Barbados

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• Star Grazing - Necker Island, Antigua
• Where Nelson won his spurs - Nevis
• Chill Out Caribbean - Spas
• Chicville-sur-mer - St Barts
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• Spring into the Caribbean - St Barts
• Frightfully Fabulous - St Kitts
• I Love Lucia! - St Lucia
• So you want to live like a millionaire? - St Vincent & the Grenadines
• My perfect Martini - Turks and Caicos

BARBADOS IS ENCIRCLED BY beaches, but it is one stretch of the West Coast which always grabs the headlines: dubbed ‘the platinum coast’ after the credit cards flexed here, it is a string of five-star resorts and private villas fronting the pale, powdery sands where the parish of St James meets the millpond Caribbean.

A decade or so ago, many of its hotels were caught in a complacent time-warp of tired decor and unremarkable cuisine, while the Indian Ocean began its slow but sure ascendancy. Then, in 2001 Sandy Lane – the legendary 1960s/1970s superstar hideaway – reopened after a £150million investment (and a three-year closure).

‘Sandy Lane raised the bar in terms of overall standards and quality across the island,’ said Jennifer Harding, director of operations at the nearby luxury Fairmont Royal Pavilion.

Now the main impetus among top hotels is redevelopment, as grandes dames invest in upgrades. Notably, the colonial-look Coral Reef Club sank £5.5million into 13 new sumptuous, English country-style cottages last season, and the Fairmont Royal Pavilion gutted and discreetly refurbished its 72 rooms, to the tune of £6million

Other resorts are following suit: Treasure Beach, further down the coast, has recast eight of its 29 suite bathrooms in smart dark wood with conical twin sinks and plans eight more.

‘We’re competing with a much wider world,’ says Hamish Watson, celebrated former manager of Cobblers Cove, who is now heading up The Crane, on the wild East Coast. ‘We have woken up to the fact that the Far East and the Indian Ocean are our competition – not only from a price point of view, but also in terms of service.’

Small wonder then that Asian influences are creeping into Barbados hotels.

The intimate Little Good Harbour resort, on the north-west coast, is clearly influenced by the Far East, with its Balinese four-posters and cushioned Indonesian beachfront gazebos at its restaurant, The Fish Pot.

Sandy Lane has introduced a yoga and meditation retreat, and is said to be courting Nobu to take up residence, having already invited the celebrated chef and his Miami team over to cook for a week.

This summer The Crane opens a new restaurant, Zen, featuring Thai and Japanese dishes by Tui and Taiko, the latter Barbados’s pre-eminent sushi chef.

So how do we rate the top hotels? And how do you know which one is right for you? Here’s our thumbnail guide.

High spenders - Sandy Lane

The original Sandy Lane, built in 1961, put Barbados on the glamour-hotel map. The ‘new, improved’ reconstruction was unveiled on the same intimate beach in 2001; a 112-room nouveau-Grecian affair built of coral-stone and set among mahogany trees.

This time round it is a far flashier affair, with faux-imperial touches (columns, pediments) everywhere. Interiors brim with marble, exotic-wood furnishings and pale, plump up-holstery. There are vast plasma screen TVs and touch pads to control temperature, curtains and lights.

The spa, beloved of whippet-thin footballers’ wives, is a 47,000 sq ft temple to indulgence. Three golf courses include The Green Monkey, which is challenging, although you do get GPS tracking in the golf carts.

Discreet old money - Coral Reef Club

If Sandy Lane is all about seeing and being seen, Coral Reef is a triumph of British understatement, and has been since newly-weds Budge and Cynthia O’Hara left England to manage it in 1956, drawing their children into a family business that thrives today.

Set among riotous tropical gardens, Coral Reef is like a little slice of Chelsea in the Caribbean, its one-bedroom cottage suites and plantation suites painted in restful tones of double cream and taupe, with pale grey floor tiles, fat wicker armchairs and pickled pine tables – not a hint of tropical print in sight. The personal plunge pools are a cool retreat from the midday heat.

Design devotees - Lone Star

This diminutive designer hotel is pure Starck-on-Sea: four modernist beachfront suites, and a restaurant set in a converted bus depot. Rooms blend modern Italian furnishings with Guyanese dark-wood floors; bathrooms have Starck taps and lavatories and vast glass walk-in showers.

Book one of the two upper spaces and chill on the creaking ship’s deck balconies, listening to the sound of the surf of Alleyne’s Bay – or take the hotel’s fully staffed Beach House villa next door, divisible into two separate suites, and furnished with four-posters. The restaurant is a real social scene in curries, Med dishes and seafood: try the delicious grilled lobster.

Unstuffy elegance - Cobblers Cove

From the bottle of house rum punch (with recipe) in your room on arrival, to the photo albums of hotel Christmases past piled cushions in the gently chintzy drawing room, Cobblers Cove feels like an English country home-from-home.

There’s even a fisherman who delivers his catch daily to the water’s edge restaurant in front of the pink, crenellated old house. Aim for one of the eight-ocean-front suites, which look out across lawns to the sea. The most peaceful time to be here is January to March, when children are not allowed.

Independent types - Little Good Harbour

Seven kilometres north of Sandy Lane, take a left after the roadside fish stalls and two minutes along on the right is Little Good Harbour.

Pretty clapboard ‘cottages’ house 15 apartments among gardens of golden palms, ginger lilies and jasmine. The pool, edged with quirky Indonesian statues, establishes an Asian theme continued in Balinese bedroom furnishings.

Each has its own kitchen –ideal for the budget conscious: ‘It can get expensive eating breakfast, lunch and dinner everyday,’ explains the Australian owner Andrew Warner. That said, The Fish Pot restaurant across the road serves superb seared tuna, seafood and lobster salads, and good Ozzie wines.

Beach babies - Fairmont Royal Pavilion

Recently renovated for £6 million, Royal Pavilion is the only hotel on the island in which every room faces the Caribbean – the two blocks of 72 (identical) rooms are so close to the surf that you can almost leap in from your terrace.

The resort feels like a sprawling private retreat, with tropical pink walls, airy covered walkways, fountains and lush grounds of coconut trees. Wicker and cane chairs throughout create a discreet, laid back mood, from the poolside bar to the colonial-feel Palm Terrace.

Laid-back loafers - Treasure Beach

Treasure Beach scores points for its informal, guest-house feel. The 29 rooms and suites in two-storey blocks are curled in a horseshoe around a 1970s kidney-shaped pool, dominated by a huge mahogany tree.

When booking, request one of the eight refurbished ocean view suites – these have bathrooms of dark wood and stylish conical twin sinks. Otherwise reckon on floral bedspreads and framed hibiscus prints on walls.