Hotel St-Barth Isle de France

Hotel St-Barth Isle de France Review

An obsessively attentive management team ensures that this intimate, casually refined resort remains among the very best accommodations in St. Barth—if not the entire Caribbean. It's not hard to understand why the property boasts a 72% high-season return rate—it just keeps improving each season. A technology upgrade in 2007 added a reception-area computer for guests and broadband to rooms, which are huge and luxuriously outfitted, all with modern four-posters, French fabrics, and fine art, plus superb marble baths (all with a tub or Jacuzzi tub, both rare on the island). In 2009, renovations added four enormous, beyond-fabulous beachfront suites, and in 2010 a gorgeous three-bedroom villa was built right on the beach. The beachside La Case de l'Isle restaurant serves fine nouvelle cuisine on a pretty verandah. The beautifully serene spa is by Molton Brown. The beautiful white-sand beach couldn't be more pristine. The little boutique is full of great beachwear. There are many different room options on the beachfront, in the garden, or on the hillside; you can choose from large single rooms to bungalows that can accommodate a family of up to six. Be sure to read the descriptions and make your preferences known when you book, because every room is different. Good off-season multiday, multiroom, spa, and honeymoon packages are often offered on the Web site and are a good value for this top property.