Little Arches Boutique Hotel

The arches at Little Arches are not little, and there are plenty of them. They frame the sea from the terraces and lead from sitting room to bed, on pillars faced with swirls of broken blue tile, and the walls between are washed the colour of apricots. The look is Mediterranean, star lanterns and all, on a low cliff above Enterprise Beach on Barbados' south coast. There are ten rooms. A Luxury Ocean Suite has a plunge pool of its own; a Garden Room has a sitting pool, a pool with modest expectations of its guests. Of the two shared pools, one is up on the roof beside Café Luna, facing the Caribbean, and the other is in the garden for anyone who would rather swim without an audience at lunch.

Recommended for adults who choose a hotel by its dinner: nobody under sixteen stays. Mark de Gruchy, the Canadian chef who co-owns Café Luna, cooks what the restaurant calls Pan-Tropical, Caribbean food crossed with Asian and Mediterranean, and often adds a three-course Bajan special. It has been the BHTA's Barbados Restaurant of the Year. The food, which guests praise, comes with the sunset thrown in. With ten rooms, it runs more like an upscale bed and breakfast than a hotel. Few bed and breakfasts have a Restaurant of the Year on the roof. The beach is at the foot of the cliff, the bicycles are free, and South Point Lighthouse gives them somewhere to go. On Friday nights the fish fry at Oistins, a short walk away, gives Café Luna its one evening of competition.