Le Sereno

A reef a few hundred metres offshore breaks the Atlantic swell before it reaches Grand Cul-de-Sac, on the north-east coast of St Barthélemy, and leaves a shallow turquoise lagoon behind it. Le Sereno lines the sand of that lagoon: a row of low white buildings among palms and sea grapes, with the water a few steps from the terraces.

History

The hotel was conceived as a small, quiet alternative to the busier beaches of St-Jean and Gustavia, and its name says as much. The owners later took the idea to Italy, opening Le Sereno Lago di Como at Torno, on the eastern shore of the lake, in 2016, with interiors by Patricia Urquiola.

In September 2017 Hurricane Irma crossed St Barth with winds that wrecked much of the island's coast, and Le Sereno was among the hotels badly damaged. It closed, was rebuilt and reopened with the island's recovery, keeping the same low profile on the beach and the same designer's hand.

St Barth has its own long story. Swedish from 1784 until 1878, it kept the name of its port, Gustavia, given in honour of King Gustav III, and Swedish street names still appear beside French ones. It returned to France in 1878 and has been French since.

Architecture and design

Christian Liaigre, the Parisian designer whose spare interiors defined a generation of hotels and private houses, designed Le Sereno. His vocabulary is easy to read here: whitewashed walls, dark tropical woods, natural linen, stone and wide openings onto gardens and water, with almost nothing on the walls. The buildings are kept low, so the palms stand taller than the roofs. Liaigre died in 2020; the rebuilt hotel keeps his lines.

Rooms and suites

The hotel has fewer than fifty keys. Suites face the lagoon or the gardens, each with a terrace, and most of the lagoon suites open almost directly onto the sand. Villas, set apart from the main buildings, have their own private pools and more space for families or longer stays.

Dining

The restaurant sits on a deck above the beach, with tables looking across the lagoon to the reef, and serves lunch and dinner with a Mediterranean bent and plenty of fish. A bar by the pool serves drinks through the afternoon, when the trade wind is at its steadiest.

Location

Grand Cul-de-Sac is the island's windsurfing and kitesurfing bay: the reef keeps the water flat and the trade winds blow steadily across it for much of the year, so lessons can start in water a beginner can stand in. Turtles graze the sea grass at the edge of the lagoon, and snorkellers can see them from the beach. The bay lies within the Réserve naturelle de Saint-Barthélemy, the marine reserve created in 1996 to protect the island's reefs and sea grass beds, so fishing and anchoring are controlled. Gustavia, with its harbour, restaurants and shops, is about fifteen minutes by car over the hills. Gustaf III Airport at St-Jean, whose short runway takes only small aircraft, is closer still; most visitors connect through Princess Juliana International on Sint Maarten, a short flight or a ferry crossing away. Anse de Toiny and the wild south-east coast lie a few minutes further on, and the undeveloped beaches of Saline and Gouverneur, on the south coast, are about twenty minutes away. The whole island covers only about 25 square kilometres, so nowhere is far. For a resort on St Barth, it offers the rare combination of a calm beach, steady wind and a designer's restraint.