In this post I wanted to review the 76-room Zemi Beach House, a Hilton LXR property located in Anguilla. We spent four nights here last week on a family trip, as it was a nice way to spend time with my mom and her partner.
Continue reading: Review: Zemi Beach House Anguilla, Hilton LXR
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
My husband and I just checked into room 304 this past Friday, right after your stay. We just missed you!
We couldn’t agree more with the review- the beach was gorgeous but we have been spoiled to have visited places like Bora Bora and the Maldives and agree that it didn’t have that same ultra luxurious feel.
Nice review, and glad you found the Thai house interesting - we shipped it there in the 80s, piece by piece!
My wife and I stayed here for our honeymoon in 2020. We were fortunate as the property was less well known and prices were much lower than today (also used a Citi 4th night free). Overall I'd echo all of Lucky's comments. We experienced fantastic, friendly service and loved the rum tasting. The property is so calming and relaxing, and the beach is the most beautiful we've seen (outside of the Maldives).
Getting to Anguilla we flew into St. Maarten and took the ferry over. Car rental was pretty easy there compared with airport. But we only had to drive off property one night and it would've been cheaper for us to take taxis. There are some fun areas of Anguilla to explore, which would be the only reason to rent a car.
Since you had a car, I'd be interested to hear your thoughts on Anguilla. You always seem to be able to book flights cheaply on points to ANU.
Nice review!
Tell us,
How was the mosquito / fly / insect situation?
Any trouble at dusk,
Any impact at sitting outside ?
@ Roberto -- Yeah, there were a lot of insects around sunset, and we left with a lot of bug bites. Then again, I find that to be common in most tropical places, so it wasn't out of the ordinary. There's definitely value to using insect repellent if you can.
@ Jerry -- We drove from one end to the other. In all honesty, it's a pretty small island, and aside from beaches, there aren't really many sights to see. It's not like St. Barts in terms of the beauty of the interior of the island, or the dining options. Maybe there's something I'm really missing, but Anguilla seems to me like a sleepy place you go to relax, and not a place where you're necessarily doing all that much outside of the resort or beaches.
@ Greg A -- Hah, too funny, we checked out Thursday! Happy to hear you had similar impressions.
Should you return, I’d recommend Artisan for dinner - it’s a short drive from Shoal Bay East. Lunch at Malliouhana would be nice also.
I’ve been to Anguilla twice and agree. The beaches are gorgeous but there aren’t really any activities (motor water sports are banned) and the island itself is not a lush tropical beauty spot. Personally, I love this and the very laid back atmosphere of being on an island with less than 10,000 people. The great dining is the icing on the cake. I stayed at the Belmond and Malliouhana, both full 5-Star luxury properties that I recommend.
That Belmond Cap Juluca looks beautiful. Hoping it comes on board with Hyatt/MMS so can split a week long stay between it and the Zemi Beach house.
Steep price at 110k points per a night or $1,000 per a night plus tax. But at this level, money or points ain't an issue I suppose. It's not like someone is trying to "scrape together" 450k Hilton points lmao.
It looks like a nice property which I have booked for next spring break for 2 adults and 2 children. Are suites available for Diamond members, perhaps with a cash supplement? With kids the extra space is always nice!
This is a lot of words without mentioning whether you got elite benefits such as free breakfast. The fans in the cheap seats wanna know!
Who did you use for rental car, even if they are off-site, most will meet you at the airport with the car, so not really a problem. And the main reason for getting a car is to explore some of the off-site dining, so it seems you did not really get value from the car.
Agree about how good the staff are - way more Asian level than anywhere else I've been in the region
We stayed there summer of ‘22 with our two young girls and had an excellent stay, all on points. We got free breakfast and used two player mode Aspire credits which helped with F&B costs. Food was good overall and we walked down the beach a few times for some lunches. I can’t remember if we got an upgrade to a higher room category due to Diamond but the (non-suite) room was massive with a nice balcony. The higher floors offer a better view of the turquoise water vs what Ben shows in his pics. Some times were a little breezy some the ocean water was very calm - we have been to Bora Bora and Maldives, this beach quality is one small notch below those places but amazing overall. All in all, our experience was much in line with many of the other reviews (ie Tim from FMiler) and we had truly fantastic trip.
Stayed in in January using points for wifes birthday. Diamond upgrade to ocean view suite, with a small cake in it. Breakfast was free and no games played there! At dinner one night they also gave us another small cake. We loved the beach and even saw goats on the beach one day. There are some restaurants a few steps down the beach which are fun. However they are not that much cheaper than Zemi for food or drinks. Its expensive everywhere. We did have our taxi driver stop at a wine store to grab a few bottles before arriving though. We liked Zemi more than PH St. Kitts for the beach and relaxation and would come back for adults only type getaways, but prefer the PH St. Kitts with kids.
The "by Carribean standards" dig seems unnecessary? Or you come to expect poor quality in the Carribean?
Seems very overpriced, at least the service was good.
Are avocados banned in Anguilla? I don't see a pic of avocado toast for breakfast. 🙁
I've always been torn about Zemi's location. Yes, it sits directly on one of the best beaches. But one of the best things about Anguilla is the restaurants. There are some top-notch places around the island: Veya, Jacala, Straw Hat, Blanchard's, and on and on. If you stay on Meads Bay, which is flanked by Four Seasons and Malliouhana (the Auberge property), you can walk on the beach to at least 5 outstanding restaurants. But it's like Turks 20 years ago -- no crowds, ever. In comparison, Zemi is also on a quiet beach and has good food on property, but not as much within walking distance.
Anguilla is not an island full of activities, but it is an absolutely gorgeous island worth exploring in (via rental car) and around (via chartered boat, ideally through Traditions Sailing).
Can't wait for you to check out Bermuda if you liked Anguilla. Great family destination.
This is a great review. I went to Anguilla with a friend in November and we stayed at the Four Seasons. Beautiful property with a great beach and fun dining scenes.
We did make it over to the beach where Zemi is - worthwhile and great beach.
Overall Anguilla is a beautiful low key island. Some of the best beaches I've found in the caribbean. Lots of good restaurants around that arent necessarily part of hotels. Taxis are available but are expensive. We did use them when we went out to dinner as we were drinking.
Overall, I liked Anguilla a lot and would return.
We stayed at the Zemi Beach House in November 2022 and had a wonderful stay. The rooms are sparsely furnished, however I felt the ambience is quite pleasant and may not feel the same on the pictures. There seems to be a change in the TV, it used to rise from the bottom of the bed. You can still the cutout on the pictures Ben posted.
One differentiating feature is the wonderful and engaging staff. During our stay, Charles was the F&B manger and he was fantastic. I am happy to read that the new manager Sven is equally engaging. This indicates that the staff is all carefully selected. This is one of the properties we would be happy to return to.
This hotel is pretty great. It's definitely not on the level of (say) the Waldorf Astoria Maldives, but its a cut above the other "high-end" points hotels I've stayed at in the Caribbean, and I'd say its arguably the best use of a Hilton free night certificate in North America.
We had 2 "negatives" when we visited. First, getting there is slightly inconvenient (either take a boat from St Maarten, or can fly directly in but only from Miami or Puerto Rico). Second, we had a negative customer service experience that was so bizarre and such an exception to the rest of the customer service on our visit that I think it was probably an outlier due to incomplete training on a niche situation.
But the list of "positives" was massive: amazing location, "tiny remote resort" feel with "big resort" quality and amenities, great food on-site, walking distance to other food options up the beach. The beach plus the architecture of the resort and restaurant is kind of next level. Everything is laid out in such an open-concept way, such that you are somehow always "on the beach" when you are eating, swimming, etc. Customer service was crazy enthusiastic (outside of a one-off incident). We had our 1-year old daughter with us, and by day 3 seemingly 10+ different staff members knew her name and were saying hi to her at breakfast, the pool, and in the room. Not to mention, housekeeping and room service worked completely around her nap schedule, all with a great attitude and apologizing as though they were inconveniencing us (when in reality it's us, with a toddler, who wants to nap at unpredictable times, who is inconveniencing them and making it difficult for them to do their job!).
If it was easier to get there (which is probably less of a factor for someone without a toddler), I'd be inclined to make it an annual trip to burn our recurring hilton free night Certs.
Just learned about Anguilla: The government's main revenue source isn't tourism-related taxation anymore. Their top-level domain in .ai ... which is pretty lucrative just now.
A teaching moment...and this will really teach you something new
Speaking of redeeming points here, it’s interesting how the hotel charges the same in cash for garden and ocean view rooms, when the latter is clearly superior. This is presumably intended to limit the number of rooms that have to be made available to Hilton Honors members using points.
What the forum host is referring to is the following:
[1] Garden View King Room Private Balcony -- Cash rate: $1,022 ; award rate: 110,000
[2] Ocean View King Room Private Balcony -- Cash rate: $1,022 ; award rate: 377,000
[3] Ocean View 2 Queen Beds Private Balcony -- Cash rate: $1,115 ; award rate: 412,000
Note that while the cash rates for rooms [1] and [2] are exactly the same ($1,022), the award cost in points for room [2] (377,000) is more than 3x that for room [1] (110,000). Why is that?
That is an clear illustration of the difference between Hilton Honors standard awards and "premium" awards.
Because Room [1] is offered as a standard award, (a) it is affordable, but (b) it is capacity controlled, meaning that the property sets aside a limited number of such rooms for booking with points. When that limited number of set-aside rooms is gone, rooms of type [1] would no longer be available for booking with points, even if you can see them available for cash sale.
Room [2] on the other hand, is a "premium" award, which means that if a room of that type is available for cash sale, you can always book it with points, but it will cost you a bundle. The reason is that for "premium" rooms, Hilton has established a direct proportionality between cash and points, so that the two currencies are interchangeable. The proportionality factor that makes cash and points interchangeable for "premium" rooms is simply
(cash rate for premium room)/(cost in point for same premium), in this case, $1,022/377,000 = $0.0027108/point
Therefore, for any "premium" rooms in the property, if you know the cash rate, you can calculate the number of points needed or required to book it, and vice versa.
The cash rate for the next "premium" room up or room [3] is $1,115. How many points will be required for that room?
$1,115/$0.0027108/point = 411,439 points, which was rounded up to 412,000
The math holds for every "premium" room in the property up to the presidential suite if there is one. It also shows how Hilton Honors' dynamic award pricing works. Unlike in other implementation, Hilton Honors dynamically prices only its "premium" awards, while the costs of standard awards are capped at every property. That is why, despite dire predictions by self-anointed "travel gurus" about crippling "devaluations", it is still possible to get outsized redemption values with HH points 7 years after the program migrated to "dynamic pricing".
Even without including taxes and other fees, the redemption value of the standard award at this property is
$1,022/110,000 = 0.9cpp (vs. 0.27cpp for "premium" awards)
Book a 5-night award and include taxes and fees, and the redemption value goes through the roof.
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Sidebar:
HH "premium" awards work exactly like Accor ALL awards, except that for the latter program the direct proportionality between points and cash is fixed and the same for all properties, at
2,000 ALL points = 40 euros
Any room that is available for paying with euros (cash) is always available for booking with an equivalent number of points.
That there is true "no capacity control", as opposed to the bogus claim that you hear all the time about Hyatt awards being bookable whenever a standard room is available for sale. Yeah, right.
I just stayed a week at the Belmond Cap Juluca on Anguilla, and it's definitely on a higher level than the LXR Zemi Beach, but the fact that you can book this on points makes it a very attractive option.
I think the Belmond has a nicer beach. It's one of the nicest resort/beach combos I have ever stayed at, even compared to Bali, Hawaii, Phuket, etc. Has assigned loungers with multiple staffed stations for beach F&B service. Your assigned loungers also come with a water stocked Yeti cooler every morning. Food is higher end because its Belmond. But food was not as spectacular as it should be for a Belmond. I will say the pool at Belmond is nothing special and Zemi looks much better.
The room design and layout is also very similar to Belmond, just pared down (no marble bathroom, less fancy furniture, etc).
And other posters are right, there is zero to do on Anguilla. But if you are looking for a sun and sand, very quiet beach vacation, Anguilla is a great choice. Anguilla does have an airport, but there are more flights to St. Martin.
Nice review of the LXR Zemi Beach and good to know there is a good 5 star points redemption option.
After reading this, I had to try Anguilla and Zemi for myself. Overall I'd echo everything Ben said about how nice it was. We even had the same room - 304 - and for a garden room it has a lovely view of the upper pool and ocean beyond. It was little windy when we were there - Feb '25 - but the trip was no less enjoyable. Anguilla doesn't have much of a town but it has numerous great restaurants and hidden gems like a little French bakery - Le Bon Pain - just a few minutes from the entrance to Zemi.