• 1. Where to Stay
• 2. Where to Eat
• 3. What to Do
• 4. Insider’s Tip
• 5. An Oddball Day

Baie de St. Jean   (Photo: OT/SBH/MH)

Leave your budget-conscious self on the tarmac and take a fifteen-minute puddle-jump to St. Barts to mingle with the yacht crowd for the day. Several carriers offer flights, but Air Caraïbes has the best deals (aircaraibes.com; from $140). From the airport, it’s a short walk to the Baie de St. Jean, a crescent-shaped beach lined with five-star hotels, luxury villas, and high-end shopping. (Get a new bathing suit by hard-to-find Parisian line D nu D at Filles des Iles.) Lunch at Eden Rock’s Sand Bar, a casual, beachside restaurant (where Texas oil barons and bronzed wait staff makes for excellent eye candy), then hitch a ride (it’s safe and quite common) to Gustavia where $50,000-a-night yachts clog the harbor and celebs get their Dior and Hermès fix—before heading back to “reality” (the last flight leaves around 4:30 p.m. in the winter months).

Published on Jan 15, 2008 as a web exclusive.