The latest luxury hotspot is Canouan – a tiny but verdant island in the Caribbean archipelago nation of St. Vincent and the Grenadines.
It’s shouldered by St. Lucia to the north and can be reached by a nine-hour flight from the UK to its western neighbour Barbados, followed by the ultimate Caribbean arrival – a 50-minute propeller plane journey gliding into a beachside airstrip.
The three-square-mile island, which is home to 1,700 residents, isn’t short of natural beauty; it’s surrounded by small bays and coves, secluded white sand beaches and one of the Caribbean’s largest coral reefs, offering incredible diving and snorkelling.
A little over a decade ago, it was developed into Donald Trump’s home-away-from-home, when the ex-property tycoon invested in luxury villas, an international casino and golf courses. Now, all traces of its ostentatious past have been erased and the focus is fixed on attracting a new type of moneyed millennial customer, looking for luxury and adventure in equal measure.
With a seal of approval from the Mandarin hotel empire, a new superyacht marina, a purpose-built private jet runway and whispers of a new Soho House in the works, Canouan’s stock is firmly on the up. Here’s where to stay, play and kick back like a billionaire on its palm-fringed shores.
On the postcard-perfect Godahl Beach lies Mandarin Oriental Canouan. Formerly operating as the Pink Sands Club, it’s now Mandarin’s first and only outpost in the Caribbean.
