Blue Mountains, Jamaica
Travel
“You don't have to love spending lazy days sunning on the beach to enjoy a trip to the Caribbean, which is something I learned on a recent week-long journey to Jamaica's striking Blue Mountains. Here, evenings get surprisingly cool, there are challenging hikes through thick, tropical vegetation, and every hotel, home, or restaurant you visit serves extraordinary local coffee. There are plenty of other reasons to love this stretch of Jamaica, too, like the stunning mountaintop villas at Strawberry Hill, or a day trip to YS Falls — a seven-tiered waterfall that plunges through the jungle and is now flanked by a series of new infinity pools." — Melanie Lieberman, Associate Digital Editor
Little Dix Bay, British Virgin Islands
Travel
“My husband and I celebrated our babymoon at this beautiful resort on Virgin Gorda. Now managed by Rosewood Hotels, Little Dix is one of Laurance Rockefeller's original hotels, a Caribbean icon, and the property has an incredible sense of being at one with nature and the environment. The main restaurant, with its soaring thatched roof, the immaculate grounds, the stylish bungalows, which are blissfully free from TVs: it all adds up to a sense of peach, beauty, and isolation that is unmatched. And I look forward to taking our son there, to honor its timelessness and Caribbean heritage, in the years to come." — Jacqueline Gifford, Travel Director
Grand Case, St. Martin
Travel
"There's a fantastic beach at Grand Case, a town on the French side of this idyllic little island. But the best thing about it, to my mind, is the food market that appears just off the main high street on Saturdays and Sundays. Simple benches and tables are crammed into a deck overlooking the water, where you can sit and eat the most phoenomenal barbecue, plaintains, and beans and rice, while drinking an ice-cold Carib beer and looking out at the mesmerisingly blue sea." — Flora Stubbs, Features Director
Natural Pool, Aruba
Travel
"Accessible only by ATV, horseback, or on foot, this natural rock pool is tucked away inside iin one of Aruba's national parks. Known as 'Cura di Tortuga' or 'Conchi,' the pool formed some 90 million years ago at the time that volcanic activity created the entire island. After a trek through the park, it's the perfect way to cool off while enjoying some of the best views of the island." — Jess McHugh, Digital Reporter