A weekend retreat at Xhale Luxury Villa in St. Lucia

Earlier this month I spent a much needed long weekend tucked between the mountains of St.Lucia. My home for the weekend: Xhale Luxury Villa, a state of the art villa located in the esteemed Neighbourhood of Cap Estate. Three nights was not nearly enough to soak up everything the island has to offer, but it was enough to create amazing content, swim in the sun and live like a local.

If you follow me on Instagram you’ve probably noticed that I was at this exact same villa this time last year. Every year I work with Xhale Luxury Villa to create a content bank and manage their social media channels. Aside from having the privacy and freedom to take as many images as we wanted, staying at the villa reminded me of how amazing island life really is.

With the Atlantic breeze to cool us down from the sun, we truly experienced the best of both worlds. Here’s a run down of how we made the most of our weekend retreat in St. Lucia.

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Day 1

St. Lucia is small, only 43km long. But a flourishing rainforest in the middle of the island means the drive from north to south is a winding journey that takes one hour. The main airport is located in the south while Xhale Luxury Villa is located in the north. Knowing this, I booked a driver three days before on Instagram using St. Lucia A1 Taxi and Tours.

As we made it closer to the villa we stopped off at a grocery store in Rodney Bay. Side by side with our driver we picked everything we needed to have breakfast at the villa.

While part of the trip to St. Lucia was work (creating a content bank for Xhale), the other part was a surprise birthday present for my mother. She loves travelling just as much as I do, so the idea of a villa rather than an all-inclusive was right up her alley. Before we arrived we made a plan: make breakfast at the villa every morning, spend lunch and dinner at local restaurants.

Our first night was right out of a magazine. We spent the evening swimming in the infinity pool and watching the sunset. All this right before we headed to Big Chef Steak House in Rodney Bay. With steaks flown in from Chicago and local seafood, it was a fine-dining experience that made for the perfect start to our vacation.

Day 2

Day 2 was all about work (fun work, of course). We spent the afternoon focusing on drone photography and photography of the pool. After managing Xhale’s Instagram for several months we were able to determine that images of the pool outperform every other image — it’s the villa’s biggest selling feature.

We skipped lunch to maximize our time, watched the pink sunset yet again, and then headed out for dinner.

I love staying at a villa for two reasons. First you have unprecedented privacy (let’s face it, resort goers wouldn’t have appreciated me flying a drone for two hours). But secondly, it forces you to go out and live like a local.

For dinner we headed into Rodney Bay again, eating at Il Pappa Trattoria Pizzeria Gelateria, a local Italian restaurant. With the owner being Italian and the son being a trained chef, you bet the food was amazing.

Next we headed to the Gros Islet street party, a party hosted every Friday night by the town of Gros Islet. We perused local vendors, ate again and enjoyed some Piton beer. The plan was to party the night away, but the fact is we’re all early risers and by 10:00 p.m. we were falling asleep. So we headed back to the villa, listened to the sounds of the indoor pond and fell asleep.

Day 3

It’s only fair that I left the final day to my mother, right? After taking more drone photography in the morning, we headed out to some local beaches. My mother wanted to walk along the white sand and drink Margarita’s on the beach. So that is exactly what we did.

At 3:00 p.m. we headed back to the villa, took more photos, and then headed the Big Chef Steak House yet again. The Big Chef Steak House is located right in the heart of Rodney Bay, across from St. Lucia’s only casino. We played penny machines for the rest of the night and surprisingly, won over $200 USD.

Retrospectively, I should win an award for best birthday gift EVER…

Day 4

Our last and final day. With a long drive back to the airport we only had until 12:30 to soak in the sun. We swam, packed, took more photos and spent the journey home talking about a jewel in the Caribbean; Saint Lucia.