The west coast of Barbados — known as the platinum coast, which I’m tempted to say is named for its visitors’ credit cards — is no place to hide. Think of those recent pictures of Michael Winner and Simon Cowell comparing chest hair on the beach at the Sandy Lane hotel: celebrities come here to be seen. Some send out a press release to ensure that we don’t miss them.

So perhaps Glenn Close is a shy, retiring type, for she was due to stay at our villa, Cove Spring House, just after us. And while Cove Spring is on the famous platinum coast — just ten mins by private yacht from Sandy Lane, darling — it has, uniquely, its own hidden beach. Technically it’s a public beach, but two rocky headlands jut into the sea, cutting it off from passing paparazzi and hoi polloi.

Cove Spring is one of the biggest villas on Barbados. Built in the late 1990s, it’s a mock-Palladian monster, bought by the British-Canadian financier Ajmal Khan, 45, for US$15 million in 2001 and smartened up by the Barbados hotelier Lynne Pemberton (who formerly ran Glitter Bay and Villa Nova).

The central hall, double height and built of the local coral stone, has a stunning view through to the ocean, and Terry O’Neill photographs on the wall that Lynne rescued from Villa Nova when it went bust a couple of years ago. There used to be a dining room, but who wants to eat indoors in the tropics? So Khan, who lives here for several months each year, turned it into a cinema, with 20 red velvet seats and a curtained screen.

There are seven huge doubles, and three less good rooms in a cottage in the garden, landscaped with coconut palms, mahogany trees, ylang ylang and plumbago. The bathrooms are not all up to scratch yet (let’s hope a consignment of power showers is on the way), and although seven rooms face the sea, only two of the beds did, which I felt was missing a trick. But the furnishings, much from Ralph Lauren, more from the Far East, are tip-top and the enormous beds supremely comfortable.

So there we were in fashionable Barbados, in winter, but all the celebrities were down on the beach at Sandy Lane. So Ajmal, in the way of a man who keeps a Gulfstream 4 on permanent standby, flew in a few pals to jolly things along.

There was the charming Hollywood producer, let’s call him J, and a couple of starlets, confusingly also Js, and various other pals who popped in from time to time, shared a meal (waiter-served on the enormous terrace overlooking the sea), downed some fizz, made delightful conversation and sometimes reappeared for breakfast, too.

This livened things up no end. The Js took to carousing in the hot tub by the pool until 6am as Bruce Willis’s calls went unanswered. Hidden behind oversized sunglasses, they reappeared at 2.30pm for delicious lunches whipped up by the villa’s staff. On Sunday, chef Rene and his team decamped to Bottom Bay on the east coast to cook us an upmarket version of that Barbados tradition, Sunday lunch on the beach. While we bounced around in the Atlantic rollers, they cooked tuna steaks, serving them with delicious salads and chilled white wine.

Ajmal and J-the-producer were charming hosts, leaping up to refill glasses and ensuring that no one was left out. The girls skittered in the sea in film-star bikinis. They all entertained us with stories of private jets, hotels they had bought and sold, dinners with the stars and a life lived high on the hog.

For the point about villa life, especially on Barbados, is that you don’t just rent the villa — you rent the lifestyle. Ajmal’s glamorous friends might not come as part of the package, but Cove Spring has a team of 16 staff, led by the efficient Gloria O’Selmo, who enable you to live like a star, serving meals and drinks all day, getting you that hard-to-book table at Daphne’s or the Cliff, changing a plane ticket. Given that previous Cove Spring guests include Sir Elton John, Sting and Rod Stewart, they are used to tricky requests.

It’s not self-catering — indeed, our jet-lagged group, often awake at 6am, would have welcomed the chance to pop into the kitchen and make coffee — but being able to choose what and when you eat beats queuing for the hotel buffet. And while you might book a villa for privacy, at this end of the market you’re never on your own — as you lie on the sunlounger, you can bet there’ll be someone scooping leaves out of the pool behind you.

But villa life is perfect for escaping the paparazzi. Just ask Tony Blair and family, who are photographed on their Barbados holidays only once they venture outside Sir Cliff Richard’s home. And for the truly paranoid celebrity, Cove Spring even has a panic button in most rooms — though in our case, the only emergency was when the champagne levels dropped dangerously low.

Need to know

Cove Spring House (001 246 437 3835, www.covespringhouse.com) costs from £33,000 a week, including tax, to rent all ten rooms, January 10-April 30; or from £30,000, excluding the three garden rooms.

Getting there: British Airways (0870 8509850, www.ba.com) has daily flights from Gatwick from £413 return.

Further information: Barbados Tourism Authority (www.barbados.org).

Plantation house villas

If Cove Spring House is too big or too modern, you might hunt out the island’s charming former plantation houses — these three were restyled by the theatrical designer and architect Oliver Messel in the 1960s and 1970s.

Fustic House is hidden in a 4ha wooded garden above the northwest coast. This 18th-century plantation house, once owned by Robert Graves’s brother, Charles, has six pretty, en suite rooms, lovely views through to the sea, a pool carved out of the coral stone and, in Kenroy Hunte, one of the island’s best chefs.

Next door to Cove Spring on the west coast, and with its own effectively private beach, is Crystal Springs, which has a delightful four-bedroom house by the sea and another private garden house. The lounge and outdoor dining area are decorated in the distinctive pistachio colour known as Messel Green, with a painted frieze featuring pineapples and shells, and shabby-chic rattan furniture. Nearby, Mango Bay, set in a mature garden on the smart west coast in St James parish, sleeps 13, and has a gazebo for outdoor dining.

Further information: Bajan Services (001 246 422 2618, www.bajanservices.com) has upmarket villas. Definitive Caribbean (www.definitivecaribbean.com) is a free online guide. Carrier (0161-491 7620, www.carrier.co.uk) can rent Fustic, Crystal Springs and Mango Bay.

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