Which Part of St Barth Should You Stay In?

St Barth fits into eight square miles. By car, everything sits within twenty minutes of everything else, and all twenty-two beaches are reachable from any address on the island. No neighborhood will cut you off from anything.

So the choice turns on something else, and on a confusion that almost every guide keeps alive.

The misunderstanding

Here, a neighborhood and a beach often carry the same name. Colombier is a neighborhood and a cove. Gouverneur is a neighborhood and a beach. Saline, Flamands, Lorient, Marigot, Toiny, the same.

The trouble is that guides describe the beach and let you believe they are describing the neighborhood. You read that it takes thirty minutes on foot to reach Colombier, which is true of the cove and false of the neighborhood, which sits on a road two and a half miles from Gustavia. You read that Gouverneur is the end of the world, which is true of the beach and false of the neighborhood, five minutes from the harbor.

Once that is clear, the rest falls into place.

The four beaches nobody lives on

This is the least understood thing about the island, and the most decisive. Four of the finest beaches on St Barth carry no buildings at all. No villa, no hotel, no restaurant, no lounger. They are protected and they will stay that way.

Anse de Colombier. A crescent of sand about a hundred and fifty yards long, at the northwestern tip, inside the nature reserve. No road goes down to it. You get there on a coastal path of about a mile from the end of the Flamands road, twenty-five to thirty minutes on foot, downhill on the way in, over rocky ground where flip flops are a bad idea. Or by boat, fifteen minutes from Gustavia. There is nothing down there. You bring the water and the lunch.

Gouverneur. A crescent bay facing south, sheltered from the northern swells, with a very gentle slope and water that is usually calm. There is a small parking area and a short walk. There is nothing else. No beach bar, no loungers, no restrooms.

Saline. A five minute walk from a small parking area, on a path over the dune. No buildings, no signs. It is the most photographed beach on the island and the least equipped. It is not reef protected, the sea speaks plainly, and you want to watch what it is doing before the children go in.

Shell Beach, in Gustavia, is the exception on this list since a restaurant sits on it, but no villa lines it.

Staying "in Colombier" or "in Gouverneur" therefore means staying on the hills above those beaches. That is not a flaw, it is what saved those bays. But it is worth knowing before you book.

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A cove on the island, on a weekday afternoon.

The seven beaches you can sleep on

Seven beaches on the island do carry villas at the water's edge: Saint Jean, Lorient, Flamands, Grand Cul de Sac, Marigot, Anse des Cayes and Petit Cul de Sac.

What you should know is how rare those houses are. Building along the shoreline is restricted, and the number of villas genuinely sitting on the sand runs to a few dozen across the whole island. They go early, Christmas and New Year above all, and they are priced accordingly.

It is also why a lot of clients who come back every year eventually stop asking for one.

Why the regulars choose the hills

This is a constant from one agency to the next. First time visitors ask for beachfront. People who know the island take the hillsides.

Three reasons, and they hold up. A hillside villa gives you several beaches rather than one, which matters on an island where you change beach according to the day's wind. It gives you privacy that no beachfront house can match, since every beach here is public. And it costs noticeably less for the same standard, with the view thrown in and some air in the middle of the day.

The trade off fits in one sentence. You will take the car to go swimming. Five minutes, often less, but you will take it.

The Gustavia headland and its harbor.

The neighborhoods you can walk

Gustavia is the only real town. The boutiques, the galleries, the tables along the harbor, all of it on foot from the villas set into the hills above the bay. Shell Beach, the town beach, is sheltered and swims well, with a restaurant on the sand. It is made of shells rather than fine sand, so water shoes help.

Lurin is the hill directly above it. One of the largest neighborhoods on the island and one of the best placed: minutes from the harbor, from Shell Beach, from Gouverneur and Saline, with views that reach Saba and Nevis on a clear day. The road down to Gouverneur is steep and winding, which comes with the territory.

Saint Jean is the busiest and best served part of the island. This is where you find the supermarket, the gas station, the pharmacy and the bank, which changes daily life on an island. The beach is split in two by the Eden Rock headland, with a sheltered side where the water stays shallow a long way out, good for children, and a more open side where the boards come out. After Gustavia it has more restaurants than anywhere else. Ten minutes from the airport, five from Lorient, ten from Gustavia, fifteen from Colombier and from Grand Cul de Sac.

One thing few people anticipate: the runway ends at the edge of the beach. Planes come in low and close all day long. It is the most filmed sight on the island, and it is also noise until sunset.

See villas in Gustavia · See villas in Lurin · See villas in Saint Jean

The runway ends at the edge of Saint Jean beach.

The neighborhoods where the water is calm

Grand Cul de Sac is the obvious answer with young children. The lagoon is closed off by a reef, the water stays shallow a long way out, turtles pass a few feet from shore. Three hotels line the bay, which means restaurants, loungers and two watersports outfitters. One caveat, and it counts: the wind blows here almost constantly. That is what makes it a well known kitesurfing spot, with a school on the beach. If you want flat water to read beside, this is not it.

Lorient is more local, quieter, and well enough served to actually live there. The reef shelters the bay, one end is good for snorkeling, the swell comes in at the other and makes a surf break. There is a bakery, two grocery stores, JoJo Burger. Two caveats: there are no public restrooms, and the beach shrinks a great deal at high tide.

Marigot is a narrow bay, rockier and shadier than the others, inside a reserve where engines are banned. The snorkeling is excellent and you will see turtles. No restaurant, almost nobody but the people who live there.

Petit Cul de Sac is the most private of them. Calm water, marine sanctuary, natural pools among the rocks. It is hard to find, there is no signage at all, and it stays empty even on weekends.

See villas in Grand Cul de Sac · See villas in Lorient · See villas in Marigot · See villas in Petit Cul de Sac

The neighborhoods you choose for the view

Pointe Milou is a headland on the northeast coast, regularly named the best spot on the island for sunset. Architect drawn villas, wide terraces, infinity pools facing the horizon. There is no beach, the nearest ones are five minutes away by car, and the people who choose Pointe Milou know it. They spend their days up top.

Vitet sits in the center east of the island and rises to the Morne de Vitet, nine hundred and forty feet, the highest point on St Barth. Barely built up, very quiet, with views that take in the ocean and the hills. You go there for the silence, not for the beach.

Corossol is a fishing village a mile from Gustavia that has stayed more or less as it was. Wooden doris pulled up on brown sand, painted houses, very few visitors. From the slopes above, the view drops onto the outer harbor and the yachts at anchor. Good snorkeling offshore, no services on the beach.

See villas in Pointe Milou · See villas in Vitet · See villas in Corossol

The windward neighborhoods

Anse des Cayes has the most reliable break on the island, rideable all year, on a narrow beach fringed with coral. Four minutes from the airport, nine from Gustavia, in a far quieter mood than Saint Jean.

Toiny is the serious wave and the most dramatic setting on St Barth, facing the Atlantic. It is also the beach you do not swim at: rip currents, heavy waves. The beach club serves lunch, and that is the right way to enjoy it. The neighborhood itself is among the most private on the island.

Flamands has one of the longest and finest beaches, a few villas at the water's edge and two hotel restaurants. It is exposed and the swell can come up. With small children you look at the sea before you go down.

See villas in Anse des Cayes · See villas in Toiny · See villas in Flamands

Four things to know before you choose

A car is not optional. Taxis are expensive and few, the roads climb hard and pass badly. Every villa has parking, and everyone rents a car, including the people staying in town.

Every beach is public. Including the one in front of a villa sitting on the sand. Privacy on this island is found in the hills, not at the water's edge.

Half of the finest beaches have no services at all. Colombier, Saline, Gouverneur, Marigot, Petit Cul de Sac, Corossol. No restaurant, no restrooms, no loungers. That is not an oversight, it is what preserved them, but it changes how you plan a day, especially with children or with parents along.

You change beach depending on the day. Wind and swell shift. A well placed villa is not the one with the finest beach below it, it is the one with three of them within ten minutes.

Let us talk about your dates

Tell us how many of you there are, the ages of the children if there are any, what you want your days to look like and whether you already know the island. We know these houses, the roads that lead to them and what sits around them. We will tell you plainly which one will suit you, and which one will not.

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The Gustavia anchorage at sunset.