barbados

Abramovich's 'Eclipse' Meets the 'A' in Anguilla

Having had their fill of St. Barth's and the supermodels and celebs who converged on its posh purlieus for New Year's, Russian billionaires Roman Abramovich and Andrei Melnichenko have now decamped with their megayachts to Anguilla. Abramovich, who stopped off in Barbados en route, dominates the seascape in the Eclipse (above), his $500 million, 550-ft. behemoth built by Blohm + Voss, while Melnichenko makes do with his measly $300 million Philippe Starck-designed destroyer 'A'. Abramovich also brought the Luna along for the ride to Anguilla, the 377 ft. explorer yacht he purchased last year as a sort of support yacht for the Eclipse and lent to Madonna last summer. All three of the enormous vessels were anchored off Meads Bay, allowing their owners easy access to Anguilla's posh resorts including the Viceroy, Frangipani Beach Resort, Carimar Beach Club and Malliouhana Hotel and Spa.

Tags: Andrei Melnichenko, Anguilla, Barbados, billionaire, Blohm + Voss, Eclipse, megayacht, Roman Abramovich, Russian billionaires, St. Barths, St. Barts, superyacht, yacht

A-List Luxury in Barbados: The House

by McLean Robbins (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Luxury Travel & Hotels

Nestled on Barbados' pristine West Coast sits The House, a luxury boutique property with a beach-casual vibe that at first glimpse might be mistaken for more Miami hip than Caribbean cool. That couldn't be farther from the truth. This 34-room, all-suite, adults-only property has played host to celebs like Rihanna, Lionel Ritchie, Patti LaBelle, Daniel Craig and a hordes of British pop stars. The island, after all, calls UK residents about 70% of their annual tourist travelers.

Enter the property from the road and you feel almost as if you're stepping into a castle - a massive stone structure that requires one walk over a wooden bridge-like structure. But inside, you're home. Quite literally - the name implies what one gets, service that's as casual and unpretentious as if you were in the home of a good friend, albeit one with quite a bit of staff.

Settle into comfortable white couches arranged living-room style around dark wood coffee tables (the whole look is very Pottery Barn meets beach house) or opt for check-in in the comfort of your room.

Rooms are spacious, with expansive balconies or terraces, so we'd suggest opting for a junior suite, which offers a large living area, powerful air conditioning (a must), plus amenities like over-sized soaking tubs, flat-screen televisions and in-room Nespresso machines. Despite being almost on top of the beach, rooms are quiet and private, perhaps due to the hotel's small size.

Should the need for privacy really strike, ask for one of the four garden suites, facing inward towards the hotel's central courtyard. Each of these rooms comes complete with a private plunge pool, perfect for a late night dip.

Awaken each morning to a Champagne breakfast served buffet-style in the hotel's living room, including both hot and cold dishes that range from the expected (bacon and eggs) to the Bajan (fried flying fish or plantains with veggies and onions). Each booking comes with a short Jet Lag massage for each guest, which can be ordered at your convenience in a variety of locations throughout the hotel or its sister property, Tamarind, which recently re-opened after a $10 million renovation. If you're traveling with children, this property allows guests under 18.

Gallery: The House Barbados

Tags: barbados, the house, travel review, travel reviews

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Exploring the Caribbean's Most Exclusive Escapes

by Jared Paul Stern (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Decor, Luxury Travel & Hotels, Books

Seasoned travel journalist and luxury hotel expert Meg Nolan Van Reesema sussed out the Caribbean's most exotic and exclusive escapes for her entrancing new book Caribbean Hideaways: Discovering Enchanting Rooms and Private Villas from Rizzoli. The thirty gorgeous destinations from fifteen different islands featured in the book were chosen for their unique views, elegant decor – no examples here of the tacky tropical style we like to call "Caribbean Awful" – and unique ambience. Over 200 vibrant photographs by Jessica Antola bring the desirable destinations to life, while practical information about the best suites, what to expect during your stay, and the local surroundings is also included.

Standouts include the relaxed, chic bungalows of Hermitage Bay in Antigua with dark wood furnishings and freestanding tubs; the open-air guest rooms of Jade Mountain in St. Lucia with unparalleled views of the Piton peaks; the posh, private Oliver Messel-designed Fustic House estate in Barbados; the spectacular Balinese furnishings of Anguilla's Bird of Paradise Villa; St. Barth's super-stylish Isle de France hotel; the ultra-luxe Yemanja villa on Mustique (pictured on the book's cover above) complete with a private screening room; and the elegant British Colonial-style Colleton Suite at Barbados' Cobblers Cove. Check out the gallery for a preview.

Gallery: Caribbean Hideaways

Tags: Anguilla, Antigua, Barbados, books, Caribbean, Cobblers Cove, coffee table books, Hermitage Bay, hotels, island, luxury hotel, luxury hotels, Mustique, resorts, St. Barth, St. Lucia, villa

The Best of the British West Indies

by Jared Paul Stern (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Decor, Luxury Travel & Hotels, Books

From Antigua, Jamaica, Nevis, Barbados, St. Lucia, Trinidad and Tobago, St. Kitts and Mustique to the less-traveled islands of Bequia and Dominica, a beautiful new book by Michael Connors captures the best of British West Indies Style. Many of the English island great houses showcased in the volume are hidden to most visitors. Close to fifty private residences are featured in over 200 full-color photographs taken especially for the book, such as the entrancing view of an estate on Nevis (above). The English country house meets the southern plantation in design details such as mahogany writing tables, tropical wood settees, linens and terraced gardens, offering inspiration for the use of local materials, painting techniques, and elements of outdoor living. Connors also includes entertaining historical vignettes putting the beautiful residences in context.

Tags: Barbados, books, British West Indies, coffee table books, decor, estates, furniture, island, islands, Jamaica, mahogany, Mustique, Nevis, UK, West Indies

Barbados' Famed Mount Gay Rum Gets a Redesign

by Jared Paul Stern (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Spirits, Architecture & Design

One of our very favorite spirits, Barbados' Mount Gay Rum is getting a new look courtesy of a Parisian design firm. QSLD Paris was charged with giving the iconic brand a refresher while keeping it firmly rooted in the traditions of the 300-year-old distillery.

QSLD came up with a new oval-shaped bottle, designed to be uncluttered and very comfortable to handle. The company crest is engraved on the bottle face and the label has been redesigned for a cleaner feel, while the rum's signature red cap remains.

QSLD had already re-designed the brand's Extra Old and 1703 Cask Selection bottlings before turning its attention to the classic, known as Eclipse. Founded by Denis Boudard, QSLD has done design work for several luxury brands including Guerlain, Lacoste, Chopard, Oscar de la Renta, Veuve Clicquot and Hennessy.

The new design also contains cues to the rum's nautical heritage. A legend dating from the 1600s relates that in order to prove passage across the Atlantic from Europe to the "New World," sailors were obliged to bring back a barrel of Barbados rum.

As evidence of its "profound and privileged relationship with the sea, with sailors and with ships", every year Mount Gay Rum proudly sponsors over 120 regattas around the globe.

Tags: Barbados, design, distillery, Mount Gay, Paris, rum, spirits

Barbados "Crop Over" Festival Nears Grand Finale

by Alison Wellner (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Luxury Travel & Hotels

Crop Over is the biggest festival in Barbados, and is that island nation's version of Brazil's Carnival. Historically, the event marked the end of the sugar harvest, but now that tourism has well overtaken sugar production in the Bajan economy, it's become a great excuse to throw a five-week long summer party.

It's all about to come to a climax on Monday, August 2nd -- the end of Crop Over, also known as Grand Kadooment day. This is basically a giant parade of calypso bands, all dressed in wild costumes. It's a competition, and it's huge: last year 15,000 costumed people participated with 25 bands. And I'm quite sure that it's well fueled with one of Barbados' most enduring legacies of the sugar trade: rum.

Tags: barbados, festivals, rum

A Stay at the Oldest Operating Hotel in the Caribbean - The Crane Hotel, Barbados

by Annie Scott (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Luxury Travel & Hotels

The Crane Hotel on Barbados is the oldest operating hotel in the Caribbean. That's no small achievement for an independent resort competing with the likes of five-stars like Sandy Lane, Colony Club and the Fairmont. Still, somehow this AAA four-diamond, historical property remains a favorite among those who can have whatever they want, like Justin Timberlake, Rihanna and Billy Ocean.

It's safe to say that at least part of the reason the hotel is kicking along so successfully is its location on Crane Beach, a truly unforgettable sight which has been called one of the "top ten beaches of the world" by Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous. The pristine pink sand, the turquoise waters and the big, powerful waves of Barbados' southeast coast add up to the kind of place people return to year after year, never fully able to describe it to their friends back home.

Gallery: Crane Beach and The Crane Hotel

Tags: barbados, caribbean travel, crane beach, crane hotel, hotel review, hotels, the crane hotel, travel

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What Makes a Rum Premium?

by Annie Scott (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Luxury Travel & Hotels, Spirits

I recently had the good fortune of visiting Barbados to see how Tommy Bahama Rum is made. I found myself immersed in a sugar-fueled economy. Sugar cane cultivation began on the limestone-coral island around 1640 after the arrival of the British, and as the making of rum has been going on for millennia, it's safe to guess that the Barbados rum industry is over 350 years old. There are a number of Barbados rums available, and countless more are created on neighboring islands and throughout the Caribbean. Yet strangely, there is little-to-no quantifiable information about what makes one rum better than another. Anyone can make a list of tasting notes, but there are no international appellations for type and quality.

The region in which the cane is grown and the island on which the rum is made don't seem to affect taste -- just the age, what it's aged in, whether it's made from molasses or directly from the cane, and whether anything has been added to it. Rum has long been the common drink of the common people in the Caribbean, and so the concept of a "premium" rum has been somewhat slow to form. So, what exactly makes a rum premium?

Foursquare's oldest building

I visited the famous Foursquare Distillery where Tommy Bahama and a number of other premium rums are made and had a tour, a tasting and a long chat with Richard Lawrence Seale, a fourth generation distiller whose great-grandfather, Reginald Leon, is the man for which R.L. Seale's rum is named. Foursquare has been in the Seale family since 1995; prior to that, it was a sugar factory. Parts of Foursquare date back as far as the mid 18th century. Needless to say, a tour is good fun -- and it's one of the only places in the world where you can see the process of making rum from molasses to bottle. The tour is free and open to tourists.

As I mentioned, the source of the molasses doesn't really have an effect on the taste. Foursquare gets theirs partly from Guyana, as there isn't enough sugar on Barbados to support the rum industry. The first step of making a premium rum comes from monitoring the fermentation.

Gallery: Rum Touring and Tasting at Foursquare Distillery

Tags: Barbados, foursquare, RL Seale, rum, Tommy Bahama, Tommy Bahama Rum

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Learn the Sport of Kings at the Barbados Polo Club

by Jared Paul Stern (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Luxury Travel & Hotels, Sports

In addition to some of the best beaches in the Caribbean and the incredible Sandy Lane resort, the former British colony of Barbados also has a strong sporting tradition; aristocrats and officers have been playing polo there since 1884. Now you can learn the sport of kings during your stay on the island thanks to a new offering at the Barbados Polo Club. The club's swashbuckling vice captain Jeff Evelyn is now offering lessons consisting of personal instruction on wielding the mallet, hitting the ball, and of course staying in the saddle while doing so; polo ponies are provided from the club's stable. He also stages practice matches at the club's Holders polo grounds in St. James so you can try your hand at scoring a goal. The Barbados Polo Open, where world-class sportsmen such as Britain's Prince Harry compete, takes place March 14-21.

[via JustLuxe]

Tags: Barbados, Caribbean, equestrian, polo, Sandy Lane, SandyLane

The Classicist: Plantation Rum Collection, Finished in Cognac Casks

by Jared Paul Stern (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Spirits, The Classicist

Last summer we told you about Citadelle, the delicious gin inspired by a recipe created in the 18^thcentury in the French seaport of Dunkirk, made by Cognac Pierre Ferrand during the downtime between brandy distilling seasons. Now Ferrand has embarked on another exclusive new spirits venture: the Plantation Rum Collection. These spectacular artisanal spirits come from Barbados, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, Nicaragua, Panama and Trinidad, hand-selected by Ferrand's owner Alexandre Gabriel. Each rum in the Plantation collection is made according to its country's traditions and expresses the characteristics and flavor of its country of origin. While the rums are created in rum distilleries in the traditional fashion and aged in barrels in the tropical sun, they then undergo a unique finishing process not used by any other rum producer in the industry.

At just the right moment they're brought to the historic Ferrand estate in France and then refined for several more months in small French oak Ferrand cognac barrels. "Our love affair with true rum began when we sold the prized casks that once held our Cognac to better rum producers, and we fell in love with their product," Gabriel notes. "Ninety-nine percent of rums are aged in barrels that once held bourbon. We found that adding an aging process in a French oak cask that once held Cognac adds extra complexity to the rum. This is a practice that was done more commonly in the past but has almost disappeared now. We thought who better than Ferrand, with our knowhow and exceptional casks, to resurrect this ancient technique."

Gallery: Plantation Rum

Tags: Barbados, Caribbean, cognac, France, Jamaica, Pierre Ferrand, Pierre Ferrand cognac, PierreFerrand, PierreFerrandCognac, rum

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Barbados Bails Out Four Seasons Project

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Real Estate Developments

Last month I wrote about the stalled Four Seasons Barbados project now it seems the project is getting help from the government of the island nation. The Wall Street Journal reports that in order to keep the project going and save jobs, the government of Barbados has agreed to guarantee a $60 million loan from a Caribbean bank to restart construction. In return the government will get a 20 percent equity stake in the project. But like all bailouts, it's risky, should the developer go belly up the Barbadian taxpayers will be stuck with the bill. While $60 million may be a drop in the bucket compared to the U.S. bailouts of car makers and banks, it's a lot for the small island nation which has a population of just about 270,000 people.

The project has attracted celebrity buyers including Simon Cowell and Andrew Lloyd Webber. Construction of the project stopped a year ago and debts began to mount on the property. The project calls for 36 luxury villas and a Four Seasons hotel. All the villas also offer services of butlers and other staff from the Four Seasons hotel whenever the villa owners are in residence. The villas will be outfitted with the finest finishes and antiques sourced form around the world. About half of the villas have been sold at prices from $11 million to $18 million apiece. The Four Seasons website proclaims that Paradise Beach Limited will recommence construction on site before the end of first quarter of 2010 and that the overall development master plan and the original hotel layout will both be revised to provide optimum use of the land but keeping all of the original facilities. The developers are still charged with finding another 19 buyers ready to pay high prices for the villas in order to complete the project and at least for Barbados' sake we hope they find them.

Tags: bailout, barbados, development, four seasons, FourSeasons

Development Delays Mean Paradise Postponed For Simon Cowell

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Celebrity Shopping, Real Estate Developments

It's not always easy to feel sorry for professional crankypants Simon Cowell but we have to feel a little sorry for the American Idol judge over the trouble facing his Barbados home. According to the Daily Mail, Cowell shelled out £15 million in Barbados for his own luxury home but has yet to be able to move in. Cowell who usually spends the holidays at the luxurious Sandy Lane hotel resort in Barbados is spending this year on a £625,000-a-week super-yacht cruising round Barbados, Grenada and Antigua and St Barts.

Cowell's home was supposed to be finished in 2008 but the official finishing date for his home is now 2011. The Daily Mail article says that there are currently no signs of work at the Four Seasons compound at Black Rock which also includes plots owned by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Formula One boss Eddie Jordan. Work ended last February and debts are mounting on the property. The developers have said there will be an update soon but many investors are worried and some have been quietly asking about getting their money back.

British developer and hotelier Mike Pemberton and his business partner, Robin Paterson bought the site in 2005 with a $40 million loan from the Bank of Scotland. They planned 36 luxury villas and a Four Seasons hotel. Buyers snapped up the first phase and the second phase sold well at prices between £6 and £11 million. Cowell bought two home sites. All the villas would include the services of butlers and other staff from the Four Seasons hotel whenever the villa owners were in residence. The villas would be outfitted with the finest finishes including teak doors from Indonesia and antiques sourced from French flea markets.

It sounds perfect but the Daily Mail article says the project was plagued with problems including controversy over Chinese laborers. Some also said the project was in a place that was too touristy. The Four Seasons has said that construction would resume on the project soon and that the 2011 completion date was still valid. Pemberton has spent the last few months seeking investors and has said that all creditors will eventually be paid. Cowell, who has a brother in the property development business, is said to be unconcerned about the delay. After all, with a house in London, one in Los Angeles and plenty of money, he's never lacking for a place to stay.

Source

Tags: barbados, four seasons, FourSeasons, simon cowell, SimonCowell

Caribbean Houses: History, Style & Architecture

by Jared Paul Stern (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Decor, Estates, Luxury Travel & Hotels, Books

West Indian decorative arts scholar Michael Connors presents a lavishly illustrated and comprehensive history of architecturally significant dwellings and estates in the West Indies in his beautiful new book Caribbean Houses from Rizzoli. The book is divided into five chapters, one for each European heritage that brought their own influences and designs to the region: the Spanish, Dutch, English, French, and Danish. In addition to the gorgeous photographs done exclusively for the book, Connors discourses on the area's rich architecture and interior design history, and gives the reader a "unique view of houses that combine the tradition of European styles with the vernacular island forms and decorative motifs." The featured islands include: The Spanish Antilles – Cuba, Haiti and the Dominican Republic; The Dutch Leewards – Aruba, Bonaire, and Curaçao; The English Islands – Barbados, Turks & Caicos, Jamaica, St. Lucia, and St. Kitts; The French Lesser Antilles – Martinique; and The U.S. Virgin Islands (formerly Danish) – St. Thomas and St. Croix.

Tags: architecture, Aruba, Barbados, Caribbean, Cuba, dominican republic, DominicanRepublic, interior design, InteriorDesign, islands, Jamaica, Michael Connors, MichaelConnors, Rizzoli, tropics, U.S. Virgin Islands, U.s.VirginIslands, West Indies, WestIndies

Barbados Issues "Perfect Weather" Guarantee

by Alison Wellner (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Luxury Travel & Hotels

You plan a vacation to Barbados to loll around the beach, sipping a rum punch, two activities that just don't lend themselves to gray, miserable weather. But this eastern-most Caribbean island really doesn't have much terrible weather -- even hurricane strikes are rare -- so much so that the island's tourism authority is willing to guarantee it. Should the average daily temperature fall below 78 degrees, and should rain accumulate at more than a quarter of an inch, travelers that sign up in advance through the Perfect Weather Guarantee program will receive a $100 per crappy day rebate.

There's no cost to enroll in the program, but you have to book it at least ten days before you travel, and you must do so before June 7th, 2009, for travel between May 28th and December 18th, 2009.

Your chances of getting a payout aren't great. According to Weather.com, the average high in Barbados is 85-86 degrees F, and the low is 78-79 degrees F, making it highly unlikely that the average would fall below 78 degrees. There's a better chance of rain during these months, the average monthly rain fall reaches a high of 6.7 inches in October -- but this still averages out to less than a quarter inch a day. Which means you may just have to enjoy a sunny Bajan vacation after all -- perhaps on the pinkish sand beach at The Crane, pictured above.

Gallery: Summer Rates In Barbados

Tags: barbados, caribbean, rum, weather

Bamford's New Barbados Beach Boutique

by Jared Paul Stern (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Apparel, Decor, Luxury Travel & Hotels, Cosmetics and Fragrance, Men's Style

Bastion of top-drawer British style Bamford Ltd., known for its beautiful customized Rolex watches, has opened an understatedly luxurious new beach boutique in Barbados. Bamford founder Carole Bamford was inspired by her "longstanding love affair" with the posh island resort in creating the airy, bright Barefoot on the Beach boutique from a traditional chattel house in St. James. The luxe boutique (above) is a treasure trove of Bamford's naturally luxurious women's and men's ready-to-wear and body collections, home wares and lifestyle products from the hands of skilled artisans. The shop offers elegant, hand-worked silk kaftans, organic khaki cotton accessories from India, ceramic rosary beads, quirky slogan beach baskets, straw hats and sandals, as well as the brand's beloved men's collection, Bamford & Sons, and the Bamford Body product line.

Tags: Bamford, Bamford Sons, BamfordSons, Barbados, beach, British style, BritishStyle, Carole Bamford, CaroleBamford, entertainment-awards

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