Calabash Luxury Boutique Hotel

The Calabash has been in the Garbutt family's care for decades, and it shows in the details that cannot be bought: staff tenures measured in decades, returning guests greeted by name, and breakfast cooked to order on each suite's veranda—a signature ritual that says everything about the hotel's idea of service. Set on eight acres of gardens around a sheltered beach at L'Anse aux Épines, on Grenada's calm southern tip, it is the Spice Island's most complete boutique operation.

Suites wrap the lawn in two-storey wings, individually styled in a fresh island manner with rattan, bright art and verandas; several add plunge pools. The gardens—mature mango, flamboyant and palms wrapped around a croquet-flat lawn—give the property the feel of a well-loved estate, and the small beach's protected water suits families and gentle swimmers.

Food is the other pillar. Rhodes Restaurant, founded with the late British chef Gary Rhodes, remains one of the Caribbean's respected tables, working Grenadian spice and seafood into polished menus beneath the almond trees, and the beach bar's rum list honours the island's distilleries. Grand Anse and the capital St George's are minutes away. For warmth, cooking and old-fashioned personal ownership, Calabash is the reason travellers fall for Grenada.