Plantation Style
The hotel is located on the historic 5,000 acre Rose Hall Plantation at Montego Bay, with 427 rooms, but still manages to feel intimate with dark mahogany wood furniture and a soft pink and green décor.
The resort, which opened in 2000, boasts a full-service spa and an 18-hole championship golf course.
The spa is 8,000 square feet, with more than a dozen private treatment rooms and there are plans to expand. On arrival you will smell the soothing, spicy scent of Jamaica’s most exported native plant, allspice and relax in a rainforest theme ladies’ lounge.
The signature spa treatments are tropical and sound good enough to eat. The sugarcane body scrub, a mix of Jamaican sugar cane and fine white sand create a rich, foaming cream to exfoliate. The foam is then washed off in a bath, surrounded by hibiscus flowers and candles. A massage comes next, with a rich cream made with papaya, mangoes, wild yams and oils. This is a relaxing scrub and an excellent treatment. ($135 for 60 minutes with massage, or $85 for just the scrub)
The Nourishing Rose Body Wrap, is 60 minutes of heaven - a light exfoliation followed by a rose scented cream and a wrap to absorb. I fell asleep during a foot and head massage while the wrap did its work (rose body wrap is $120 for 60 minutes).
For couples, a “Close To You” massage beside your honey is $210 for 50 minutes. Couples can each choose their preferred island aromatherapy. He chose a patchouli blend, while I chose lavender for relaxation.
Bewitching Past
Other signature treatments are the Vita-Ginko Facial, using shea butter from the African karite tree, honey from the rainforests of Central America and ginko biloba from the Chinese ginko tree to lock in moisture and improve elasticity. The cost is $120 for 50 minutes.
There is also a sauna, steam room and beauty salon. Outside, a pool overlooking the sea is perfect for a morning swim.
Golf fans also get treated with their own golf concierge, who will even book appointments for a signature golf spa treatment, “The White Witch Foot Soak”. The golf is named after the 19th century beauty, Annee Palmer, who owned the sugar plantation on which the course was built. The witch part is because she killed three of her husbands but don’t think about that as you soak away a day of golf!
The room rates start at $225 per room a night through the end of 2004.
Julie Earle-Levine is a New York City-based freelance writer whose work appears in the Weekend Financial Times, Sunday Times of London, Travel + Leisure and Saveur.
