Peter Island Resort, British Virgin Islands
Tom and I wanted to go somewhere for this vacation that we’d never been to before, so I began doing some research for more upscale resorts on Islands that were new to us. I read a lot from Trip Advisor as well as this great site!
We left Atlanta flying on Delta, May 28, into San Juan (on time flights). We then had to locate the desk for LIAT Airlines as that is what we took from SJU to Beef Island (Tortola) – our flight was delayed about 40 minutes. Once we cleared Customs there was a cheerful looking young lady holding up a sign “Peter Island Resort”. She welcomed us to the BVI’s and took us out to meet our shuttle van with 2 other couples. We were driven about a mile and then dropped off at a small dock where a ferry boat was waiting to take us on the 30 minute ride to Peter Island Resort. The boat ride was very enjoyable and they had a huge cooler full of water, soda and many types of beer to drink on the ride.
To give you a little background information; Peter Island Resort is the only thing on Peter Island – there are no other houses (one house for GM and one for Head Chef), no cars (just a few trucks and golf carts for resort use), the island/resort has five beaches, one gift shop, two restaurants, a marina and a world class spa. The resort is one of the “Preferred Hotels” and has been listed in many magazines as one of the top resorts in the world. They offer two rooms types; oceanview or beachfront (as well as a couple private villas) and you can purchase room only or include your three meals (which is what we did). Children are allowed here, yet they discourage under age 12 as there really isn’t much for them to do. There were a number of children of all ages at the resort, yet they were very well behaved and never were a problem as far as we were concerned.
When the ferry was pulling into the marina I said to Tom I felt like we were on Fantasy Island and I could see Tattoo and Mr. Rourke waiting there for us! He he Instead it was the GM, Sandy, and her assistant, Tom, who greeted us. We were taken just a few steps from the boat to a little wooden gazebo area and were given a brief run down of the resort and what there was waiting for us.
Three golf carts pulled up and whisked each couple to their rooms; I had requested, several times, a ground floor room and we were taken to a second floor room. I knew with the problems with my leg muscles this would not work and told the bellhop I hated to cause problems on arrival, yet I had requested a ground floor room due to health reasons and was there any chance we could switch rooms. His reply was to pick up the phone and make a short call and said he would be right back. In less than one minute the phone rang; Tom picked it up and said we had requested a ground floor room as I had problems going up/down stairs and they said we could have room 105 as it was even a better location for me with less walking to the pool and main dining areas. (From past experiences of a check in at Sandals and other resorts I thought “oh geez here we go we will wait hours for our room now and even longer for the key, well I was happily proven wrong).
After a less than five minute wait, the bellman returned for us and took us to Room 105 – opened the door to a beautiful room with spectacular views of the pool and the ocean with Tortola in the distance. He said your key will be here shortly (it took about 2 minutes) and then said they would empty out the mini frig from our old room and have our drinks there soon (this took about 10 minutes tops). I was so impressed with the efficiency of all of this and could not get over it!
Waiting on the bed were two pair of Peter Island flip flops (see pic of me Limin’) along with a key chain that had a small flashlight built in it. Later during the week our room attendant left us a lovely CD of island music to take home with us.
Our room had a king sized bed, small desk, large dresser with many drawers, a night stand and lamp on each side of the bed and a nice boom box/radio/cd player.
When you entered the room to the left were two small, yet roomy closets (one had an iron and board in it and the other one had a bottle of OFF, Ziploc bags, a bottle of laundry soap and sunscreen as well as the electronic safe). Between the two closets it housed a coffee pot and mini frig (stocked with 2 beers, 2 cokes, 2 diet Cokes, 2 Tings, 2 7Ups and 2 bottles of water; this was complimentary and if you wanted more you could purchase it).
The bathroom had two sinks, a huge lighted make up mirror, blow dryer, Qtips, cotton balls and other small essentials in a nice wicker basket. The commode and tub/shower (great hot water and good pressure) along with large bottles of shampoo, conditioner and soap.
Just off our bed area was a nice sitting room with two huge chairs and ottomans and a nice lamp by each one for evening reading. Beyond this was a wall of windows with wooden blinds and a door to go out to the patio. On the patio were two of the wonderful lounge chairs (like you find at Royal Plantation in the rooms many of us love there) as well as a small table and two chairs.
The pool area is very nice and there were enough lounge chairs with thick cushions as well as two areas of shade for anyone wanting out of the sun. Adjacent to the pool was the library where, if you really needed a TV fix, you found the one TV as well as some books and magazines. Across from the pool was the bar area and they had all top shelf liquor (beer was about $5 with a svc charge and for a mixed drink it would run you from $8 to $10 plus svc chg, with soda and bottled water being like $2.50). Right off the bar was the lobby and reception area with nice couches and small tables/chairs where you had your 4 p.m. iced tea and sweet treats. Just to the left was Tradewinds Restaurant where you had breakfast and dinner (if you didn’t have dinner at Deadmans Bar/Grill). On the other side of the lobby area was a gift shop with PIR attire, small snacks and so forth.
You were asked to make your dinner reservation for the day before 1 p.m. on that day and specify which restaurant of the two you wanted to dine at along with the time.
You were never told there wasn’t an opening – they would always accommodate you, they just wanted to know how many to expect and when. You could view the menu (they changed each day) before making your decision if you needed to do that.
You could have a wonderful continental breakfast delivered to your room each morning, of juice, coffee, tea, fresh fruit and freshly baked goods; we did this our first morning and really enjoyed it.
Another fun option you could do was to order (the day ahead) a picnic lunch to be delivered to you if you chose to go to White Bay beach for the day or if you left the island and wanted to take lunch along. It was delivered to you in a HUGE wicker hamper type basket and you could pick from a menu of choices what you wanted.
For a romantic lunch you could request to be boated to Honeymoon Beach where they only had one thatched roof hut and only allowed one couple to go there at a time for privacy and take your lunch there, too!
Sunsets brought you another special trip to “The Loop” where you were dropped off high up on a hill and had a wonderful view of the surrounding Islands and you were given a basket of wine, cheese and bread.
Non motorized water sports as well as mountain bikes were included in our package price. Twice a day at 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. you could have a tour of the island; they take you in a van and drive all over so you can see the resort from high up on a hill, view the many beaches and just enjoy seeing all the other Islands nearby. They offered free ferry service many times a day to/from the island to Tortola. Every Tuesday and Saturday you could pay to take the ferry to shop on St. Thomas and on Thursday you could pay to take the ferry to Virgin Gorda, too.
The spa has a menu like no other – services are priced a bit higher than at some spas I’ve been to, yet not way out of line for what you receive (keep in mind you also have use of the private pool and hot tub the whole day you have a spa appointment).
The breakfast menu consisted of a buffet of fresh fruits, five fruit juices, cold cereal, homemade granola and many baked pastries/breads (this was for $18) to add on the egg station (with bacon, sausage and potatoes) the total was $22 per person. You could also order ala carte’ for pancakes, French toast, waffles and Eggs Benedict and Eggs Florentine. Most days we had the buffet with eggs and one day I had the French toast which was very good. Breakfast is served from 8 til 10 a.m. in Tradewinds restaurant.
Lunch is served at Deadmans Bar/Grill; they always had a wonderful salad buffet with fresh greens for a tossed salad (two types of dressings), many assorted cheeses and crackers, fresh fruit (pineapple was to die for) along with 5 or 6 other salads that varied each day.
You could order from the menu a brick oven pizza (for one person about $9 depending on the type you ordered), steak sandwich with fries was like $12, fish of the day, hot dogs, burger and several other grilled salads with fish or meat for about $10. Dessert was a help yourself buffet type with normally 5 choices along with ice cream, key lime pie and peanut butter pie (both types of pies came out cold and were so good). Everything is of a good size as Tom and I would share a pizza or sandwich and then have a salad.
Dinner was either at Tradewinds or Deadmans Bar/Grill. Tradewinds was more of a dressy type place where ladies wore a dress and men had on long pants with a golf shirt and loafers. Deadmans you could wear dressy shorts and a golf shirt as well as sandals for dinner and be ok as it was more resort casual.
Saturday nights is a buffet at Tradewinds that we really enjoyed. Cold items consisted of crab claws, marinated tuna, jumbo shrimp, several salads and I forget what else as it was so much. Hot items were roasted potatoes, grilled chicken breasts that were in a white wine mushroom sauce (so tender it melted in your mouth), prime rib, assorted grilled veggies, a rice dish, fish dish and a few other items along with a wonderful dessert buffet.
Sunday afternoon at Deadmans beach they have a steel pan band playing all afternoon – it was great having lunch and listening to them, so we stayed at that beach the rest of the day until the band was done.
Monday evenings is West Indian night and you dine at Deadmans on all specialties that are of local flavors and it was wonderful! Entertainment is a steel pan band along with dancers.
At dinner you always had a choice of one cold and one hot soup, appetizers were portioned out to be as much as the entrée (many nights we had soup and appetizer with no entrée as we had so much to eat) a few appetizers I recall were coconut shrimp, scallops with a mango salsa. Soups that we enjoyed were Butternut, Fish Chowder, Carrot and Cilantro. Entrees you had a selection each night of about 7 or 8 ranging from Quail, fish, shrimp, steak, chicken, lamb all prepared in various ways and all very good of what we tried. Desserts were all excellent and you had a choice from a menu of about 6 and they varied on a daily basis. A bowl of soup was $10, appetizer ranged from $10 to $14, entrees running from $25 to $40 and all desserts were $14 per person.
Keep in mind we had the meal plan so, even though we had to wait for a check after each meal it was always a zero balance, unless we ordered a drink. We left a tip with every meal we had as the service was excellent.
Dinner is served from 6:30 til 9:30 in either restaurant. Keep in mind all employees have a ferry ride to and from work that takes 20 minutes when the water is calm and longer on days it is rough and stormy; that is why they “close up shop” for dining by 9:30 and the bar doesn’t stay open much longer as everyone has to still get a ride back to shore on
Tortola and go home. Some type of musical entertainment was every night, but not on Wednesday.
Deadmans Beach is the main beach and you never had to worry about it being overly crowded as there are plenty of lounge chairs as well as thatched roof areas for shade, and floats for the ocean too! There was ok snorkeling to be found at the end of this beach by the beachfront rooms in a rocky area.
White Bay Beach is reached via a shuttle van where they drop you off and when you are ready to go back to the resort you simply used a two way radio/phone to call them. They had several large shade areas with lounge chairs scattered along the beach and you felt like you had it all to yourself even with 3 other couples there as the area is so huge. This was a great beach for snorkeling and shelling! It was quite rocky along the edges and there was a lot of sea grass that washed on shore, but this made for such an abundance of fish once you got out a ways. We had a few visitors of wild goats while we were there to watch and enjoy.
Honeymoon Beach had one thatch roof hut and they only allowed one couple there at a time.
Reef Bay Beach is where the spa is located and you are asked to not enter the water as the reef is very shallow there and they wanted to keep it natural and didn’t want anyone to get injured being in the water, yet you were welcome to walk the beach if you were a spa client.
Many boats and yachts would come and go from the resort; some would anchor just off shore at Little Deadmans for free or you could rent a place at the marina to have electricity. Boaters are allowed to dine at the restaurants and use the beach, but not the pool or other amenities. There were also signs posted that the chairs and shade areas are for resort clients and to please respect their privacy…I found no problems with the many boaters who were there during our stay.
Every person on staff there was very warm and friendly, yet they never once made out like they expected you to tip them or asked for one in any way.
The resort grounds are so beautiful! The island itself is very lush, green and hilly with such wonderful views from up high. Many types of palm trees are found there, along with cactus, a host of varieties of flowers along with the wild goats and small lizards.
Guests ranged in age from as young as an infant up to age 80 as this is the low season (yet the resort was full). I was told in the high season you mainly have more couples who range from 40 to 80.
If you are looking for a place to go that has nice rooms, good cuisine, wonderful beaches, a spa that has great services and a place to relax and unwind this is the place for you. If you want day and night fast paced activities, staged shows, TV and video arcades and places to shop and party this is NOT the place for you.
I feel like I have been fortunate to stay at many resorts and this one rates as THE BEST for many reasons. Will we return there YES!!!
