Sugar Bay Resort and Spa Rooms

The Sugar Bay Resort and Spa on St. Thomas went the all-inclusive route on July 1, 2010. Hotel officials said they did so sensing a need from budget-conscious travelers. It was a wise move, and when we visited in November 2010, we found the resort on a par with most other all-inclusives, including the accommodations.

Our room had a king bed, good-sized satellite television, pretty roomy closet space, and a decent bathroom. We had to keep in mind this was a hotel built a good 20 or so years ago and, as such, it shows the usual signs of wear and tear. The dated look of the room included a bathtub that was rather ordinary, the type found in most hotel chains with a somewhat resistant tub-to-shower pull handle. There is work to be done here, and it is being done, officials told us, including stocking the room mini-fridges with ordinary staples like water, juice and soda.

There are 294 rooms at the Sugar Bay, including seven one-bedroom suites and 26 ClearAir hypoallergenic rooms; we had one of the latter and the constant hum of the machine in the room wasn’t at all disquieting and worth it for treated air, we said, since the units suck up to 98 percent of allergens from the room.

We were shown to our room by Norris, one of the front-end staffers here, and we could not have found a more gracious, friendly guide to take our bags up and show us every possible amenity in the room. Many of the staffers here are like Norris, doing little things like holding doors open for you at the lobby or just asking how your stay is going. They seem engaged and genuine.

The best part of the room was the view. We had a reasonably sized balcony with glass table and two chairs that was the best place to take in the smashing sunrises to the right of St. John in the near distance. It was a great place to stand late at night, as well, the sparkling stars and full moon casting a glow on the waters of the bay. Off to our left was St. John's Terrace, an outside terrace with gazebo designed for weddings (they do tons here, about 300 or so a year). Seems like a great place to tie the knot.

One drawback: a $14.95 per day charge for Internet service (cheaper if you hook up for more than one day), which we’d think an all-inclusive would include, but some don’t. Trouble here was connectivity it was spotty at times and when you’re ponying up 15 bucks a day for the service, that’s a bit annoying.

One other minor annoyance one night of our stay: The battery in our key-card door died, and it took a good hour or more to get it fixed, but the maintenance folks doing the job couldn’t have been more apologetic nor gracious about it.

If you’re into exercise, you’ll love the layout here. The rooms are a fair haul from the beach/pool area and given the hilly nature of the island, there are many steps to get from one place to the other, but worth it to walk off what you’ll eat here, and there’s lots to eat here. There is a regular golf-cart shuttle from the hotel lobby to the beach/pool area which we availed ourselves of after a grueling day of laying on the beach and relaxing.
 
Sugar Bay Resort and Spa
6500 Estate Smith Bay
St. Thomas
U.S.Virgin Islands
Phone: (888) 582-9104
Website: http://www.sugarbayresortandspa.com/
Rates from $220