We stayed at the East Winds Inn from the end of May for two week for my 40th birthday. Our flight into St Lucia was delayed and we arrived at the East Winds late at night but the staff had cool towels and drinks ready for our arrival. The security guy that took our luggage to our room even offered to show us around the hotel.

We stayed in a deluxe room and glad we upgraded - the air conditioning was a bonus. We especially enjoyed sitting on our verandah and watching the humming birds and other wildlife. The rooms are very spacious and bathroom excellent especially the shower. Only minus point - if you're in there at night with the light on anyone walking past can see in when you're showering. On a few nights caught the security guard walking past whilst showering - bit like being in a gold fish bowl!

We can only emphasize what other reviewers have said regarding the food and drink. Excellent choice and fantastic quality. The staff are a credit to the hotel especially Titus, Henry, Debra, Sebastian, Samantha and Emmanuel.

The first week of our stay the hotel was very quiet and it almost felt as if we had the place to ourselves - for about six days we were the only ones around the pool. Unfortunately, no matter what the standard of hotel you book for all inclusive there are always couples who have to drink as much as they can 'because we've paid for it', be loud and treat it like an English town centre on a Friday night. But please be assured this is not a reflection on the hotel and I would recommend a stay here anytime.

You just know your holiday will be good as soon as you step into reception and you’re welcomed with a big smile and presented with an ice cold flannel to cool you down – you’ve arrived at East Winds Inn!

We’ve just returned from our second two week holiday to East Winds Inn, and I’m pleased that it hadn’t lost its charm and beauty. The rooms are set in wonderful tropical gardens with many of the trees in fruit – our previous visit was during September and when there was little or no fruit hanging from the trees, but the trees and shrubs were in bloom. We chose a cottage style room which have now been fitted with air conditioning, and made the stay more pleasurable – there is also a ceiling fan. The beds are very large and comfortable which meant my snorkel could be in one time zone and my swimming shorts in another - on some occasions I could go for breakfast and my wife would arrive an hour later. The room had a large round sunken shower, and there was a TV and DVD in the bedroom area. The room was cleaned every day to a very high standard and the maid done an excellent job. Asher ensured the fridge on the balcony was well stocked with liquids.

All the staff at EWI were very courteous and welcoming, and the waiters and waitresses always seemed to wear a smile, and they have a very good sense of humour too – the most regular contact you’re likely to have contact with EWI staff is in the restaurant, and the restaurant manager is Henry. Henry runs a well oiled team that knows about customer service, and variations, if possible, will be accommodated (no chips, please). The waitresses looked fabulous in their Wednesday costume, although I’m not sure how comfortable they are in the hot weather – thanks Hannah, Christine, Melissa and anyone I missed out.

The food is still 1st Class, and some adverse comments have been written on the Trip Advisor Forum about the food at EWI. As a vegetarian (and no, fish isn’t an honorary vegetable), I found the meals to be very well presented and very enjoyable. Breakfast is pretty well much what you would expect: cereal, eggs in many different forms (boiled, fried, poached, omelette), bacon, sausage, toast, jams, juices and most importantly for a fruitaholic like me – fresh fruit, and lots of it. Paula will cook you a mean omelette with a filling of your choice. Tea/coffee/iced water and juice is plentiful and there are many varieties of tea on hand.

Lunch is buffet style and there is a good salad selection to choose from, and there is a large BBQ which will keep those with carnivorous tendencies happy when the BBQ is alight. My wife goes shopping for meat with a bow and arrow and a club (we even have a bear trap in our garden), and she assures me the meat is very tasty and of the highest quality. Wildebeest don't stand a chance.

Evening meals are a more formal affair with four courses to make your selection. I was very happy with the chef’s chosen dishes, and only okra defeated my palate – although the chef once over spiced the pasta, but as France has just been beaten at football, maybe he can be forgiven. Again, after my omnivorous, but mostly carnivorous wife had sharpened her harpoon and reset her bolus, she informed me the many types of meat and fish on offer were perfectly cooked (best to check my anti-vampire insurance). Remember, if you don’t like a certain meat dish, be adventurous, and go veggie for 15 minutes.

Entertainment was provided by either a lunchtime steel band (bought their CD), a shack-shack duo (bought their CD), a duo playing trombone and sax, and a very good pianist who I probably enjoyed most (he didn’t have a CD). Other unorthodox entertainment is provided by Sebastian, and Titus – the idea is to stop Sebastian from stealthily slipping under the radar and re-filling your glass with (red) wine! Asking for Rose will slow him down (a bit). Titus provides the fast moving Olympian type action – the idea here is to present him with a crab. What follows is a three part event: On your marks - the bottle he’s holding drops: Get set – his life flashes before him: Go – 100m in 4.6 seconds around the Club Room. Titus might also make a grade in the West Indian tenth 11 cricket team – but he only clobbers insects with last nights menu and the critter always escapes on a jet-ski to live happily ever after on Martinique. So, Chanderpaul, you’re job is certainly safe unless Titus gets a larger menu. Thanks guys, you were always good for a laugh. TIM agrees.

The sandy beach is a good size and is maintained and cleared of debris every day. There are plenty of parasols and loungers spread about the resort, plus some water sports in the form of canoes, if you have the energy – EWI provide brushes for clearing sand from the beach loungers. If you want to hide from the sun there are seven secluded and covered areas with tables and chairs set aside.

The pool is a reasonable size based on guest ratio, and is carefully cleaned every morning (any leaves that fall in the pool can be left in the empty Piton crates). The serve yourself swim-up bar is always full with brand name spirits – cold beers are provided (that is if the crew of June ’08 left any!) There are four bar stools, and out of respect for past guests they all have names: From left to right they are Richard (Piton), Les (Malibu), Steve (Statue of Liberty) and Tony (Heineken). If you need to reset the stools you have to go behind the bar and press the button marked TIM, TIM, TIM, TIM. If you actually find a button marked TIM you need to cut down on your Piton consumption! The stool with the least paint is Richard. At any time ask Sebastian or Titus for TIM – I’m not sure if TIM will be there, but if not just remember TIM might just be an anagram of Time Is Motionless (at EWI anyway). Tiffin is served around the pool area at 4.00pm, but watch out for the sneaky birds who tunnel under the cloth for the cake! You will note the birds are ready for cake before it is brought out to the pool – do birds have watches? During our stay we kept trying to form an escape committee, but for some reason every time we surfaced it was at the pool – don’t know how that kept happening. Oh, and they weren’t wrinkles, I just stayed in the pool too long.

For those who worry about insects, EWI done a ‘fogging’ each week (during the evening) of our stay. The idea is to kill off the mosquitoes and flies and to help make the stay even more comfortable. Personally I think this was a devious scheme to get us out of the pool, but unlucky Windel! We are all seasoned scuba divers and simply hid in the pool under the smoke – and we had a spare key! Nice try, and like Sebastian and Titus, you must be quicker.

As a point of interest our room on leaving was given to a couple who left their previous hotel because of its poor condition – obviously I won’t mention the name. Virgin moved them from that hotel and EWI somehow accommodated them, eventually into out vacated room. The couple were very happy at EWI and nice one Virgin and EWI.

Many thanks to all the staff at EWI and the many new friends that we made during our stay (one crooner and his wife even came from Manchester, which I understand is near Mansfield), and I hope to see you in a couple of years time. And for that, you’re welcome.

If you've read the reviews, I am not your typical East Winds Inn guest- I'm 26 and from Texas. That being said, I think I can give East Winds a fair review. I would be HAPPY to reply to any questions honeymooners (or others) have. So send me a message any time.

My husband and I arrived at East Winds after the long drive from the airport. If we wanted to spend the extra money, we would have taken the helicopter transfer, but the drive was not as bad as I expected. After reading reviews, I was expecting a scary road that leads on forever and ever with scary locals along the way. Yes, it took an hour and fifteen minutes, but the taxi driver was very knowledgable and we enjoyed the route. And the St. Lucia locals were some of the nicest people we've met. We arrived to the wonderful girls in the reception area and were immediately taken to our deluxe room. It was really beautiful. It was so quiet that we thought we were the only people in the resort. We were a little worried because we although we wanted to relax, we're both active people and wanted to have some fun too. We quickly found out that there WERE other guests there, we just needed to enjoy the peace and quiet everyone provided each other while in our cottages. Once you make it to the pool/beach/bar- you'll find people.

Here's a break down of the resort from my eyes:

Rooms: We stayed in the deluxe room. It has air conditioning and a ceiling fan, which we used the whole time. Yes, St. Lucia has a great breeze all the time, but I love to be cold. It wasn't the 69 degrees I usually sleep in, but it was definitely comforatable. There is not a bathtub, but we really enjoyed the huge shower. The beds are very big and comfortable. We sometimes took naps in the room or watched a DVD on the televsion. It's tropical and open and very nice. We loved the front patio and sat there with a beer (provided in the fridge within reach of our chairs) and watched the gardens.

Pool: We LOVED the pool. We enjoyed the extensive bar and made all kinds of drinks while floating in the pool with the other couples. We met so many friends hanging out in the pool. There is always a lounger available and always more drinks being poured.

Beach: It's small, and just what we wanted. Kayaking, view boards, snorkling... it's all there. I don't scuba dive or anything, so I'm not the right person to ask about the beach, really. But I loved laying on the loungers under the thatched roofs and watching everyone else snorkle.

Food: AMAZING. Breakfast- eggs to order, toast, fruit, bacon, sausage, etc. Lunch- different fish and meat, vegetables, and there's always fruit and cheese. We also got a different flavor of ice cream each day for dessert. The best part- dinner. We really enjoyed getting dressed up each night and heading to dinner at 7 to meet our new friends for drinks. Then, we headed to the restaurant for our sit down dinner around 7:30-8. 4 courses, wine, amazing staff, it was perfect. The restaurant is open-air so you can hear the waves and get a good breeze. There's always candles and it's so romantic. There are multiple options for each course and we never had a hard time finding something to eat. I don't eat meat and my husband doesn't eat fish and we had no problems. We would often skip courses just because it's so much food that we couldn't make it all the way through. Some of our favorites:

Tomato capaccino (the best soup!)
Mushroom risotto
cheese pasta

steak with blue cheese sauce
pan fried red snapper
vegetable stir fry

chocolate tart
apple crisp
ice cream souffle

Oh! There's too many to remember. Hats off to Vincent!! The best French chef around!!

After dinner, some of the guests would always gather at the bar til 10 or 11, trying to stay awake. The bartender, Titus, would make us the BEST drinks and keep us laughing. We are pretty young and like to stay out late, but had a hard time staying awake after 11. It sounds crazy, but we really enjoyed it.

Staff: Best staff I've ever encountered at any resort so far in my life. They are so happy and became our friends. We wanted to bring so many of them with us to visit us in Texas!

Excursions: We didn't book anything until we got to the resort. We told the girls at the front desk what we wanted to do and they set it all up for us. They just said- be here tomorrow at 9 am and everything else was handled. Very easy. It was billed to our room.

Gareth sat and talked with us a lot and always said hello. He was so friendly and always available. (Thanks, Gareth, for taking the time to talk with us about East Winds, baseball, and everything! It's great getting to know you.)

We had such an amazing time and made the best memories. It was a great mix of relaxing, enjoying the blue water, drinking too much, eating too much, making new friends, and being romantic. I can't imagine a better honeymoon. A quick hello to all of the wonderful people we met while there! (Stephen, Tina, Richard, Carla we miss you guys!! See you next year?? )

We have recently returned from a two week stay in St. Lucia at the East Winds Inn. We have been to a few Caribbean Islands and so far have found St. Lucia to be the most scenic with the friendliest people.

Having done extensive research before our trip, East Winds was everything we expected. It is a very quiet idyllic setting for those looking for a very relaxing laid back holiday. Our days were spent lounging on the beach and taking the occasional excursion around the island.

Although people talk about "Caribbean time" (where things happen much more slowly and late in comparison to western time) our experience in St. Lucia was that everything was on time or early. This included meals at the hotel and various excursion activities.

The meals were fabulous and varied, well mixed with local ingredients. There was a very well stocked bar and champaigne was served every night with a lovely selection of wines for dinner. There was a variety of entertainment from local folk singers to a steel band which we thoroughly enjoyed (having bought a few of their CD's).

All the staff were exceptionally friendly and helpful and unobtrusive. The rooms and grounds are very well maintained and clean. We used the free WIFI on a number of occasions and there was computer internet access for the guests at reception, which was useful as well. The beach is fairly private and we were never bothered by beach traders as there is a subtle security prescence on the premises.

There were a lot of really nice touches around the hotel which made the place special, and explains why we met a number of repeat visitors; the guests seemed mostly to be made up of repeat visitors and honeymooners. Therefore if you are looking for quiet romance in a very beautiful setting this is your place. Saying that, this was our first visit and we were not on our honeymoon.

Just one last note, if you have the chance to take the helicopter transfer from the airport we highly recommend this as you get gorgeous views of the island scenery.