Luxury Travel Wisdom

I’m sitting at The Beach House restaurant in St Kitts staring over a turquoise sea and out to the island of Nevis. As in all my Caribbean dreaming, the cool condensation from an icy rum cocktail runs down my arm as the waitress sashays off to the kitchen with my lobster lunch order. A palm frond overhead is buffeted softly by a silken sea breeze which also carries over a swinging calypso tune. I sigh contentedly and for once I do not wake up. No siree… today I am living the dream and savouring every last drop of the cocktail !

This classy restaurant is one of the first bits of Christophe Harbour to be built and services four stunning villas overlooking the tranquillity of Turtle Beach. What I love so very muchly about the place is that it doesn’t interfere with the environment. It’s beautifully understated both inside and out. Hooooray for having such sensitivity (the Marriott could take a leaf or two out of your book). I’ll get down to the the nitty gritty in a proper hotel / villa review on Just The Planet this week (or early next) – so keep an eye out – but for now let’s get back to eating lunch…

I had three lobster tails… THREE, and there’s the photo to prove it. There were also some sensational conch fritters and calamari to start – lightly battered and perfectly crispy with a Caesar side salad. After lunch it made perfect sense to retire to my villa for a little lie-down on my comfy deckchair. Each property faces a beach so quiet it could almost be your own. Doors are flung open wide onto private patios… and each has its own gazebo with an outdoor lounge and infinity plunge pool. And if you lie in your big king-size bed and peek over the top of the duvet… aaaah yes, there we go… the sea.

A short walk along the beach and you’re back at the restaurant, ready for a sundowner. There’s usually a member of the Christophe Harbour team around looking impossibly healthy and relaxed. Yes, this must be island living. Before you know it you’ll be asking for a quick squizz at their gorgeous brochure… and then designing your own Caribbean dream house on the back of a paper napkin. G’won… you know you want to.

I flew out to St Kitts last Saturday with a group of PRs, journalists and publishers for a press tour of Christophe Harbour… a proposed luxury real estate opportunity set on a pristine 2,500 acres of beautiful Caribbean island.

As a South African, and one used to big landscapes and wide open spaces, my initial reaction was to balk in horror that almost a third of this little jewel was to be dug up and built upon. Is no place on this planet sacred ? And as I did some more research of Basseterre (the capital) and surrounds, flipping through tourism brochures and looking at the various travel websites of the island, the likes of the enormous Marriott hotel jumped out and my heart sank further. “TELL ME I didn’t see TWO casinos,” I pleaded with the critic on my shoulder, who had already passed out cold and slid down my arm.

Well I can say now it’s a very good thing I went out there to see it all first hand. Sometimes we all need a little saving from ourselves. And I think St Kitts is no different. The island could so easily go the way of others in the Caribbean. For who hasn’t seen massive resort hotels dominating what used to be paradise beaches, whilst hulking great cruise ships block ports and seascapes, offloading thousands of insatiable shoppers who swarm through these small harbours like ravenous Pacmen.

But not this future for St Kitts if the guys at Christophe Harbour have anything to say about it. All of the south-eastern point of the island will be taken up by the development and it’s all 100% class. Instead of tacky hotels and ugly housing estates, Fazio Golf Course Designers Inc will shortly get stuck into building one of the most picturesque championship courses in the world. And a planned mega-yacht harbour and marina will also aim to steal the limelight and possibly a lot of the attention away from Antigua too. I want to tell all about the sensational villas, five-star hotels, spas, shopping and the Beach Club next…. but it’ll have to wait till my next blog.

Whitstable is a great little town to unleash your inner glutton. We tried Jojo’s (Tapas, Meat and Meze)  for lunch and ate so much we expected forklifts and a jeering Jerry Springer show to laugh us out of the restaurant. Our expanding waistbands and creaking chairs could’ve had something to do with massively over-ordering  (ehm… cough… we did leave ONE half of a deep fried pea and mint risotto ball on the plate). I maaay’ve used the excuse “I’m blogging about this so must therefore order everything on the menu”. Whose nose ?

Did I mention that before this we tried to blag our way into Wheeler’s Oyster Bar ? This magnificent, polished little periwinkle of a place just won a spot in Britain’s Top 100 Restaurants, published by The Sunday Times Food List. It only seats 14 people so it really wasn’t going to happen. Instead, we queued as everyone else did, and we ate our oysters al fresco out of a plastic bucket, standing in the street. But they did supply the black pepper, tabasco and lemon so we weren’t complaining !

Apparently that wasn’t enough for our insatiable appetites. We HAD booked into The Crab & Winkle, just above the fish market over-looking the harbour but we actually couldn’t haul our lardy selves off the couch. Well, you’ve seen The Oyster Shack below. Would you have wanted to leave ? Instead we patted our bellies, surveyed our sensational sea view and vowed we’d be back again and again and again…

If you love seafood you owe it to yourself to visit Whitstable. And if you don’t, there’s always Fiocco di Spalla, Serrano Bodega Ham, Cecina Smoked Cured Beef and the Monkshill Mutton & Feta Koftas at Jojo’s… and then hotfoot down the beachfront before Biggest Loser UK harpoons you from behind and drags you off to boot camp.

… I do like to be beside the seaaaaaaa !

On Monday morning I woke up to the sound of waves crashing on the shore. Obviously this was hugely disturbing to me as I live in London. But wait… no I don’t ! Well, not that particular Monday.

Just under two hours in the car (most of it getting in and out of London) and you’re on the Kentish Coast, in the little town of Whitstable. And if you’re very lucky, you’ll know about and be staying at The Oyster Shack (also known as The Beacon House and The Artists’ Beach House) on Tankerton Beach. This property’s extraordinary location is probably the most envied on the entire coast as it’s literally 5 metres from the beach. Happy people stroll past walking their dogs, breathing sea air or getting some exercise… but other than that, it (and the house next door) is on its own.

It’s one of those ‘lived in’ houses… utterly unpretentious. There’s a proper kitchen with enough space for 8 cooks to make a mess. It is also properly stocked so that the Head Chef doesn’t have a nervous breakdown when faced with 50 oysters and no means to shuck. The oven cooked 2 damn good roast chickens and 8 whole trout too.

Pardon as I skid back to the oysters. The house is about a 10 minute walk from the fish market along the beach and the harbour. It’s filled with fresh fish daily and more oysters than you could consume in a weekend. I know, I tried.

More about Whitstable tomorrow… I’m hungry…