Five New Caribbean Escapes to Book Now
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Many of us have been cautious for the last two years about Caribbean travel. (Is that sea of protocols worth it for a week?) The regulatory gauntlet is now mostly gone, and, right on cue, there are fresh places to stay. (In addition to the five below, keep in mind Anguilla’s gorgeous Cap Juluca, completely renovated in 2018 when it became a Belmond property—it just gets better. And its beach? To die for.)
ROCK HOUSE, TURKS & CAICOS
There’s something about hotels on cliffs—the views, the apartness. This new residential oasis (you can own or rent) sits on a limestone escarpment overlooking a private stretch of white sand beach in Providen-ciales. Its 46 “villas” (from studios to four-bedroom stand-alones) are all clean stone lines, floor-to--ceiling windows, and terraces. There’s an infinity pool, restaurant, and gym, a cool cave-like lounge, and, below, a Capriesque beach club with a 120-foot jetty from which boat and yacht tours depart.
JUMBY BAY, ANTIGUA
This most high-end of Caribbean all-inclusives, on its own 300 acre carless island, isn’t just under a new umbrella (Oetker’s Master-piece Collection). Just completed are 12 -indoor/outdoor Ocean View suites, which have wide verandas, open air bathrooms, and private pools. Some can be combined for a three-bedroom option—and if you do come with kids, a boat outing to Nelson’s Dockyard, Britain’s most important Caribbean naval base, is a must: an eye-opening lesson in the realities of British colonial power.
AURORA, ANGUILLA
Formerly the Cuisinart, now under new ownership, this 178-room, 300-acre resort and golf club is as close to a big establishment as I hope this laid-back little isle will ever get. But the renovation feels right: The decor is airy and mostly white (why fight the turquoise beauty of Rendezvous Bay beach?), there are seven restaurants with varying cuisines (including seafood, steakhouse, Italian, and Japanese), two Greg Norman golf courses (18- and 9-hole), tennis courts, a jolly children’s playground, an extensive spa, and plenty of multibedroom suites for your tribe.
RITZ-CARLTON, GRAND CAYMAN
If you’re fine with a towering beach structure (and those upper-floor views can’t be beat), this classic on the island’s magnificent Seven-Mile Beach just unveiled a major update to rave reviews. The interiors are now fresh and smart, the food remains outstanding (the hotel is chef Eric Ripert’s Caribbean outpost), and the Caymans’ scuba and snorkeling are even better than before: For two years, no cruise ships disturbed the waters and fish practically come up to say hello.
SILVERSANDS, GRENADA
This lush, slightly off-the-radar island, known for nutmeg plantations, rum distilleries, and Grand Anse Beach, got its first five-star hotel in 2018, and it is deservedly gaining traction. A 51-room modernist gem, Silversands’s pièce de résistance is an improbably long pool lined with daybeds that stretches from the lobby to the sand. A Tesla can pick you up from the airport, water toys abound, a personal trainer can be arranged, there are waterfalls in the hills to hike around, and—drum roll—Grenada is south of the hurricane line: You can go tomorrow.
This story appears in the September 2022 issue of Town & Country. SUBSCRIBE NOW
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