GYP SEA SAINT BARTH

St. Barth isn’t exactly clamoring for attention — flying just under the radar suits tony Londoners and Parisians fine, thanks — but some opportunities you can’t pass up. Namely when they’re some ways outside of Gustavia; not to knock the capital, but yachts are yachts, and keeping up with the Joneses (Jacqueses?) is one of the easiest roads from unspoiled to spoiled, especially in the tourism world. Anyway, all roads are easy on a Caribbean island. Take one northwest to the Colombier hilltop overlooking Flamands beach and you can’t miss Hotel Gyp Sea Saint Barth.

Here we have the next in a prestigious line of Sibuet offspring, a colonial stunner exemplifying plantation Francophilia. You don’t have to be a style nomad to appreciate the white-sand beaches, naturally, but it helps in parsing the décor; seashell, yes, coral, yes, but also model ships and cordage and sundry merchant-marinisms in polished wood. The 21 bungalows and villas may sound like sugary cocktails (“Pineapples,” “Jungle Passion”), but on the whole they stick to tasteful variations on the earthy-meets-beachy formula, spicing up canopied four-posters and vintage furnishings with vivid turquoises and saffrons. Freestanding tub, check, private terrace, check.

If that sounds like a tropical garden, let’s talk about tropical gardens — here it’s palm, banana, mango, cactus, and bougainvillea sheltering the outdoor pool, or it’s Pure Altitude spa’s divine botanical treatments. The slow life continues at the beach club, Gyp Sea, and at the chef’s table, an institution devoted to intoxicating haute-Caribbean flavor profiles with a veritable doctorate in seafood. As if that weren’t enough, the bar builds on the world summoned dreamily from the past: lazy mahogany ceiling fans, fragrant curls of cigar smoke in the fumoir, and a truly world-class fleet of rums.