Cuisinart Resort
Hotel Information: Sharing ownership and name with the international kitchenware company, the resort capitalizes the "A" (CuisinArt) to highlight its emphasis of food and cooking. It contains its own 18,000-square-foot hydroponic vegetable greenhouse and an orchard, provides cooking demonstrations, offers cooking classes, and features exceptional fare at its two restaurants. Densely planted, the resort's grounds include fields of decorative grasses, flowering hedges, palms and beach greenery. Large blue pots hold plants and flowers in and around buildings.
Amenity highlights: The lobby frames a postcard vista. Looming in the foreground is a large swimming pool featuring an infinity edge surrounded by a terra-cotta tile sundeck, white umbrellas, and blue wrought-iron lounge chairs with butter-yellow cushions. Next comes a series of reflecting pools terraced down a gently sloping lawn and punctuated at the end by a broad white umbrella shading a beach bar. Beyond are the turquoise Caribbean Sea and the mountains of neighboring Saint Maarten/St. Martin. The beach is a two-mile stretch of sand fine as sugar and nearly as white rimming Rendezvous Bay. Lounge chairs and white umbrellas await sunbathers.
Insider tip: Because plantings are laid out in a "ribbon" system winding through the resort's 20 acres, strolling is rewarded by encounters with dramatic and fragrant lanes and passages.
The resort offers 93 spacious guestrooms, suites, and penthouses in 10 three-story buildings without elevators and in a three-story main building with an elevator. Stark white buildings are modeled after those on the Greek island of Mykonos and feature cascades of bougainvillea, plants and flowers in large blue pots, and fountain courtyards. The 10 principal lodging building are arrayed along the beach. The main building lies 100 yards from the beach.
All accommodations include ocean-view private balconies or ground-floor verandas furnished with cushioned lounge chairs and dining sets. Air conditioning and ceiling fans offer cooling options. Televisions supply U.S. stations and cable networks and include VCRs, with complimentary use of videos.
All-white high-ceiling rooms feature the resort's yellow-and-blue accent motif, tropical-wood trim, white tile floors with area rugs, tropical-color drapes and matching bed skirts, and serigraphs of original oil paintings of Mediterranean seaside villages. (Both originals and serigraphs are for sale.) Rattan headboards and furniture contribute tropical notes. Overstuffed sofa beds provide lounging comfort, walk-in closets convenience. Lined with sand-colored marble, bathrooms include twin-sink vanities, thick bathsheets, and Rusk toiletries.
