rose hall

The Ritz-Carlton Golf & Spa Resort, Rose Hall, Jamaica

When you arrive at Rose Hall's Ritz-Carlton Golf & Spa Resort in Jamaica, welcome cocktails are served in carved-out pineapples and an assortment of local juices like june plum, sour sop and tamarind can be delivered to your room. The colors and decor are vibrant and reflect the local culture. The cuisine is peppered with Jamaican specialties like callaloo, jerk-everything (they have a whole Jerk Center on the beach, which is not entirely unhilarious) and to-die-for sugared and pan-fried dough.

From the Ritz-Carlton in Rose Hall, you can take an easy shuttle bus to The Shoppes at Rose Hall, where you can buy all the local jewelry and touristy t-shirts and dresses your heart desires at very low prices -- or to their White Witch golf course and club -- a beautiful plantation-style venue for all kinds of parties. The "White Witch" is named for none other than Annie Palmer, the legendary Parisian plantation owner who offed a slew of husbands and lovers and apparently still haunts the island. In fact, a fellow guest of the RC reported some very strange incidents in her room while she was reading about her! You can get more information about Annie Palmer here -- or just ask me, Annie Scott; every person on the island who learned my name told me another story about her.

Rose Hall is no longer run by Annie Palmer, but rather owned by Michele Rollins, a former Miss USA whose late husband fell in love with Jamaica and created tens of thousands -- perhaps hundreds of thousands -- of jobs by developing the Rose Hall settlement. Mrs. Rollins is a well-spoken, devoted philanthropist who humbly credits her husband with the island's success. "If you can't have vision," she says, "the next best thing is to marry vision. If you could learn vision, we'd all be in Vision 101." Rollins is committed to making Rose Hall into what her husband had imagined.

Rose Hall now includes a number of hotels and golf courses, including a Hilton, and Rollins works with the various organizations who settle there to support the local community. Several companies there own and run homes in the local S.O.S. village for orphans, including the Ritz-Carlton.

The hotel was not without its hiccups -- in the days that I was there, the hot tub wasn't at all hot and one of my closets was damp (the other was fine), but those little things don't come close to overshadowing the beauty of the resort, complete with that sparkling turquoise Caribbean Sea (P.S. complimentary windsurfing) and the genuine warmth of the Jamaican people. As always, the Ritz-Carlton staff was respectful and polite, helpful and friendly, and everyone from families to couples, even to larger groups coexisted in harmony.

With no further ado, here are some photos of the luscious property nestled on the north shore of Jamaica in the center of Rose Hall. Click here to visit the website and book a trip.

Gallery: The Ritz-Carlton Spa & Golf Resort, Rose Hall, Jamaica