Round Hill Journey Diary – Megan Stokes

Grandparents have been accessible and our schedules miraculously opened up, so we booked a final minute journey on a Thursday and have been in Jamaica just some days later. We do a February journey yearly, simply us two. It’s all the time a pleasant probability to decompress after the vacations and thaw out from the chilly, however largely to debate the 12 months forward and plan out motion gadgets. Achieving a number of large, necessary conversations at dwelling actually feels unimaginable typically. I’m so grateful to my dad and mom for giving us these 3 – 4 nights each winter as a result of, outdoors of the work planning part of all of it, it’s actually simply so good for our relationship and I stay up for it yearly.

Round Hill Resort:

Round Hill has been on my radar for fairly a while. It simply oozes timeless, barefoot luxurious. Designed and partly owned by Ralph Lauren (amongst a small record of different villa homeowners), it operates as a boutique lodge with Fifties Caribbean attraction.

I ought to point out earlier than typing this that we paid for our journey at full worth and so they don’t know who we’re or that I’m scripting this! I usually don’t do full on opinions of properties, so I wished you to know up entrance that there’s completely no bias in any respect. We really booked our journey by Emily West, whom we ebook most all of our journey with nowadays. She is a high-end journey advisor and all the time is aware of the very best new spots, the outdated classics price visiting, and all the insider ideas & methods of touring to every particular place. Another plus is that you simply get a lot of perks by reserving along with her, like every day breakfast, a resort credit score, and many others. Also, how cute is her website?

This lovely resort (sure, it’s a resort although it seems like a sublime boutique property) made such an impression on me, so in fact I wished to fill in all of my individuals. 🙂

Getting there:

We flew from Charleston to Charlotte (about 35 minutes) and Charlotte to Montego Bay (3 hours). From there, it’s a 25 minute taxi to the lodge.

We pre-arranged a non-public automobile (taxi) from the Montego Bay airport to Round Hill. Emily organized this for us, however it’s additionally provided straight by the lodge and is added to your closing invoice. It’s $50 every method (this covers as much as 4 individuals). I extremely suggest this! We’ve executed a very good little bit of island hopping and I all the time discover the taxi state of affairs to be such a ache since you by no means actually know in the event you’re getting swindled (occurs greater than you’d assume), so having a prearranged taxi that’s affiliated with the property introduced peace of thoughts.

Another factor to notice is that the lodge provides a 3rd celebration service known as Club Mobay, which is sort of a VIP quick monitor service by customs and safety on the airport. They greet you off the aircraft with an indication along with your title on it, then information you thru the assorted checkpoints. It’s $50 per individual every method. We denied this service as a result of we didn’t assume it will be essential and might now affirm that we’re pleased with that call. The Club Mobay strains have been actually about the identical because the common strains. While the Montego Bay airport is method larger than every other Caribbean airport I’ve been to, it was very simple to navigate and never overcrowded in any respect. However, peak journey occasions, like throughout spring break, could be a distinct story and it would might be price it then!?

Accommodations:

There are lodge rooms, suites, and villas on the property. We booked a one-bedroom suite that was atop the hill and had a plunge pool. It was incredible!

Just to notice, there aren’t any TVs within the rooms, however I promise you don’t miss it.

Activities + Experiences on Property:

They’ve received a pool and a non-public seashore space with tons of water toys, like kayaking, paddle boarding, snorkel gear, and extra. There’s additionally loads of tennis and pickle ball courts, basketball, and a very lovely gymnasium. A Kids Club can be on property!

Every day at 4pm, they arrange a beachside tea below the terrace. Complete with little english cookies and clotted cream, do-it-yourself doughnuts, tea sandwiches, crudite, freshly popped popcorn, and numerous drink choices like tea, espresso, and many others. This was fairly the hit! Some come nonetheless dressed of their bathing fits, some freshly showered for an early dinner. We would take our mini mahjong set on a regular basis and play whereas having fun with candy treats and occasional earlier than going again to our room to clean up for dinner.

There can be a phenomenal spa on property. There aren’t facilities (as of now, no less than) that embody issues like a sauna or steam room, however the therapeutic massage I had was the very best I’ve ever had and the setting couldn’t be extra lovely, as lots of the rooms are on an upstairs terrace that overlooks the bay.

We walked the jogging path, which works across the property, each morning earlier than breakfast and it was such a spotlight!

Dining:

We actually appeared ahead to dinner time as a result of the general expertise of all of it was so good. The meals was constantly tasty. The Round Hill group grows their very own micro greens on property, so it was one thing I seen in most recipes, even simply as a garnish.

There are a lot of locations to eat on this very small property! Within a reasonably small space, there’s an upstairs open-air eating room, a seaside terrace and bar space, a seashore bar, and a pool bar — every with a distinct meals menu. The numerous menus virtually overwhelmed! (We had simply gotten the dangle of what was on every menu when it was time to go… ha!)

When it involves dinner within the upstairs eating room, which is the superb eating possibility on property, the menu modifications nightly to go together with regardless of the theme for the night is. You can preview the menu schedule for the week on their website and in addition see the menu for every night displayed within the foyer every single day.

Breakfast was such a spotlight for me, however I’m only a large trip breakfast individual. It’s the one time I ever sit down for breakfast. I like orange juice however it’s the one time I ever drink it. I like the stillness within the air and impending pleasure concerning the day. I simply love each little factor about breakfast on trip—and Round Hill’s breakfast completely set a brand new customary for me. It’s a white desk fabric service, which felt very particular in juxtaposition to the salty, open-air view. The espresso is served in a Ralph Lauren tea pot, with matching cups and saucers. The menu was massive and scrumptious! In addition to each of our breakfast meals, we ordered one thing to share on two of the mornings—the french toast and the smoothie bowl. GET THE SMOOTHIE BOWL. Wow, simply wow.

Service:

The group at Round Hill was the friendliest group of individuals I’ve come throughout whereas on trip. They have been so beautiful and welcoming. (I can’t all the time say the identical relating to different islands.) When we left, I genuinely missed seeing their smiling faces and listening to their heat hellos. It made the entire expertise!

A number of closing ideas and ideas:

We stayed 4 nights and it was actually excellent. I might possibly go for five nights however I don’t assume I might ebook for longer than that as a result of it’s a small resort, in any case, and there’s solely a lot to do. We take pleasure in breaking apart longer journeys by attempting totally different off-site lunch spots, for instance, or procuring across the space. While there wasn’t any of this occurring in or round Round Hill, we didn’t miss it in any respect since we have been simply there for 4 nights. (However, we possibly would have yearned for some every day motion like that had we stayed for longer.)

If you’re touring with simply your important different and don’t have an excessively prolonged flight to get there, I might even go for simply 3 nights! Since you’re staying in place on the resort and there’s no cause to depart, I actually assume you might go away feeling such as you had a really full lengthy weekend.

In abstract, this lovely resort actually made an impression on us. It has such a perspective and we actually cherished our time there. For the primary time ever, we have been already planning a return journey earlier than we even left. We need to carry our youngsters as a result of I do know they’d take pleasure in it as properly.

It’s a very particular place and I extremely suggest it, however I’m positive I forgot one thing. Let me know when you’ve got any questions within the feedback! x