Ladera

In Depth

If ever there was a view to linger over, it is the one at Ladera. You look from a vertiginous 1100 feet onto a scene framed left and right by the vast bulk of the Pitons, incisor-shaped mountains that soar directly from the sea to over 2000 feet. Between them, down at sea level, the only signs of human presence are diminutive tennis courts and a couple of roofs lost in the greenery. It is one of the most dramatic views in the Caribbean. It changes throughout the day as the sun moves, etching light and shadow across the mountainside. Colours rise and fall. The rich green of the tumbling hillside recedes into shade and to the burnt black of the Piton’s rock walls. Beyond it all is the royal blue of the Caribbean Sea, where the sun glances off the choppy water and sailing boats cut a stark white line in its wake.

Of course Ladera itself is set up to take advantage of the view (the hotel will even provide you with binoculars). In an original turn, the rooms have no fourth wall, and they give you an uninterrupted view straight from your plunge pool, sitting room, even from your bed. The accommodation is ranged along a ridgeline, sixteen one-bedroom suites, three one bedroom villa suites and six villas (which sleep up to six) standing cheek by jowl. They lead up to a central area with a pool, dining room and above it, for the highest view of all, a bar.

Ladera is a small and spectacular place to stay, a true original even in the Caribbean, which has plenty of settings in fantastic mountains and greenery. Relatively remote, it has little activity, just an excellent creole restaurant, Dasheene and a small spa, Ti Kai Posé and a couple of weekly events such as the Manager’s cocktail party and a fashion show. It is ideal as a quiet, particularly romantic, retreat. The rooms are a good size and very private and so people sometimes spend a week in them barely venturing out. Most of the rooms do not have kitchens, but you can order meals into your room at extra charge.

The rooms are set in a series of stone and wooden buildings that stand shoulder to shoulder along the saddle of a ridgeline, rising at either end. They are large and open. In fact most of them are suites, with a living room downstairs and bedroom upstairs. Each has a sitting area a plunge pool (or a larger pool in some cases) set among tropical plants at the front, so you can take in the view while you are cooling off.

There is almost an alpine air about the rooms because of the dark stained wood, which is used in many ways. The interiors have lacquered wooden floors and wooden furniture and sometimes walls (interior walls can also be exposed stone or white stucco). Many of the beds are four-posters and they are covered with muslin netting. The rooms are decorated in idiosyncratic style. There is local artwork, but most originally, there are mosaics of frogs and iguanas laid into the terracotta tile floor and carved into the balustrades. In the bathroom there are conch shell spouts and taps made from metal fish. The showers are tiled with mosaics.

Naturally, with one wall open to the view, the rooms feel quite open. The lack of the fourth wall is not a problem as far as mosquitoes is concerned. (They will not bother you at this altitude.) Instead you may find that fireflies come into the room at night in a flashing green trail.

Like the rest of the resort, which uses the maximum possible local produce, the rooms at Ladera have a strong theme of St Lucia. Brightly coloured madras material, with its tartan-like pattern, is used to decorate the rooms. The rush mats are locally made, as is much of the furniture (some of which is original and reproduction tropical antique).

This area of St Lucia is immensely fertile and so Ladera is set in by delightful gardens. Set among the resort’s hefty stone walls there are ponds and some of the many extraordinary tropical plants, whose exoticness gives the small hotel some of its distinctly romantic feel. As you enter the steep drive you come to the office to your right and the line of rooms high on your left, running on the top of the ridgeline. Beneath the office is the small spa, Ti Kai Posé, or The Little House of Rest, whose name gives a good sense of it atmosphere.

At the top of the accommodation you come to the pool deck and then the shop, the restaurant Dasheene, and highest of all, the bar, Tcholit. Dasheene is set on a tiled, open-sided deck. The creole theme is continued here, with madras table-cloths and cushions decorating the locally made wooden chairs and tables. It is also true of the cuisine itself, which uses many creole recipes to get the best of the local ingredients (see dining below).

What they have created at Ladera is unique in the Caribbean. There is a wonderful feel to the hotel, because of its seclusion, intimacy, tropical beauty and of course because of its extraordinary view, which is certainly one of the most dramatic and spectacular in the Caribbean. If you are happy to tuck yourself away quietly, it is a perfect setting to unwind.