Palm Island
It's hard to beat a private island for tranquillity. This 55-hectare gem in the Grenadines offers resort amenities and a taste of the Caribbean slow life: five white-sand beaches, only 37 guest accommodations — split between rooms, suites and 20 beachside cottages — no TVs or telephones in the rooms and no kids under 16 during prime winter months. Besides the sole resort, there's a small community of beach homes and wandering yachties to add local colour.
Part of Palm Island's charm is its isolation. Getting there means a flight to Barbados, a transfer to Union Island and a short ferry ride. Rates may sound high — from about $876, double occupancy — but include three meals a day, all drinks and the use of non-motorized toys.
For more information, call 1-800-858-4618 or visit www.eliteislandresorts.com.
Cayman Brac
Only 140 kilometres from Grand Cayman's five-star hotels, swish boutiques and hordes of day-tripping cruise-ship passengers, “the Brac,” as locals call their tiny island, is a study in sun-glazed serenity.
A handful of modest beachside resorts attract a loyal crowd of repeat visitors more interested in the island's superb underwater attractions and its studied air of comfortable somnolence than the glitzy lures of its big sister.
For more information, visit naturecayman.com, caymanislands.ky, divecayman.ky.
North Caicos
Dubbed the “breadbasket of the Turks and Caicos Islands” because of the relatively abundant rainfall, North Caicos is a world apart from the large resorts and upscale restaurants of Providenciales, the archipelago's tourism hub. Indeed, reaching North Caicos often requires a chartered plane or boat.
Locals, who number around 1,400, mostly reside in the laid-back settlements of Bottle Creek Village, Whitby, Kew and Sandy Point, where accommodations are clustered. Don't expect nightclubs and all-inclusives here: small hotels, guest houses and private villas dominate. Activities on the island include birdwatching — the isle is home to the largest flock of pink flamingos in the archipelago — as well as world-class bone-fishing and snorkelling.
For more information, visit www.turksandcaicostourism.com.
Saba
If you really want to escape the tourist crush, make your way to Saba in the Dutch West Indies, one of the least-developed and most terrain-challenged islands in the Caribbean.
Rising steeply out of the sea, this 13-square-kilometre rock has almost no flat ground. At 400 metres in length, its airport, at the bottom of a tongue of land that thrusts into the sea, is one of the shortest in the world and the only road on the island climbs 2.5 kilometres and has 20 sharp curves. There are no beaches, not much in the way of nightlife and no fancy resorts.
There are, however, small lodges, opportunities for challenging hiking on Mt. Scenery and quality diving in the exceptional waters of Saba Marine Park.
For more information, visit www.sabatourism.com.
— Laszlo Buhasz and Adam Bisby
