Caribbean Memories - Anguilla

The second Caribbean island I ever visited was Anguilla. I went as part of a travel agent FAM trip -- I was the only non travel agent in the group (other than the PR folks leading the trip).

The FAM (which is short for familiarization) was billed as the ultimate luxury trip, including a stay at a luxury resort, with fantastic meals and all sorts of high-end experiences. I believe they even valued the trip at $20,000 per person, or something like that. Basically the kind of FAM that sounds like a dream come true. I practically begged my editor to let me go when I received my invitation. I wish I hadn't.

My first impression of Anguilla was... blah. It's not a particularly attractive island from the interior. Lots of scraggly brush areas, kind of brownish, and really not much to see. There are no rolling hills, no stretches of green. But then, no one is coming to Anguilla for the interior of the island. They're coming for the beaches. And the beaches are beautiful. White sand beaches, turquoise water -- very pretty.

We stayed at a well-known resort called Cap Jaluca. It's a luxury property that has attracted the likes of Paris Hilton. Accommodations are spread throughout several villa buildings, each building having two to four "rooms."

The group of us were distributed among the varying room categories. One agent and I were given villa rooms. My villa room included: a full-size kitchen, dining room, living room, bedroom, balcony, small enclosed patio (which I could never get to because the door wouldn't open), bathroom, changing room, and private pool with large patio. It was enormous, well at least for just one person it was pretty big.

I found being in that "room" very lonely. There was too much space for one person to occupy and so it always felt empty in there. I did however take advantage of my private, enclosed pool to go skinny dipping a couple of times as I had not brought a bathing suit with me. I enjoyed that, but wished my husband could've been with me.

The resort was OK in my mind, but doesn't really offer anything to do beyond relaxing on the beach. There are only two restaurants, a small gym and a tiny spa, though to be fair they usually do massages in your room or on the patio's outside the rooms. We were all given a half an hour massage (part of the luxury aspect of the FAM). I traded my massage for a spa pedicure, which was very well done and lasted quite a while. All the agents told me they loved their massages.

My favorite aspect of Cap Jaluca -- the golf carts that all guests are allowed to drive around. I definitely had fun putting pedal to the metal on those things and seeing how fast I could take the curves with them. I don't think they ever went faster than 10 or 15 miles per hour, no matter how hard I pressed the pedals.

There are also two boutiques at the resort, with everything way overpriced. And they had two small library rooms with computers with free Internet.

We only ate at one of the resort's two restaurants. They do have a very nice beach barbecue, which normally costs $75 per person -- a bit pricey for what you get, if you ask me.

Actually, everything on Anguilla is pricey. Even the most moderately priced resorts were still at least $200 a night. In those rooms, you usually get a kitchenette, so I suppose you could save money by doing some light cooking.

There are no all-inclusives on Anguilla. Some of the resort's included breakfast, some did not. Some included Internet, some did not. One of the more moderate resorts offered free laundry.

But really what Anguilla seemed to offer were the four- and five-star resorts. One, CuisinArt Resort & Spa has the nicest spa I have ever seen in my life!!

The other accommodation option on Anguilla are the exclusive villa resorts. each with a small number of extravagant villas that fit four to 12 guests. These villas typically cost $12,000 and up per night.

But these are dream villas -- multiple bedrooms; private theater rooms; activities rooms with billiards, ping pong and more; gyms; meditation areas; gorgeous dining rooms; private pools and private beaches; multiple Jacuzzis; and more. We saw one amazing villa that Beyonce and Jay-Z have vacationed in -- they were that nice!

These places were the only properties I saw that I could imagine coming back to Anguilla for -- not that I'll ever be able to afford them. But if I could, I can imagine that it's very nice to come with a large group of friends or extended family and spend a week or more there.

We saw other nice resort properties, but all are so expensive and include nothing but the room. Somehow it always just seemed so extravagant to me and I could find no value in any of it. But then I don't make a lot of money so maybe someone who is making half a million dollars a year sees it differently. Certainly to the travel agents I was with, these properties represented significant income for them if they could sell them to their affluent clients.

We had some nice meals on Anguilla as well. Most of the restaurants say they offer the best fine dining and some of them did offer very good meals, but my favorite meal was actually at a private restaurant off property. Truly delicious food.

Overall I did not enjoy my stay on Anguilla. The luxury FAM I had been expecting was really mostly time spent going from property to property for tours in the hot sun. The only luxury we experienced were the resort we stayed at, the meals we ate, one half-hour spa treatment and a half-day speed boat tour of the island, which included a stop at a restaurant on a secluded cove. The restaurant is owned by a local character whose name escapes me now. Guests have two choices - crayfish or chicken, there is no vegetarian option. I don't know if the drinks were included in the $75 price tag or not. I guess the food was good -- all of us who had chicken thought the meal was okay, but those who had the crayfish really liked it. The best part of the time there was wading in the light waves on the small beach and talking to the owner who really is a character.

I was also lonely most of the time on this trip. I don't know if it was something going on in my life at that moment, or if it really was the trip or the island itself, but even though I talked to the others and socialized, I felt extremely lonely the whole time.

I think it was partly because the island is sooo expensive and I couldn't even begin to relate to the kind of people who must come there. I probably felt out of place a lot. And it was exhausting going from one resort to another all day long.

I doubt I'll ever go back to Anguilla again. Unless I win mega-millions and decide to rent a villa there someday there is nothing on that island for me. I leave it to Beyonce and Jay-Z, may they enjoy it to their heart's content.