Tropical getaways have gotten so exclusive, you and your partner will be the only people at the resort
Fitness executive Jim Worthington had one goal for the luxury trip he was planning to celebrate the birthday of his girlfriend, Kim Levins: privacy. “I wanted to be 100 percent away from everybody,” he says from his voice in Bucks County, Pa.
“It was her 30th birthday, and I didn’t want to share it with anybody but her.”
So he booked the couple into Gladden Private Island, a tiny hotel of the coast of Belize that opened in December. It consists of a single two-bedroom villa. The island “is less than an acre. You could walk from one tip to the other, and it would take less than 30 seconds,” he says, laughing. “It was like being Robinson Crusoe—you have no idea the staf is even there.” He and Levins spent their days enjoying the solitude, sitting at the edge of the water for four or ive hours straight, saying perhaps three words. “The beauty of where you are is unbelievable,” Worthington says. Indeed, the two were so impressed that they’re planning to make the island a regu lar vacation spot, taking a week to decompress there every 18 months or so. It might sound like a risky proposition: rather than a vaca tion villa, a personal hotel with a full cadre of staf to cater
to a couple’s every whim (from $2,950 per night for two, all-inclusive). But this is the hottest new niche in high-end travel—not a penthouse suite but an entire island just for you. Gladden is the brainchild of Chris Krolow, the host of HGTV’s Island Hunters, who’s spent the past 20 years selling and leasing private islands. “It’s my baby,” he says. The idea was simple: Create the ultimate couples-only (make that: couple-only) hotel, a luxe hideaway for barefoot sojourners at which all evidence of other humans is concealed. Set on a pair of mangrove-fringed islands a few miles of the southern coast of Belize,
Gladden is accessible from the capital, Belize City, itself a nonstop light from several hubs in North America. From there it’s a 30-minute helicopter transfer to the resort, making Gladden workable as a long weekend getaway. The setting is superb. The coast of this Central American nation is fringed with a low-lying archipelago of more than 400 atolls set in crystal blue waters reminiscent of the Maldives or the South Paciic. “This part of Belize is insanely beautiful. It’s like a jewelry box of blue all the way around,” Krolow says. “The color, the clarity of the water—it’s like nowhere on the planet.”
Having two islands is key to pulling of the concept, he says. It allows him to keep staf accommodations, buildings for generators, and other infrastructure on the second, smaller island, so guests can feel completely alone. The employees consist of two couples who tag-team on everything from cooking (one of the women is a certiied Le Cordon Bleu chef ) to spa treatments (massages are ofered, gratis, as often as guests wish). And to prevent visitors from getting startled by the staf, there are small warning lights in every room of the hotel that lash red when support team members are venturing across from their standalone islet.
Although Gladden has two bedrooms and can accommodate four guests, 70 percent of Krolow’s bookings have come
from couples like Worthington and Levins who are often celebrating birthdays or anniversaries. In an overconnected world, seclusion has become even more of a benchmark of luxury. Among other private-island resorts is Little Peter Oasis ($4,995 for a four-night package), also in Belize, which has space for four guests in a two-bedroom villa built over the edge of a private lagoon protected by a reef. It’s a place where you can channel your inner Brooke Shields, with or
without a bikini. In the Maldives, Cheval Blanc Randheli, the tropical ofshoot of French resort Courchevel 1850, has 45 traditional villas on one site but also operates a three-bedroom “owner’s villa” (price upon request) on a nearby private island only a ive-minute sail away. Thirty staf are available to either pamper you or ignore you, whichever your preference.
The 14-acre Dolphin Island in Fiji sleeps eight for two nights for $16,640, and a local isherman will stop by every day to drop of his freshest catch for the on-site chef to prepare. Satellite Island ($2,730 for four people for two nights) is a rugged, high-end hideaway with a lodge for one family of the coast of Tasmania. It’s ideal for outdoors types keen to hike in isolation or swim in crisp, clear waters. In northeast Ireland, the lakeside Trinity Island Lodge is a converted granary that once served the now ruined Trinity Abbey in nearby Cavan. Starting from $1,297 per week for six, it features its own sauna and game room, as well as miles of forest trails.
According to Chris Laugsch, who runs the high-end villa rental agency Welcome Beyond, “People have seen and done the ive-star hotels—that’s the usual stuf. More and more, people really want to disconnect during their holidays, and what better way to do that than on a completely private island?”
Eager to meet the demand, he’s just added to his portfolio an entirely private island, an eight-person hideaway of Nicaragua’s coast that’s fully stafed, much like Gladden. With the growing trend clearly meeting a need (or at least a strong desire), it’s no wonder that Gladden is sold out for much of next year—or that Krolow is planning a sister property on a similar island in nearby Nicaragua. But he isn’t sure he’ll ever be able to indulge his ultimate goal, which he
mulled before beginning construction on Gladden. “I wanted to take it one step further and make it for one person,” he says.
“But not enough people travel alone.”
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