Cap Juluca

Anguilla, Caribbean

Special Offer

To make the best of these noble intentions, this 179 acre resort has just completed a 22 million dollar renovation. The emphasis of this project was to rejuvenate in terms of technology and features without altering the distinctive all-white Moorish signature that has made it so unique in the Caribbean.

Sixty thousand plants were added to the gardens, 40-inch HD TVs and iPod docking stations were added to the rooms (as well as free wireless) and the three restaurants were completely renovated.

What has not changed is the white sand of the Cap Juluca beach that stretches for almost a mile from one end of crescent-shaped Maundays Bay to the other. With a view of the mountains of St. Maarten in the near distance, the true magic of Cap Juluca is its location.

Inspired by Juluca, the ancient Arawak’s rainbow spirit, Cap Juluca continues the Arawak tradition of cultivating a culture of tranquillity on the island of Anguilla.

Photos of Cap Juluca

Prices from:

£1,949 pp

Free night offer!

Chambers Hotel

New York, USA

The art consciousness that one would expect from SoHo or Tribeca has been mixed with the more formal, well dressed profile of a 5th Avenue address. Chambers is in one of the most desirable Midtown areas – on the northern frontier just below Central Park.

Architect David Rockwell was brought in to realise an interior to go with the art. The property features a substantial permanent collection of contemporary art. A fascinating mix of photography, painting, works on paper and sculpture, the likes of which you would normally not find in one place.

With raw concrete ceilings, industrial lamps bolted to the walls and polished concrete floors in the bathroom, the interiors are not what you would expect from a hotel around the corner from Tiffany’s. But that’s exactly why it works.

Chambers, located in the heart of midtown, offers a seamless fusion of uptown luxury and downtown cool.

Photos of Chambers

Prices from:

£869 pp

The perfect location in the heart of midtown

Geejam

Jamaica, Caribbean

Special Offer

Set in the jungle on the secluded and unspoilt northeast coast, Geejam is a stone’s throw from the island’s most beautiful and charming beaches, and only a short journey from the island’s most renowned waterfalls. Geejam is an exclusive collection of deluxe cabins and villas with the added street cred of also being a fully fledged recording studio.

Musicians need privacy when they are recording an album, but they also need comfort and inspiration. With room names like Ska, Rocksteady, Drum&Bass this retreat openly celebrates its musical pedigree and the design only amplifies it, with hidden speakers and the fusion of sleek design.
Organic elegance best describes the style of this six acre estate. A duo of three hundred year old fig trees also serve as the foundation of the Bushbar. It’s all a well balanced mix of upscale interiors – Hansgrohe taps, Starck bathtubs –natural environment – the property has its own waterfall -and the “we know how to chill” shabby chic that has come to typify the Island Outpost group.

Music is as much a part of Jamaica as its mountains, beaches and jungle. Combine all these attributes, condense them, and you end up with Geejam

Photos of Geejam

Prices from:

£1,799 pp

Jade Mountain

St Lucia, Caribbean

Special Offer

The hotel corridor, for instance, has been replaced by a suspended sky bridge. The fourth wall of your room is irrelevant because there is no fourth wall – it has been left out to transform the sweeping space into a stage for the dazzling view of the Pitons.

From the outset it was architect and proprietor Nick Troubetzkoy’s desire for guests to become part of the unforgettable view. To do this, he not only abandoned the fourth wall, but he enhanced the panorama by the strategic placement of a large private infinity pool. You can, as a guest, literally dive into the view below.

This is a place where you leave your mobile and laptop behind and allow your private sanctuary to orchestrate an extraordinary series of sensory experiences.

Sanctuary is the key word for Jade Mountain. It is not a hotel, it is a sanctuary, or a collection of sanctuaries.

Photos of Jade Mountain

Prices from:

£2,649 pp

Ladera Resort

St Lucia, Caribbean

It’s all about the view. From the restaurant, from the bar, from the pool from your room, the Pitons are bang in front of you with their jungle-clad volcanic stone faces plummeting into the placid blue Caribbean below.
It is also one of the most discreet views. From a distance Ladera is invisible. Hidden in the dense verdant jungle that covers most of the island’s mountains, it is a stellar example of how to build in a beautiful location without wrecking it.

Green, moreover, is very much the dominant theme here, especially in the context of the environment. To start with it’s not air conditioned and for good reason, you don’t need it. All the buildings are open, exposed to the cool winds that tend to swirl around the mountaintops.

Ladera is that rare find, a hotel that is a completely individual and totally unique proposition

Photos of Ladera Resort

Prices from:

£1,499 pp

Includes $100 spa credit and 1 free night

Laluna Hotel

Grenada, Caribbean

Special Offer

It’s not a surprise to discover that Laluna is the vision of an intrepid Italian; they seem to have a knack for places like this. Bernardo Bertucci arrived here just over 10 years ago, and fell in love with the island, and the fact that it was not as commercial as other Caribbean islands.

This hotel is far more colourful and ethnic than any of the other hotels. The owner decided to focus on a décor and design much more in tune with the surrounding jungle. Laluna is for people who embrace the chance to escape to a bungalow disguised by the verdant green of a tropical island, just above a beach that is hidden away for all but the guests of the property.

This is a place where you forget time, routine and protocol, and focus instead on the natural beauty of these volcanic Caribbean islands.

Photos of Laluna

Prices from:

£1,299 pp

Includes 1 free night

Marigot Bay Hotel

St Lucia, Caribbean

Special Offer

Facing west, it provided shelter from storms and it was also the setting for a famous sea battle between the navies of France and Britain. Today, this is the setting for the Marigot Bay Hotel, a 30 acre eco-friendly retreat with a stylishly chic collection of 56 suites and 66 rooms, many with their own private pool.

The famous marina at Marigot Bay is just next door, with lively local restaurants and bars, it accommodates some of the world’s most impressive mega yachts. Marigot Bay has become a well-known holiday destination; the perfect place if you are the type that does not like being locked away in an isolated retreat. Apart from the bay itself, there are also St. Lucia’s lush rainforest and mountain peaks to explore.

The bay, described by novelist James Michener as “the most beautiful bay in the Caribbean”, was once a favourite haunt of pirates.

Photos of Marigot Bay Hotel

Prices from:

£1,095 pp

Or from £985pp for 7 nights based on 2 adults and 2 children sharing a 1 bed suite– stay 7, pay 5, travelling July to September 2010

One&Only Ocean Club

Bahamas, Caribbean

In truth, it looks even smarter in real life: an unusually successful blend of shiny new world bling and old world class. It doesn’t come as a surprise to learn that it was once the private estate of Huntington Hartford II, heir to the A&P Supermarket fortune. It still has the feel – that “je ne sais quoi” – of old money. This beautiful house was built on the best location in the Bahamas, and no matter how much the estate has changed, the foundation of discerning taste is still there.
What really stands out about the Ocean Club is its ability to combine the casual beach chic that you would expect from the Bahamas with the polished formality of a summer house built on a Versailles scale.

Some people will recognise the One&Only Ocean Club from the recent James Bond film Casino Royale. If ever there was a place perfectly suited to driving in with an Aston Martin, this is it.

Photos of One&Only Ocean Club

Prices from:

1,699 pp

Free night offer!

Sandy Lane Resort

Barbados, Caribbean

Special Offer

First opened in 1961, it was a success from the very start and in 1998 the property was rebuilt from scratch in order to provide for the modern standards of luxury demanded such as a world-class spa and championship golf. In rebuilding this famous hotel, the porches, the staircases, the walls, the symmetry, the columns -every characteristic Caribbean Georgian detail – were carefully adhered to. The end result is a hotel that looks like it hasn’t been touched on the outside but with a thoroughly modern hotel on the inside. The hotel is distinguished inside and out by its render of crushed coral limestone. It is unashamedly luxurious.

In the sleepy, laid-back Caribbean, Sandy Lane is almost a miracle. The place is a well-oiled machine that seems to operate without hiccup or glitch.

Focus on the many ways you can be spoilt. Because for the true hedonist, Sandy Lane is very hip indeed.

Photos of Sandy Lane

Prices from:

£2,219 pp

Shanti Ananda Maurice

Mauritius, Mauritius

Special Offer

This 36 acre resort on the south side of Mauritius has the quintessential island ingredients i.e. turquoise water, coral reef, beaches and tropical gardens. But it also has a mantra that says “We go beyond simple indulgence of the body and senses to exploring one’s innermost self”. The emphasis is on the wellbeing, not just of the body but also of the mind and spirit. In short, Shanti Ananda is all about a holistic experience.

Nature walks, beachcombing, yoga, aqua yoga, aerobics, aqua aerobics, golf, windsurfing, scuba diving, waterskiing, sailing, snorkelling; Shanti Ananda is all about leaving in better shape than when you arrived.

Photos of Shanti Ananda Maurice

Prices from:

£1,549 pp

Free night offer and rate reductions!

Soho House Hotel

New York, USA

The rules are simple, if you’re not a guest you cannot eat in the restaurant, swim in the pool, lunch on the roof, have a drink in the bar, watch a film in the private screening room, throw a private party in the library, or chill out in the Cowshed – the club’s famous spa… unless you’re a member. But one thing it is not, is stuffy. As a club, it has managed to attract the kind of people that normally never belong to clubs. Film directors, writers, artists, creative types in all fields make up the member roster, and yet Soho is not painfully arty either.

The look, if it has to be defined as such, is a mix of laid back modern and iconic antique, with the odd bit of bling. The rooms are bohemian loft with soaring ceilings, exposed beams, chandeliers and big, baroque carved beds. The Playhouse and Playground rooms have giant egg-shaped baths big enough for two. But more important than how it looks is how it feels with just the right balance of cosy and trendy.

Soho House is not a hotel, it’s a private club – the hottest private club in New York – that happens to have a small hotel.

Photos of Soho House

Prices from:

£1,039 pp

Upgrade to a Playroom from £89pppn

The Carlyle, A Rosewood Hotel

New York, USA

The Carlyle is the Upper East Side, and vice versa. All the values of patrician New York are the qualities that define The Carlyle. Woody Allen can often be found jamming on his clarinet with the Eddy Davis New Orleans Jazz Band in the Café Carlyle (resident caberet jazz/venue) on a Monday night. A neighbourhood that has a world class museum on practically every other corner, not to mention the proximity of Central Park, The Upper East Side is interesting precisely because it's not like the rest of New York. The doormen with their traditional brass-buttoned coats and caps, school children in blazers and ties, discreet little restaurants tucked into the brownstones on gentrified side streets, and, of course, the shopping, all give this part of New York a signature as distinctive as the tenement housing of the Lower East Side.

One of New York's most genuine and charismatic experiences.

Photos of The Carlyle, A Rosewood Hotel

Prices from:

£869 pp

Stay in this Classic New York hotel

The Caves Hotel

Jamaica, Caribbean

Perched on craggy cliffs thirty feet above a translucent emerald green sea, this hotel is unique in the Caribbean. The sea caves are filled with the inhabitants of the coral reef: eels, parrot fish and rays. Some of the caves are large enough to take boats into, and of course it's a paradise for diving and snorkelling. Equipment is all included in the room rates; all you have to do is launch yourself into the twenty-foot waters below.

The caves are just part of an experience that is totally Jamaican. From the hand-made wooden furniture to the colourful fabrics and local works of art. The food is wholesome, with an emphasis on fresh fish, Jamaican-style vegetables and tropical fruit. Reggae and blues are played in the thatched cliff-side pavilion where meals are served. There are no televisions; evening entertainment consists of lively conversation enhanced by rum cocktails.

It is a small jungle-clad retreat of thatched timber huts that literally sit on and between some of the most spectacular sea caves in the world.

Photos of The Caves

Prices from:

£1,789 pp

For a week's All Inclusive stay this June with added VHIP extras!

The Cotton House Hotel

Mustique, St Vincent & Grenadines, Caribbean

In 1959 Lord Glenconner bought the entire island for £45,000, a small fortune then for an island without buildings, services or water. He created the hotel to encourage guests to visit and purchase land – to this day this exclusive island is privately owned by those who chose to be homeowners on this earthly paradise.

Today the restored remains of the plantation including the windmill and warehouse form the core of the Cotton House hotel, the dining room, the ballroom, and the popular Monkey Bar, and guests are accommodated in individual houses of their own each with a view. It has the best location on this man-made Eden, on a promontory that divides windswept L'Ansecoy Bay from the calm green waters on the other side.

Cotton House is a collection of individual “residences” dotted around a lush old sugar plantation estate.

Photos of The Cotton House

Prices from:

£1,649 pp

Free night offer!

The House

Barbados, Caribbean

Special Offer

With only 34 rooms and suites, the proprietor’s chose the name to suggest the ambience of renting a villa as opposed to staying in a hotel. Only, in this adults-only villa, they serve up complimentary Champagne breakfasts and assign each guest a personal ambassador to cater to every whim!

On a design front its combination of, ornate Persian-style screens with teak furniture and floors, is suitably exotic. It's a beautifully intimate place with plenty of privacy for romantic dining. For food lovers the House may be one of the best hunting grounds on the island, because the most acclaimed addition to the Barbados restaurant scene is the adjacent Daphne’s. Located bang on the beach, this satellite of the famous London restaurant, is regarded by many as better than the original.

The House is the beachside version of a hip downtown hotel.