I’ve been meaning to visit the Park Hyatt St. Kitts for years. I’ve made bookings in the past but never made the trip happen. So I was excited to finally visit over Presidents’ Day weekend.

I booked a standard room on points and confirmed a suite upgrade. Then I was fortunate to have a further upgrade to a Deluxe Pool Suite – it’s peak period which can be great or terrible for upgrades, depending on whether a hotel is full of standard room bookings and somebody needs to be upgraded to fit everyone, or whether people are booking premium rooms directly.

The hotel is a category 7 redemption, costing 25,000 to 35,000 points per night. Room rates can vary from around $600 – $1000 per night. The hotel is a little less than 25 minutes from the airport by taxi. It has 124 rooms and 47 suites.

Now, I hate early morning flights and connecting from Austin straight through to St. Kitts means departing before 6 a.m. So we decided to overnight in Miami. American had coach awards bookable for 16,000 miles and $26.20 in taxes – and I forced an overnight connection without raising the price. This mean traveling coach, but we’d have free checked bags, main cabin extra seats, and lounge access so it was a pretty good value and neither flight would be especially long.

The American Airlines D terminal in Miami doesn’t have CLEAR (American doesn’t permit it in terminals they control, that company is part-owned by Delta and by United). The PreCheck line was about 20 minutes long. And of course walks inside the terminal with the train system down for months.

We picked up some water bottles and snacks for the flight and made our way on board for the Miami to St. Kitts flight, which had been upgraded recently from an Airbus A319 to a 737 but was still completely full on a Wednesday.

Soon enough we’d made it to St. Kitts. They deplane from both front and rear stairs there. Plenty of passengers made their way into the immigration hall ahead of us, but we faced no wait at all – apparently virtually no one had completed the online immigration form for Nevis and St. Kitts prior to travel so they needed to fill out paperwork by hand first. Just filling out the form and bringing the QR code is a huge hack for this airport.

Park Hyatt St. Kitts Arrival

Taxis from the airport to hotel generally run US$35 – $50 for up to four passengers. For $55 the hotel will have a driver meet you as you exit the arrivals hall and take you to their cab, placing the charge on your folio. I did this but it really wasn’t necessary. Plenty of taxis were available.

On arrival at the hotel we were met by hotel staff who assisted with bags. However no one directed us towards the front desk / check-in lobby. I had to find that on my own. And there were multiple people dealing with issues at the desk, so I stood around for a bit until there was a staff member available.

They offered a choice of juice or rum punch while working on our check-in. Our suite wasn’t ready. It was about 3 p.m. and the room had been cleaned, we were told, but not yet inspected. I walked over with my daughter to look at the fish in the hotel’s entryway. They invite you to feed the fish and to touch the fish, but they were out of fish food. A staff member asked, “do you have any bread to give them?” Why would I have any bread?

I’d been told it would be 15 minutes. After half an hour our room was ready and we were taken there, along with your bags, by golf cart.

Views And Setting Are Amazing

The Park Hyatt St. Kitts is in an absolutely beautiful spot. It’s right on the sea, looking directly at the island of Nevis. They’ve crafted a lovely space, with infinity pools and liberal use of stone.

While the style of the hotel isn’t Park Hyatt modern that I prefer, that’s understandable at a beach resort in the Caribbean. I absolutely loved looking out over the water, and especially at Nevis and the clouds that form at the top.

The resort features two pools that cater to a wide range of preferences. The adults-only pool, situated away from the family pool, provides a peaceful retreat for guests seeking a quieter atmosphere. Its design, inspired by the historic sugar mills once common on the island, adds a touch of local heritage. Equipped with ample lounge chairs, umbrellas, and a station for water, towels, and free sunscreen, it ensures a comfortable experience. However, its distance from the pool bar.

The beach is nice but not special in the way you’d find at, say, Grace Bay beach in Turks and Caicos. The star here is the water and views of Nevis, rather than white sand.

The hotel grounds themselves are lush and beautiful.

There are plenty of small touches, like a popular gelato shop by the beach and pool.

And endless views of the sea.

By the way, sunscreen is free.

Park Hyatt St. Kitts Deluxe Pool Suite Was Amazing

I couldn’t have asked for more than a large suite with a separate living room and dining room from the bedroom, a large bathroom and small second bath, and a large outdoor deck with an infinity plunge pool that looked out over the resort directly at the water and Nevis.

The outdoor space had both covered and uncovered areas, plenty of chairs to relax by the pool or have a meal, and even featured an outdoor shower.

The main bathroom was large, which I appreciate. A second bathroom is a nice addition traveling as a family. And I love plenty of counter space.

It was nice that they used full-sized toiletries, though they’re shared across guests. I’d rather half-sized single guest toiletries to be honest, like I used to get in suites at some Ritz-Carltons and at the W in Hong Kong many years ago.

The closet was big, big enough for plenty of suitcases and hanging up clothes and also for getting dressed in.

The really remarkable space of course was the outdoor deck. The pool was generally warm enough, though not hot. It was shallow, perfect for a family or for wading but not a place you’ll do laps.

And the views of course were magnificent. The room was the top floor of building twelve, which was nicely situated at the center of the resort, not too far from anything.

The room wasn’t in perfect shape. There were some stains on the couch. The door frame needed some restoration work. But overall the room was in good shape.

I’ve seen some people comment about hard beds here, but that wasn’t my experience at all and I generally slept quite well.

Water and coffee were refreshed complimentary. This didn’t always happen, however a call to guest services (and sometimes a follow up call) took care of that. And they were happy to deliver as much and as many as I asked for.

If I were to critique the room I’d say there should be more outlets, and it’s surprising in at a still-newer hotel doesn’t have them. For instance there were no outlets by the couch or on the wall by the dining table, and I had to move the nightstand to get at one by my bedside.

But at the end of the day I had this as the view, so no complaints really.

Breakfast Was Fantastic

I found the best meal of the day on property to be breakfast. Breakfast is in the Great House which is next to the main pool so beside the water.

The buffet was excellent. Globalists could order pretty much anything and have it removed from the bill. They present you with a menu, but honestly I didn’t find the written menu especially tempting.

Here’s what the buffet was like, and there was also a chef making egg dishes as well.

My wife and I each ordered multiple espresso drinks and those were taken off the bill automatically as well. Since our daughter is 5 they never added her to the bill to be taken off. It wasn’t entirely clear to me whether children ‘up to 5’ or ‘5 and under’ are free.

Bills here have an automatic service charge but also a line for the tip. Note that if you add an additional tip, that’s not going to be removed.

From cooked-to-order eggs, to pancakes and local specialties like Johnny Cakes as well as more than one kind of smoked fish, I enjoyed everything I ate at breakfast. And everyone at the Great House, the main building where the concierge is as well, was uniformly friendly.

Room Service Is A Disaster

Where the hotel really had challenges was service. Everyone was friendly! Everyone seemed well-meaning. And I mentally placed the property in “Caribbean resort” bucket rather than “Park Hyatt” bucket before I’d arrived. But the degree to which every request took longer than it should even knowing that every request would take longer than it should was shocking. And how often things just didn’t happen surprised me as well.

For instance, I ordered room service, and my drink wasn’t delivered. The staff member who brought the food said he’d return momentarily with it and never came back.

The same staff member delivered room service later, again with an item missing. He remembered that he didn’t return the previous time with the missing item. He said he’d be right back with what was missing this time. He never returned. There was no follow up, and I really didn’t want do deal with getting a single item (and concomitant tax and service charge) removed from the bill.

I placed another room service order and it wasn’t delivered. After 80 minutes I called, and it turned out that they delivered it to the wrong room (those guests simply said they hadn’t ordered anything). But since they wrote down the wrong room, they didn’t take any further action. They closed out the ticket.

When I called they knew just what the order was… but had to make it and deliver it and it was going to be another 40 minutes. You might think they would have offered to comp it? Not here. Staff aren’t proactive that way, and they don’t flag issues for superiors who might be either. In fact I asked to speak to a manager but that call never came, either.

Meanwhile, they have 3 guests listed to the room, we’re ordering 3 entrees, and they ask how many people are dining – yet could not ever ever manage to deliver more than two napkins and sets of flatware even when I explicitly made that request.

The quality of food was fine, but the menu limited. I wanted to eat in because I had such a great room and pool. But it became a chore.

Restaurant Service Is A Disaster

The Park Hyatt St. Kitts features a trio of dining establishments: the Great House, Fisherman’s Village, and the Stone Barn, along with a poolside bar offering snacks and light meals.

The Great House acts as the primary dining venue, open for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. In addition to breakfast we ate dinner there once.

Situated by the sea, Fisherman’s Village ostensibly focuses on seafood freshly sourced from the ocean. Its design is inspired by traditional fisherman huts once common along the island’s coastline, providing a charming waterside ambiance. We ate here once as well.

Fisherman’s Village was slow. They didn’t have as much fresh fish as I’d have expected. I don’t understand how firing an entree can take 50 minutes. But the aesthetic was great, the drinks were good.

The Great House was another story. It took one hour and twenty minutes to get our first course. Our daughter was simply too tired to stay up through a meal that was taking so long. We asked to take our food back to our room instead, and they packaged it up as quickly as they could – too quickly because my daughter’s salmon was still raw.

I asked later to speak to a manager about the meal, because it didn’t seem like we should pay for salmon in that condition, after that much time. No one ever got back to us.

We did not try the Stone Barn, their fine dining restaurant.

Other Requests Go Unanswered

The guest services line would ring indefinitely until it would cut off with a busy signal. I called for more coffee pods (not replaced by housekeeping). An hour and a half went by. Nothing.

By the way housekeeping is supposed to be twice a day (once at turndown). Sometimes housekeeping came by, sometimes they did not. Sometimes turndown service happened, other times they never showed up.

I did like turndown service for the chocolates they left two of our four nights. They didn’t vary the turndown treat. Maybe they would have if they’d turned up the other two nights.

Some reports had guests receiving welcome amenities. We did not receive one. I’d have been satisfied if staff would have come when we called to collect trash like room service, or in this case the takeaway from the Great House at dinner. Despite two requests, the bag was still outside our door after breakfast the next day.

Checkout

I received a call the day before asking if we’d need a taxi to the airport, though I’d organized one with the hotel just an hour before. At least they were being proactive!

I also received a call at standard 11 a.m. check-out time asking if I needed to be picked up in a golf cart? However I had arranged for 1 p.m. late check-out.

Everything well-meaning enough, I suppose, but not the sort of service competence you expect from a Park Hyatt. I finally did have a chance to speak to a manager, at check-out. I approached the desk, and he came out from an office and greeted me, asking how I liked my stay?

I told him how special the setting was, how friendly all of the staff were… but that execution frequently left something to be desired. I told him about room service issues and issues at the Great House, but didn’t get any further. He offered a $400 food and beverage credit on our folio.

We headed to the airport, checked in with American Airlines, and I simply marveled every step of the way what a pain that Robert L. Bradshaw International Airport is.

You get your passport and completed departure card checked before being permitted to go to passport control. You go through security where all electronics and liquids come out of bags, shoes come off, and belts have to be removed. Your passport is checked again while you wait. And you’re deposited into a depressing gate area with a few shops. It’s more of a holding area than terminal. You’re then finally called into a chaotic boarding process where passports are checked again.

Park Hyatt St. Kitts Overall

The Park Hyatt St. Kitts is beautiful. Everyone is friendly. Breakfast was very good. Food at other meals was ok-ish. Service was not good. Our daughter enjoyed kids club. My wife had a good massage. I have zero complaints about our room, really. I wish St. Kitts had better air service, because I’d return for the room though probably limiting myself to three night weekends. That’s enough to bask in the great things about the resort, but I’d get annoyed past that.

The Reason I’m Not Rushing To Return Isn’t The Service

Flights from the continental U.S. to St. Kitts are extremely limited. American Airlines flies from Miami and seasonally from Charlotte on Saturdays, Delta from Atlanta, United from Newark and JetBlue from New York JFK. Flight times from Austin are challenging, given the two hour time difference and the times that airlines want to arrive and depart.

Travel from Austin to St. Kitts currently means either starting off with a flight before 6 a.m. or overnighting enroute. We decided to overnight in Miami on the way out.

I originally booked a return flight that gave us about 90 minutes in Miami and a reasonable arrival time back in Austin. A schedule change meant that we were slated to land in Austin after 11 p.m., which I didn’t want to do with my 5 year old if I could help it, so we opted for an overnight in Miami. That turned out to be best because severe storms were wreaking havoc with Miami airport operations, and our original flight was delayed several times and ultimately cancelled.

5:20 a.m. departures on the outbound and 11:58 p.m. arrivals back aren’t ideal, but they’re what it takes to avoid an overnight. And, while beautiful, the resort really isn’t worth overnighting for in both directions. If I lived in New York, Atlanta or Miami I’d put this in to the rotation – but not for more than a few nights as I’d quickly bore of the food, or else I’d plan to spend most meals off-property.