In 2007, I had one of the best day of my life in October when I married my wonderful wife. We were young, in love, and trying to make life work on a shoestring budget. I got a great travel deal, as always, from a neighbor that allowed us to spend 7 nights in an oceanfront condo on Maui, with a rental car, taxes, and parking for around $1,000. Even though we had a wonderful time, it wasn’t the place we wanted to go, St. Lucia.
St. Lucia has always been one of the nicest islands in the Caribbean and therefore one of the most expensive. This, combined with the fact that there was no major hotel chains on the island until April of this year when Hilton acquired the Harbor Club, meant that there was no possible points and miles bookings.
Another redemption option is coming for points and miles enthusiasts as the Prime Minster of St. Lucia announced that Hyatt will be heading to St. Lucia in 2019. This is now the third time in just a few months that Hyatt is adding to it’s footprint across the globe!
The Details
What we know at this point is that Invest Saint Lucia (ISL), an Investment Promotion Agency of the Government of St. Lucia, has completed transactions with a Barbadian-based firm to buy the lands at Choc. The purpose of this acquisition is that they plan on building a 400-room Hyatt Hotel that will be a mixture of European Plans and All Inclusive based plans. Unfortunately, construction is not schedule to begin until 2019. In the meantime, there are currently six all inclusive resorts within the Hyatt portfolio under the Ziva and Zilara brands. Below is the current line up:
Ziva – All ages
Zilara – Adults only
The view from the bar in the lobby at the Hyatt Zilara Cancun Mexico. Photo Credit: Bill Shuman
The number of points required to stay at any of the all inclusive properties depends on the hotel and the number of people within the room. The best part is that all World of Hyatt members do not pay any resort fees, which means that a stay at an all inclusive property is actually free!
My wife and I stayed at the Hyatt Zilara Cancun twice during 2007. Once for 7 nights in March, and once for 4 nights just before Thanksgiving. Initially, we only had plans to stay once, but after we got back we loved it so much we had to go again as soon as possible.
We used 25,000 Hyatt points per night and found it an incredible value as the rooms we stayed in ranged from $400-$1,100 per night. Here is Hyatt’s current redemption chart for all of their properties:
World of Hyatt Point Acquisition
Like me, if you’ve ever wanted to go visit St. Lucia and not pay the high prices now is the time to start stocking up on World of Hyatt points. You can earn Hyatt points directly with the World of Hyatt Credit Card or you can earn Ultimate Rewards with Chase and transfer them to your World of Hyatt account. The best Ultimate Rewards earning cards right now are the Ink Business Preferred (80,000 Ultimate Rewards points) and the Chase Sapphire Preferred (50,000 Ultimate Rewards points). If you are able to sign up for all three cards you would be able to have a total of 200,000 points, after meeting all minimum spending, that would be enough for 8 totally free nights at the current rate.
Final Thoughts
Although construction on the Hyatt hotel does not begin until late next year I hope to earn enough points to be able to take my family (if it is a Ziva property) or my wife (if a Zilara property) on a nice long vacation when the doors finally open. Beyond that, this means I will definitely be taking that flight to Atlantic City in 2019 to solidify my Explorist status in the World of Hyatt program. Put this as another win in my books for Hyatt as it will finally give me the chance to be able to take the vacation I wanted to go on 11 long years ago!
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7 comments
Ziva/Zilara Rose Hall property has become a dump! Think of a carnival cruise.
Shame as the Cancun properties are insanely nice. I have no doubt that with this Hyatt being new construction and on St. Lucia that this will be very nice. My only concern is the point cost per night. Hopefully it won’t be much higher than the current all inclusives.
What happened to Rose Hall? We went 3 times in 2014 and 2015 and loved it!
Ziva Los Cabos was also very disappointing. Food is totally mediocre at best, as are the rooms and Globalist treatment. I’m done with all-inclusives. Hyatts are no better than others. Getting “unlimited” crappy food and drink is not a good deal in my mind even on points.
I can’t speak to the food or property at Los Cabos, but I do know that having any top tier status even in Cancun was almost worthless. The only benefits gained was a higher level room, since all of the rooms were identical, and access to their top tier restaurant Chef Plate. Not much compared to your typical Globalist treatment.
I live in St Lucia since a few years. While I welcome every new hotel, I strongly encourage every visitor to actually visit the island, and not just stick inside the next all inclusive resort. Why? For yourself and for the locals. Most hotel chains here are tax exempt for a few decades, and pay littleto the staff. So locals will hardly ever have the chance to start their own business one day, their restaurant for example or their boutique B&B. If visitors do not go out, do not visit the not so many local businesses, things will never change.
If interested I have a house for sale or longterm rent 🙂
When we travel we always go outside the resorts! There is nothing better than the local foods, the local shops and talking to the locals! I stay at the resort because it is free for all the years of work that I have had and had to live in hotels. But that is just a place to sleep! We love exploring the entire island! We tell everyone we know to do the same thing! And as silly as it may sound…the visitors, especially the Americans, love all the little local made things! Me especially! A Little kiosk set up within a block or so of the resort will always do well!