A solitary figure stands tall before Jamaica’s spouting waves. She stoops to pick up a rock, adding it to one of the precariously balanced sculptures that mark the waterfront. Stepping back to look at her work, she smiles with quiet satisfaction. It’s how Jackie Lewis built this entire place. Stone by stone, she carefully crafted a holistic spa from the ground up.
In the early 1970s, the former model opened the first women’s boutique in Manhattan’s SoHo neighborhood. But after almost two decades in the fashion world, she realized something was missing. She began to meditate, to question what “success” truly meant.
Negril, where she had long vacationed, offered the answer. Jackie decided to open a mind-body-spirit health retreat in the place that had always given her peace. Once she’d scouted the area, Jackie purchased 4 acres of pristine land. She roughed it there for a year and a half, living in a tent. Design and construction of the spa proved a slow process, requiring years of fund-raising and labor. But in 1996, Jackie’s on the Reef opened its doors.
Today, greeted with fresh limeade and massages, guests instantly unwind here. “Turn off your cell phone, don’t wear a watch, and just break away from the world,” Jackie says. “Allow us to care for you.” Aromatherapy, hot-stone, deep-tissue, and reflexology treatments take place in thatched huts by the sea. While listening to the crashing surf, vacationers are washed with five-herb water, brushed with rosemary leaves, then scrubbed until their skin seems newborn.
“This spa isn’t about glamour. It’s about inner radiance,” Jackie says, “because beauty comes from within.” And guests do feel like royalty, spending languid hours lounging on chaises.
Built of limestone quarried from the property and topped with a soaring wood-beam ceiling and a tin roof, the airy hotel overlooks a coral reef. An expansive veranda accommodates classes, meals, and spa treatments in the event of rain. Visitors stay in either the main building’s four bedrooms or in one of two cottages for couples. Everything inside the simple rooms—bamboo beds, wicker tables and lamps, billowing canopies—has a made-by-hand feel. Jackie’s artistry appears in the smallest details, from sea fans lining an outdoor shower to bits of pottery and coral embedded in the floor.
There’s no air-conditioning, no TV, no radio—there’s no need. Tradewinds provide a constant breeze. And the antics of a kingfisher family offer entertainment. When rough waters calm, Jackie lowers a ladder for swimming and snorkeling. Beyond morning yoga, no structured program guides the days. Visitors pass time reading, soaking in a saltwater pool fed by the ocean, or doing absolutely nothing.
After a day at Jackie’s, your mind slows. You start paying attention to the sound of individual raindrops. You notice the geometry of a milk thistle blossom. You savor the pure sweetness of a homegrown pineapple. And you realize it’s the simplest things that make you happy.
“It’s like there’s a dome of peace around her property,” says Thelia Foster, who’s vacationed here for nine years. “Jackie has a talent for taking what Mother Nature gives and making it into something amazing.”
For more info, call 718/469-2785 or visit jackiesonthereef.com.
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