You know how it goes: you carefully peruse the brochure and choose a gorgeous
resort, pictured out on its own on miles of sandy beach. Then you arrive to
find that it is indeed gorgeous . . . and so are the other half-dozen
clustered all around it, which somehow didn’t get into the photo. You wanted
seclusion, but you’re in a holiday factory.
The answer is to choose an island resort. Somewhere with miles of glittering
ocean between you and the next hotel; a place where the cruise ships don’t
stop, the beach hawkers don’t hawk and the only footprints in the perfectly
raked sand are yours.
Here’s our pick of the world’s classiest castaway corners. They’re what
Robinson Crusoe would have enjoyed if his island had been equipped with all
mod cons, a fabulous cook and a Man Friday with a first-class hospitality
degree.
Unless stated, prices are per person, based on two sharing, and include
flights from London. Call the operator for regional departure options
PARROT CAY, Turks and Caicos
In terms of private islands, this is indisputably celebrity central. You’ll
see more stars per square foot here than anywhere else in the world (the
last Sunday Times reporter to cross the threshold sat barstool-to- barstool
with Britney and chatted with Cindy Crawford poolside, don’t you know?).
There’s even a carved-in-stone house policy that staff will never discuss star
attendees, referring to them as “lookalikes”, and all guests are requested
never to ask each other that dread question, “And what do you do for a
living.” It sounds pretentious, but it’s all handled very casually, so
Parrot Cay manages to be super-glitzy without being intimidating.
The 46 rooms are Balinese- inspired holistic havens (the decor all billowing
muslins and white tongue-and-groove walls) with huge, doubly indulgent
bathrooms. But it’s the handful of beachfront villas that are the real
prize, with their own plunge pools and ocean views.
The main stretch of beach is more than three miles of white, talc-fine sand,
where yoga instructors hold complimentary sunrise sessions every morning;
for the rest of the day, grab one of the thatched cabanas and you’ll feel
like you have it all to yourself.
There’s also an award- winning Shambhala spa, consistently voted one of the
best in the world. Even at a whopping $2 per minute, its signature Como
Shambhala massage is among the most satisfying treatments around, using
specially blended oils and soothing strokes along the length of the body,
and finishing after 75 minutes with a destressing scalp massage.
Parrot Cay is a slice of Asian style in the Caribbean: if you have a yen to be
zen, it’s for you.
Take me there: Seasons in Style (01244 202000,
www.seasonsinstyle.co.uk) has a week from £1,650pp, B&B, including
flights from Heathrow and private transfers.
NORTH ISLAND, Seychelles
North Island is the perfect expression of the desert-island idyll, a stylish
but unpretentious sanctuary.
The 11 hideaway stone-and- thatch villas are constructed without recourse to a
single nail, and tree trunks are recycled as wall supports and driftwood as
decorative detailing to create a flowing inside-outside design.
Electronic goods are present — televisions, DVDs, CDs and so on — but cleverly
concealed to avoid interrupting the organic ambience. It has to be said,
though, that there isn’t an awful lot to do. Laze on the four fabulous
beaches, dive the teeming reefs or take your buggy for forays into the
granitic undergrowth. Otherwise, it’s quite good fun to veer off menu when
the chef consults you about precisely what you’d like for dinner.
Painstaking work to protect the indigenous flora and fauna is central to the
resort’s eco-philosophy, and its resident conservationists will take time
off to escort you on fascinating wildlife walks. It’s a bit like inhabiting
a David Attenborough documentary, but without the bat droppings and khaki
suits — a haute couture version of Life on Earth.
Take me there: Elite Vacations (01707 371000,
www.seychelleselite.co.uk) has a week from a whopping £7,495pp,
all-inclusive, with flights from Heathrow and helicopter transfers.
MNEMBA ISLAND LODGE, Zanzibar
This is a dazzlingly beautiful spot, a beach-fringed forest in the clear
waters off the northeast coast of Zanzibar. The boat pitches up on the
beach, then there’s a Bounty-bar wade through water to your room, led by a
butler balancing your cases on his head.
The romance factor cranks up further in the 10 split-level bandas:
woven palm-frond flooring, Zanzibari dark-wood furniture to soothe
sun-drenched eyes, and, of course, endless drapes of gossamer cotton
fluttering artfully in the breeze.
There is an open-sided thatched restaurant, but it’s usually deserted, as most
couples opt for dinner on the coral-sand beach, illuminated by flaming
torches and serenaded by the sounds of the sea. The food is more than a
match for the setting, using heady indigenous spices such as cloves and
cinnamon to complement just-caught fish and freshly picked fruit. If you’re
not on honeymoon or celebrating a special anniversary, people will talk.
Take me there: Audley (01869 276 250, www.audleytravel. com)
has a week from £3,250pp, full-board, including local drinks and activities,
British Airways flights from Heathrow to Dar es Salaam and transfers.
KAMALAME CAY, Bahamas
Hoteliers often claim to offer a home from home. If we set aside the fact that
most of us don’t live on 96 acres of prime Caribbean paradise or sit across
from supermodels at breakfast, Kamalame Cay gets closer than most to the
boast.
To ensure that you have everything your home-loving heart could desire, the
resort sends you an extensive questionnaire 21 days prior to departure,
covering everything from favourite minibar snacks to preferred wines to
accompany its gourmet dinners.
Fortunately, this is a bohemian as well as a Bahamian experience, so there’s
no barman in the veranda- wrapped, plantation-style Great House where you
congregate for meals — you just help yourself to whatever, whenever. Guests
stay in 19 cedar shingle-roofed bungalows, decorated in soothing neutrals
and earth tones with just the odd hint of the British colonial era.
There are no phones, and TVs are available only on request; in fact, your main
techno interlude is an electric golf buggy to trundle you to the dive centre
(the world’s third-largest reef is on your doorstep), along the island’s
three miles of wild and rocky beaches, or to a session at its swanky new
spa, the first over-water pampering palace in the Bahamas. It’s a tough
life.
Take me there: Exsus Travel (020 7292 5050, www.exsus.com)
has a week, all-inclusive, from £2,275pp, including BA flights from Heathrow
to Nassau and transfers.
VAMIZI ISLAND LODGE, Mozambique
You know you’ve washed ashore at a genuine wilderness retreat when the beach
is still sprinkled with hundreds of delicate shells — in more established
destinations, they would long since have been plundered by souvenir-hawkers.
Vamizi is a pristine environment you don’t have to feel guilty about visiting
because it’s clear that if you sliced it in two, you’d find fair-trade
principles running through its centre. Experts spent a year assessing the
lodge’s impact
on the existing village before building could begin.
It opened last December and became an instant hit with the cognoscenti. There
are just 10 oversized beach houses, raised on stilts and snuggled in among
the casuarina trees, nose to nose with naughty samango monkeys. Decor is
stylishly Swahili: furniture is carved by craftsmen with traditional Arabic
designs; fabrics are in shades of burnt orange and vibrant indigo. Instead
of a minibar, there’s a cold chest with drinks buried in ice.
The villagers are gradually being trained up, so do keep a tight hold on those
eco credentials when you have to repeat every request three times, only for
the wrong order to arrive . . . eventually. This is Mozambique, remember? Of
course nothing works. Concentrate instead on the dolphins playfully
splashing out by the colourful reef, which encloses some of the most perfect
turquoise water you’ll ever have seen.
Take me there: Expert Africa (020 8232 9777,
www.expertafrica.com) has seven nights, all-inclusive, at Vamizi, and two
nights’ B&B in Tanzania, from £2,851pp, including BA flights from
Heathrow, local connecting flights and all transfers.
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CAYO ESPANTO, Belize
These four acres off the calm waters of San Pedro are dedicated to
leave-me-alone luxe. There are no public areas — no restaurant, no cocktail
bar, no nothing. You simply hole up in one of the five chic, white-and-wood
Caribbean casas, and all life’s pleasures come, silver-served, to
within a comfortable arm’s reach as you lie on your over-water deck.
No need to fear that your four walls could turn a tad claustrophobic. The
casas are spacious sea-breeze specials, with cathedral ceilings and
Tiffany-blue louvred sides that concertina back until your casa merges
with the lush surrounding landscape.
Staff are on call 24 hours a day and work hard to anticipate your every whim.
On your return from snorkelling expeditions, for example, guides
walkie-talkie ahead to ensure your houseman is waiting with your favourite
drink, and the resort’s award-winning chefs visit daily to discuss your
personalised menus.
You have a plunge pool, a private beach and a plasma TV, DVD player and CD
library for entertainment; there’s Hemingway-style sport fishing if you
insist on something more hairy-chested.
Leonardo DiCaprio was so impressed, he bought a neighbouring caye and enlisted
Cayo Espanto’s management to design an ecohotel for him.
You could get more secluded — but only if you checked in at a motel on Mars.
Take me there: Cazenove + Loyd (020 7384 2332,
www.cazloyd.com) has five nights, and a night in Miami, from £3,212pp,
full-board, including flights from Heathrow with BA and American Airlines.
WAKAYA CLUB, Fiji
It’s not often a hotel is cited in a divorce settlement, but Tom and Nicole
really did wrangle over who should get the two weeks they’d forward-booked
at Wakaya (in the end, they split it). This South Pacific paradise also went
straight to Keith Richards’s head (yep, this is where the sexagenarian
thought it would be an excellent idea to climb a coco palm).
You’ll arrive and wonder what all the fuss is about. There are just nine
Fijian bures tucked in-between the swishy palms of an iconic blue
lagoon, and the decor is simple — woven bamboo wall coverings, floors in
local yaka timber, the odd raffia chair, an open-air lava shower to
complement the indoor sunken tub. There are no phones or televisions, just a
selection of books and a Shady Brady straw hat hanging on the back of the
door.
That’s the charm of it. Wakaya is so low-key, it’s hovering below the bass,
but that casual style is backed up by seamless service, with a
staff-to-guest ratio of 6:1. This means there’s always a couple of burly
locals available to carry you aloft to the water’s edge, as well as personal
fitness trainers, spa therapists, tennis and golf coaches.
Wakaya prides itself on pressing the slow-motion button: you’ll find yourself
busy catching the scent of frangipani and ginger on the breeze, appreciating
pineapples and bananas that have ripened naturally in the sun, and gazing on
scarlet kula birds picking at coconut flowers.
Take me there: ITC Classics (01244 355527,
www.itcclassics.co.uk) has a seven-night package from £5,717pp, full-board,
in a garden-view bure, including Air New Zealand flights from Heathrow and
transfers.
HUVAFEN FUSHI, The Maldives
Nightlife doesn’t generally feature in the vocabulary of private islands, but
Huvafen Fushi has a well-developed streak of urban attitude. No flowing
muslins and natural breezes here — the 43 suites are stiff with metropolitan
minimalism and high-tech gadgetry.
Switches detach from the walls so you can control the lighting mood (and the
air con) from the freestanding bath or your private plunge pool; some rooms
have pools that flow from the lounge to the great outdoors.
By day, therapists tend to your stresses in the world’s first underwater spa.
By night, DJs from the terribly trendy Buddha Bar perform beside the
sand-between-your-toes bar.
Let other islands do casual, here you’ll need a storeful of Jimmy Choo shoes
and more costume changes than Eva Longoria at an awards ceremony. If you
don’t miss breakfast at least every other day, you’re probably missing the
point of the place. Aren’t they, Naomi? Oh, yes, this is one private island
that’s got enough oomph to keep La Campbell happily occupied.
Take me there: Western & Oriental (0870 499 0677,
www.westernoriental.com) has a week from £1,850pp, B&B, including
Emirates flights from Heathrow or Manchester and transfers.
PETIT ST VINCENT, The Grenadines
Petit St Vincent is a time warp, tucked into the sprinkles of teeny paradise
islands that make up the sailing mecca of the Grenadines. The 22 cottages
are decorated in simple creams, with retro touches such as 1970s-style
radios and light fittings; and the overall ambience has more than a touch of
Swallows and Amazons about it.
There are no room keys, for example, and the main activities are bobbing along
in glass-bottomed kayaks, spotting rainbow-coloured fish and corals, or
taking one of the island’s gin-palace speedboats to a deserted beach for a
champagne picnic. Guests are also welcome to borrow one or all of the
owners’ six golden labradors for bracing walks up Marne Hill to catch the
sunset, or romantic strolls along its 26 wide-open beaches.
Privacy is guaranteed — you don’t ever have to speak to another person if you
don’t want to. Service operates on a pulley-flag system. A raised red means
“Leave me alone”, a yellow alerts your butler to come running — but if
you’re feeling especially hermit-like, you can roll your request into the
flag’s bamboo holster rather than speak to him directly. You can also order
any meal to be taken anywhere you fancy on the island.
Richard E Grant claims that this is his favourite place in the world, while
Tony Blair was so impressed with the resort’s stress-management consultant,
he spent two days with her.
Take me there: Caribbean Expressions (020 7433 2610,
www.expressionsholidays.co.uk) has a week, full-board, from £1,864pp,
including BA flights from Heathrow to Barbados and transfers.
AMANPULO, Philippines
Amanresorts is one of the world’s most fastidious hotel chains, famous for
leaving nothing to chance — there’s even a music menu for the airport
transfer. Most of all, Aman is known for scouting out the most luscious
locations. That’s certainly true of Amanpulo (“peaceful island”), which
occupies the 89 acres of bone-white beaches that make up Pamalican, one of
almost 1,800 dots of land in the southwest of the country.
The 40 casitas are based on traditional Filipino bahay kubo dwellings and have
thatched roofs, pebble-washed walls and polished timber floors.
It’s all elevated to barefoot-luxury status by discreet Aman touches —
just the right piece of contemporary furniture, for example. Guests are
expected to do nothing more strenuous than wade out to the pristine reef or
sip cocktails by the stunning pool. Even that most demanding of prima donnas
Mariah “Tell the hotel I want a red carpet and metre-high candles leading to
my room” Carey couldn’t find fault.
Take me there: Scott Dunn (020 8682 5060, www.scottdunn.com)
has a week from £3,050pp, room-only, including flights from Heathrow with
Qantas and Cathay Pacific, and transfers.
