Intimate Caribbean

Antigua's Small Resorts Open Doors to Another World

The small wooden cottage atop a steep hill has no air conditioning, but a soft breeze through louvered windows flutters the sheer white curtains at my balcony door. The trade winds that once carried tall ships from around the world to Antigua today carry to my room the smell of tropical flowers.

Andrew Michelin, whose family came from Europe to the Caribbean several generations ago, says he planned every detail of his small resort so that visitors would have a true Caribbean experience. The roof of each cottage, for example, is made of galvanized metal, so if there happens to be a shower during your stay, you'll hear the sound of raindrops popping off a tin roof.

"When you first wake up, I don't want you to think even for a second, 'Where am I?' " Michelin says. "I want you to awaken and feel where you are, smell where you are, hear where you are."

That sense of place, of foreignness, of being far from home, goes a long way toward explaining the appeal of a small resort. Then, too, there is the intimacy that comes with being one of a handful of guests, rather than one of an anonymous crowd of hundreds moving through a high-rise mega-resort.

The Cocos resort, where I spend my first two nights in Antigua, has just 19 cottages. There are no lines of people waiting to register when I arrive around lunchtime. In fact, I'm the only guest in sight, and the receptionist offers me something to drink before asking my name.

This is my Caribbean dream. When I open the door of my room, I want to see not a long hallway and a blank elevator door, but blue water and green hills. I like my flowers alive and growing, not arranged in a giant vase in the lobby. I come to escape lines, not to join them. Sure, I understand the appeal of on-site fitness centers, kids' clubs, water sports, organized games, poolside fashion shows and the huge "native" buffets common in mega-resorts, but I'll exchange all that for the feeling of escape from the modern world.

Apparently, I am not the only person drawn to intimate properties, even though -- or perhaps because -- they are more unpredictable than large brand-name resorts. In fact, the rising popularity of small hotels is the biggest trend in the Caribbean, says Richard Kahn, a consultant to the Caribbean Tourism Organization, a trade group that represents the islands.

It's really a return to the Caribbean of old.

"Until the late 1980s, 80 percent of the hotel infrastructure throughout the Caribbean was small, intimate, family-owned properties. In the 1990s, there was a huge influx of sprawling high-rise properties with brand names," Kahn says. "What's taking place in the last year or so: The boutique hotels are making a comeback. There is a major resurgence of independent operators building and refurbishing properties that are no more than 80 rooms."

Small hotels tend to be as different and as quirky as the individuals who own them. Why, for example, does Cocos's outdoor dining area have three adjoining decks overlooking the water? Because Michelin started with one, and when he got more money, he built the second. Then when his daughter was getting married, he did some cost calculations and figured it would be almost as cheap to add a third deck big enough to host her reception as it would be to book a catering hall.

Small Caribbean hotels and resorts run from budget to luxury -- from $100 to more than $3,000 a night. Every island in the Caribbean has small hotels and resorts, but Antigua is famous for them. Luxurious high-end resorts with big advertising budgets have played a major role in developing Antigua's reputation. One example: Carlisle Bay, where an all-inclusive night for two runs from $786 off-peak to as much as $3,472 over Christmas. At the all-inclusive Curtain Bluff, often included on lists of the most romantic places in the world, a night for two ranges from $732 to $1,439.

You know without seeing these properties that they must be pretty nice. I head to Antigua to find out if the average traveler can enjoy the island at intimate but midrange or budget properties.