Overall, Belmond Cap Juluca in Anguilla really surprised me to the upside. It’s an extremely unique resort, with an incredible beach, lovely pools, good enough service and food, and solid rooms. The closest parallel I can think of is Rosewood Little Dix Bay in the British Virgin Islands, given the way rooms are spread out evenly across an enormous and beautiful ~mile-long beach, with dedicated beach chairs allocated to each villa.
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Positives
Getting there:
We flew direct from Newark via AnguilaAir / BermudaAir and it was seamless + wonderful. The plane was 50% empty and the service and seating was excellent. I highly recommend this direct flight if you are in the cities it serves!
Beach:
In short, the hotel sits on one of the best beaches I have ever experienced. The beach stretches roughly a mile and is limited, effectively (although not legally) to guests of the resort, with deep, soft, pillowy sand and incredibly clear, iridescent water that feels almost electric in bright sun. It’s the kind of setting that stays with you.
Pools:
There are three relatively small pools, and while none are heated, they warmed up surprisingly well from the sun. The main pool, constructed from beautiful green marble, features a two-sided infinity edge that spills directly toward the beach, offering a stunning view. It’s approximately 20 x 45 feet but has only eight loungers. If you get one, it’s a blessing, as the pool never feels crowded, but I could see it being frustrating if the loungers were full. That said, during our stay, it was almost always empty; we frequently had the main pool entirely to ourselves.
The standout, however, is the new spa pool. Perched on the second floor of the spa, it offers a commanding view over the entire cove and was almost always completely empty. This addition (it was only built last year) was a major reason we chose Cap Juluca, and it absolutely delivered.
More broadly, the sheer scale of the private beach and the inviting, swimmable ocean take pressure off the pools and public areas, ensuring that facilities rarely, if ever, feel crowded.
Dining:
The hotel has four beautifully designed and thoughtfully positioned dining venues. Cip’s (Italian) and Pimms sit on a rock outcropping at the edge of the cove, dining there feels like you’re floating above the water. My wife and I were genuinely dumbstruck walking in; we both said it reminded us of some of our favorite meal locations in Greece or along the Amalfi Coast.
At the other end of the spectrum, the Cap Shack offers a toes-in-the-sand, remote “Gilligan’s Island” vibe, but still manages to feel refined and intentional in its design.
Overall, I consider dining here to be a big positive, given the siting of the restaurants, the views and the stunning design. Service and food in the restaurants (more on that below) were good.
Rooms:
I would consider the rooms a modest positive. They are thoughtfully designed—modern, but still preserving of some of the resort’s original character. Importantly, they get dark, cold, and quiet at night, and feature high-quality finishes like slab travertine countertops and showers, very heavy doors, generous outdoor space, and a reasonable sense of privacy. The rooms get plenty of light via windows on both the front and the back of the rooms, and skylights on the second floor and feature a great view over the beach.
That said, they are still just rooms, not free-standing villas or pavilions, which is worth noting at this price point.
Potential concerns
Service:
The biggest potential concern for travelers is service. As is often the case in the Caribbean, service can be hit or miss. I would rank Cap Juluca’s service as better than most high-end hotels in the region, but not on par with similarly priced properties in Europe, Asia, or South America.
In my view, you need to evaluate the Caribbean on its own terms (with St. Barths being a notable exception). If you’re not comfortable expecting occasional service hiccups, I wouldn’t blindly recommend this, or many Caribbean hotels.
In our case, service was well-intentioned and generally very good, with issues limited to things like golf carts not arriving when scheduled, and turndown service arriving after we returned from a two-hour dinner. In my opinion, none of these were deal breakers. Service at the restaurants, and especially reception, the pool, and the spa, ranged from great to excellent.
Food:
Food is the second common critique of this resort. Personally, I thought the food here was the best we had on this trip to Anguilla (including meals at Blanchards, which is often considered among the best on the island). The quality of the ingredients where high and everything was tasty.
That said, people frequently highlight food as a weakness, whereas I consider it to be a positive. After reflecting on this, I think this largely comes down to expectations. Yes, it’s an expensive hotel, but the Caribbean is not a culinary destination. Within that context, Cap Juluca ranks in the top ~25% of luxury/ultra-luxury Caribbean resorts I’ve experienced in terms of food.
If you’re looking for exceptional, Michelin-level dining at a beach resort, you’re better off in Europe, the Maldives, etc.. The Caribbean, again, with St. Barths as the exception, is not where I would generally go for culinary excellence.
Summary:
If you’re looking for flawless service and truly exceptional food in a beach setting, I wouldn’t wholeheartedly recommend Cap Juluca, though this combination is rarely, if ever, found in the Caribbean. including at both Amans.
However, if you value an extraordinary beach, stunning water and scenery, privacy and space, incredible sunsets, three largely empty pools (including one with a stunning elevated view over the crescent bay), beautifully designed dining venues, and a near-total absence of mosquitoes, paired with well-intentioned service and good (but not world-class) food, Cap Juluca delivers in a way few other resorts do.
Even though we stayed in one of the lowest room categories, it ranks (#69, see list here) easily among the best in the Caribbean and ahead of our stays in top-tier one-bedroom villas at places like Rosewood Little Dix, Rosewood Le Guanahani, and COMO Parrot Cay, largely due to its remarkable setting, the spa pool, and the beautiful design of its public spaces.
Its beach, and specifically swimming in that bay, is something that will stay with me for the rest of my life.
That said, Cap Juluca still sits comfortably behind what I consider to be the very best resorts in the Caribbean: Amanera, Eden Rock St. Barths, and to a slightly lesser extent, Amanyara.