TRAVEL: What’s New in the Caribbean

 

The Christopher, St. Barth

This season, The Christopher will open three new villas designed by French interior designer Olivia Putman. Two of the four-bedroom villas will open in December, with the third following in 2020. The new villas allow guests all the space of a private home that is completely open to the sea and all the amenities of a luxury resort. Guests can dine onsite at Christo and Mango Beach Bar restaurants, enjoy Sisley Spa with its open-air treatment rooms, or simply relax and order room service.

• What else is cool?

The Christopher has partnered with Artireef to help rebuild the reef of Pointe Milou, the peninsula on which the hotel sits, by creating marine cement that is three times denser than concrete. The growth rate of coral there is three- to five-times that of natural coral. In addition to creating a barrier to the shore, the reef will be more resistant to high water temperatures and pollution.

Belmond Cap Juluca, Anguilla

Sisters Nadia and Katia Narain, Kate Moss’s health gurus and authors of Self Care for the Real World and Rituals for Every Day, will bring their life philosophy to Belmond Cap Juluca for a wellness retreat from July 5–9, 2020. The duo preaches the value of taking time to care for one’s body and mind to open oneself to fully embrace life and maintain balance. The four-night retreat will leave guests feeling refreshed, with sunrise yoga and meditation, snorkeling with sea turtles, self-care workshops in the sand, nighttime kayaking, Taino (indigenous Caribbean) healing salt spa treatments, and sunset cruises through the Caribbean Sea.

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Travelers can seamlessly experience two Leeward Islands in one trip with Belmond’s ‘Island to Island’ package, including accommodations in both Anguilla and St. Martin – and a smooth connection via a 25-minute Caribbean boat ride. Complete with $100 resort credit and daily breakfast per stay at both Belmond Cap Juluca and Belmond La Samanna, the trip offers a taste of both St. Martin’s cosmopolitan buzz and Anguilla’s world-famous, crystal clear beaches.

Belmond La Samanna, St. Martin

Set on the glamorous French side of this northeastern Caribbean Island, Belmond La Samanna reopened for the season on November 7 with a fresh new look. Redesigned by London-based interior design firm Muza Lab, the property’s 83 rooms and public spaces, including the new L’Oursin restaurant and Laplaj Beach Bar, have a new pastel-chic flair. With a color scheme of light blues, greens, pinks and peaches, the design was inspired by the natural tones of the Caribbean Sea. Accents of shells and corals are featured alongside botanical-printed fabrics, artworks, lighting and mirrors.

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Guests of Belmond La Samanna can take a Caribbean impressionist painting class inside a French Créole townhouse. The home overlooks early eighteenth-century French soldier barracks, floral gardens, and two centuries of antique architecture. Guests can hone their artistic skills alongside Sir Roland Richardson, one of St. Martin’s most celebrated painters, as he guides them through the study of light and color on living subjects through the technique of ‘Plein Air’ painting.

GoldenEye, Jamaica

The FieldSpa at GoldenEye is built into the jungle-like landscape on the edge of the crystal-clear blue lagoon, allowing guests to swim or kayak to their spa appointment. As part of a one-year expansion, two new stand alone spa huts will open in mid-December 2019, along with a new yoga deck. A selection of elixirs, juice, and healthy bites incorporating fresh ingredients from Pantrepant, the private farm of music executive Chris Blackwell, and a new therapy menu will be introduced. This expansion will provide direct access to the new spa cove, a crescent of sand nestled along the property’s signature lagoon. GoldenEye will also unveil three new accommodations – a three-bedroom lagoon villa and two lagoon cottages in summer 2020. Additionally, a new dive shop, available to guests and the community, opened on neighboring, James Bond Beach in November 2019. The shop offers scuba certification and excursions, boat tours of the Bay and coral planting opportunities in the underwater coral nursery. All profits of the dive shop will go to the Oracabessa Foundation, which is responsible for improving marine life in the Bay.

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The 25th James Bond movie, No Time to Die, which will mark Daniel Craig’s final appearance as 007, is heading back to Jamaica. In celebration of the April 8, 2020 release, movie buffs can retrace the island life of Bond’s creator, Ian Fleming. The author was a former British intelligence officer and discovered Jamaica during a WWII mission in 1942. Four years later, he purchased 15 acres of under-developed tropical land and named it GoldenEye to pay homage to his naval operation that first brought him to the island. He resided at GoldenEye every January and February for more than two decades and wrote a new Bond novel each winter for a total of 14 books. His beachfront bungalow, which is now called The Fleming Villa with five bedrooms, is part of the 52-acre GoldenEye resort. Fleming’s writing desk and sunken garden, where he would entertain the likes of Noël Coward and Katherine Hepburn, are available for guests to enjoy.

PONANT, Caribbean Sea

During the 2019-2020 season, the recently launched PONANT EXPLORER ships, Le Champlain and Le Dumont-d’Urville, are offering 29 sailings with seven new itineraries, including the eight-day ‘Pearls of the Caribbean’ journey roundtrip from Fort-de-France. With an experienced diving instructor on board throughout the duration of the cruise, guests will enjoy scuba diving and snorkeling in the crystal-clear waters as the ship island-hops from Guadalupe to Saint Lucia to Grenada. Other highlights include a spot at the private Mayreau Island, the smallest in the Grenadine archipelago. PONANT guests can enjoy a beach barbeque and an optional excursion to pilot a Zodiac along Grenada’s coast before jumping into the water to explore the world’s first underwater sculpture park.

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Back on board, PONANT guests will be able to see the Caribbean like never before onboard two of its new PONANT EXPLORER ships, each featuring an industry-first underwater lounge. Located eight feet below water, the unprecedented views from the Blue Eye lounge offer a peek into underwater life through the whale-eye shaped portholes; as well as project images of the sea onto screens in real time. For a completely immersive experience, the lounge also brings the sounds of the sea inside.