The Daily Telegraph - Saturday - Travel
St Barths is back – but not as you know it
This Caribbean playground for the super-wealthy has a newly revamped hotel that focuses on its natural riches, says Mary Lussiana
AFrenchman said to me the other day, when we were discussing winter sunshine destinations: “St Barths is completely different to the Maldives. In the latter, you choose the specific resort you want, but St Barths is the resort; choosing where you sleep is no more significant than which part of the island you prefer.”
Another Frenchman chipped in, categorising some of the hotels: “At Eden Rock, you dance on the tables; at Cheval Blanc, it is all about having the latest Dior bag; and at Rosewood Le Guanahani, it is about slipping into the slow stream and relaxing.”
I mulled this over as I threaded my way down to the sea, past cottages in yellow, turquoise and lavender, along a path framed by shocking pink bougainvillea and glossy, green-fronded palm trees that bend out low over the path, bowed by the warm winds.
There, right on the beach, phoenixlike after Hurricane Irma, lay the sleekest of swimming pools and a beach house bar and restaurant. I had arrived at Rosewood Le Guanahani, as luck would have it, in time for a cocktail.
As I sipped on a reviving mix of rum and artisanal mezcal that the barman had concocted for me and looked around at the couples who, according to those nearest to me, had returned for their 20th or 25th wedding anniversary, having honeymooned there all those years ago, I realised quite how much there was to celebrate.
Just like everywhere else, St Barths has suffered border closures and lockdowns during the past couple of years, but this was on top of a devastating hurricane in 2017 from which many hotels had only just recovered when the pandemic struck. During this time, Le Guanahani was taken into the Rosewood stable, making it the group’s debut on an island already known for its choice of luxury hotels.
A STORIED PAST
St Barths has been a favourite destination of the world’s wealthy elite since dashing adventurer Rémy de Haenen bought a rocky promontory overlooking St Jean Bay in the 1950s and built a hotel on it, Eden Rock. It would go on to host Hollywood’s finest, from Greta Garbo to Robert Mitchum.
In 2022, the island’s flashiness shows no sign of abating, with upmarket shops from Dior to Hermès still doing a roaring trade and megayachts squeezed into the pretty, red-rooflined harbour of the capital Gustavia.
But the renewed global appreciation, over the past two years, of nature and its power to soothe and restore has opened up opportunities to see a different side to the island. Around a third of visitors now come primarily to experience the island’s natural beauty, often in the form of its beaches, including wild options such as Colombier that can only be accessed on foot. By contrast, only 17 per cent come for shopping and gastronomy. St Barths’ flora and fauna extends even to its graveyards, so full of flowers that a quick look when passing might well lead you to think of them as a garden.
Rosewood Le Guanahani is surrounded by 18 acres of nature, which I set out to explore one morning as the sun rose. The resort’s two beaches narrow to a point between them that leads onto a steep, protected peninsula, overflowing with plants and flowers.
As I climbed up it, releasing a fragrant cloud of thyme under foot, past butterflies and the occasional cactus (a variety known as tête à l’Anglais, owing, apparently, to its red head), I saw, way beneath me, turtles breaking the smooth water as they put their heads up for air. They can be found in numbers here, basking in the protected waters.
BETTER AND BETTER
Le Guanahani has been a mainstay of the island’s hotel scene since it opened in 1986, popular with a crowd in search of quiet familiarity.
Happily, many guests I spoke to told me that it was more wonderful now than ever before, and how much they had missed it. Much credit for this must go to general manager Martein van Wagenberg, who was at the helm previous to Rosewood’s involvement and could thus help avoid alienating returning guests.
Rosewood has gently refreshed the 66 bedrooms and suites, turning to the same architects and designers that originally created the hotel’s interiors, adding splashes of colour with vintage travelling trunks in each room, and a bit more luxury in the form of 12 additional plunge pools, joining six existing ones, inset on terraces.
But it is down by the beach that the real changes are visible. There, in what has to be one of the best locations on the island, straddling both the beaches of
Anse Maréchal and Grand Cul de Sac, a long, marine-blue tiled swimming pool runs parallel to the ocean, lines blurred between the varying cerulean tones. At one end stands the bar, where staff can make 200 classic cocktails (and, well, my martini was the best I have ever had) on top of locally inspired concoctions that pay homage to the Caribbean setting.
I saw, way beneath me, turtles breaking the smooth water as they put their heads up for air
FAR REMOVED FROM FUSTY
FINE DINING
Across from there is the Beach House restaurant, where Italian chef Riccardo Schievano elevates humble ingredients such as cauliflower and sardines to centre stage, where, with the sparing addition of a few elements (in the case of the sardines it was dill, onions, a vinegar reduction and sage), they shine brightly. I also tried his ceviche of local white fish, which he mixes with lime, shallots and bell peppers before topping it with an exquisite coriander sorbet.
Such a dish is undoubtedly vaut le voyage, as Michelin puts it, but the Beach House restaurant is far removed from those starched white tablecloth, fine dining establishments. Here, ceiling fans turn lazily to a Caribbean beat and the warm breeze encourages generosity in sharing plates such as cecina, and a galette of chickpeas with pecorino cheese and cumin. The restaurant’s simple design, with wooden floors and wicker furniture, all illuminated by soft lighting, allows the surroundings to flaunt their tropical beauty to a captive audience without distraction.
At the hotel’s Sense spa, nature has been incorporated into a sensory experience, drawing on local ingredients. A wrap of aloe vera and mint for the legs precedes a massage with ice balls to improve circulation, followed by another massage with a balm of soursop, Indian wood and an oil of pimento leaves and lemon verbena that left me ready to face the day.
After travelling round the island for 10 days, I would, were I to find myself discussing St Barths with those same Frenchmen, add that while the island is your resort, and its chic restaurants, seductive shops and endless fine beaches your playground, where you lay your head at night colours the way you view it. In Rosewood Le Guanahani’s case, it is resoundingly green.
Covid rules Travellers to St Barths must be fully vaccinated and provide a negative PCR or antigen test