both nights.

The hotel food was probably the most enjoyable part of my stay. The buffet was ridiculously good. It reminded me of the buffet at the Park Hyatt Sydney, but with more food. I had the “Great House Selection” both mornings, which was essentially the full buffet plus one item from the a la carte menu. The cost was $45 plus 10% service charge and tax, but complimentary for Globalists. They only charged my room for any extra tip I added, which was usually an additional 5-10%. I’ll let the pictures do the talking: