La Creole Beach Hotel & Spa

The hotel draws around an even mix of business travelers and families. During the peak tourist season, it's families who are the most common, and can be found running back and forth from the hotel pool to the small beach with its pizzeria snack bar, surf shop, and loads of sunbathers. The beach has a large, crooked wooden pier, set up along one end with a series of wooden cabanas to filter out some of the intense Caribbean sun for guests. Back inside, the lobby is a break from the usual Guadeloupe fare with sleek, modern lines that lead in one direction to a metal-and-glass bar and the dance/stage area below it, and in the other to the buffet restaurant, which is broken into a series of sunlit rooms with names like Barbe Rouge and New Orleans, with views of the pool or toward the ocean. 

Gosier is the most central town on Grande-Terre, and where most tourists will want to stay (not counting the rather prosaic city of Pointe-a-Pitre) -- it's about a 15-minute drive from the airport, a half hour to an hour from the other towns on the southern coast of Grande-Terre, and about an hour from the far end of Basse-Terre, meaning that almost all the usual tourist destinations on Guadeloupe are under an hour away. The town center of Gosier is a five-minute drive away through a slightly winding road lined with other hotels and small restaurants, and the hotel itself sits in the middle of a clump of properties. La Creole Beach Hotel looks upon first arrival like an island in the middle of a sea of rental cars, as it's dead-center in a large parking lot. On the beach side, the property is bounded by a pier on one side and the Karibea Clipper hotel is on the other side. A grassy slope rises to what's left of a cannon-mounted pirates-era tower, then descends to a landing for the hotel motorboat (for VIPs only), beyond which is the next hotel's beach. 

The hotel was entirely booked during our visit which is why we couldn't tour any rooms, but through other research we can share that they're clean, if a bit basic, with tile floors and modern white bedding. Almost all have French balconies with nowhere to stand or sit (essentially just a railing), and the 55 Classic Rooms face the gardens; 99 rooms have sea views, and the 42 Coral Rooms are beachfront. Many of those that face the ocean have great views of the bay and port. (If the Route du Rhum trans-Atlantic sailing race is going on, be sure to pack binoculars.) Those who want to lounge outside should book a first-floor room with a terrace. The rooms are located in large buildings surrounded by a well-maintained garden area that branch off from the lobby. Though there is Wi-Fi, it cost a fee to use and can be spotty; some report that the ticketing system is confusing (make sure to sign out when you are done or risk being charged for extra time). 

The hotel prides itself on straddling the line between being a business hotel and a family-friendly vacation hotel (management says clientele is split about 50/50 throughout the year). There is a wide array of services for both sets, from conference rooms and a business center to the kids' club in a separate building that even has kid-sized toilets and sinks. There's live entertainment on the stage below the bar four nights a week, and the hotel lights up at night with blue-and-white lights that line the paths and stretch out to the pier -- even the pool lights up a deep blue. The a la carte restaurant, Zawag, sits on a rocky promontory with a dramatic view of the bay, and the clinking of each meal is punctuated regularly by the booming sound of the waves smacking against hollows in the volcanic boulders. The restaurant, which serves a nouveau Creole menu centered on fresh seafood, has become locally renowned. (There are also a buffet restaurant and a beachside snack bar that serves pizza; breakfast is included, and half-board rates excluding drinks are on offer.) And speaking of food, the kids' club includes lessons on how to make local desserts like papaya cake.