Golden Rock Inn Nevis

“Gingerland, Nevis.” That’s Golden Rock’s address in its entirety. If you're looking for a certain low-tech, low-fuss form of tropical seclusion, an address that simple is a pretty auspicious sign. Set on a hundred acres of jungle hills rising above the Caribbean, Golden Rock is not so much an inn as an aesthete’s playground, a collaboration between the artists Helen and Brice Marden, the providentially named landscape architect Raymond Jungles, and whatever gods are responsible for supplying the unerringly pleasant climate and topography.

The pace here, unsurprisingly, is a slow one. The cottages that house the rooms are scattered across the property, and to get around guests follow meandering paths that are sometimes shared with wandering, feral donkeys. (Feral, but pretty relaxed, too.) Nightlife takes the form of croaking tree frogs calling to each other in the dark, and there’s a spring-fed pool, as well as a lovely indoor-outdoor restaurant that’s as much a garden for reposing as it is a place to eat. But the luxury on offer here has more to do with what’s absent — such as noise, light pollution, or any real cause for worry — than with the usual list of resort amenities. It’s just a fact of life that in order to feel like you’ve stepped inside a Gauguin painting, you’ve got to lose the mechanical hum of an air conditioner; here it’s the birds that do all the humming.

Each room comes with a porch, veranda, or deck, many with views of the sea and all surrounded by a profusion of tropical greenery. Some have a more colonial feel, another is done in a traditional West Indian style, and a particularly romantic one even occupies a 19th-century sugar mill, but whatever the look, they’re all saturated in sunlight and kept fresh by sea breezes, decorated simply but colorfully, with an emphasis on the outdoors more than the in. Though Golden Rock draws a lot of high-profile guests, you’ll hardly notice. One comes for the low-profile pleasures of a tasteful little cottage in the hills, brightened up here and there by owners with a very acute sense of just how little needs to be added to a place as idyllic as theirs. It’s enough just to let people in on the secret of this dreamy little corner of a tiny Caribbean island — no need to build it up.

How to get there: The nearest airport, St. Kitts / Nevis (SKB), is located on the neighboring island of St. Kitts. A transfer can be arranged from the airport to the St. Kitts ferry terminal, where guests catch a 45-minute scenic ferry crossing or a 12-minute water-taxi ride to the Charlestown dock in Nevis. Once in Nevis, a driver transfers guests to the hotel. The total cost of transportation for up to two guests between the airport and the hotel is $55 each way if taking the ferry, or $135 each way if taking the water taxi, plus gratuities.