Recommend February 2018 - 29

Left: Ayurvedic Centre at BodyHoliday in Saint Lucia.
Right: Water ritual at Paradisus Palma Real in the Dominican Republic.

Sail, September Solos, Octoba Yoga, PreChristmas Restorative Break), BodyHoliday has
added five more retreats for 2018. Hosted at
the resort's new Villa Firefly, the new retreats
are consistent with Ayurvedic medicine,
which is based on the belief that health
and wellness require a balance between the
body, mind, and soul. The new retreats are:
The Vedic Retreat, aimed at rejuvenating
and rebalancing; a Cleanse & Detox Retreat,
featuring manual lymphatic drainage,
thalassotherapy, yoga, and other purifying
agents; a Mindfulness Retreat whose goals
include increased mental focus, regulated
emotional reactivity, lower stress levels,
and improved sleep; a Yoga Retreat featuring
workshops in yogic philosophy and food
classifications, as well as yoga itself; and
a Weight Loss Retreat led by a nutritionist,
an exercise physiologist, fitness specialists,
and wellness chefs. Length of stay will vary
depending upon which program clients
choose; rates start at $550 per night pp,
with a supplementary cost applied for
individual retreats.

Bucuti & Tara Beach Resort
A new wellness offering in Aruba: In 2017
this 104-room, adults-only hideaway that's
often named as the best resort on the island
introduced a wellness program so guests could
design a multi-faceted wellness itinerary with
the guidance of a wellness specialist. For
this year, Bucuti & Tara has added a daily
Healthy Hour and, perhaps more important,
the resort's first-ever complimentary
organized wellness activities. The Healthy
Hour features half-priced, nutrient-packed
smoothies and mocktails with free snacks-
healthy ones-at the SandBar. The new
wellness activities include cooking demos,
sunrise beach walks, tai chi on the beach,
nutrition counseling, yoga/meditation,
and guided circuit training. Rates start at
$350 per night; $2,450 per week including
breakfast, WiFi, and tax.

Paradisus Palma Real
Golf & Spa Resort
This Dominican Republic all-inclusive in
Bavaro is now partnering with NRG2GO,
a company that matches resorts with
trained fitness instructors. Through this
program, Paradisus Palma Real is offering
guests classes in Zumba, yoga, Aqua Fit,
conditioning, and more, all led by these
certified instructors. The resort has also

debuted a new menu for its Oriental
Garden at YHI Spa. Items are divided into
five therapeutic categories to help guests
accurately determine what's best for them.
The categories are Oriental Signature Massages,
Detox, Soothing, Pain Reliever, and Invigorating
therapies, and each of these categories
includes five or six choices, many of them
based upon traditional Asian remedies. From
$380 per night; $2,660 per week.

Elite Island Resorts
This group of individualized hotels-they
all offer all-inclusive stays, but there is no
cookie-cutter look here-has introduced an
assortment of wellness enhancements. St.
James's Club & Villas, on Antigua, boasts
a new 3,700-sq.-ft. fitness center with a yoga
pavilion (from $339 per night; $2,366 per
week). Galley Bay Resort & Spa, also on
that island, built a yoga and Pilates deck on
the beach (from $557 per night; $3,900 per
week). In Saint Lucia, the St. James's Club
Morgan Bay's new fitness studio is offering
Pilates, spinning and yoga classes, and the
tennis court is sporting a new surface (from
$310 per night; $2,170 per week). Moreover,
both St. James's Club Morgan Bay and the St.
James's Club & Villas on Antigua now offer
floatfitCARIBBEAN aquabase classes-highintensity interval training on floating mats-a
first in the Caribbean. In a few months Galley
Bay and Palm Island Resort (the latter closed
from July 1-Aug. 31 for updates) will also
provide aquabase classes. Speaking of which,
Palm Island Resort, at the south end of the
Grenadines, also has a new spa facility that's
right on the beach (from about $600 per
night; $4,200 per week including the flight
from Barbados).

Hilton Barbados
Hiltons of the Caribbean have upped their
wellness offerings, too. For example, the
Hilton Barbados Resort, which has one of
the best beaches on the island, has launched a
butler program that guests can use to enhance
their wellness activities. The butlers can
prepare a guestroom with aromatherapy prior
to arrival, schedule private sessions with a
personal trainer (and not just in the fitness
center, but on the beach), create playlists for
workouts, work with the hotel restaurants
to curate an alternative healthy menu based
upon dietary requests, and arrange postworkout massages at the Eforea Spa. By the
way, that spa has the Caribbean's first quartz

sand bed, an amenity in which guests can take
a warm sand bath combined with a massage to
relieve jet lag and treat pain and/or anxiety.

Silversands Grenada
What makes Silversands Grenada noteworthy
in this Year of Wellness and Rejuvenation is that
it will open in March (the official opening
is early summer of 2018) as an exceptionally
restful boutique resort with an extraordinary
spa. Not only will the spa of this high-end,
43-suite (and nine multi-bedroom villas) hotel
have treatment rooms and a high-tech fitness
center, but it will also feature a temperaturecontrolled pool and even a hammam. The
cuisine at Silversands Grenada, a member of
Leading Hotels of the World and the first new
resort on Grand Anse Beach in 25 years, will
feature organic, non-GMO produce grown
locally by GRENROP (the Grenada Network
of Rural Women Producers). It's also worth
noting that the main pool will be 330 ft. long,
so this swimmer is looking forward to testdriving it. Introductory rates to this new resort
(based upon availability) should last another
few months, translating to a 30 percent
savings, so a $900 per night room will start
at $756 per night, including tax and service
charge; about $5,300 per week. ■
For more on the CARIBBEAN WELLNESS PUSH,
visit RECMD.IT/WELLNESSPART2
Contact Information

BodyHoliday: thebodyholiday.com
Bucuti & Tara Beach Resort: bucuti.com
Elite Island Resorts: eliteislandresorts.com
Hiltons of the Caribbean: hiltoncaribbean.com
Iberostar Hotels & Resorts: iberostar.com
Paradisus Palma Real Golf & Spa Resort: melia.com
Silversands Grenada: silversandsgrenada.com/en
Westin Grand Cayman Seven Mile
Beach Resort & Spa: westingrandcayman.com
february 2018 29

http://www.RECMD.IT/WELLNESSPART2 http://www.thebodyholiday.com http://www.bucuti.com http://www.eliteislandresorts.com http://www.hiltoncaribbean.com http://www.iberostar.com http://www.melia.com http://www.silversandsgrenada.com/en http://www.westingrandcayman.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Recommend February 2018