Cap Juluca

Maundays Bay curves for about a mile along the south-west coast of Anguilla, and the whole of it belongs to a single luxury resort on Anguilla. Cap Juluca, A Belmond Hotel in West End lines the beach with white villas in a Moorish style, domes and arches against the sea, and across the channel the hills of St Martin close the view. The name comes from Jocahu, a god of the island's Arawak people.

History

The resort opened in 1988, when Anguilla was beginning to attract the quiet money that preferred it to St Barths, and its Greco-Moorish architecture set it apart from the Caribbean norm. For three decades it was the island's best-known address, through several changes of ownership. The island has no cruise port and no casinos, and its hotels sell quiet rather than nightlife, which suits the resort. Belmond bought Cap Juluca in 2017, months before Hurricane Irma struck Anguilla in September of that year and damaged most of the island's hotels. The company used the closure for a complete rebuild, reopening in November 2018 with the villas restored, a new spa and new restaurants. LVMH acquired Belmond in 2019.

Architecture and design

The villas are low, white and domed, with arches, courtyards and terraces straight onto the sand, and the style was chosen in the 1980s as a reference to North Africa rather than to anything local. The rebuild kept the architecture and replaced the interiors with a lighter palette of white, rattan and pale timber. The main house holds the reception, the bar and the restaurant Pimms, and the villas stretch along the bay on either side.

Rooms and suites

There are around 100 rooms and suites in the beachfront villas, from rooms opening onto the sand to multi-bedroom villas with private pools. Every room faces the sea, a consequence of the single-row layout along the beach. Terraces have day beds, and the larger villas can be combined for families.

Dining

Pimms, in the main house, serves dinner with the Caribbean and the lights of St Martin beyond the terrace. Cip's by Cipriani, the first in the Caribbean, opened with the 2018 reopening and serves Venetian dishes on the beach. Uchu, at the western end, offers Latin American cooking and cocktails, and the Maundays Club beach bar handles lunch at the sand.

Wellness

The Arawak Spa, built during the 2018 rebuild, has treatment rooms and outdoor areas, and the resort offers yoga, tennis, a fitness centre and water sports from the beach, including sailing and paddleboards. The bay is calm, which suits swimming and snorkelling.

Weddings and events

Cap Juluca hosts weddings on the beach and the lawns, with dinner at Pimms or on the sand, and the resort can be reserved in full for a large wedding. Meetings and incentive groups use a small number of rooms and the restaurants. Capacities depend on the layout chosen.

Location

Anguilla's Clayton J. Lloyd International Airport is about 15 minutes from the resort by car, with flights from San Juan, Miami and Antigua. Most guests fly to Princess Juliana Airport on St Maarten and cross by ferry or private boat to Blowing Point, a 25-minute passage, then drive ten minutes to Maundays Bay. The village of West End and the beach at Shoal Bay West are both close. Anguilla is a British Overseas Territory, and the US dollar circulates alongside the Eastern Caribbean dollar.