LIFESTYLE Travel

The Mill on The Hill
Montpelier Plantation Inn

A car ride through St Kitts and Nevis does something extraordinary for history. It compacts and slices up past events, rearranging them as shutter like pictures. British colonialism elbows the French invasion which abuts the Spanish sacking of these islands, and these merge into the Dutch raids – in non-linear chaos. Three hundred years of history are compressed into forts, old buildings, sugar mills and at least a thousand years into archeological sites. Along the turns of the road leading from Nevis Peak, Georgian properties appear in varying degrees of ruin and restoration.

All this against the backdrop of the iridescent Caribbean Sea. Amazing, really, considering there are only 168 square kilometers of both islands to contain all this.

During this ride, history returned the favour - it throbbed alive for me, as history never did before.

Old World Recreated

It is with a sense of irony that one checks into the Montpelier Plantation Inn, a resort converted from a former sugar plantation. The rising fortunes of the early 1800s sugar industry saw many plantations set up to process cane sugar. Plantations declined as the industry waned from the 1850s onwards - the last sugar mill here closed in 1958.

From despair and redundancy, many sugar plantations have been made over as resorts, of differing standards. Montpelier Plantation Inn is probably the top of its class here, with views of Nevis Peak, 750 feet above sea level. Checking in here feels like returning to one’s own 60-acre estate, with its croquet lawn, helpers in tow and a mill. The reliving of old-world glamour though has the blot of slave labour once forced to work in these same surroundings that now want to embrace parts of its history and dispossess the rest.

Text and photos by Jeffrey Lee

The Really Review™

Rooms:	Accommodation is spread out over the estate as 19 rooms, comprising Premier Rooms, Plantation Rooms, Villa Suites and Garden Suites. When I stayed there, some rooms were clearly works-in–progress. The bathroom is the tell-tale sign of standard of appointment of any guestroom – here the Premier room bathrooms needed better fittings for a resort of its class although the room itself was beautifully styled and decorated. Recent renovations hopefully have ironed out this kink.
Service:	Genuinely warm and personalised service – one of the benefits of staying at a 17-room property with a generous staff to guest ratio.
Dining:	An eclectic selection of Nevisian, European and modern American fare awaits at the Terrace restaurant in a verandah setting offering sneak views of the sea. Expect charming touches such as black beans, plantain, coconut and Caribbean rice and local Mahi Mahi fish (a chewy fish). Overall a high culinary standard prevails. The menu changes but I sampled the Crepe with Mushroom Filling and the divine Bluecheese Mousse dessert. Three Nevisian chefs and three European chefs provide creative impetus.
Mill:	Private dinners can be arranged at the 300-year old former sugar mill on the resort grounds. A small window frames the rolling grounds and a hint of mist around the peaks. The original steps, floor and cut stonewalls make this a very special place indeed.
Great Room:	Prior to its conversion, this used to be the boiling room that extracted sugar and molasses from the cane juice received from the mill. It is a lounge and reception area that serves drinks and canapés, and has the feel of a grand drawing room with cutstone walls and its sofas draped over with Caribbean style print fabrics. A massive tree, guarding the entrance to the Great Room, is gloriously lit up in other-worldly incandescence.
Croquet:	There is a lawn for this English sport, right outside a stretch of guestrooms. Look for the mallets in a wooden box by the side of the lawn. A snatch of the ocean may be glimpsed beyond the edge of the property.
Pool:	Is there another place on earth where sun, sky, mountain and mist converge so correctly, so purposefully, to compose such a delightful pool view? Definitely. But how many of these other places has a 300-year old mill to knit together so seamlessly these natural elements? Perhaps none.
Beach:	A ten-minute ride takes one to the resort’s private beach which has changing rooms, an outdoor shower, and picnic pavilion.
Kids policy:	Only children 8 years and above may check into the resort. Being a privately owned property, there is some flexibility provided that below-8 kids are able to keep the peace and tranquility of the resort and generally behave during dinner.
If Only:	Mosquitoes are a bane of these islands and these swirl around during one’s stay at the Montpelier Plantation Inn. Use plenty of repellant.
Overall rating:	A very exquisite property – a must-stay for Caribbean visitors.

The Really Review™ critiques luxury hotels and resorts fairly and honestly, and seeks to unveil the truth behind the façade.

Former Sugar Mill at Montpelier Plantation Inn                Caribbean Sea

Montpelier Plantation Inn                                                     Montpellier Plantation Pool

Entrance to the Great Room                                              Curried Banana and Coconut Soup

Mahi-Mahi Fish with Rice                                                    Croquet Solo

Caribbean Sea