Like Barbados? You’ll Love Mauritius And The Seychelles

The best-established winter playground in the eastern Caribbean, Barbados has something for everyone. Whether you’re seeking low-key or lively, rugged or refined, this island’s got it covered.

The palm-fringed beaches of the west coast are ideally suited to those wishing to escape northern hemisphere winters. Barbados has lately been upgrading its infrastructure without losing any of its laid-back charm, and is incentivising wealthy entrepreneurs and remote workers to relocate here. An ambitious marina development, the Pierhead Project, is planned in its historic capital, Bridgetown.

Perched high on the west coast, with sweeping views of the Caribbean and Atlantic, Apes Hill Golf and Beach Club has raised its game in recent years. “This prestigious resort has spent heavily on improvements, with its freshly renovated 18-hole golf course now open and a new beach club in the pipeline,” says James Burdess, head of Savills Caribbean. “It’s been selling especially well to British and Canadians.” Properties are available at a range of price points, with traditional plantation-style villas and contemporary, pared-back houses with infinity pools on offer.

Among the other prime gated resort and marina communities on the island’s west coast, the QP Bistro has opened in St James, but it’s at Batts Rock Beach where you’ll find Burdess’s favourite “feet in the sand” restaurant, La Cabane – a sophisticated take on the traditional Barbados rum shack.

Pictures from top: at the beach in Barbados (Alamy); a palm tree seen through a shuttered window (Alamy)

This sugarcane-growing volcanic island offers dramatic mountain scenery, white-sand beaches and 10 golf courses – the first of which was created by the Royal Navy in 1902. “Mauritius has idyllic azure-blue waters and tranquil beaches, yet also a highly developed infrastructure, an established expat community and good schools,” says Tom Vickery, associate director at Savills Global Residential. “It’s easy to make a new life there.”

In the southwest of the island you’ll find lush ancestral forests, waterfalls, turquoise lagoons and the Peter Matkovich-designed Le Château Golf Course, frequently voted the best in the Indian Ocean. The course is at the heart of Heritage Villas Valriche, a 525-acre gated development on a former sugar plantation in Bel Ombre, which offers a choice of pre-owned and new contemporary-style homes in one of the island’s longest-established residential communities.

These tranquil private homes sit amid tropical gardens that cascade down to the coast, where the C Beach Club provides the ideal lunch spot after a morning of watersports. The destination is most popular with French and South African buyers, but direct flights from the UK are attracting British owners. New villas start at just over €1m.

Pictures from top: a dramatic waterfall in Mauritius (Unsplash)

For a location that’s remote yet accessible, the Seychelles are hard to beat. Hop off a direct seasonal flight from London to Mahé and, within 15 minutes, you can be at your villa or lying on a tranquil sugar-sand beach by the crystalline waters of the Indian Ocean.

“The islands are almost untouched and, with a population of less than 100,000, it’s easy to find secluded beaches,” says Brian Gradner, international sales manager at Pam Golding Properties, a Savills associate. “As a sailing destination, too, it’s second to none.”

When you’re not boating, diving, playing tennis or enjoying a round of golf on the prestigious course on nearby Praslin island, Gradner recommends the Bravo Restaurant as a place to enjoy superb seafood and people-watching.

At Eden Island, a gated marina development on Mahé, you can moor your boat outside your villa and cast off to explore coral reefs and cays. Home to 44 nationalities, this vibrant year-round community is a prized winter escape for northern Europeans and a favourite midsummer retreat for regulars from the UAE. Apartments start at $450,000, townhouses at $900,000 and villas at $2.9m – and owners receive a golf buggy to enjoy the car-free 56-hectare resort.

Pictures from top: seaside style in the Seychelles (Unsplash)