Rendezvous Bay Hotel | Eating With Ziggy

You know what they say. Once you are able to spell it without googling, you are halfway there. I’m not exactly sure who says it, or know what it means (sounds more like a Yogi Berra quote). But when it comes to certain places with difficult spellings, it rings true. It took me years to finally learn how to spell Rendezvous Bay without looking. Roughly 5 years for “Rendezvous”, and a couple of months for “Bay”. I’m now officially a fan.

Coincidentally I almost misspelled “Deux” here. For a blog with the tagline “Dining Well, Spelling Pourly”, maybe I should let some of these spellings stay. But I cant screw up the title for search purposes.

Part Deux was more of the same. Same hotel (Rendezvous Bay Hotel), same beach, same beach shacks, same healing powers. The healing powers were especially important as both stays were right after hardships. We’ve been around, especially in this part of the world. I cant think of another beach or place that can better improve your spiritual health. We needed this.

For city slickers, it can be a religious experience. Until you turn right one day and see a 60+ male wearing a Borat style black thong, and you are stuck with this image for half of the trip. Thats the price you pay when dealing with empty beaches. You are in the mercy of those interrupting the tranquility. Would it kill him to lie on his back just once. On second thought, strike that. Its not a prettier picture.

When the Sunshine Shack is open, you’ll find roughly 90% of the people on this beach there. It evolved from a simple beach shack to one of the most popular simple beach shacks in the Caribbean. Its the Caribbean version of the original Shake Shack. Waits for food can be painful at times so bring your patience, and order a frozen BBC (Baily’s, Banana, Coconut) to fill you up while you wait. Stick to chicken and ribs, as the lobster isnt the best value

There’s not a whole lot I can write that I didnt before, so I’ll just leave you with the original post. More food for thought to come. Just like with the previous installment, its weird to write about some beach at these crazy times. But we can all use a distraction sometimes.

This is Rendezvous Bay – Part 1

Rendezvous Bay Hotel It’s becoming increasingly difficult to write posts like this considering everything that’s going on in the world today. Fires in Australia, mayhem in Iran, Hong Kong, impeachment, and this dude is writing about some beach in Anguilla. But this is a place worth writing about. And as I get older and wiser its becoming more and more clear that in this fragile world, a beach and even looking at pictures of a beach (which I dont do enough) has crazy healing powers. Numerous recent studies suggest the same. There’s a reason why Hawaii is the happiest state in the US year after year, an its not Poke Bowls.

There’s another reason I hesitate to post this one. I’m not exactly anxious for the world to know about this place. Its a cliche, I know. But only once you spend a week here you’ll understand. In fact I met some nice folks there who asked me in a nice half-kidding kind of way to refrain from writing about it. With that said, sharing is caring as my mama used to say. And I do hope, for the same selfish reasons, this place I’m about to mention (the main reason for the post) stays in business long enough.

Rendezvous Bay (special shutout to the person who invented copy and paste) simply put is the perfect beach. Just like most such beaches, you may not find it at its best behavior when you first see it. The winds can get too strong, and sometimes it may feel deserted for a reason. When we first saw it four years ago we werent impressed. But after spending a week at what looks like its best side, we understood. It’s one of the most walkable, most swimmable, and most perfect size beaches we’ve seen. But most of all, its almost empty! From my vantage point, best seat in the theater, one person walking by every 20 minutes. It’s one of the best sheer beauty to people ratio in the Caribbean.

Just to give you an idea how empty this place is. One day I was in the water and noticed from a distance a figure, most likely a man with absolutely no one around him for a good mile. The man pulled down his trunks, bent over and proceeded to either shake the trunks or look for something inside them for a good minute. It wasn’t clear what exactly he was doing, but there he was doing it. If he was looking for his keys, there was only one place left to look for them. His bum can be the symbol of Rendezvous Bay in billboards everywhere with the caption “You can do this here”.

Another big plus is that Rendezvous Bay has arguably the best beach shack in the Caribbean, Sunshine Shack. Garvey and crew will not rest until you are happy. Expertly grilled BBQ chicken, ribs, lobster and crawfish when available is pretty much the entire menu, but thats all you need (well, except if you are vegetarian). Its colorful, inviting, with a bit of a party atmosphere for a change of pace. Booze, games, and comfortable beach lounges allow you to hang out for as long as you want. This is the definition of a beach shack if there was ever one.

One of the cool things about this bay is the lack of hotels. You got CuisinArt in the west as the lone major resort, and a few boutique hotels. One of which is the reason for the post. Rendezvous Bay Hotel. Its the oldest hotel in Anguilla, and today for some mysterious reasons, shockingly underrated. It was 😍😍😍 at first sight for us. I think I gave the biggest tip ever for just showing me the room. We loved everything about this place. From the breakfast burritos, the humongous bed (forget king, more like emperor), the balcony, room size, everything. I can’t think of another place where I wanted to spend so much time in. I even loved that we had three keys and for the life of me I have no idea what the other two were for.

But most of all it was the proximity (20 feet) to what seemed like the best and calmest part of Rendezvous Bay. CuisinArt got the short end of the stick looks like, perhaps because RBH was there first. We had a safety net, a car, that would take us to any beach we want (and there are 33 of them, many of which stunning). But every other beach we visited felt like a downgrade. Its perfectly isolated. You are not far from some of the best dining in Anguilla, and the public ferry. Fantastic value (under $300) to boot especially considering what you’ll find 20 feet away. How often do I write about a hotel. Not very.