The beaches might not be especially good, but St Lucia still manages to mix glamour and the adrenalin highs offered by zip wires, mountain biking and climbing, but three sophisticated hotels have opened in the past year.

Jade Mountain
In 1974 the Canadian architect Nick Troubetzkoy defied conventional hotel wisdom and opened Asne Chastanet, a series of bungalows built into a hill near the twin peaks of the Pitons.

Troubetzkoy’s second hotel, Jade Mountain, is built above his original one. At Jade Mountain, concrete walkways access 24 rooms. With neither telephones nor televisions, the rooms, all differently designed, are open to face the Pitons. The bathrooms have hot-tub baths with fibre-optic lights that can be changed to your preferred chakra colour. It’s an exhilarating assault on the senses, from the sound of tree frogs to the sight of hummingbirds hovering in the landscape.

Upside: Room service comes without a service charge. A hotel, made for memorable honeymoons.
Downsides: A steep climb after a night out, although shuttles are available.

Discovery at Marigot Bay
A palm-fringed double bay surrounded by lush green rainforest, Marigot Bay has evolved from a 19th-century pirate hangout to become one of the most beguiling marinas in the world.

Opened late last year, Discovery has 124 rooms, almost half of which are suites, some with plunge pools. All bedrooms are air-conditioned, while the other rooms have fans.

With their hardwood floors, flatscreen TVs, DVD players, walk-in showers and dark wooden furniture and rattan chairs, the interiors wouldn’t look out of place in a Manhattan loft apartment. However, there’s a pleasing practicality at their hearts. Each has a utility room with sink, washing machine, drying line and ironing board. Bottles of insect repellent and factor 30 sunscreen are provided and replenished as needed. Hotel costs can be tempered by stocking up at the marina supermarket – each suite has a kitchen area with fridge-freezer.

As well as The Boudreau, Discovery’s main restaurant, the surrounding area offers everything from pizza to jerk chicken. The standout is the Rainforest Hideaway across the bay which offers exemplary seafood. And the lovingly restored Hurricane Hole is a joy. It’s an open-air, thatched bar serving snacks, beer and cocktails.

Flaws? St Lucia is a vertiginous island and there are times when Discovery feels like the world’s most glamorous step machine. The top penthouse is a 149-step climb from the swimming pool, and there’s no lift, although golf buggies can take you most of the way.

Upside: Carefully planned accommodation; great for families.
Downside: No beach within walking distance, lots of steps.

Cotton Bay Village
The most overtly glitzy of the new hotels, Cotton Bay seems to have embraced all the buzzwords of luxury travel. Butler service? You bet. Guests even get a personalised mobile phone so they can summon staff from anywhere in the resort. There are separate kitchens, but the rooms feel as if they’ve been air-conditioned into sterility and have rather fussy furniture.

Many of the villas are grouped around a 25m pool, and there is a children’s pool, too. The resort is on the more rugged Atlantic side of St Lucia but there’s no getting away from Cotton Bay’s awkwardly shaped site. Not many villas have direct beach access and it is too flat for most of the rooms to have views of the beach. (Many of the views seem to be of the parking areas.) The exceptions are the most expensive option: the two Chateau Mango villas that face the ocean, each with a garden and private pool.

Cotton Bay is managed by the company that runs St Lucia’s spa-centric Le Sport, and Cotton Bay’s spa is being upgraded, with a champagne bar to augment the Moroccan Rasul steam room and Vichy showers. There’s only one restaurant at the moment, the beachfront 14:61, but the spa will soon have its own. Childcare provision is good and included in the price, with a kids’ club in season and a nanny service at other times.

Downside: Bland design, lack of sea views from many of the villas.
Upside: Excellent spa, good provision for children.

Need to know

Sarah Turner travelled with ITC Classics (01244 355 527, www.itcclassics.co.uk), which offers all three hotels.

At Discovery at Marigot Bay, seven nights’ B&B are available for the price of five, from £1,045pp for holidays taken before December 21. A week’s B&B at Jade Mountain costs from £2,729pp. At Cotton Bay Village seven nights’ room-only are from £1,760pp. Prices include private transfers, return flights and are based on two sharing.

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