La Samanna is a hotel that puts shell necklaces on doorknobs; that equips sun loungers on the beach with ice buckets and iPods; that serves dinner in the wine cellar, if that’s what you want; that instinctively knows that a room with a sea view must have a terrace too – not just a box, but a private, spacious, furnished terrace built for intimacy and romance. It even mists the air above the alfresco poolside restaurant with a refreshing aerosol that cools the midday sun. It’s all designed to be your own personal comfort zone.
All over the Caribbean there are luxury hotels that think a balcony, a beach and a baked barracuda give them the right to give themselves three stars – and hotels that think a spa, a plasma television and doormen in linen jackets and kepis confer five-star status. There are even the “super-B&Bs”, the £2,000-a-night “Botox and Bentley” hotels that pick you up at the airport in a chauffeured limousine, and peel your skin faster than the sun – then advise you to stay out of it, and take an hour and a half to get your caesar salad from the kitchen to your table. I thought I’d seen them all, stayed in the best of them, been there, done that and shrunk from the hotel boutiques and their logoed baseball caps and polo shirts. Then La Samanna surprised me. It’s one of a precious few that understand less is more: fewer fripperies, fads and fancies, more emphasis on the quality of the resort and its services.
A holiday is not about luxury, it’s about luxuriating, where everything, from the rooms to the food, the staff and facilities, is geared to serve your timetable and needs, not the hotel’s staff roster or profit margins. It’s no surprise 70% of its guests book their return before they leave. St Martin is a tiny, charming, part-French, part-Dutch haven, a kneecap on the long leg of the West Indies where the island chain begins to bend south. It is a refreshing blend of old-Caribbean and affordable St Tropez chic, and has beach clubs on idyllic, far-off islands reached by boat, tax-free designer shops but timeless tropical balm. None are more than 20 minutes from each other but could be a world away.
It’s easily reached with daily flights from London to Antigua and then a connecting flight on a local island hopper, but perhaps more accessible via Paris or Amsterdam with daily flights direct. La Samanna sits on the south side in 55 acres; one of the most beautiful and unspoilt beaches in the Caribbean is dressed with private cabanas and sumptuous day beds. It sweeps along a gentle bay fringed with palm-high villas, each housing two or three secluded suites. Surprisingly for the Caribbean, with its unreliable fluctuations in punctuality and service, its quality is up to top European standards, but then its owner is Orient-Express, which runs probably the finest hotels in the world: the Splendido in Portofino and the Cipriani in Venice. La Samanna is one of only a couple of beach hotels run by the group – but the company’s character survives tropical transplantation well.
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Top five Caribbean destinations
Pink Sands Harbour Island Bahamas. Island Outpost, 00800 688 76781
The Amanyara Providenciales, Turks and Caicos. Expressions Holidays, 020 7433 2610
Hotel Saratoga Havana, Cuba. Caribtours, 020 7751 0660
The Caves Negril, Jamaica. Island Outpost, 00800 688 76781
The Cotton House Mustique, St Vincent and the Grenadines. The Cotton House, 00 1 784 456 4777?
How to get there
Seven nights at La Samanna from £1,745. Abercrombie & Kent,
0845 0700 614
Seven night in Crow’s Nest on Peter Island from £27,184.
ITC Classics, 01244 355527
Seven nights on Musha Cay from £24,750. Alexander and Stuart, 020 7016 6746
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Seven nights at Hotel St Barth Isle de France from £2,035. British Airways, Win-air and Carrier Caribbean. Tel: 0161 491 7620