The Rainforest Spa at Sugar Beach

How is the atmosphere?

Sugar Beach (home to the Rainforest Spa) is a lush, flower-filled hotel on more than 100 acres with 130 guest rooms with butler service. Each room is slightly different, but all have private plunge pools and four-poster beds that feel like a cool, cool cloud. This is the pinnacle of opulence, set beside the azure Caribbean Sea. The resort is a celebrity magnet (a former One Directioner was there at the same time as I was) and one of a kind in the area.

The spa is actually more of an Eden-like sanctuary, filled with life and the smell of lush, glorious wood. However, going to a spa can make you feel like you’re in the middle of a secret. Although each treehouse is busy offering massages, facials and body wraps, you’ll rarely see other guests. You might meet a soon-to-be friend in the meditation area – a suspended open platform with a thatched roof. Herbal teas, crystal therapy, pulsed electromagnetic field chairs and heated massage eye masks are available. Even if you never venture beyond your meditation space, you’ll leave feeling refreshed. “The spa is designed so you feel like you’re nestled in a tree-lined canopy,” Julie De Brito, director of spa and wellness at Sugar Beach, a Viceroy resort, told me. “The treehouse design draws from the ancient Arawak huts of the Caribbean Indians, thoughtfully redesigned to reflect the island’s heritage and understated luxury. She’s amazing – you feel like you’re instantly swallowed up by nature and everything you want is within reach.” Wander up a set of stone steps and you’ll stumble upon the spa’s Timazca-inspired steam dome—a stone-shaped steam room that feels like it’s been carved out of its surroundings rather than built on top.

Image may contain building, building, hotel, resort, bed, furniture, spa chair, bath, tub, man tub and sink

history?

Rainforest Spa opened in late 2010 when the resort was converted from the former Jalousie Plantation Hotel into Viceroy Sugar Beach. Then, during renovations in 2021, the spa was expanded to include more treatment rooms. In late 2025, the spa partnered with skincare brand Augustinus Bader to offer a range of facial treatments using patented TFC8 products and protocols.