Palm Heights

That the Cayman Islands are home to some impressive luxury hotels is far from a novel observation. But what used to be one of the most stylistically conservative places in the Caribbean is showing a newfound fashionable side — Palm Heights, on Grand Cayman’s celebrated Seven Mile Beach, makes most of Miami Beach’s boutique hotels look a bit dowdy by comparison. It’s aimed perhaps at an entirely different generation, eschewing many of the most obvious signifiers of “luxury” and instead opting for a subtler form of glamour, offering its guests a clean-lined, modernist-inspired backdrop for living a beautifully easy life.

Palm Heights is an all-suite hotel, and every one of them is spacious and extraordinarily well-equipped, with luxe bedding and marble baths as well as thoughtfully chosen extras like Chemex coffee makers and Apple TVs. Even the staff’s custom-designed uniforms are fashionable. It’s proof, throughout, that there’s no reason to think of style and substance as in opposition — this is a proper luxury hotel that’s as pretty as just about any boutique.

Same goes for the expansive Garden spa — soon to open — and its associated fitness offerings, which include a large indoor gym, a second outdoor one, and a variety of inventive classes and personal-training offerings. Tillies, the upscale Caribbean restaurant, and the Coconut Club beach bar are more than up to their designated tasks. And of course there’s Seven Mile Beach itself, as idyllic a stretch of sand as you could possibly desire.