![]() Most rooms are roughly laid out around a courtyard swimming pool and adjacent to the hotel’s popular (and aptly named) restaurant, The Beach Side Cafe, which serves three meals daily and is particularly known for brunch. Whitewashed buildings and LED lighting that glow to life after dark give the hotel a clean, modern feel that carries over into the brightly decorated gust room interiors, where beds with waffled comforters and batik-inspired shams sit on cool tiled floors and are surrounded by colorful, framed island art. Sand Castle is the furthest thing from a cookie-cutter resort, with its two-dozen guest rooms sorted into five room categories. “We’ve never had a normal year,” says Chris, “but we’re still living our dream.” Croix has been battered in recent years by Hurricane Maria and of course the pandemic. The couple, a former hairdresser and flight attendant, bought the hotel along with partner Dan Metzger on New Year’s Eve four years ago, but their baptism in hospitality has been anything but a party as St. In fact, every time I’ve visited this Fredriksted hotel, I’ve been personally greeted by Chris and Ted, who not only take a keen interest in their guests but seem to have a second sense about when someone new has dropped by. Although Sand Castle is big enough to slip into impersonal service, with 25 rooms located both beachfront and across the street, that never seems to happen. The positive vibe starts with the omnipresent owners. Owned and operated by Chris Richardson and Ted Bedwell, Sand Castle has built a reputation as one of the most LBGTQ-friendly resorts in the Caribbean. I know cats aren’t everyone’s meow, but to me, Tommy was the perfect ambassador for Sand Castle: warm, familiar, and just a touch sassy, too. Later, he would find his way inside and be sleeping on the bed when we returned to the room. But since he’s a cat he really doesn’t respect boundaries, so when we checked into our Sea View Suite, Tommy was there to greet us, curled up on a chair on the semi-enclosed patio. Croix: he’s really a resident of the Cottages by the Sea hotel, next door. Tommy the cat doesn’t actually belong to the Sand Castle on the Beach resort in St. ![]() ![]() Expansive living and dining areas are ideal for large groups or, for those who wish to follow in the countess’s spirited footprints, lively parties.If a hotel owner wants to win my heart, definitely give me a room that comes with its own cat. Throughout, white-washed walls and large arched windows keep the focus on the spectacular Caribbean views. On the market for $15 million since October, the lavish estate- which features six bedrooms, a swimming pool, a pool house, and a gatekeeper’s cottage-sits at the center of more than 100 private acres stretching from hilltop to beach. Croix awaits a new owner to carry on Farber’s festive legacy. Alas, the parties came to an end in 2014 when Farber passed away at the age of 96. Farber-a socialite known for hosting lavish events in her pink mansion back home in New York-ensured the Caribbean estate was the talk of the island by throwing many a high-society beach party on the hill. Croix, is indeed a rare retreat of magnificent proportions, measuring 10,000 square feet and adorned with Moorish archways, a mermaid mosaic, and sparkling murals of birds and blue skies. The couple’s white-domed vacation home, known by many as the Castle of St. Croix.įarber and her husband first purchased their hilltop parcel in the 1980s with the intent of building a pleasure palace unlike any other in the U.S. Rather it sits on a magnificent hill overlooking the north and south coasts of the Caribbean island of St. Bulgarian Contessa Nadia Farber’s castle is not in her home country of Bulgaria or her adopted home of Long Island.
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