Map of the Caribbean
FOR months the Caribbean islands of Antigua and Barbados have been reverberating to the sound of sawing, hammering and earth-shifting.
Endless deliveries — from tiles to table lamps — have been hauled along hotel walkways, while builders and interior designers have had more work than they know what to do with. Put out the flags — because our favourite Caribbean resorts have been having a makeover. And, frankly, it’s not before time.
While resorts in Indonesia and Asia streaked ahead in the design stakes — creating barefoot luxury retreats typified by clean lines and open spaces, pavilions and infinity pools, and blends of indigenous hardwoods with pale textiles and sumptuous toiletries — the Caribbean, although making vast improvements in terms of food and service, became synonymous with a style bypass.
Not any more. Of course, the trendsetting Sandy Lane on Barbados and Carlisle Bay on Antigua have been making waves, but the classic hotels have also been busy bringing new flourishes, adding suites, chucking out the chintz and even, at Jumby Bay, adding outdoor showers.
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A new Caribbean chic is emerging this winter. In comes mahogany, marble and terrazzo, tumbling foliage, roof terraces with hot tubs, and a proliferation of elegant pineapple prints. Will the changes please the party faithful while attracting newcomers as well? Only time will tell.
ANTIGUA
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CURTAIN BLUFF
This clubby fave attracts English old money and the kind of quiet Americans who have been coming for years and own half of Connecticut, but are far too polite to tell you. Changing decor can be tricky when your guests are set in their ways — but Curtain Bluff, which has 70-odd seaview deluxe rooms and suites on the surf side of the bluff, has succeeded.
The deluxe rooms were the last to get overhauled: loud quilts, cushions and fussy pelmets have been replaced by plain fabrics in seascape shades of blue, turquoise and green. There are sleek woods in the sitting areas and green granite and marble in the super-luxury bathrooms. (Bedroom air-conditioning is still to come.)
The two-year-old Grace and Morris Bay Suites combine white sundecks, complete with whirlpools, with cream and chocolate interiors offset with plenty of foliage and chic pineapple prints. This is an all-inclusive resort, so perhaps buffet lunch is inevitable, but now that the rooms are in a new league, the dinner menu needs to keep pace.
Details: www.curtainbluff.com.
Marks for modernisation: 9/10
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THE INN AT ENGLISH HARBOUR
The Italian-owned inn’s location on an unremarkable beach is not the best (except at regatta time in April, when the harbour is filled with the largest privately owned boats in the world). Great rooms, therefore, are essential to make it a real destination. Almost all of the old cottages were replaced in 2001 by three new buildings housing 24 suites, reached via a steep road that curves down from the rather amusingly 1960s reception, restaurant and bar which teeter above.
First impressions are good: each suite faces the beach and pool area, there are big whirring fans, acres of dark wooden floor, oversized beds, ultra- spacious bathrooms with sleek dark tiles and big verandas. It could almost be one of those chi-chi Asian resorts. Except where’s the bath? And why is the room so bare? They need to splash out on some finishing touches
Details: www.theinn.ag.
Marks for modernisation: 6/10
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JUMBY BAY
Somehow Jumby Bay has failed in the past to achieve the kind of style that a car-free, beach-fringed isle with a small, super-rich population of homeowners should. This could be set to change now that the resort management company Rosewood, which took over in 2002, has hit its stride. Along with the private homes (a handful of which is available to rent for from £5,100 to £8,500 a night), Jumby Bay also has 40 resort rooms and suites and 11 villas, which cost somewhat less.
The rooms and suites have been refurbished. Here, at last, are what visitors to the Maldives have been enjoying for years — cool, dark- shuttered rooms with king-size wooden beds, stone floors, pale textiles, and Zen-like outside bathrooms and showers with mosaic tiles. Though the style borrows heavily from the Indian Ocean, it still feels right.
An overhaul of the beachfront restaurant area is planned. Perhaps the new management might include
scrapping the buffet lunch and improving the choice of wines by the glass while they’re at it.
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Details: www.rosewoodhotels.com.
Marks for modernisation: 10/10
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BARBADOS
COBBLERS COVE
This Caribbean institution calls itself an English country house-style hotel. Forty suites in two-storey cottages have garden rooms on the lower floor and rooms with a terrace on the upper, plus two suites in the main house, set in lush gardens, with a small pool and access to a pretty beach. Service is impeccable and the clientele loyal (80 per cent are repeat bookers), but changes are afoot with a new manager and room makeovers.
Despite this, the star-turn suite, Colleton, looked fussy and old-fashioned. The regular suites have come off better — all fresh and new rattan with crisp stripes and checks in restful blues and greens. Tiny kitchenettes and dressing areas compensate for the cramped, hot bathrooms. A children’s arts and crafts room is a nod to families, and the new Friday seafood and caviar night with vodka menu is perhaps indicative of Barbados making the Zagat guide for the first time in 2006. This is a softly-softly approach that won’t frighten the regulars.
Details: www.cobblerscove.com.
Marks for modernisation: 7/10
CORAL REEF CLUB
Five luxury plantation suites have been added over the past six years to the resort’s confusing assortment of accommodation categories — ranging from garden room to villa to cottage.
Mostly memorable for its anachronistic homeliness (there is a weekly cocktail party at the family home on site), the hotel’s spacious new plantation suites feature private plunge pools, beautiful local coralstone columns, vaulted pine ceilings, marble bathrooms and sunken tubs with white mahogany. Public areas featureplump sofas and button-back chairs. A blueprint for modern Caribbean style.
Details: www.coralreefbarbados.com.
Marks for modernisation: 9/10
THE SANDPIPER
Coral Reef Club’s smaller sister hotel has a lot to live up to this year. So it’s rising to the challenge by adding two tree-top suites and creating a grand reception area. This includes a vertical garden — a 15ft wall of tumbling foliage — on the driveway, and a marble-floored, chandeliered, double-height entrance hall.
All rooms have been upgraded with a sophisticated palette of cream and gold or blue, dark chocolate and black, while Indonesian mahogany and botanic prints of pineapples add a colonial flourish. The modern colonial X-factor, though, comes courtesy of the new suites, created by Chelsea-based interior designer Helen Green. The focal point of each suite is a 45ft wraparound terrace with wet bar (no naff bottles and plastic cups here; expect only cut crystal), private sundeck, covered dining for up to six people and outdoor hot tub. Clearly conceived for outdoor living, the suites nonetheless have solid four-poster beds, dressing rooms lined in mahogany and grass cloth, and limestone bathrooms with recessed lighting.
All this work has involved a lot of new planting, and the garden areas will look better next season than this. Nonetheless, a giant leap for Bajan style.
Details: www.sandpiperbarbados.com.
Marks for modernisation: 8/10
Need to know
Sally Shalam travelled with Seasons in Style (01244 202000, www.seasonsinstyle.co.uk) and British Airways.
Seasons in Style can arrange holidays at all the hotels featured. For example, one week’s B&B at Cobblers Cove costs from £2,150pp; an all-inclusive week at Curtain Bluff is from £2,730pp; and a week at the Inn at English Harbour is from £1,315pp, room only. All prices are for high season (to March 28), and include British Airways flights and private transfers.
British Airways (0870 8509850 www.ba.com) has return flights to Barbados and Antigua from £621.30 return.