Grenada
Ultimate Grenada: A Gourmet Escape to the Spice Island
When
Price
How long
The Caribbean’s lesser-known Spice Island of Grenada is not only fringed by more than 40 blissful beaches, but it’s also lapped by clear Caribbean waves and boasts year-round sunshine. Pad down from your cottage and sink your toes in the soft white sands of the paradisiacal beaches. Explore the island’s tropical rainforest with a spiritual hike to a hidden waterfall, or enjoy the sunset and scent of spice in the air from the veranda of your heavenly hotel. This seven-night secluded Caribbean jaunt will leave you feeling revived and inspired by the beauty of the region.
Make like Bond
Spend your first two nights getting acquainted with the island at the exclusive Mount Hartman Bay. Just like in a Bond movie, you can touch down in your helicopter or approach by yacht to this eight-suite bolthole built into the hillside on its own peninsula. Spend your time here cooling down in the infinity pool overlooking the bay and nature reserve beyond, or charge up the sea scooters and let them drag you along while you take in the underwater sights. Boats are available for charter to take you to the underwater sea sculpture park at Molinere or across to Hog Island for a beach barbeque. If you have a hankering for exploring inland, the hotel can offer excursions to the cocoa plantation, the River Antoine rum distillery, or go tubing down the river with a picnic lunch.
Secluded beach bliss
Your next port of call will be the chic and discreet, secluded boutique resort of Laluna which was styled by Giorgio Armani’s villa interior designer. Each of the 16 suites features natural materials, creating tranquil spaces with sumptuous touches. Think private plunge pools, expansive sea-view verandas with breezy cotton veils, and the kind of overstuffed pillows that you can’t help but sink into. We’ll organise a jet lag busting pamper session with Laluna’s signature massage for two in the resort’s Balinese-inspired spa. Then lie back on the daybeds in the Sunset Bar looking out over the Caribbean Sea and sample the Italian influences deliciously evident in the restaurant’s freshly-made pasta, cured prosciutto and marinated olives, specially imported by Laluna’s Calabrian owner, Bernardo Bertolucci.
Island life
While relaxing on the aromatic Spice Island enjoy a meal to remember at BB’s Crabback. Set on the waterfront in the Caribbean’s prettiest capital St George’s the ever-friendly BB serves up the island’s freshest fish along with an array of home-grown tropical fruit. His signature dish is truly mouth-watering. Head inland to St Andrew’s tomorrow and let local guide Lennox lead you through the Grenadian rainforest. Stop to swim and marvel at the incredible natural beauty of the Seven Sisters Waterfalls – a series of seven camera-ready falls with refreshing pools of the purest H2O to plunge into – but make sure you continue on to the super secluded Honeymoon Falls. Grenadians are well-loved for their laidback attitude and easy-going ways. Once the sun sets each Friday, take a trip to the little fishing village of Gouyave on the west coast for its famed Fish Friday. Sampling the locally produced rum punch and freshly grilled lobster, along with classic Caribbean calypso sounds, it won’t take you long to see why the locals have so much love for their homeland.