With its rainforest-cloaked mountains and "glorious" sugar-sand beaches, Grenada is one of the loveliest islands in the Caribbean, and yet it sees relatively few visitors, said Tim Moore in the Financial Times.
That has less to do with its isolated position (it lies in the far south of the Lesser Antilles, only 100 miles from Venezuela) than it does with the socialist revolution that gripped it in 1979. The revolution's leader, Maurice Bishop, is still held in high regard by many locals today. But he was killed by hardliners in 1983, and while the US invasion that followed ushered in "an enduring era of low-key conservative rule", the island's "traumatic history" probably spooked investors. Only now are things changing, with the opening of several new luxury resorts around the island's coast.
The first of these, Silversands Grand Anse, opened in 2018 beside an "immaculate" two-mile beach. Its "centrepiece attraction" is a 100-metre infinity pool, the longest in the Caribbean, "flanked by willowy royal palms". And this year, its owner – the Egyptian telecoms billionaire Naguib Sawiris – opened a smaller resort, Silversands Beach House, on a headland nearby. Its 28 bungalows all have sea views from their rear decks, and below them lies a "gorgeous" beach. These hotels sit on Grenada's sheltered western shore. Another, Six Senses La Sagesse, recently opened on the Atlantic-facing east coast, which is more "rugged and bracing". It lacks a beach, but its saltwater lagoon and "large" infinity pool make up for that, and its wild setting is splendid.
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The island's main town, St George's, is "winningly" ungentrified. Beyond it lie spice farms and cocoa farms that produce excellent bean-to-bar chocolate, and often welcome visitors. There is also good hiking in the island's mountains: they rise steeply to an impressive 840 metres, and are swathed in primary-growth forest.
And the sailing and snorkelling along the west coast are delightful – you might charter the Savvy, a "merrily gaudy" wooden sloop owned by Danny Donelan of Savvy Sailing.
