Coral Reef Club

In the 1950s Budge and Cynthia O'Hara sailed from England to Barbados on a passenger cargo ship, on their honeymoon, meaning to stay three years while he managed the hotel. Their three children came back from school in Britain to run it with their spouses, and it has been in the family for more than sixty years, which is a generous reading of three. What has lasted is the plan: cottages and coral-stone buildings spread through twelve acres of garden rather than one block on the sea. In some rooms the stone is left bare under a pitched ceiling of pale timber, with a four-poster hung in white curtains beneath it. The lawns run down through the casuarinas to white sand and a calm sea, and yachts sit at anchor offshore.

Recommended for couples who want dinner on a terrace over the sea, with a steel band or a pianist on winter evenings, and for families any time but late winter: from 20 January to 28 February no child under twelve is taken. Otherwise cots and baby monitors are lent free, and a Luxury Cottage/Suite sleeps two adults and two children, with a plunge pool of its own. Hobie Cat and Laser sailing is included, and the reef at Folkestone Marine Park is five minutes' walk away. Guests write about the staff by name. The menu changes daily, except on Thursdays, which belong to the barbecue, jumbo prawns and all. On a clear evening the Reef Bar, open to the sea on the west, holds out the green flash, without saying how many sundowners it takes to see one.