Saint Barthélemy

The island of Saint Barthélemy, generally referred to as St. Barths, once ranked amongst the poorest of Caribbean islands.

This was because the conditions for growing sugar cane were poor, making it an undesirable piece of real estate. But today St. Barths has become the haunt of the rich and ultra-rich and ranks among the most expensive places in the Caribbean.

Gustavia

The island was once a Swedish colony but was sold to France in 1878. The main (and only) city is Gustavia, and the airport outside of town is well-known because of the difficult approach over the hills above Gustavia and short runway. The main drag sports lots of expensive boutiques and the dining is both fine and expensive.

Even the renowned Le Select (a.k.a. Cheeseburger in Paradise) at the main crossroads has now hiked their prices but still remains one of the few reasonably priced restaurants.

During the tourist season the inner harbour has large megayachts, but the really rich have yachts that won’t fit and anchor outside.

Île Fourchue & Anse à Colombier

These are some of my favourite anchorages in the whole island chain. The first is an uninhabited island between St. Barths and St. Martin. It has well-maintained mooring balls and only the inner ones are comfortable overnight when the trades are really blowing. But the anchorage is nice, and the diving is spectacular.

Anse à Colombier is on the northwest corner of the island and is usually very well-protected. There are numerous mooring balls, free to use, and anchoring is also possible. It has a beautiful beach and there’s nothing ashore to detract from the view.