Le Sereno

When it comes to a modern, living connection to Europe, there’s nothing quite like Saint-Barthélémy — it feels uncannily like a tropical island version of present-day France, like a little bit of 21st-century Paris on the beach. This urbane charm is Le Sereno’s bread and butter. Where most tropical island hotels can’t help but indulge in just a little pastel kitsch, this one stays fashionably composed through and through. The designer, Christian Liaigre, is perhaps best known for hotels like the Mercer in New York, and for his upscale retail and residential work, but Le Sereno is proof that his pared-down aesthetic travels well.

Le Sereno was closed for most of 2018 as a result of extensive hurricane damage, but it took the opportunity to rebuild itself, and today it’s more luxurious — and more stylish — than ever. But stylish doesn’t have to mean uptight — the whole point of the Caribbean, fashionable St. Barth included, is effortless relaxation, and if you can manage to look good in the process, then so much the better.

The oceanfront rooms, open to the air, face the stunning tranquil cove of Grand-Cul-de-Sac, just yards from a splendid private beach. Guests sleep in canopied four-poster beds while the sea breeze floats in through the louvered doors. Guest rooms come with plasma televisions, and sumptuous baths, complete with Ex Voto Paris bath products and custom-made robes and towels — the existing rooms and villas are better than ever, and the new suites are state-of-the-art. And the spa, newly expanded, features three treatment rooms as well as a new fitness room and a garden for meditation or yoga.

By night the Le Sereno Bar and Lounge is perfectly distilled St. Barth — at once laid-back and exceedingly stylish — and Le Sereno Al Mare brings locals and guests together to dine on Italian cuisine by the waterside. As everywhere at Le Sereno, the spaces are impeccable, as cosmopolitan as any city boutique — that they’re surrounded by such tropical island splendor is almost surreal. It’s a contrast that’s thrilling, to be sure, and probably unique: where else but St. Barth can you have an experience that’s so urbane, so European, just yards from the deep blues of the Caribbean Sea?

Please note: Le Sereno has a three-night minimum.