CAREFREE ST KITTS This blissful hillside retreat is as richly rewarding for locals as guests
VAL KEMPADOO is a rangy Trinidadian entrepreneur who looked at the model for fly-and-flop’ Caribbean breaks and felt he could do better. What, you might wonder, could be better than blue skies, a white sandy beach and an all-inclusive bar?
But Kempadoo felt his homeland was underselling itself. ‘I’d worked for NGOs [non-government organisations, usually run on a not-for-profit basis] in South America and had the eureka moment of combining something of that ethos with business,’ he says as we stroll through the realisation of his dream, Belle Mont Farm, set amid the thick rainforests of the St Kitts interior.
The ‘farm’ — a collection of 84 private guesthouses, hidden on the slopes among hummingbirds, orchids and banana trees — is part of Kittitian Hill, a luxurious development focused on sustainability.
It is a huge estate. On an island that has a population of 35,000 and covers 65 sq miles, Kittitian Hill occupies 400 acres, making it a chunk bigger than London’s Hyde Park. It has been planned in segments, to include villas fit for Hollywood stars and their entourages, as well as a 100room hotel and village square.
With cottages slotted into the hillside, Belle Mont Farm is phase one. You could happily never stray beyond the grounds.
There is a spa where the essential oils are all extracted from home-grown ingredients. If you’ve never smelt the spicy, woody, earthy scent of fresh vetiver — a grass with fragrant roots — now’s your chance.
You can also enjoy a pool, gym and an 18-hole golf course, where the grass is mown by 500 sheep. ‘It had to be authentic,’ says Kempadoo. ‘ We also have a renewable energy plan designed to take us off fossil fuel by 2020.’
This is not the place to lie baking on the beach with a pina colada hangover, before smothering yourself in aloe vera and starting all over again.
YOu rise at dawn for yoga with a view, take a guided hike through the rainforest, rest by your plunge pool, and unwind over a plate of superb food cooked from local ingredients.
In a country that imports 90 per cent of its food, the farm-to-table principle is revolutionary.
Kempadoo has reversed the statistics: here 90 per cent of the food cooked for guests is grown on the estate, plucked from the sea, or sourced from other farms on Nevis and St Kitts. The (organic) kitchen garden grows lemongrass, cucumbers, more than 15 kinds of avocado, okra, sweet potatoes, tomatoes, sorrel, spinach and macadamia nuts. Mango, pineapple, coconut and papaya trees are everywhere.
I feared the food might be overfussy and I’d want to sneak out for macaroni pie in a beachside shack. But, thanks to the work of a French head chef, it was fantastic, and I particularly enjoyed risotto made with dasheen (a tuber with huge green leaves).
I was worried about the wine list, too. Do yoga people drink wine? Yes. Especially when it’s overseen by Isabelle Legeron, a Master of Wine. Kempadoo has also vowed that Kittitian Hill will have one of the finest rum collections in the world.
The main industry on St Kitts was once sugar cane. Now it is tourism. So tourism that creates, rather than simply takes, is welcome.
We left the compound only once — in a car — to go to some beachside bars. Kittitian Hill can also arrange snorkelling and boat trips.
But my happiest memories are of waking in the night and nd getting up in the morning. orning. I loved rising gently to the sound of tropical raindrops or vervet monkeys running on the roof.
I’d make tea, unfold the shutters to look out to the distant Caribbean and the island of St Eustatius, and wander barefoot round the balcony.
The bathrooms are outdoors, with roll-top baths as well as showers that seemed to wash away any tensions. I didn’t crave a beach once.
And just as well. Belle Mont Farm isn’t aimed at sunseekers. It’s an all-year-round retreat, and it works. I still feel a sense of deep relaxation just thinking myself back to my room on a quiet hill.
TRAVEL FACTS
ITC Luxury Travel ( itcluxury travel.co.uk, 01244 355 527) offers seven nights’ full-board at Kittitian Hill from £2,549 pp based on two adults sharing a king room. Includes direct BA flights from Gatwick, private transfers and drinks with meals.