Saint-Barth

Saint Barthélemy — affectionately called 'Saint Barth' — is a French overseas collectivity (COM) located in the Lesser Antilles, 25 km south-east of Saint Martin and 250 km north-west of Guadeloupe. On just 25 km² (half the French side of Saint Martin), the island concentrates a density of luxury unparalleled in the Caribbean: 22 pristine beaches, more than 70 restaurants including several of international gastronomic renown, a hotel scene dominated by legendary establishments (Eden Rock, Cheval Blanc Isle de France, Le Sereno, Christopher), and a port — Gustavia — that hosts in high season a record concentration of international megayachts.

The island takes its name from Christopher Columbus, who christened it in 1493 with the first name of his brother Bartolomeo. Colonised by the French in 1648, it was ceded to Sweden in 1784 in exchange for trading rights in Gothenburg, then repurchased by France in 1878 after a local referendum. This Swedish parenthesis (one century) still marks the island's identity: the capital Gustavia bears the name of King Gustav III of Sweden, the municipal flag includes the Scandinavian cross, local history is taught through this dual memory. This historical particularity distinguishes Saint Barth from the rest of the French Antilles: no mass slavery (the island being too small and too dry for major sugar plantations), an identity built around fishing, commerce and tourism since David Rockefeller in the 1950s.

The capital Gustavia is a small colonial gem — a dead-end port surrounded by hills, stone quays, red-roofed houses, luxury boutiques (Hermès, Louis Vuitton, Cartier), gastronomic restaurants and 50 to 150-metre yachts moored at the quay. 2 km to the north, Saint-Jean is the seaside heart of the island: its white sand beach hosts the Eden Rock (Saint Barth's hotel icon since 1953), the airport (SBH, famous for its approach over the Tourmente hill), and the chic boutiques of La Villa Créole shopping centre. The west and south-west coast beaches — Anse des Cayes (surfing), Flamands (white sand), Colombier (accessible only by foot or boat, classed among the most beautiful in the Caribbean) — unfurl their pristine white sands in a succession of preserved bays. The south coast — Gouverneur beach (wild, legendary for its buried pirate treasure), Saline beach (peaceful, behind dunes) — offers the wildest atmospheres. Saint Barth is one of the most expensive destinations in the world — count €250/day/person minimum, plus €1,000-3,500/night in the iconic hotels. But it is also one of the most beautiful, safest and administratively simplest for a French traveller.