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About | History of The Hermitage | Press Quotes | What Our Guests Say... | Latest News | |
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Here is what the press has said about The Hermitage... The Hermitage Read the article at Outside's website The soundtrack to Nevis, a volcanic bit of emerald-green pointing skyward in the West Indies, lacks a badass steel-drum reggae riff. Nevis, blessedly, is not that Caribbean. Its rhythms require closer attention: nocturnal, chirping bell frogs and murmuring trade winds that rustle the coconut palms and spread the sweetness of frangipani across 50 square miles of overgrown hills and dignified former sugarcane plantations. The most charming of these mansions, the Hermitage, is perched 800 feet above sea level on the southern flanks of dormant-for-now 3,232-foot Nevis Peak. The 15 gingerbread cottages and 340-year-old British colonial lodge are embellished with pastel-shuttered windows and four-poster canopy beds. Despite this dollhouse decor, you won't feel embarrassed to take your lunch of grilled-frying-fish salad on the veranda after a muddy five-hour hike up the volcano. Just hose yourself off in the front yard first. THE GOOD LIFE // Amiable American transplants Richard and Maureen Lupinacci bought the Hermitage 33 years ago. Its Great House, reputed to be the oldest wooden building in the Caribbean, is where guests dine by candlelight or sidle over to the bar for rum punch at cocktail hour. (The free-flowing mixture of dark Cavalier rum, syrup, lemon juice, and a dash of cinnamon is part of why the refined Hermitage vibe never crosses over into stuffiness.) Most of the cottages are restored originals - whitewashed, lightfilled retreats furnished with regional antiques. All have hammock-equip0ped balconies for horizontal views of Nevis Peak and the white clouds that usually shroud its summit. The three-acres grounds are dotted with citrus, mango, and cashew trees, and have two pools and a tennis court. JAW DROPPER // Roam trails criss-crossing the Gingerland District on one of the lodge's 16 thoroughbreds, or charge up Saddle Hill to an old lookout used by British admiral Horatio Nelson in the 1780s. SPORTS ON-SITE // Explore the terraced gardens of lilies, ginger, and hibiscus or take the ten-minute shuttle to four-mile Pinney's Beach, the loveliest of Nevis's sandy stretches. Just a quarter-mile from the inn is the trailhead for the mile-long climb to the summit of Nevis Peak (contact Top to Bottom; $35 per person; 869-469-9080). BEYOND THE SAND // A wild donkey - an odd trail obstacle - brayed his displeasure as I pedaled the sea-grape-lined single track of Tower Hill. Windsurf 'n' Mountain Bike Nevis (869-469-9682, ww.windsurfingnevis.com, www.mountainbikenevis.com) offers half-day rides from $40, including use of a Trek front-suspension bike. At Oualie Beach, on the island's northwestern coast, let marine biologist Barbara Whitman introduce you to four-eyed butterfly fish, goat fish, flame coral, and pink sea anemones. Under the Sea (869-469-1291, www.undertheseanevis.com) charges $40 for a three-hour snorkel, including gear. THE FINE PRINT // American Airlines (800-433-7300, www.aa.com) is the only major U.S. carrier serving Nevis. The daily flight from San Juan, Puerto Rico, takes an hour and 15 minutes (round-trip airfare from New York City costs about $725; from Denver, about $980). From December 15 to April 15, rates at the Hermitage (800-682-4025, www.hermitagenevis.com) start at $325 for a double, including a full breakfast (low season rates from $170). Conde’ Nast Traveller June 2003 With the abolition of slavery and the decline of the sugar trade, Nevis slipped into obscurity. Decaying remains of sugar mills are scattered about the island. Some of the grand plantation houses, however, have been better preserved and are now run as stylish and comfortable retreats. Most are discreetly hidden away on the slopes of Nevis speak in a district known as Gingerland on the south side of the island. Hermitage Plantation is a good place to start a romance with this relaxed and beautiful island. We arrived at night to a very welcome rum punch which, combined with the time difference on our body clocks, induced an easy sleep. We woke at dawn to a large troupe of vervet monkeys swinging in the trees behind our cottage. The boldest climbed the tall mango tree above our balcony to pillage the fruit, while others frolicked on the forest floor. By 7.30am they had disappeared into the trees and the sun was warm enough for us to enjoy a morning swim in the freshwater pool. There are several palm, mango and breadfruit trees shading the Hermitage’s well-kept grounds, which are bursting with hibiscus and bougainvillea. We stayed in one of the restored timber-framed ‘gingerbread” cottages hidden among the foliage. These are typically Caribbean-colonial in style, with pastel weatherboards walls, polished wooden floors, shuttered windows, veranda balconies and a mosquito net draped bed. Ours had views up to the summit of Nevis Peak and down to the sea. The food at the Hermitage is the result of collaboration between owner Maureen Lupinacci’s modern ideas and the traditional skills of resident chef, a shy local woman named Lovey Body. The meal we ate on our first night – crispy fried lobster with a sesame dressing followed by pan-seared Mahi with lemongrass, ginger and tamarind – was so good it was tempting to eat there every night. Many ingredients, such as herbs, fruit, vegetables and bacon, are home-produced. Along with pigs, chickens and geese, the Lupinaccis keep a large stable of horses that guests can use to explore the forest trails around Gingerland. The family is a big supporter of the monthly race meetings held at a ramshackle racecourse in the unpopulated, wild south-east corner of Nevis, at Indian Castle Beach. Richard Lupinacci told us these race days are major events in the island’s calendar, attracting huge crowds, a carnival mood and much betting. The rest of the time, the beach, which is only a short drive from Gingerland, is one of the quietest spots on the island. Caribbean Travel and Life May 2003 Nevis may not have an opera company, but life on the island has its own rewards for music-lovers Richard and Maureen Lupinacci. The Pennsylvania couple moved to the Caribbean in 1968, living first on Nevis before transferring to Barbados when Richard went to work at the American embassy there. But Nevis had captured their hearts, and they bought a plantation house, named The Hermitage, high on the slopes of Mount Nevis as a second home. The building, however, was no ordinary planter’s residence. More than 340 years old, the small great house is likely the Caribbean’s oldest surviving wooden dwelling. Called an earthfast structure, its primary support pillars are planted into the ground like fence posts. “Archaeologists from England tell us they know of only two others like this,” says Richard, “both of them in Virginia.” The couple moved back to Nevis in 1979 and, six years later, converted their home into an inn. Becoming hoteliers was not too much of a stretch for the Lupinaccis. “Maureen is the oldest child of 10 and I’m the oldest of five,” explains Richard, “so we always had a lot of house guests.” They built 15 cottages to match the charm and style of the main house – brightly painted wood with gingerbread trim – and added a stable and a small pool to the 15-acre property. Today, the operation is still very much a family affair. The couple manages the property with their 29-year old son, Richie, and occasional help from their three daughters. But the retreat is not just a simple mom-and-pop style B&B. The Hermitage has a staff of 29, and its restaurant serves elegant dinners prepared with ingredients harvested from the inn’s herb garden, fruit trees – Richard swears they grow the best mangos on the island – and livestock collection, which includes ship, pigs and rabbits. The impressive results draw gourmands from the Four Seasons and other resorts around Nevis. And, if the Lupinaccis aren’t off on one of their occasional forays to London or Budapest to take in the performance of a favorite opera, they usually dine with their guests at a communal table on the veranda of the great house. Between meals, guests can ride horses on Mount Nevis, play tennis or join the Lupinaccis at the local track for the horse races held on 12 Sundays throughout the year. For pure indulgence, The Hermitage recently added in room spa treatments such as pineapple-coconut body polishes and ginger-sugar scrubs. While all of these diversions are appealing, the favored activities at the resort are relaxing and reconnecting. “The art of conversation is very well practiced here,” says Richard. Indeed, such cultured and well-traveled raconteurs as the Lupinaccis are never short of topics with which to engage their guests. _ David Swanson Maco Caribbean Living Volume 5 Issue 1 By any yardstick of historic significance, the construction of a modest hillside home in 1670 on a tiny, sparsely populated, way-off-the beaten track island hardly compares with events that were to influence, often dramatically, the world’s future. But that small wooden house, by virtue of little more than surviving everything time could throw at it, from the savagery of hurricanes to the ravages of war to the devastating earthquake of 1690 to decades of neglect, has earned a unique place in history. The Hermitage, the name the Pembertons bestowed on it all those centuries ago, is now believed to be the oldest wooden house still standing in the Caribbean. It’s a living, breathing monument to the dedication and skill of the artisans of a bygone age, and a testimony to the determination and integrity of an American couple who found it virtually in ruins, lovingly and painstakingly restored it and turned it into what it is today, the heart and soul of one of the Caribbean’s most elegant plantation inns. “Blue
sea, a great bar and a world of natural wonders” “Plantation inns are the more traditional form of Nevis hotel. With the islands sugar trade having long since disappeared, the gracious homes and gardens that the owners created for themselves in colonial times have been adapted to a new purpose, and our plantation inn- the Hermitage- was as much an architectural and botanical treasure as a fabulously restful place to stay, compromising a main house built in the 18th century, and cottages in the grounds in similar timbered style. From our cottage , all polished wooden floors and antique rugs and furnishings, we watched green vervet monkeys darting about the grounds. A stroll across the lawn took us to a terraced restaurant, and drinks in a snug that should be high on anyone’s list of Great Bars of the World. To call the Hermitage merely a hotel is woefully to undersell the richness of its heritage, the beauty of its surrounds, and its capacity both to make you welcome and leave you alone to relax. All this is down to its American owners, the Lupinacci family, local grandees with a gift of hospitality that all hoteliers aspire to but few really really possess, especially when it come to children. The Hermitage was in many ways a tropical version of Woolley Grange, the Wiltshire manor house that has provided balm to stressed metropolitan types and their children for many years. If pure rest was all you were in need of, then you could spend a contented week in Nevis without ever leaving the Hermitage… You shouldn’t miss… a day at the races. Anyone who thinks Cheltenham has the most spectacular setting of any racecourse in the world might want to revise their opinion once they have seen the back straight at Nevis, with a vista beyond of swaying palm trees and crashing surf.” “Nevis,
West Indian Original” “… Three hundred years ago, Nevis attracted the cream of international society, drawn by the incredible wealth of the island’s plantations… Today, that society still comes, paparazzi in tow, to stay at those same elegant plantations now converted into charming country inns…. ‘People think we’re living in a remote place,” says Maureen Lupinacci, the owner of The Hermitage Plantation Inn….but the world comes to us- people from all over the globe. I find the world so much broader here than in Pennsylvania.’ The Hermitage is till one of the most welcoming of inns, with its plump cushion, breeze-swept style created by the Lupinaccis…” “Summertime
… and the Lush Life is Easy” “Can you trade easy beach access for lodging steeped in history? Positioned 800 feet above sea level, The Hermitage on Nevis is possibly the oldest wooden house in the Antilles – its 250 year old charisma comes with churning ceiling fans. A small pool provides refreshment under the steady gaze of volcanic Nevis Peak, and a tennis court is at hand near the stable. The rooms are found in shingled gingerbread cottages with a reputation for seducing writers who are spurred to creativity by the retreat. Romantics will no doubt bring home their own stories of canopied four poster beds, horse drawn carriage rides and hammocks strung across sleepy verandahs.” The
Quirky Caribbean - St. Kitts and Nevis’ Singular Inns Whenever I’m on Nevis, I visit The Hermitage Plantation Inn. I never know who’ll be assuming squatter’s rights at the tiny bar: It could be the German consul, noted island clothing designer John Warden, restaurant designer Adam Tihany, or rocker Roger Daltrey. Rest assured, owners Maureen and Richard “Lupi” Lupinacci will introduce you to all of Nevisian society, high and low. Often it’s the horsey set, horsing around getting looped on Lupi’s rum punches. Richard is crazier about horses than is any 14-year-old girl. We first met the night before the irregularly schedule Day at the Races, Nevisian-style. The Nevis Turf and Jockey Club sponsors some of the Caribbean’s most endearing events - horse races held roughly nine or ten times a year that attract a pan-Caribbean field to a wild, windswept course on the Atlantic. Scratches are the rule; horses have been known to return riderless. Everyone on the island shows up for this gala, soaking up the atmosphere (and Carib beers), munching on out-of-this-world fried chicken, and happily losing money. Before even introducing himself, Richard sized me up: “You look like you could be a jockey … How’s your seat?” (What other retort could I offer than to turn around and ask him to decide for himself?) At The Hermitage, everyone seems lovingly off-kilter. Witness the superb cook, Lovey (who merits her name, with heavenly green papaya soup and conch cakes in lobster sauce): She actually admit using WD-40 to lubricate her creaking knees. To balance such wackiness, lodging at the Hermitage is insanely comfortable. You can retire after a night’s carousing to serene splendor in the stone and gingerbread cottages dotting the grounds, some of which could sleep a family of four comfortably. A
Love Affair with the Caribbean The island of Nevis is defined by the classic swoop of its volcanic apex, Nevis Peak. The grandeur is stately and formal - which fits nicely. Nevisians are a tad restrained and conservative, shunning the hustle of casinos and beach action found on other islands in favor of quieter pursuits like golfing and horseback riding. Although the posh Four Seasons has provided Nevis with a big helping of contemporary elegance, it’s the island’s five plantation inns that really set the scene. The Hermitage is the most charming - possibly the oldest wood plantation house extant in the Antilles. Its 250-year-old charisma is that of creaking floors and slowly churning ceiling fans, but it has a lightness about it hat is rare among older stone Caribbean structures. The inn is positioned 800 feet above sea level, and a small pool (rather than a nearby beach) provides liquid refreshment under the steady gaze of Nevis Peak, Colorful island pastels blanket the exterior of the main house and its shingled gingerbread cottages. The interiors are decorated with Oriental rugs and history-steeped antiques. The 13 rooms have a reputation of or seducing Hollywood writers, who are spurred to creativity by the retreat, but romantics will bring home their own stories of canopied, four-poster beds, horse-drawn carriages rides and hammocks strung across drony verandas. A
Winter’s Trail “… Nearby, the Hermitage - whose great house is thought to be the oldest wooden structure in the Caribbean - has won a reputation for its food. On the night we were there, the cook, who comes from the local district of Gingerland and whose improbable name is Lovey Boddie, presented smoked mahi mahi on a rosti of a local root vegetable called tannia, lobster stuffed with conch (the meat from those pretty pink shells), and white chocolate ginger cheesecake. Dinner is served on the verandah, over looking the gardens whose trees include avocado, cashew, breadfruit and mango, amid the nightly lullaby of tree frogs. We wanted to stay, not just on holiday but forever …” Treasure
Island "Nevis is home to several excellent plantation inns as well. My personal favorite is the Hermitage, a hillside cluster of West Indian bungalows gathered around the oldest wooden house in the Antilles (built in 1740, it lasted because it's made of termite-proof ironwood)." Fodor's
Caribbean "A 250 year old great house... houses the restaurant and forms the core of this appealing inn set in the hills. The duplex guest cottages are some of the prettiest accommodations on the island. Rooms are furnished with antiques, including four poster canopy beds and have patios or balconies, ceiling fans, phones and mini fridges; some also have lovely views of the distant ocean, and some have full kitchens..The beach is 15 minutes away...Many guests simply relax in a hammock or spend the day by the pool at this peaceful retreat ( a member of the prestigious Romantik Hotels group). Palm
Beach Post "The inn has a swimming pool and tennis court, but the main attractions for many guests are the retired thoroughbred racehorses available for rides up into the rain forest. There are also carriages pulled by two big Belgian horses … Recent guests have included Mike Love of the Beach Boys, The Who's Roger Daltrey and actor Tom Hulce who stayed at the inn under an assumed name. Everyone pretended they didn't know who he was … My little house, wrapped on two sides by verandahs, had a mahogany four poster bed with mosquito netting, a living room with island made mahogany furniture and a big bathroom with old fashioned footed tub and a modern shower … Guests tend to be sociable and gather at the main house, built of lignumvitae wood that has withstood hurricanes and earthquakes … The Great House has 14 foot ceilings and is furnished with handmade mahogany chairs and sofas. It offers quiet nooks to raed and talk. Dining is by candlelight on a verandah, and you never know who you might see-- the local priest or Michael Bolton..." Caribbean
Week "The Hermitage 's sprawling grounds are dotted with enchanting self contained cottage units, each one a mini architectural masterpeice. Inside, they're ultra comfortable, delightfully furnished and very, very West Indian." GOING
PLACES "... From St Bart's we island hopped over to Nevis. The very best way to describe the island itself, and our hotel The Hermitage, is "relaxing". While other hotels on other islands boast al the many things there are to do, Nevis and The Hermitage is the best island destination for someone who does not really want to run around from one activity to another, but would rather just take it very easy; read a book by the pool, take nature walks, and the like. Each couple staying at the Hermitage had their own villa accomodations. Since the Hermitage is an old Plantation that's been transformed into a quiet resort community, each building is unique, in that each has a history, having had a function in the old days. There are 12 villas, each one with a kitchen, patios, and furnished with lovely antiques. Our villa had four separate patios, a donstairs living room, upstairs bedroom (with a marvellous old four poster bed), two bathrooms, and one ultra-modern touch to offset the antiques- a TV. This hotel was more inland than the one we stayed in at St Bart's, so we were staying in what you might call a rain forest atmosphere, which is very unique and perfect for nature lovers. In fact, on the first morning, we woke up to a strange sound in the back and looked out to see an entire family of monkeys playing in our backyard. There is much to do on the plantation grounds, We had the use of two pools here , as well as a tennis court, horses, a library and a sitting room with a wide screen TV and VCR. Also, there is a personal touch just as there was on St Bart's. The owners of the Hermitage , Maureen and Richard, were great hosts. In addition, to their own friendly personalities, there was an extremely polite and courteous staff, eager to please and very happy to honor just about any request. If the great joy of St Bart's is the look of the beaches themselves, then the lure of Nevis is the food. Though the beaches here aren't in a class with those in St Bart's, the food dwarfs anything we had there in terms of its quantity and quality- Nevis is for both gourmets and gourmands! Every night, all the guests staying at The Plantation Inns would meet for drinks in a cordial and relaxed atmosphere at the Main House, with Maureen and Richard doing the serving of the best rum drinks you could hope for. Then, each and every night there was a four course gourmet meal. The first night we were served lamb with mango sauce. We agreed that it was one of the most perfect meals we've ever tasted, and that includes the fine restaurants we've been lucky enough to visit in Paris. The next night it was a veal dish, and then on the last night we were served a chopped lobster with a cream sauce. There were also interesting and different soups made from local pumpkins, as well as a dessert speciality called the chocolate "bomb". We were happiest here while staying right on the premises; we didn't enjoy the town of Charlestown nearly as much as we did Gustavia on St Bart's. as there was not as much to do, plus we honestly did not feel as safe and comfortable while walking around at night. ... if you want to plop down in one place and spend the day sunbathing or horseback riding. perhaps getting in a game of tennis and then eating an excellent meal right on the premises, then head for Plantation Inns on Nevis." Caribbean
Travel Letter "Our favorite restaurant was the Hermitage The setting is magical-- a very old, antiques filled plantation house set on a mountainside. When you call for reservations they tell you what the evening's menu is. Guests gather with the owners for cocktails, then adjourn to individual tables on an open air verandah. You dine by candlelight, with soothing night noises in the background. The food was elegant as the setting" New
York Times Magazine The Sophisticated Traveler. " I could spent the rest of my life at the Hermitage, where extraordinary
meals are served on the verandah or in the 1740 manor house, one of the
oldest wooden houses in the Caribbean, in an orchard like setting of fruit
trees (including avocados, cashews, breadfruits and calabashes) and a
dozen charming cottages. I stayed in the Pink House, three airy rooms
with a latticed porch and West Indian furniture. At night ,fireflies flew
in one window and out the other. Monkeys played in the garden but didn't
come inside. Breakfast was flying fish, fresh fruit and homemade bread:
dinner was feta cheese with honey and pepper, mango chicken with gingered
carrots, and orange crepes. The owner of the inn is also an officer of
the Nevis Turf and Jockey Club, which organizes races at the nearby Indian
Castle track on holidays. No race track in the world has a more breathtaking
backdrop: the blue Atlantic and its white waves, a creamy beach. Womens
Journal "The Hermitage, up in the hills, is a comfortable hotel with wonderful views. Native lore alleges that those who live on the top of hill live longest. Certainly, by day the air is cooler up high, while nights are blessed with zephyr breezes. like most of the attractive hotels in the Caribbean, the main building of the Hermitage is a restored great house. typically, it is set in rolling gardens with swimming pool, individual cottages and private verandahs framed in lacy wooden fretwork, where you can idle away the hours in a bamboo rocking chair: listen at dusk to the tingling sound of bullfrogs, while sipping rum punch or an ice cold Ting, the Caribbean answer to Fanta. The rooms have stripped pine boards, painted shutters, pretty four-poster beds draped with muslin mosquito nets, and cooling, sleep-inducing fans which purr overhead" "Nevis- A Flight Bag" By: Kathleen Donahue "There are several small, personable, family run inns built around
restored or converted plantation houses from the 17th and 18th centuries.
Most of these delightful, hospitable inns are situated in the hills as
it was common years ago to maximize natures breezes. Each inn holds its
own bit of history and unique personality whether inside walls of locally
quarried volcanic stone or West Indian fretted wood. Our favorite inn
is The Hermitage, a cluster of restored colonial cottages centered about
a 250 year old Great House, which is said to be the oldest all wood house
in the Antilles. Boston
Sunday Globe "Turn to the Hermitage Plantation Inn and you'll find what could well be the oldest wooden house in the West Indies, built sometime between 1680 and 1740. Under the raftered ceiling here, the gamely cheer of owners Maureen and Richard Lupinacci makes for a nightly house party that starts off around the wee mahogany bar and spills over to the main salon. Dinner, called by the bell, is served family-style on the arbored verandah. Unless it's Wednesday, the West Indian buffet evening, when guests help themselves to the suckling pig that's been spit roasting on the lawn all afternoon (along with imaginative accompaniments such as Rasta Pasta, tannia fritters and gingered pumpkin soufflé), and a string band plays well into the night. Known fondly by regulars as Camp Lupi (a play on "Lupi" as well as "loopy"), the Hermitage puts up guests in outbuildings staggered along the hillside, gingerbread affairs with sturdy four-poster beds and balconies or porches slung with hammocks, open to the distant view of the sea and an occasional curious monkey straying from the bush. (It's said there are more monkeys on Nevis and St. Kitts than people, which would put the feral population above 45,000.)" Caribbean
Travel & Life " Sipping fresh orange juice at one of The Hermitage's tiny outdoor tables, watching kittens play lazily, and breathing the sweet scent of early morning, one can easily start hatching plans. Civilization doesn't hold a candle to life on Nevis, a tiny 36-square-mile island so undisturbed that its smudge of an air strip receives no direct flights from the United States. It wouldn't be so hard, you reason, to chuck it all and settle down here, where the pace is so easy and the culture is still thick English heritage. The island is full of British and American expatriates, Robinson Crusoe types who fell in love with the place and opened their own restaurants, or who purchased one of the ancient sugar plantation estates and converted it into a quaint little inn. Such is the tale of Richard and Maureen Lupinacci-owners of The Hermitage-U.S. natives whose banking industry jobs brought them to the Caribbean more than 25 years ago. The hands-on proprietors originally bought The Hermitage as a private home in which to raise their young children. The place still makes you feel as if you're staying in someone's house rather than a hotel. The 12 rooms don't have telephones but someone from the staff will stroll up to your door if you have a message or a visitor. All of the rooms have names, not numbers. Guests are on a first name basis with each other and often swap stories at the bar or over dinner. Meals are served in a comfortable, family like setting. On an island with few people and little night life, dinner is almost always the social event of the day. Gracious hosts, the Lupinaccis occasionally dine with their guests, who are treated to a four course , prix fixe meal (breakfast and lunch are `a la carte). The evening usually begins with drinks in the greathouse-built in 1740 and reputedly the oldest wooden house in the Antillies-where cozy furnishings make you feel as if you're dining in the Lupinaccis own living room. There are plenty of photo albums, full of family pictures and chronicling The Hermitage's transformation from neglected plantation to charming inn. Dinner might commence with a tasty carrot and tarragon soup, followed by an entrée of veal cutlets or baked stuffed lobster. Many of the desserts are homemade, and all are sinfully good. The inn is actually an elaborate series of cottages that delicately incorporates a former sugar plantation. The cottages are dotted along a breezy hillside with decor that is true to island history-four poster canopy beds, sturdy wardrobes, and pastoral fabrics. It's a quiet place, so sedate that you'll often have the refreshing swimming pool all to yourself. Maybe after a dip you'll wonder over to the dining room to check the day's menu, and chat with the friendly bartender over a Ting and bitters. Or, you'll sit out on your deck and read, without another noise from the grounds save the swishing of a cool breeze or the occasional clatter of a wild monkey. And eventually you will get to thinking: Just how hard would it be to pick up and move down here? The island certainly has class- enough to attract Princess Diana and her kids for a week-and a change of scenery might do you some good. Maybe you'll even open your own little place, something out of the way but completely graceful. Heck, it's been done before." West Indies Ease Don't go with visions of Southern antebellum mansions. Plantations in
the islands were seldom so grandiose. The Great House here is typical
in many ways except for its longevity, which is due to the use of termite-resistant
iron wood in the construction. The informal home, modest in size, is the
gathering spot for the guests in the evening. Have a cocktail and hors
d'oeuvres in the parlor, a lovely room with a pitched, beamed ceiling,
lattice shutters, and antique furnishings. Dinner is served on the cozy
verandah, usually at a communal table with the vivacious hosts, Maureen
and Richard Lupinacci. Maureen oversees the native cooks in the kitchen
and adds creative touches to the preparations. The four-course set dinners,
made with fresh, local ingredients, feature dishes such When she's not in the kitchen, Maureen is running the rest of the operation.
Richard's job as managing director of the Bank of Nevis tends to keep
him occupied during the day. A different banking position brought the
couple to the islands in the late 1970's from Quakertown, Pennsylvania.
For a while they managed another plantation inn, now in the doldrums,
and then opened their own. The top-of-the-line suite, a replica of the manor house, is an enchanted realm surrounded by a private garden that measures half an acre. Take a dip in your personal pool, or try to decide which of the many verandahs you'll enjoy next. You can lounge in the living room or sink into one of the antique canopy beds that grace each of the two bedrooms. The house has its own kitchen and two full bathrooms. Other guests have use of a small swimming pool in the center of the grounds, but no other recreation is offered. The Lupinaccis encourage renting a car, which they will arrange, to explore the island. If you don't care to drive, they'll take you to Pinneys Beach, where there are a couple of restaurants and water sports centers. The environment is oriented to relaxation, however, rather than play. Chat over long meals, lounge by the pool, read in the living room of the Great House, nap in your hammock. It's a serene spot for the leisurely country life" Frommers
Travel Guide Caribbean "Hermitage Plantation, Hermitage Village, St. John's Parish, Nevis, W.I. (tel.809-469-3477), a much- photographed, frequently copied historians' delight, is said to be the oldest all-wood house in the Antilles, built amid the high-altitude plantations of Gingerland in 1740. Here, former Philadelphian Richard Lupinacci and his wife Maureen, have assembled one of the best collections of antiques on Nevis. Each piece corresponds with taste and flair to the wide plank floors, intricate latticework, and high ceilings of this beautiful hotel. The 11 accommodations are in nine glamorous outbuildings designed like small plantation houses. Many contain huge four poster beds, antique accessories, and colonial louvered windows. Gently sloping land inland from the sea, the property is protected by parallel rows of dry retaining walls. In the center, amid stands of very old mango trees, is a rectangular swimming pool." Twin Peaks of St. Kitts and Nevis By: Rhoda Koenig "On Nevis, which attracts more British visitors than St. Kitts, the place to go for fairy-tale chic is the Hermitage Plantation, a collection of pastel fretwork-embellished cottages around a cozy early eighteenth century house. The hostess, Maureen Lupinacci works hard (some might say to hard, but it seems fine after a few drinks) at establishing a house party atmosphere and providing by far the best food on the two islands- for example; garlic soup, coconut shrimp, rice pilaf, spicy broccoli salad and orange fritters. Everything tasted as if it had been grown nearby and prepared for friends." The
Penguin Guide to the Caribbean "Hermitage Plantation's great house, complete with its original wood shingles, is the oldest occupied house in the Antilles. Since the 1970s it has been the family home of the Philadelphia fled Lupinaccis, who parlayed it into a charming inn a few years ago. Seen from the front it appears to be a strong wind away from oblivion, but don't be deceived, these planters usually built things to last forever. Cottages climb up the hill, and each has it's own hammock on a porch facing the sea. Wonderful meals-such as roast duck with mango sauce, or pumpkin pancakes for breakfast-are served on the terrace at the antiques filled main house, and Hermitage is so easy going more than one guest has gone into the kitchen to ask for a recipe." Gourmet
Magazine "Hermitage Plantation, is a picturesque cluster of white clapboard buildings with gingerbread balconies set in a charming tropical garden. Dinner there, hosted by Maureen and Richard Lupinacci, is like a party every night-with guests seated together, though the less gregarious can request separate tables-and the old parlor, complete with piano, is the scene of frequent after-dinner entertainment. I met the cook who rejoices in the name of Lovey Boddie and who comes from Chicken Stone in the village of Gingerland. West Indian women are often talented cooks, and Lovey is no exception. Among the treats that she prepared for us were cucumber mouse with shrimp and dill cucumber mousseline and carrot and orange soup accompanied by hot onion rosemary bread. A puffy, altogether scrumptious breadfruit soufflé followed."
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The Hermitage - A Plantation Inn Nevis, West Indies |
USA Toll-Free: 800.682.4025 Tel: 869.469.3477 Fax: 869.469.2481 Email: contactus@hermitagenevis.com |
