Review: Cheval Blanc St. Barts (Caribbean Palace Hotel)

A few months ago, we spent a long weekend at the 61-room Cheval Blanc St. Barts (or St. Barth, or St. Barths, if you prefer). For those not familiar, St. Barts is a Caribbean island belonging to France. The trip was for a special occasion, as it was my mother-in-law’s birthday, and we were also taking our son, so it was a multi-generational trip.

While Ford and his mom have been to St. Barts before, it was my first time, so I was curious to see what all the fuss was about. Unfortunately St. Barts doesn’t have any points hotels (at all), but has a variety of well regarded properties. Beyond Cheval Blanc, there’s Eden Roc (Oetker Collection), Le Guanahani (Rosewood), and Le Toiny (Relais & Chateaux), just to name a few.

Since they hadn’t stayed there before, we decided to book Cheval Blanc, which is the boutique hotel group that’s owned by LVMH (Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton). We’ve had great stays at Cheval Blanc Paris and Cheval Blanc Maldives Randheli, so were looking forward to checking out the brand’s Caribbean property. Fun fact — this is the only property in the Caribbean with France’s “Palace” distinction.

My takeaway from this stay was positive, though there were a couple of things I didn’t love. On the one hand, the hotel is on a beautiful beach, and has impeccable service and food. On the other hand, I thought the hotel lacked a vibe and was a little too sleepy for my liking (which is saying a lot, because I’m not at all a partier). Now, admittedly everyone is looking for a different thing from their vacation, so if you just want to hear nature and are looking for that kind of a vibe, you’ll love this place.

Anyway, let’s get into the review, and everyone can draw their own conclusions.

Impressions of St. Barts

Having never been to St. Barts before, I didn’t know what exactly to expect. I knew it was a huge scene, but didn’t really get what made it different than other places in the Caribbean. Well, I quickly found out, and I can totally see the appeal of the place, as it’s totally different than anywhere else I’ve been in the Caribbean.

For one, St. Barts is physically a stunning island (though that’s true of some other Caribbean islands as well). It’s not just that the beaches are pretty, but the landscape on the whole is breathtaking, especially with how mountainous it is. At times I felt like I was in Hawaii.

As an aviation geek, St. Barts Airport (SBH) is also one of a kind.

But what really sets apart St. Barts from other Caribbean islands is how much of a scene there is outside resorts. The capital town of Gustavia is ridiculously cute, and there are also endless restaurants. It’s truly the winter version of Saint-Tropez in the South of France, and at times you might actually think that you’re there.

Now, there are some considerations as well. For one, the people who visit St. Barts make for… interesting people watching. I mean, it kind of feels as if you moved the entire Upper East Side of New York to the Caribbean. And everything reflects that.

Booking Cheval Blanc St. Barts

Just about all the luxury hotels in St. Barts aren’t cheap, and are in a similar price range. Since there were four of us, we ended up booking a two bedroom suite. At many hotels, a two bedroom suite costs significantly more than two guest rooms, though at Cheval Blanc St. Barts it’s typically less than double the price of a guest room, so that’s good.

For our weekend stay, we spent ~€2,000 Euro per night. Obviously that’s quite a bit, but honestly, ~$1,000 per room is what you’ll pay at the Andaz Papagayo Costa Rica nowadays, so…

The best way to book a Cheval Blanc property is through a travel advisor affiliated with Virtuoso, as you’ll pay the same rate, and will receive several value-add perks, including the following (and these can be combined with most promotions being offered by the property):

• Upgrade on arrival, subject to availability
• $100 property credit
• Early check-in and late check-out, subject to availability

Ordinarily breakfast would also be a Virtuoso perk, but that’s included with all rates at the hotel. Ford and his team are happy to help with Cheval Blanc bookings, and can be reached at [email protected].

Cheval Blanc St. Barts location

Cheval Blanc St. Barts is located on Flamands Beach, on the northwest portion of the island. The hotel is in a quieter part of the island than Eden Roc, for example, which is located right by the airport and several day clubs. It’s easy to get around the island, and personally I’d recommend renting a car, so that you can explore on your own, given the amount of natural beauty.

When it comes to getting to the hotel on arrival, the hotel is about a 10-minute drive from the airport. The hotel offers guests a complimentary shuttle service to and from the airport, so you’ll be picked up on your arrival and dropped off on your departure. While there’s service to St. Barts from several Caribbean airports, the most frequent service is from Sint Maarten on Winair.

Cheval Blanc St. Barts reception & check-in

Upon arrival, we were greeted at the door of the car by reception staff, who quickly took care of our check-in, while the bellmen brought the bags to our room. The lobby space is gorgeous and open air, and check in was completed within a couple of minutes.

At that point we were walked to our room. Cheval Blanc St. Barts is set on 10 acres, and the setting is sublime. Throughout the property you almost feel like you’re in the jungle, thanks to the number of trees, while also being steps from the beach. The hotel is spread out across many individual buildings, none more than two stories tall, so it’s an undeniably peaceful setting.

Cheval Blanc St. Barts guest room

We booked a two bedroom suite at Cheval Blanc St. Barts, and this comes in one of two configurations — some two bedroom suites have a living area connecting the two bedrooms but don’t have an outdoor space, while some two bedroom suites are essentially two separate rooms with a large, shared outdoor space.

We were assigned one of the latter rooms, meaning we had two rooms that were nearly identical, plus a large outdoor space. That worked great for our purposes. I’ll just go over the details of one of the rooms, as the second room was basically the same.

Compared to Cheval Blanc’s other properties, the rooms here are definitely a bit more understated. However, the rooms still felt luxurious, and the room finishes were very nice. The room featured a super comfortable king size bed, a desk with a chair, and an additional chair in the corner (along with all kinds of baby amenities).

The room had a well stocked minibar with all kinds of drinks for purchase, plus a Nespresso machine and a tea kettle. The bottled water was complimentary, and the hotel was happy to bring extras.

Cheval Blanc properties really go all-in when it comes to welcome amenities, and this hotel is no exception. The welcome amenity included a delicious cake, fresh fruit, and a bottle of Ruinart champagne. I suppose that’s true of many luxury hotels in France in general — while they’re not cheap, they also don’t cut corners when it comes to the guest experience.

Past the bedroom was the bathroom, which had double sinks, a walk-in shower, and a toilet in a separate room.

Toiletries were all Cheval Blanc branded, and there was no shortage of them.

The room also had a generously sized closet area.

In addition to the indoor space, there was a huge outdoor space connecting the two rooms, with a dining table that could seat four, as well as a loveseat and two chairs.

Housekeeping was thorough, and was provided daily. It was cute how every night with turndown service there was a different gift, including things like pillow mist.

Cheval Blanc St. Barts pools

Cheval Blanc St. Barts has two pools, both overlooking the ocean. The main pool is near the center of the resort by the fine dining restaurant and one of the bars, and is the larger of the two. The pool has quite a bit of seating around it, whether you prefer to lounge or just sit.

The second pool is located near the main entrance to the beach, and feels a bit more private and secluded.

By St. Barts standards, this is an impressive pool setup. For example, Eden Roc doesn’t even have a pool, but rather just has the beach. St. Barts isn’t really a “lounge at the pool” destination, but rather is more about the beach, restaurants, and day clubs.

Cheval Blanc St. Barts beach

Cheval Blanc St. Barts is set on Flamands Beach, which is absolutely gorgeous. While the beach is open to the public (as are all beaches in the area) it’s in a secluded part of the island that can be hard to access, so it tends to be empty.

I love how long the beach is, as it’s great for taking walks, which were especially pleasant at sunrise and sunset.

Cheval Blanc provides service on the beach, so you can order food and drinks there. While the beach is beautiful, there was one problem — it was super windy on this beach, to the point that umbrellas couldn’t be used, so you could only sit there in direct sunlight. For that matter, sand was blowing quite a bit, which made for an unpleasant situation at times.

What I’m not 100% sure of is if we just had bad luck during our visit, or if this is a bigger issue with this particular beach, based on its location. Based on doing some research online and asking some people, it seems that Flamands Beach has a reputation for being windy.

Obviously the hotel has no control over wind, but it definitely detracted from the experience, since it wasn’t practical to actually sit on the beach.

Cheval Blanc St. Barts spa & gym

Cheval Blanc St. Barts has a spa in partnership with Guerlain. It’s a standalone building that has four treatment rooms, a sauna, an outdoor relaxation pavilion, and a boutique. I didn’t use the spa, but you can find the spa menu and treatment prices here.

What I did use was the 24/7 gym at Cheval Blanc St. Barts, which is small but well appointed for a Caribbean resort. The gym has modern equipment, including treadmills, ellipticals, bikes, a weight machine, and free weights, as well as a yoga room in the back.

Cheval Blanc St. Barts La Cabane (breakfast & lunch)

La Cabane is Cheval Blanc St. Barts’ beachside restaurant, open daily for breakfast and lunch. Breakfast is served daily from 7AM until 10:30AM, while lunch is served from 12PM until 6PM.

This is a beautiful restaurant, as seating is entirely outdoors, with part of the restaurant being in the sand.

Breakfast is included for all guests at the hotel, and it includes both a buffet, as well as the option to order off a menu, and you can mix and match that as much as you’d like. The buffet was small but high quality, with a selection of freshly baked bread and pastries, cereal, yogurt, fresh fruit, cold cuts, and much more.

Additionally, the menu contained options ranging from avocado toast with smoked salmon, to crepes, and it was all delicious.

I also enjoyed the iced coffee and filter coffee at breakfast, though the cappuccinos could’ve been spruced up a bit, in my opinion.

We also had lunch here one day, and you can find the menu below.

We split the mahi mahi and seared tuna with sesame dressing, and both were delectable.

Cheval Blanc St. Barts Tiki Bar (drinks)

Adjacent to La Cabane, you’ll find Tiki Bar, which is the hotel’s all-day bar. It’s also outdoors, and has quite a bit of seating, whether you prefer to sit at the bar directly, or would rather play a game at one of the tables.

The drink list at Tiki Bar was quite imaginative, so it’s worth stopping here for a drink, if you can.

Cheval Blanc St. Barts White Bar (drinks)

White Bar is the other bar at Cheval Blanc St. Barts, and it’s located at the main pool, adjacent to the hotel’s fine dining restaurant, La Case. While Tiki Bar is only open during the day, White Bar stays open at night.

We stopped here one evening for a drink, and had a Mexican Negroni (one of their signature drinks) and a dirty martini.

Cheval Blanc St. Barts La Case (dinner)

La Case is Cheval Blanc St. Barts’ fine dining restaurant, open nightly from 7PM until 9:30PM. It’s located right next to the main pool, adjacent to White Bar. The concept is described as “an ode to the Caribbean,” and it’s by Jean Imbert. This is a phenomenal restaurant, and is popular with hotel guests and outsiders alike.

The restaurant overlooks the sea, and has sliding doors that are generally open, so you have a nice breeze in the restaurant.

Everything about the experience was top notch, from the beautiful plates and silverware, to the service, to the food.

You can find the dinner menu below.

At the start of the meal we were offered a selection of freshly baked bread, with butter that was half pineapple ginger and half rum.

To start, we split the yellowfin tuna tartare with crispy rice and sweet potato tart.

Then for mains, I had the local yellowfin tuna, while Ford and his mom split the poultry Colombo, which was prepared tableside.

While we were too full to order dessert, we were still brought some tasty treats at the conclusion of the meal.

While not cheap, it was an excellent meal, and it’s nice to see what a commitment Cheval Blanc has to its dining options throughout its portfolio.

Cheval Blanc St. Barts service

Service at Cheval Blanc St. Barts was uniformly excellent. Every single frontline employee, from the valets, to the front office staff, to the restaurant staff, were friendly and had an eye for detail. Just about all the staff at the property are from Metropolitan France, and most have a lot of hospitality experience.

While good service in the first plane is awesome, great service recovery is even better, so let me give an example of that. One afternoon during our stay they started doing some sort of work on top of the roof near our building, whereby they seemed to be power washing the roof, or something. What essentially happened is that we couldn’t step out of our room without walking through the equivalent of a dirty shower. It seems like that shouldn’t happen while a room is occupied, or at least a guest should be made aware of this in advance.

We just called the front desk about this. They apologized profusely and said this would stop right away. Sure enough, a minute later the work stopped. As an apology, they sent to both rooms yet another bottle of Ruinart champagne, fruit, and sweets, along with an apology note.

It’s also nice how upon departure, we were given custom luggage tags with Cheval Blanc branding, to take home.

Bottom line

Cheval Blanc St. Barts is a great resort, with some quirks. I loved the resort’s setting, as it’s a sprawling property where you simultaneously feel like you’re in lush vegetation and at the beach. The hotel has impeccable service, delicious dining, and a beautiful beach to walk on (it was really windy during our stay, so I’m not sure if we just had bad luck, or if that’s consistently an issue here).

Now, there are a couple of things to be aware of about the property as well, though. For one, compared to Paris and the Maldives, the St. Barts property isn’t going to feel quite as over the top. That’s totally fair, since the competitive landscape and the vibe is a bit different. But at the other properties, there are truly endless surprises in terms of property amenities, room features, etc., and that’s not quite the case here.

One other thing I’d emphasize is that Cheval Blanc is ideal if you’re looking for a calming, sleepy resort. That’s exactly what a lot of people are looking for, though it’s basically the polar opposite of Eden Roc, where there’s a DJ there all day. Different people will be looking for different experiences, so I don’t think one vibe is better than the other, but it’s just something to be aware of.

What do you make of Cheval Blanc St. Barts?