Eden Rock Hotel, St. Barths
Even by Caribbean standards, St. Barths is an amazingly cigar-friendly destination. By global standards, it’s one of the top luxury vacation spots on earth, home to high-end resorts, villas and fine dining. The island’s touchstone location is the Eden Rock, which opened as the island’s very first hotel in 1957. Almost seven decades later, it’s the only hotel on earth where the standard check-in gift is a bottle of Krug Champagne.
Its colorful and pioneering founder, Rémy de Haenen, chose the island’s best location, a dramatic peninsula of boulders jutting into the Caribbean from a crescent beach. From the start, such celebrity guests as Greta Garbo and Howard Hughes set the tone. A recent renovation added more luxury in the form of super suites, bringing the intimate total to just 37 accommodations. Additions include the duplex Pippa suite. Atop the rock for which the hotel is named, it is decorated in “superyacht-style.”
The stunning natural setting is nevertheless within very easy walking distance of the town of St. Jean and the island’s superb cigar store, the Casa del Habano. Cigar in hand, you can take advantage of the hotel’s open-air layout, where smoking is allowed on many decks and terraces. Plus, every guest room includes an outdoor space on which you can enjoy a smoke.
The most lavish “Rock” rooms and suites are on the peninsula. Rock Suite Flamboyant has an expansive private deck large enough for dining with manicured gardens and its own plunge pool. Rock Suite Treetops has a large deck with table, chairs and cozy daybeds. The smallest rooms on the Rock each have a large private terrace set right out over the azure water.
Three distinct dining and drinking outlets are overseen by the legendary French chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten. The open-air Sand Bar is the causal, but gourmet heart and soul of the Eden Rock, with all-day dining and signatures such as truffle pizza and mahi-mahi delivered by island fishermen. The more formal Remy Bar & Salon is the only indoor venue, while the casual al fresco Beach Bar occupies a stretch of sand.
And you don’t have to go more than a few steps to indulge every appetite. Next door is Nikki Beach, a world-class, high-energy day club with an impressive wine list. It has a humidor, as does the nearby Gyp Sea St. Barth beach club, with it its famed rum-themed Plantation Bar. You may never want to leave.
