20 May 2025

The Caribbean

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Other Caribbean Reviews

Make mine a Caribbean triple

Sue Lawley discovers three dreams in one as she tours Antigua, Grand Cayman and Miami - and for one day only she lives the life of a tax exile and strolls on the sand where billionaires go barefoot

The Caribbean - Luxury under the palms in Miami

The Caribbean - Indulgence at La Prairie Spa

The Caribbean - Looking at the bay at Curtain Bluff

1 Luxury under the palms in Miami 2 Indulgence at La Prairie Spa 3 Looking at the bay at Curtain Bluff

THE CARIBBEAN is the stuff that dreams are made of. Its climate cloaks you seductively and lulls you into intoxicating sleep. Like Mummy Bear’s porridge, it’s not too hot and not too cold but always just right: warm with a cool breeze.

I went in search of Caribbean dreams - and found three of them. The first, on the south side of the island of Antigua, enjoys the best of both worlds. It’s called ‘Curtain Bluff’ - a romantic, piratical sort of name that describes its position, straddling a promontory that separates the rolling surf of the Atlantic from the lagoon-like tranquillity of the Caribbean.

On the Atlantic side, a ceaseless breeze refreshes every part of life; on the other, the drowsy heat melts each day into a beautiful sunset. Curtain Bluff was the brainchild of a Caribbean pioneer called Howard Hulford.

In 1962, he opened his hotel on the corner of the island he had fallen for while working as a private pilot in the region. Howard died in 2009, but his vision lives on through his glamorous and mischievous widow, Chelle. She was a pretty young girl from

California when she first turned up to work at Howard’s hotel. She had met him through her brother-inlaw - both men were fighter pilotsin the Second World War. ‘I fell in love with Curtain Bluff,’ she told me. ‘And I fell in love with Howard.’

I went in search of Caribbean dreams

Together they built what has become a Caribbean institution - 70 per cent of guests return year after year. It is not hard to see why.

The hotel is run like a luxurious home from home. Virtually everything is included in the price, so whether you want to snorkel on the reef or sip martinis at the bar, all you have to do is turn up. You can also try out the great squash court, play tennis with one of the resident professionals, use the well-equipped gym, or pamper yourself in the spa.

If you’d rather put to sea, you can go deep-sea fishing (I watched one happy visitor arrive back with a couple of marlin), or charter the hotel yacht and imagine you’re sailing around the world.

I was quite happy to lounge in the sun, although I did decide to go out in the snorkelling boat on one occasion.

This bay of indulgence is presided over with style by Chelle and her staff in honour of the man who started it all. ‘Howard Hulford’, says his widow, ‘was a visionary.

And I have to keep his vision alive’. Howard believed in putting back what you took out and, early on in his hotel career, persuaded the villagers to come and help him, paying them properly. He also started a fund to assist local young people to go to college.

At Curtain Bluff, you’re not asked to tip - but they do like you to make a contribution to their fund. Howard would be proud to know his dream is still alive. The second dream could not be more different. A three-hour flight from Antigua takes you to Miami on the southern tip of America’s Florida coast.

I was quite happy to lounge in the sun

It has been dredged from the swamp like magic - hence its nickname, ‘magic city’.

It sprawls along the shore like a great sea creature with many tentacles, each one reaching to a different place. The best known, of course, is Miami Beach, where Art Deco has been spruced up for modern consumption and boutique hotels and bars jostle for your attention.

But the dream is not here. It lies across the causeway where, on land that was nothing but marsh ten years ago, a hotel arose amid the building boom that created the third tallest skyline in America. This is the Mandarin Oriental, Miami, an oasis of elegant calm. The aim was to build the city’s first five-star hotel - 20 storeys high and designed in the shape of the fan that is the Mandarin Oriental logo.

It has undoubtedly been fulfilled - even if the shape creates some strangely angled rooms in places. A fine restaurant, a magnificent spa, a swimming pool and even a sandy beach along the side of the inlet combine to make this a haven of quiet luxury. I really enjoyed my short stay in Miami.

It provided a great contrast with Curtain Bluff - a more vivid dream, but none the less pleasant for that. The third leg of my trip took me back out to the islands of the Caribbean.

This time to Grand Cayman, every tax-dodger’s dream. Legend has it that George III exempted it from taxation in 1794 as a thank-you to islanders for rescuing the cargoes and crews of ten British merchant ships that had come to grief offshore.Cayman has the highest standard of living of any Caribbean island - not surprising given it’s one of the world’s largest financial centres. And so I had my dream: for one glorious day, I was allowed to pretend that I too had made enough money to enjoy tax-free luxury.

The Ritz-Carlton on the island’s Seven Mile Beach is where - as the brochure will tell you - ‘billionaires go barefoot’.In La Prairie Spa I had the most relaxing facial available to women, a 90-minute ‘caviar’ treatment in which the sturgeon’s roe plumps and rehydrates sagging skin and makes it glow. I think it worked! My stepdaughter Polly had the same, although in her case more out of desire than necessity.

When we walked into the bar to meet our husbands, they beamed at the sight of us. True, we were late and they had put away a glass or two. But they assured us we looked exceptionally glamorous. And we were of a mind to believe them. New York celebrity chef Eric Ripert presides over ‘Blue’, the hotel’s restaurant.

I can still feel the warm breeze

He presented his tasting menu - from tuna foie-gras, through Arctic char, scallop and snapper, to passion-fruit sorbet.

It was a beautiful dinner and we rose from the table well satisfied but not at all laden. Light and happy, we made our way back to our accommodation. I can still feel the warm breeze of Curtain Bluff beckoning me to that beautiful quiet lagoon; still see the lights of Miami luring me across the causeway from my great concrete island in the sea, and still taste the flavours of a unique dinner on a unique British island far away.

On a chilly British day, I have my Caribbean dreams to keep me nice and warm.

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