Where to Stay In St. Barth: Villa Culture

With only about 30 mini-hotels on the island, a true St. Barth experience involves renting one of the 2,500 lux villas available on the island.

Photography property of SVADORE

The St. Barth experience is rooted in just a few laid-back principles: eating, exploring, shopping and living the island’s dreamy French-Caribbean fusion lifestyle. Where you stay in St. Barth truly sets up the foundation for your remaining experience on the island, which is why you need to choose wisely. If you are looking for packed beaches lined with beach chairs, high-rise hotels and casinos, then this isn’t the island for you. Fun fact, due to legal laws you will not see a villa or building built higher than a palm tree. This is done on purpose to retain St. Barth’s elegant old world charm. This concept of relaxation and indulging in this glitzy laid-back European vibe of the St. Barth villa goes back in history to a very well known icon—Rockefeller. Sometime in the mid-1950s early 1960s, Rockefeller visited the island of St. Barth and was taken aback by its old charm, spectacular nature and pristine beaches. He decided to create a luxurious villa, which you can still see today, at the tip of Colombier beach. When word got out of this mysterious island that Rockefeller had purchased land on in the middle of the Caribbean that was only accessible by commuter plane or ferry, celebs and the über-wealthy decided they had to go see it for themselves. Rockefeller started a movement, a “gold rush,” on the island that spurred the creation of red-roofed villas and boutique hotels—the first one being Eden Rock. This private and luxurious concept is still echoed today, which is why villa rentals are the accommodation of choice when on the island. It is considered one of the essential elements that make St. Barth a perfect little paradise. The goal is to make you feel instantly at home, as if you lived on the island. Patrick and I chose to do it St. Barth style and instead of booking a hotel, chose to rent a villa. Almost all St. Barth villa rentals can be done through agencies such as St. Barth Villas, SiBarth, St. Barts Blue, WIMCO and more. Patrick and I booked ours via Airbnb since we could not find any villas available at the time due to high season! If you haven’t tried AirBnb yet, you must!! If you know me, you know that I am a HUGE fan of AirBnb and have used it on multiple occasions. If you are skeptical or have any questions regarding it, feel free to reach out to me via email or comment below. As I set out to show you the villa culture of St. Barth, I dressed up in my most boho chic attire with my favorite Canvas Crossbody Shoulder Bag that you’ll notice throughout my pictures. Boho in style yet elegant, it's the perfect accessory for the island of St. Barth. If you want to copy my look, you can purchase the bag on Bagail.com with my special 10% discount using the code BAGAIL90. Waterfront villas are available, but not at all beaches, such as Saline and Gouverneur. This is done once again, to retain the island’s nature reserve and old world charm. In either case, most people opt for one of the 2,500 villas clung to the hillsides of St. Barth. Villas on the hills offer gorgeous views of the various coves and trust me when I say one location is not better than the other, each beach and cove has it’s jaw-dropping views. This year we chose a villa on the Northern side of the island perched on top of Flamands Beach. When making your St. Barth villa choice something you might like to keep in mind is that the sun rises on the North side towards Colombier and Grand Cul de Sac and sets on the South side, down by Shell Beach and Saline. We always found that due to the many hills on St. Barth, the sun always snuck it’s way behind a hill on the North Side about 45 minutes prior to setting. Many St. Barth villas are not easy to get to and will require a dirt road or beaten path to reach. Keep that in mind when renting your car! Once there though you will be surprised by what you will find inside. Almost every St. Barth villa is equipped with an infinity pool with views that will simply take your breath away. Our villa included a villa manager, Sam, who was there to help us upon arrival and was available to us during out entire stay. A lot of the villas you will find on the island are modern or have a Caribbean feel or contemporary style to them. We went with a modern Asian touch. The lower level of the villa had a large patio with a separate reading area with a round lounge chair. It had two kitchens, an indoor and outdoor kitchen. The indoor had a Nespresso machine, a toaster, an oven, a microwave, a dishwasher (hallelujah!) and all the tableware you could ask for. It also came with tea, olive oil, salt, sugar etc. All necessities for dining in one night. Inside you also had a library den, a storage area, washer and dryer, a third bathroom, and an office area. Outdoors we had a kitchen with 2 huge fridges, the size of American fridges, a stove top and a gas barbecue grill on the side of the patio if we wished to barbecue during our stay. The Asian touches were felt when it came to the décor and set up of the villa. The villa was full of wooden and red touches on the outdoor areas, from the 2 living rooms to the 2 dining areas. The set up was amazing, especially when we stayed up late at night sipping homemade St. Barth cinnamon rum and played Catan (a strategy board game) till the wee hours of the night. Being outdoors 24/7 whether we were in the living room or dining room was an amazing break from being cooped up in NYC. You really had everything necessary in the villa...Sam even left each of us 4 towels for the beach AND the pool all laid out with cute writing in stone. In the center of the villa stood an open air staircase that led up to the two bedrooms and terraces on the top (a third bedroom was located on the lower level). My favorite piece of the St. Barth villa was the big sumo wrestler painting behind the staircase...one of my fave asian touches! Haha. The entire villa was equipped with A/C, which is necessary to ward away the mosquitos. The master bedroom also had a mosquito canopy net, while the secondary bedroom did not (not that we needed it). The bathrooms were SUPER spacious with a rain shower head, a double vanity and a separate bathroom. Both bedrooms had access to their own private terraces with views of Flamands Beach. If you plan on renting a St. Barth villa or booking a hotel for that matter, I would start planning about 6 months to 4 months ahead of schedule. St. Barth has a limited number of villas and hotel rooms (roughly 600 on the island) and they go out fast. Don’t expect them to start building more hotels and villas either, as they have very strict regulations on when villas can be built and where. If you dream of owning a St. Barth villa, they don’t come cheap, but the upside is that the island collective is debt-free. In fact, they are in surplus, even after the storm! So the people who live on the island pay few taxes, mainly on their use of water, gas and electricity and for some services. And yes, there is no income tax. Sounds like my dream island! The key to enjoying St. Barth’s tranquility, privacy and the island’s finer things in life can all be found in a villa. Whether it’s in lush tropical vegetation or in the midst of golden sands, enjoy l’art d’être une île. For more information on staying at this St. Barth villa, contact me at sveva@svadore.com. Get insider travel tips and lifestyle content on the world’s most exceptional destinations, experiences and products directly to your inbox. Don’t miss out–sign up for travel blog SVADORE on the right hand side to stay up-to-date on where to go, what to do, what to see, where to stay, and where to eat around the globe. 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