By Alexander Britell and Guy Britton
It’s may not be a surprise when you get to the check-in desk and find an ice-cold margarita waiting for you.
What may be a surprise is just how good a margarita it really is.
Because while you may know the Margaritaville story, or understand the inspiration for this ever-growing hotel brand, what you find is that there’s substance beneath the song.
The Jimmy Buffett lifestyle, the parrothead philosophy, the salt life ethos.
What draws people in is that, at the end of the day, it’s all about good-natured escape, about finding the relaxation we so seldom can anymore, about easy afternoons and the luxury of taking off your shoes.
It may sound trite, it may seem cliche, but you know what? It works. And the Margaritaville brand is not too different from that of the Caribbean itself: a romantic, relaxing, fun destination where everyone on earth really wishes they were.
High above the pool.
And that’s precisely the story at Jimmy Buffett’s Grand Cayman outpost, the Margaritaville Beach Resort on Seven Mile Beach.
It’s a property that is for now the only full-fledged Margaritaville resort in the Caribbean, though there are several more in development, including highly-anticipated properties in both Belize and Nassau.
This 285-room resort is all about the Buffett experience, with bright, well-appointed rooms, copious bars and a beautiful stretch of what is one of the Caribbean’s most spectacular beaches, Grand Cayman’s Seven Mile Beach.
But as you quickly learn, the quality is there: the margaritas are unashamedly excellent; the food is good; the boutique is wonderful. And this is the Cayman Islands, so there’s no shortage of sophistication, either.
There’s high-end coffee shop, lunch spot and wine bar.
The rooms are bright and colorful.
On the other side of the lobby, there’s Eating House 1503, world-renowned chef Roy Yamaguchi’s first Caribbean restaurant that has quickly become not just one of the best places to eat in Grand Cayman, but one of the hottest restaurants in the region.
It all adds up to a varied experience that combines the kind of easy relaxation for which this brand is famous with an underlying quality.
The “License to Chill” Bar.
What it also means is that you find every kind of traveler here: the family, the honeymooning couple, the travelers who could stay at a five-star resort but would much prefer to have dinner in flip flops and spend their days in the sand.
What they all have in common is very simple, and easily recognizable: they’re all happy.
And it’s not just from the margaritas.
For more, visit the Margaritaville Beach Resort.
