I'm unsure where to start with this review as our experience was so disappointing, but I will say that we managed to get a partial refund through eShores, the agency we used to book our holiday.
We arrived at around 5:30 PM on the day we landed in St. Lucia. Bearing in mind that we had flown to a country we’d never visited before and had navigated the challenging road from George Charles Airport to Soufrière in our own hire car, my husband was quite stressed. The office at the resort closes at either 4:30 or 5 PM (it seems to be whenever they feel like it), so there was no welcome other than a security guard giving us some basic information about where the pools were. The infinity pool, which we were told couldn't be used after 5 PM because it’s the owner’s pool, was effectively off-limits. We were also informed that we needed to go to the office in the morning to get our breakfast vouchers and pool towels, meaning we couldn’t use the pool until then.
The kids were impressed with the space. We stayed in units 9 and 9a, but that’s where the positives ended.
With no other dining options and no knowledge of Soufrière, we headed up to the on-site restaurant for dinner, passing by the smell of rotting mangoes that lined the pavement. Mango trees are abundant in the area, and unfortunately, this smell was something we encountered frequently during our stay.
The path up to the restaurant isn’t well-lit and is poorly maintained, so you really need a torch to see where you’re going. Once there, we received a pleasant greeting, but things quickly went downhill. Traveling with three children, we were excited to see pizza on the menu, only to be told “no pizza”. When we tried to order drinks, there was no orange juice, no apple juice—just local mango juice, which the kids weren’t interested in.
The food was okay, but the service was very slow. After dinner, we made our way back down the winding hill to our rooms.
When I went to adjust my pillow before bed, I discovered it was filthy, with a stained pillow underneath a second pillowcase. I threw it on the floor and didn’t dare check the others, as I still needed something to sleep on.
The next morning, we got a better look at the surroundings. The view was beautiful, but that’s about the only positive aspect I can recall. We trudged back up the hill for breakfast and had to wait around for 10 minutes while my husband collected 35 breakfast vouchers! We were staying for 7 nights with 5 people, so apparently, each person needed a signed scrap of paper.
Having seen an extensive menu at dinner, we looked forward to a variety of options like pastries, fruit, yogurt, and cooked dishes. But we were disappointed again. The breakfast selection was extremely limited: a small pot of beans, eggs (the resort has egg-laying birds), toast, a minuscule saucer of fruit, and a tiny bowl of yogurt. When I asked for mango juice, I was told “no juice”. The drink options were tea, coffee, and water, even though the nearby table had juice. Remember, there are mango trees and mangos everywhere!
The second morning’s breakfast was a complete disaster. Half the napkin sets didn’t include spoons for the yogurt, and while pouring my tea, the waitress knocked over my 4-year-old daughter’s water, which soaked through the tablecloth and dripped onto her. When I tried to catch it before it fell, the hot water pot dripped on me, burning my hand. The waitress giggled, took away the empty glass, and never returned with more water, leaving my daughter without a drink. The breakfast options didn’t change, and you couldn’t have anything beyond the limited selection. My husband had bacon one day and sausage another, but it seems you can’t have both on the same day.
The resort’s facilities were no better. The washrooms near the restaurant were dirty, smelled terrible, and the hot water tap didn’t work. We couldn’t get hot water in our unit, either—not in the bathroom showers, taps, or kitchenette. My husband had one cold shower during our stay. I complained to the office and was met with a surly response. One woman was packing up her bag for the day while another told me I needed to "pull something to one side"—whatever that meant. Needless to say, nothing was done about it, and by the time we checked out a day later, my two emails about the issues remained unacknowledged.
While the view of the Pitons was lovely, we were also within earshot of a man having loud phone conversations on his porch, which made it hard to enjoy any privacy. Every time my husband went outside, he was barked at by a large German Shepherd.
The resort grounds were littered with discarded items. Not far from our balcony was a large blue plastic barrel used as a water butt for a leaky gutter, which created a deafening noise of water pouring onto plastic whenever it rained.
Speaking of rain, the noise was so loud inside the apartment that we had to shout to hear each other. The roof leaked in several places, including onto the kids' bathroom, which had a large, uncovered window that allowed anyone walking by to see inside. The leak also soaked our daughter’s bed, making it unusable for the night. Since the office was closed, there was no one to help.
The morning after I discovered the dirty pillow, I checked the others. Most were okay, but my husband’s was stained. I was particularly horrified to find yellow granules inside my pillowcase. When I inspected it outside in better light, I realised the pillow was so old it was literally breaking down. The linens may have been freshly provided, but they were used to cover pillows that were falling apart. The next morning, after the cleaner had been in, I found a large brown stain on the turned-down sheet—completely visible. It’s hard to believe that they didn’t even try to hide it. And isn’t it standard for hotels to use white linen so stains can be bleached or boiled out?
The entire apartment was dirty and poorly maintained. The table, which was meant for 2 people despite us being a party of 5, had marks on it. Dead bugs were on almost every surface, the drawers had cobwebs, and the corners of the rooms were dusty and dirty. The sinkholes and toilets had old water stains, and under the beds was thick with dust. The cutlery and crockery were mismatched, and there wasn’t enough of anything. We bought a watermelon, but there wasn’t even a decent knife to cut it.
The exterior wasn’t much better. The balcony chairs were falling apart and looked nothing like the lovely furniture shown on the website. The furniture at the pool was completely different from what was advertised and was covered in mildew. The pool itself was about a foot too deep for our tall 4-year-old, so most children around that age wouldn’t be able to swim safely without a parent in the water. Both pools are 4 feet deep, with the pool near the restaurant having a green coating down one side. I told my children not to put their heads under the water after seeing a man filling it with a hosepipe the night before. The owner’s pool was cleaner, but both pools seemed dangerous, with large drops on one side. You wouldn’t want to play pool games and risk losing a ball or frisbee over the edge.
I was also wary of standing on the balconies at either the restaurant or apartment 9, as they seemed to be supported by a makeshift assortment of cement blocks and tree stumps. The apartment balcony made me particularly nervous.
All in all, this was one of the worst holiday experiences we’ve ever had. We left on our second morning and relocated at a cost of over £3,000, which was worth it to be much happier at our new location further north. Had we not done that, I was seriously considering trying to get earlier flights back to England. My daughter was so unhappy she wanted to sleep in the car.
I’ve since read many negative reviews of La Haut, and while management claims to have addressed concerns and listened to feedback, I don’t believe they have. Some of these comments are years old, and our experience was no better. It’s not hard to clean up messes, thoroughly deep clean, and fix what’s broken. Clean the windowsills, clean the tables, make sure guests have clean bedding. Get the restaurant to buy juice and some pastries, and provide a bit of butter—the portions were so stingy we had to keep asking for another pot of butter, another spoon, more tea bags. This is the hospitality industry; be hospitable. If you can’t do that, why are you doing it? We didn’t feel welcomed or looked after at all, and it’s a crying shame because with such a beautiful view, you could be a premium location for travelers to St. Lucia.
