December 27th, 2007
Holidays: Take a step up to Sandals
ANY man who opens “country pubs” in the back of his aircraft while turning the aisles into fashion-show catwalks is either raving mad…or a genius.
As Air Jamaica’s chairman, Gordon “Butch” Stewart also runs a string of luxury resorts, a national newspaper and a company which builds and services most of his sun-kissed homeland’s refrigerators, you can work out which for yourself.
Today, the Caribbean’s answer to Richard Branson is better known in his native Jamaica than its Prime Minister. How many hotels in Britain can wheel out government ministers for the opening of a new annexe or an impressive refurbishment? Sandals can - and did - in the Bahamas.
The holiday starts the minute you board the plane. The usual meals, feature films and in-flight radio are not enough for Butch. As soon as the dinner is cleared away, the intercom announces: “All passengers are welcome to use the country bar which is set up at the rear galley for a drink or snack and mix with other passengers in a pub atmosphere.”
Butch’s resorts are equally original. I stayed at three: Sandals Royal Jamaican near Montego Bay, Sandals Royal Bahamian Resort and Spa near Nassau and the Beaches Turks and Caicos Resort and Spa in Providenciales.
His slogan is “Love Is All You Need.” And it really is…because at these resorts everything is all-inclusive.
Water skiing, scuba diving, snorkelling, swimming with stingrays and dolphins, you can do the lot…and it’s all on the house.
The Sandals resorts are for couples only and vary greatly in style.
The relaxed Royal Jamaican covers 17 acres, has 190 apartments and its own island restaurant. The five-star Royal Bahamian is Butch’s first all- inclusive resort in the Bahamas and has a selection of pubs and restaurants, as well as one of the best health spas in the West Indies.
Butch’s Beaches resort on the British Crown Colony of Turks and Caicos opened last year. Set on 12 miles of pristine white beach, the resort has 200 spacious rooms, of which 34 are villa suites with dramatic views of the Caribbean.
As well as Sandals-type attractions for adults (including the best scuba in the world after the Great Barrier Reef), Beaches has a computer games centre and a children’s camp, and plans are in the pipeline for a major pirate ship theme park.
The man who created the perfect all-inclusive holidays for adults is confident his Beaches resorts will do the same for children.
And as his countless projects in the past have proved, he is probably right. Because Butch Stewart has developed the knack of taking the comfort and quality service of European hotels and mixing them with the West Indian sense of fun.