JEK
Senior Insider
The best of St Barts' hotels
St Barts' original luxury hotel, Eden Rock St Barths still has enduring star power, but a duo of spruced-up competitors are hoping to attract their fair share of international glitterati.
BY JOHN O'CEALLAIGH
FEBRUARY 04, 2016 12:17
In the early 1950s it cost the entrepreneur Remy de Haenen just a few hundred dollars to buy a rocky and disregarded promontory by the Bay of St Jean in St Barts. Back then the people of this remote, minuscule island subsisted primarily on the revenue generated by salt production. The potential London-born Frenchman de Haenen saw in that forgotten stretch of coastline motivated him to open the island’s first luxury hotel, Eden Rock St Barths, in 1953, and in so doing kick-started the metamorphosis of the island from languid, forgotten Caribbean idyll into one of the world’s most exclusive and expensive holiday destinations.
Key to de Haenen’s early success was his ability to sell St Barts’ isolation as a positive attribute to international glitterati. His friend Jacques Cousteau was an early visitor, as were Greta Garbo, Howard Hughes, the Rothschilds and the Rockefellers. The mystique surrounding the property grew, high society and waves of celebrities followed; over time, Eden Rock’s exclusive reputation was cemented. But while today even the most ordinarily nonchalant of guest is likely to feel a frisson of excitement if genuinely big-name stars such as Leonardo DiCaprio or Rihanna saunter past at breakfast, there’s more to the hotel than its enduring social status.
Managed now by Germany’s Oetker Collection (the company behind London’s Lanesborough and Le Bristol in Paris), the hotel has been owned by Britons David and Jane Matthews since 1995 and still retains a homely, good-humoured feel: highly varied and personal, the Matthews’ artwork is strewn across the hotel, while the bar’s toilets display their family photos. Pretentious Eden Rock is not.
Simply finished in crisp whites, entry-level rooms and cottages are similarly unfussy, while uniquely styled suites range from the diamond-shaped James suite to the newly-opened Christopher Columbus suite, which is slick, immense and has floor-to-ceiling windows offering unimpeded views of the cerulean sea. The most impressive residence of all, however, is the 10-person Rockstar Villa, a 14,000sq ft abode with gym, cinema, recording studio and private pool. That final feature, also found in some suites, is particularly attractive given the hotel is without a communal pool – an absence I felt keenly during my stay due to unseasonably windy weather rendering it unsafe to swim in the sea. I was also surprised by the lack of a dedicated spa – guests instead have treatments in their rooms or in a partially exposed cabana on the beach.
Compensation comes, however, from Eden Rock’s superlative dining experiences. Jutting from the head of the promontory and open-fronted, On The Rocks is one of the most dramatically positioned and sublimely romantic hotel restaurants in the world. Exceptional seafood, such as sake-caramelised black cod with yuzu turnip, is the focus of the Jean-Georges Vongerichten menu; more casual dining is on offer at the beachside Sand Bar. While we sometimes encountered forgetful service from the youthful French staff, the quality of the cuisine was unquestionable and the atmosphere at lunch – when guests at other hotels clamour to secure a table – particularly buzzy and jovial.
Though Eden Rock still feels like the social hub of the island, a proliferation of other addresses now compete for the 200,000 or so wealthy holidaymakers who flock here. It’s estimated that about 130,000 of those individuals stay on the boats and superyachts that perpetually line the harbour. For them, it’s casual, fashionable hilltop restaurant Bonito that serves as one of the island’s most desirable meeting places. Dining here one balmy evening, we listened in quiet fascination as deals and acquisitions were indiscreetly discussed by the parties dining beside us, but the food holds its own too. Exceptionally fresh and tart ceviche is a highlight of a menu that fuses French and Latin flourishes, and it’s those tables along the terrace – with unmatched views of the gleaming vessels in the bay – that are most in demand.
For the remaining 70,000 looking to stay elsewhere on the 10sq mile island, it’s Cheval Blanc St-Barth Isle de France that vies most closely with Eden Rock for the island’s most moneyed gentry. Decades old but run by LVMH’s hotel management division since late 2014, it is unabashedly stylish. Chic and simply finished in taupe and white, its 40 rooms and suites face Flamands beach – one of the best on the island – or are set in manicured gardens and shaded by palms. While not as impressive as On The Rocks, fine-dining restaurant La Casa d’Isle is good and guests here have use of a pool and Guerlain spa with modern gym too; well-received events such as a surprisingly sophisticated weekly fashion show bolster the resort’s style credentials further.
But it’s perhaps Le Guanahani that could be the resort to watch in future. Timed to coincide with its 30 anniversary this year, a just-completed $40 million renovation has spruced up St Barts’ largest resort considerably. Set in spruce standalone cottages in vivid shades of yellow, lilac and turquoise, its 67 rooms and suites are the highlight: some of the prettiest in the Caribbean, they’re set in gardens lush with bougainvillea and hibiscus and are both supremely comfortable and technologically intuitive. I was completely charmed by them.
Facilities are unrivalled too, with the property’s 18 acres accommodating two pools, a Clarins spa and a children’s club, as well as more unexpected features such as two tennis courts, complimentary fitness classes and near-guaranteed sightings of the resident tortoises that bumble slowly through the grounds in search of fallen flower petals.
Particularly intuitive and friendly service rounds out the offering further and if drinking and dining options are improved then the hotel could quickly come to be one of the best on St Barts. So evident elsewhere, a sense of finesse and consideration was lacking during breakfast at all-day beach restaurant Indigo, where an unattractively presented and passable-quality buffet was a disappointing start to the day. Somewhat more sophisticated, fine-dining restaurant Bartolomeo is a pleasant spot in which to spend an evening, but doesn’t match the culinary offerings elsewhere in St Barts.
It’s an unfortunate shortcoming for a property that does many things so well, but the potential for improvement is there, and with a new manager overseeing Le Guanahani’s ongoing enhancements and repositionings it’s likely to be fulfilled. On genteel St Barts, where a commitment to exceptional quality is rewarded by custom from some of the world’s wealthiest consumers, the island’s luxury hotels have ample motivation to ensure they always provide the best standards of hospitality imaginable.
Rates at Eden Rock St Barths (+590 590 29 79 99) start from €650 low season and from €1,500 in high season, including breakfast and transfers.
Rates at Le Guanahani (+590 590 52 9000) start from €600 low season and from €900 in high season, including breakfast and transfers.
Rates at Cheval Blanc St-Barth Isle de France (+590 590 27-6181) start from €620 in low season, and from €935 to €1,825 in high season, including breakfast and transfers.
Hotel guests in St Barts must pay a 5 per cent city tax upon check-out.
Air France currently offers eight weekly flights to St Martin from its hub, Charles De Gaulle in Paris. Economy fares from London Heathrow start from £659; business-class fares start from London Heathrow start at £1548. Prices include all taxes. Book via airfrance.co.uk or by calling 020 7660 0293. St Barts is a 12-minute flight or 40-minute ferry journey from St Martin.
St Barts' original luxury hotel, Eden Rock St Barths still has enduring star power, but a duo of spruced-up competitors are hoping to attract their fair share of international glitterati.
BY JOHN O'CEALLAIGH
FEBRUARY 04, 2016 12:17
In the early 1950s it cost the entrepreneur Remy de Haenen just a few hundred dollars to buy a rocky and disregarded promontory by the Bay of St Jean in St Barts. Back then the people of this remote, minuscule island subsisted primarily on the revenue generated by salt production. The potential London-born Frenchman de Haenen saw in that forgotten stretch of coastline motivated him to open the island’s first luxury hotel, Eden Rock St Barths, in 1953, and in so doing kick-started the metamorphosis of the island from languid, forgotten Caribbean idyll into one of the world’s most exclusive and expensive holiday destinations.
Key to de Haenen’s early success was his ability to sell St Barts’ isolation as a positive attribute to international glitterati. His friend Jacques Cousteau was an early visitor, as were Greta Garbo, Howard Hughes, the Rothschilds and the Rockefellers. The mystique surrounding the property grew, high society and waves of celebrities followed; over time, Eden Rock’s exclusive reputation was cemented. But while today even the most ordinarily nonchalant of guest is likely to feel a frisson of excitement if genuinely big-name stars such as Leonardo DiCaprio or Rihanna saunter past at breakfast, there’s more to the hotel than its enduring social status.
Managed now by Germany’s Oetker Collection (the company behind London’s Lanesborough and Le Bristol in Paris), the hotel has been owned by Britons David and Jane Matthews since 1995 and still retains a homely, good-humoured feel: highly varied and personal, the Matthews’ artwork is strewn across the hotel, while the bar’s toilets display their family photos. Pretentious Eden Rock is not.
Simply finished in crisp whites, entry-level rooms and cottages are similarly unfussy, while uniquely styled suites range from the diamond-shaped James suite to the newly-opened Christopher Columbus suite, which is slick, immense and has floor-to-ceiling windows offering unimpeded views of the cerulean sea. The most impressive residence of all, however, is the 10-person Rockstar Villa, a 14,000sq ft abode with gym, cinema, recording studio and private pool. That final feature, also found in some suites, is particularly attractive given the hotel is without a communal pool – an absence I felt keenly during my stay due to unseasonably windy weather rendering it unsafe to swim in the sea. I was also surprised by the lack of a dedicated spa – guests instead have treatments in their rooms or in a partially exposed cabana on the beach.
Compensation comes, however, from Eden Rock’s superlative dining experiences. Jutting from the head of the promontory and open-fronted, On The Rocks is one of the most dramatically positioned and sublimely romantic hotel restaurants in the world. Exceptional seafood, such as sake-caramelised black cod with yuzu turnip, is the focus of the Jean-Georges Vongerichten menu; more casual dining is on offer at the beachside Sand Bar. While we sometimes encountered forgetful service from the youthful French staff, the quality of the cuisine was unquestionable and the atmosphere at lunch – when guests at other hotels clamour to secure a table – particularly buzzy and jovial.
Though Eden Rock still feels like the social hub of the island, a proliferation of other addresses now compete for the 200,000 or so wealthy holidaymakers who flock here. It’s estimated that about 130,000 of those individuals stay on the boats and superyachts that perpetually line the harbour. For them, it’s casual, fashionable hilltop restaurant Bonito that serves as one of the island’s most desirable meeting places. Dining here one balmy evening, we listened in quiet fascination as deals and acquisitions were indiscreetly discussed by the parties dining beside us, but the food holds its own too. Exceptionally fresh and tart ceviche is a highlight of a menu that fuses French and Latin flourishes, and it’s those tables along the terrace – with unmatched views of the gleaming vessels in the bay – that are most in demand.
For the remaining 70,000 looking to stay elsewhere on the 10sq mile island, it’s Cheval Blanc St-Barth Isle de France that vies most closely with Eden Rock for the island’s most moneyed gentry. Decades old but run by LVMH’s hotel management division since late 2014, it is unabashedly stylish. Chic and simply finished in taupe and white, its 40 rooms and suites face Flamands beach – one of the best on the island – or are set in manicured gardens and shaded by palms. While not as impressive as On The Rocks, fine-dining restaurant La Casa d’Isle is good and guests here have use of a pool and Guerlain spa with modern gym too; well-received events such as a surprisingly sophisticated weekly fashion show bolster the resort’s style credentials further.
But it’s perhaps Le Guanahani that could be the resort to watch in future. Timed to coincide with its 30 anniversary this year, a just-completed $40 million renovation has spruced up St Barts’ largest resort considerably. Set in spruce standalone cottages in vivid shades of yellow, lilac and turquoise, its 67 rooms and suites are the highlight: some of the prettiest in the Caribbean, they’re set in gardens lush with bougainvillea and hibiscus and are both supremely comfortable and technologically intuitive. I was completely charmed by them.
Facilities are unrivalled too, with the property’s 18 acres accommodating two pools, a Clarins spa and a children’s club, as well as more unexpected features such as two tennis courts, complimentary fitness classes and near-guaranteed sightings of the resident tortoises that bumble slowly through the grounds in search of fallen flower petals.
Particularly intuitive and friendly service rounds out the offering further and if drinking and dining options are improved then the hotel could quickly come to be one of the best on St Barts. So evident elsewhere, a sense of finesse and consideration was lacking during breakfast at all-day beach restaurant Indigo, where an unattractively presented and passable-quality buffet was a disappointing start to the day. Somewhat more sophisticated, fine-dining restaurant Bartolomeo is a pleasant spot in which to spend an evening, but doesn’t match the culinary offerings elsewhere in St Barts.
It’s an unfortunate shortcoming for a property that does many things so well, but the potential for improvement is there, and with a new manager overseeing Le Guanahani’s ongoing enhancements and repositionings it’s likely to be fulfilled. On genteel St Barts, where a commitment to exceptional quality is rewarded by custom from some of the world’s wealthiest consumers, the island’s luxury hotels have ample motivation to ensure they always provide the best standards of hospitality imaginable.
Rates at Eden Rock St Barths (+590 590 29 79 99) start from €650 low season and from €1,500 in high season, including breakfast and transfers.
Rates at Le Guanahani (+590 590 52 9000) start from €600 low season and from €900 in high season, including breakfast and transfers.
Rates at Cheval Blanc St-Barth Isle de France (+590 590 27-6181) start from €620 in low season, and from €935 to €1,825 in high season, including breakfast and transfers.
Hotel guests in St Barts must pay a 5 per cent city tax upon check-out.
Air France currently offers eight weekly flights to St Martin from its hub, Charles De Gaulle in Paris. Economy fares from London Heathrow start from £659; business-class fares start from London Heathrow start at £1548. Prices include all taxes. Book via airfrance.co.uk or by calling 020 7660 0293. St Barts is a 12-minute flight or 40-minute ferry journey from St Martin.
