Stade's Rum Distillery Tour Experience

To say this tour was excellent would be an understatement! We had the privilege of being the only two guests on the tour the day we visited so it felt like the tour was tailored to us and fair warning, my husband and I are rum drinking nerds. We talked about EVERYTHING from the water to the distillation process. We fell in love with the beautiful stills, and our guide Sariah (I probably spelled that wrong) could tell you the history of each one them. Before I go too far, I have to say Sariah was phenomenal. She was so knowledgeable and entertaining - such a joy to be around. She felt like an old family friend by the end of the tour. I can honestly say that the tour was one of the highlights of our vacation and I got to drink good rum at the same time. What more can you ask for?

Lovely time at the rum experience, a lot to see and learn about. Bought some rum bottles and saw the horses on the beach which was so cool. Would have been nice to end with a rum cocktail on the beach. We didn't get a chance to finish ours at the start of the tour. And felt too early at 10.30am!!

If this was a review just for the staff, it would be 5 stars without hesitation. Unfortunately, our visit had some communication issues that could have been easily fixed, but left us feeling pretty uncomfortable and disappointed. First, the good stuff: The staff, especially Asha our tour guide, were awesome. They were super friendly and welcoming. Asha (hopefully spelling her name correctly) was a great tour guide. She was a lot of fun and was super patient with all of our questions. The one cocktail we were able to have (more on that later) was incredibly good--without a doubt the best cocktail we had on the island. The tour itself is unique and fun. They have some very unique and quite rare stills here, so if you are into that, it's amazing to see them up close. The walk through the barrels and tasting from the barrel was also unique and fun. The biggest problem with our visit was that we were very excited to visit the "beach club" that they seem to be heavily advertising, and hang out and have some nice cocktails for the afternoon. We had brought our bathing suits, towels, etc. When we arrived, there was some mention of a private event, but it was not made clear to us until the very end of the tasting that the beach club and bar were totally closed. We were immediately disappointed. I mentioned this, and that we where expecting this to be open. The staff then, to their credit, made an effort to address this by putting out a beach chair, and offering to make us a cocktail. But it was just my wife and I on the tour, and it was very clear that all the staff where there just for us, and that they where now doing all of this just for us. I declined at first, but they insisted, so we stayed for a quick dip in the ocean, but we both felt extremely uncomfortable, and like privileged tourists making demands of the staff (This was not on them. They were nothing but nice, but again the whole thing was just extremely awkward.) To be fair, it's the off season, and they clearly where not getting a lot of visitors, but I would think that the bar and beach club being closed would have warranted at least an email to us to give us a heads up, especially because they really tout this as part of the experience. Also, at $70 USD per person, it's a comparatively expensive tour considering you only get to taste their very basic line of rums. (For comparison, Mount Gay and Foursquare both offered premium tastings which, based on what else was included made Stades pretty expensive). It seems like if the beach club and bar are up and running, it would be awesome and well worth the price. Also, it was a $30 USD cab ride each way from our hotel (public transit is complicated from where we were staying) so all in it was an expensive visit. If it had been communicated that all this other stuff had been closed, we might have reconsidered. I don't think that the whole visitors center beach club etc. has been open for very long, and maybe they're still working out the kinks. I'm sure just about anyone would enjoy this tour, but it was VERY corporate. For example, they were quite cagey about the fact that WIRD produces other mass distributed rum brands, but for 1. Who cares? It's a massive industrial distillery, and all these big distilleries make a range of quality of products, and 2. Anyone who is into the rum industry already knows this. It's not a secret which brands are produced at WIRD. About the tour, if you're very into rum, it's cool to see the unique stills, but it would be nice to be able to taste a bit deeper into the line, and honestly, for the tour script to have had a bit more self-awareness about the reputation the Plantation (Now Planteray) brand has in the rum world for some of their practices. If you have knowledge in this space, parts of the tour felt fairly propaganda-like. All that said, these latter critiques would not be an issue for the vast majority of people visiting, and again, the staff and tour were entertaining. The beach club looked like it would be great if opened, and like I mentioned the cocktails were the best we had on the island. It was just really disappointing that we where put in such an awkward and uncomfortable position that could have been so easily fixed by an email or a note at the time of booking our tour.

Stades is a great place to spend your day! Enjoy the beach and then take a tour of the distillery. Such an interesting tour and tons of fun. Asha was our guide and she rocked it! It’s a bit of a hidden gem, get in before it’s on everyone’s to do list!

This place is amazing! We had the pleasure to get a tour from Raymond!!! This guy knows his Rum and is SUPPERRR nice! You have to stop by to f you like rum