Round Hill Hotel and Villas

In the winter of 1953 John Pringle, a Jamaican of twenty-six with a plantation on a peninsula west of Montego Bay, invited his friends to build cottages on it. Noël Coward took one, Oscar Hammerstein II another, and within a few seasons the colony had a hotel at its centre. Round Hill Hotel and Villas, Montego Bay, has run on the same idea since, unlike any other luxury hotel in Montego Bay: a small hotel of oceanfront rooms and a hillside of privately owned villas, each with its own staff, rented out when the owners are away.

History

Pringle's land had been a pineapple and coconut estate, about 110 acres on a headland in the parish of Hanover. The investors he gathered were from the theatre, film and society of the day, and the guest book of the early years reads like a cast list: Clark Gable, Grace Kelly, Cole Porter, Adele Astaire. John and Jacqueline Kennedy stayed in the years before the White House, and the resort has traded on the photograph ever since. In later decades Round Hill passed into the hands of its villa owners, who govern it as a company, and Ralph Lauren, a villa owner, redesigned the hotel's Pineapple House rooms and public spaces in white, blue and mahogany. Paul McCartney, who married Heather Mills elsewhere, honeymooned here; Harry Belafonte and Johnny Cash were regulars.

Architecture and design

The villas are low white cottages with shingled roofs and shutters, spread over the hill above the bay among palms and bougainvillea, most of them with their own pools. The Pineapple House, the hotel building, sits at the water's edge with 36 rooms in two storeys facing the sea. Lauren's design is restrained: white walls, four-poster mahogany beds, blue-and-white fabrics and louvred doors onto balconies. The public rooms are open to the breeze, with a terrace bar on the water and a dining room under the trees. An eighteenth-century plantation great house on the estate holds the spa.

Rooms and suites

The 36 Pineapple House rooms are on the beach, with balconies or terraces over the water and the Lauren interiors. The 27 villas range from two to six bedrooms, each staffed with a cook and housekeeper who prepare breakfast on the terrace; most have private pools, and some are rented as single suites within a villa. Villa guests use the hotel's beach, restaurants and facilities, and the hotel's small size keeps the whole place at the scale of a club.

Dining

The Grill, on the terrace by the water, serves Jamaican and international cooking with fish from the north coast and produce from the resort's own garden, and the Seaside Terrace does breakfast and lunch. The bar on the terrace is the social centre at sunset. Villa guests may take breakfast at home, cooked by the villa staff.

Wellness

The spa is in the eighteenth-century plantation house at the top of the estate, with treatment rooms in the old bedrooms and a terrace for outdoor massages. There is a fitness centre, tennis courts, a beach with watersports and an infinity pool by the Pineapple House; the resort's garden supplies the kitchen.

Weddings and events

Round Hill is one of Jamaica's established wedding venues. Ceremonies take place on the beach or on the lawn by the sea, and receptions on the terrace or in a villa for smaller parties; exclusive-use bookings of the Pineapple House and groups of villas are common for larger weddings. The resort also takes corporate retreats and board meetings in its function rooms. Planners should confirm current capacities and the seasonal calendar with the resort, which has a long high season from December through April.

Location

The resort is on a peninsula in Hanover parish about 13 kilometres west of Montego Bay, on the road towards Negril. Sangster International Airport is about thirty minutes by car. The town of Montego Bay, its golf courses and the Rose Hall estate are east along the coast; Negril and its beach are about an hour west.