Our Stay At Belmond Cap Juluca In Anguilla

Considering a stay at Belmond Cap Juluca in Anguilla? My husband and I saved our points for years to go, so you won’t want to miss my full Cap Juluca review.

There are certain hotels that have lived in my imagination for years and Belmond Cap Juluca in Anguilla is one of them. The white Moorish villas stretching across turquoise water, the powder-soft beach, and the promise of top-of-the-line luxury on one of the Caribbean’s most beautiful islands. I had seen the photos, read the glowing reviews, and convinced myself this would be one of those once-in-a-lifetime stays. Dane felt the same way and instead, we checked out early. 

Our Stay At Belmond Cap Juluca

The biggest thing you need to understand before booking Cap Juluca is that your experience isn’t determined solely by the hotel. Because if that were the case, you would have no complaints. It is perfect top to bottom in that regard. The beach is PRISTINE (seriously we lived in Hawaii and that water is other-worldly), the food is delicious, and the people are so kind.

Unfortunately, your stay at Cap Juluca is determined by whoever happens to be staying in your villa. Each beachfront villa is divided into four guest rooms. While the rooms themselves are beautifully designed, they’re connected closely enough that you hear much more than I expected at this price point. We happened to be next door to a family with young children who, unfortunately, weren’t sleeping much. Think: Early mornings, late nights, crying through the walls, screaming at all hours, doors opening and closing, running footsteps. But it wasn’t even relegated just to their room, at one point we wound up having lunch beside them and the children were using utensils as drums and standing on the table. Eeeek. 

If you’re someone who sleeps through anything, this may not bother you, but even Dane who can sleep through pretty much anything was growing irritated night after night. When you’re spending well over a thousand dollars a night hoping for complete tranquility, uninterrupted sleep becomes part of what you’re paying for. Instead, every evening became a guessing game of whether we’d get a peaceful night or not and by night 4 when a fire alarm got triggered at 3AM, I was like…I cannot do this anymore. I have to go back to work and I have not slept a single night. I want to emphasize not really something the resort can control, but it is something future guests should know.

One of Cap Juluca’s standout features is its assigned beach seating. Every room has reserved loungers, meaning there’s no need to wake up early to claim a spot, which if you frequent enough tropical/beach hotels, you know that is a luxury in itself. The tradeoff, however, is that you’re assigned to the same location for your entire stay based on your room. If your beach neighbors are quiet, it’s an ideal setup, but in our situation that wasn’t the case so, you’re essentially sharing your vacation with them day after day. Unlike at most resorts, you can’t simply move farther down the beach, making your experience largely dependent on whoever is seated/staying beside you.

I do want to point out that outside the beach there IS a spa pool that you do not need to have a treatment scheduled to use, so that is where we spent most of our time, but it would have been nice to enjoy the beach a bit, too, since it’s so beautiful. We spent a lot of time walking up and down it, which was nice.

Everything else about our stay was exceptional, which is what made our decision to leave so disappointing. The beach is every bit as stunning as the photos, the water almost doesn’t look real, and I still dream about the view from our balcony. The staff were warm, attentive, and genuinely welcoming, and it was easy to understand why Cap Juluca has such a devoted following. None of those things were the reason we left.

I also want to be clear that our experience was not a reflection of the resort’s service. When we shared our concerns, the management team was incredibly empathetic and did everything they reasonably could to improve the situation. They explored moving the neighboring family, checked in with us throughout our stay, and even offered us a complimentary return visit as a gesture of goodwill. Their response was gracious, professional, and exactly what I’d expect from a luxury resort, so I have nothing but top respect for the management and staff. Ultimately, though, the issue wasn’t one that great service could solve, it was simply the reality of the resort’s layout, which was just so disappointing. 

I went back and forth about even sharing this experience because I know every stay is different. Ultimately, I decided to write about it because it’s the one thing I wish I’d known before booking. Nearly every review I read described Cap Juluca as a romantic luxury escape, the kind of place for honeymoons, anniversaries, and weddings. What I didn’t see mentioned nearly at all was that is a popular spot for families and children (which you will see based on the palm trees with family names of guests who have visited 20+ times). There’s absolutely nothing wrong with that, but because of the way the villas and beach seating are designed, the atmosphere of your vacation can be shaped as much by your fellow guests as the resort itself.

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