Canouan, a Caribbean Island, Is a Destination for Luxury Travelers

I work long hours as a full-time physician based in Las Vegas. So, I felt fortunate at the end of 2022 when I was able to take the entire Christmas and New Year’s week off of work for the first time since college.

I found out I’d have this opportunity about a year in advance, and wanted to plan to end the year somewhere warm and relaxing. Around the same time, I became aware of the island of Canouan, a tiny 3.5 by 1.25-mile island that’s part of the Grenadines in the Caribbean.

I heard about it after Soho House announced they opened an outpost there, of which I’m a member.

Soho House is a private membership club that I first learned about while watching “Sex and The City” in 2003 from an episode in which Kim Cattrall’s character, Samantha Jones, failed to gain admission to their exclusive hotel and pool in New York’s meatpacking district. 

At the time, I never thought I would set foot inside one of these clubs, let alone become a member. But fast forward a decade, and while completing my medical training in LA, I was invited to the group’s West Hollywood house and fell in love with its sweeping views, shared work spaces, and cool design.

I applied and somehow managed to get in. I’m still a member and have watched the brand grow over the past decade to 30 houses, many of which include hotels, in 25 cities around the world.

And while I now live in Las Vegas, a city without a Soho House, I maintain my membership and enjoy visiting my “home” club in West Hollywood, as well as those around the globe.

So when Soho Beach House Canouan opened at the end of 2021, I Googled where Canouan was, and knowing little else about it, booked the hotel a year in advance.

Canouan is a small island that measures just five square miles and is one of 32 isles located within the Caribbean archipelago of St. Vincent and the Grenadines. Canouan means island of tortoises, and is named after the Arawakan word for turtle.

While I wasn’t initially familiar with Canouan, I did know about St. Vincent and the Grenadines, namely because it also includes the island of Mustique.

Fans of Netflix’s “The Crown” will recognize Mustique as the island where Princess Margaret built her home Les Jolies Eaux, and it’s also been reported by Town and Country to be favorite holiday destination for Prince William and his family.

As I researched my trip, one thing became quickly clear: Canouan was a destination associated with wealth and luxury.

Travel + Leisure called it a “Caribbean Island you’ve never heard of,” that has “luxury hotels, stunning blue waters, and some of the best snorkeling in the world.”

Bloomberg reported it’s “where the billionaires go to get away from the millionaires,” and that 11 members of the 9-figure club own land here. CNN also named it the “Caribbean’s next luxury hot spot.” 

And according to Robb Report, George Clooney, Matt Damon, Don Cheadle, Cindy Crawford, and Leonardo DiCaprio have all been spotted vacationing on the island.

An Italian businessman named Antonio Saladino is largely responsible for the modern development of the island, according to Robb Report.

According to Robb Report, Saladino was rebuffed by the Mustique Company to build a five-bedroom homestead on Mustique, and set out to “out-Mustique Mustique ” on this tiny neighboring Grenadine archipelago instead, about 15 miles to the south.

Saldano negotiated a 99-year lease for about two-thirds of the island that has gone through several phases of development, according to the same source. He’s since partnered with a new developer, the billionaire Desmont Dermont, to attract a jet and yacht-setting crowd, according to Robb Report.

Indeed, the entire northern portion of the island, which measures some 1,200 acres, is privately held and comprised of two to six-bedroom villas known as Canouan Estate. Villas here start range from $775 to $7,000 a night in low season, and go up from there with a four-night minimum.

Dermont’s presence is certainly felt as I personally saw him hopping off a super yacht and into a tender that decamped on Grand Bay.

Given so much reported luxury and signs of wealth, I was also curious to know what real estate on Canouan was like. During a recent search online, I only found one home for sale, a four-bedroom home currently priced at $8.5M.

There are only four hotel options on Canouan including Soho House and they all exemplify five-star luxury. The other three are Canouan Estates, Sandy Lane Yacht Club, and the Mandarin Oriental.

Given the aforementioned prices at Canouan Estates and that fact that Mandarin Oriental commands rates from $1,500 to $4,500 a night, I was astonished to learn that Soho House’s member rates started at $600 per night for the period I wanted to travel, without a minimum-stay requirement.

Even better, rates for Soho House members start at $305 a night in low season, and they recently started to allow non-members to book rooms directly on their website.

Non-member rates begin at $405 a night, according to my research, or you can apply to be a “friend of the house” for a fee of $130 a year and receive discounts and the ability to book “member-only bedrooms” at other locations throughout the world. I think it’s a good middle-of-the-road option to get discounted rates without paying for full membership.

There’s no main airport for commercial flights in Canouan, which I thought made it feel exceedingly exclusive to come here.

I flew from Las Vegas on a red eye to Miami to meet a connecting flight in Barbados. From there I was to board a shared charter flight to Canouan.

For this trip, I traveled with my mom and two friends, and the four of us booked a shared charter on a small fixed-wing plane to Canouan on SVG Air, which cost roughly $600 per person round-trip for the hour-long flight that included a stop on neighboring Union island to let other passengers off.

Soho House, Mandarin Oriental, and Canouan Estates each have their own private jet as well that makes the journey from Barbados to pick up guests. These trips have no extra stops and take just 25 minutes. That option was out of our budget as the round-trip cost would have been about $5,000 based on what I was told when I contacted Mandarin Oriental’s reservation team.

The Canouan airport has a lighted runway that can accommodate private aircrafts as large as a 737 though there is no major commercial airline service here, currently. Had I taken a jet of that size to arrive, I would have spent around $50,000 to $60,000 round-trip from Las Vegas according to XO Jets.

The only other way to get to the island is by private boat. I saw many anchored off Grand Bay where Soho Beach House sits.

Soho Beach House Canouan has the only private dock I saw apart from the marina and yacht club, and their general manager told me that they do allow non-members to access the dock and use the beach club and neighboring properties’ facilities that include beaches, bars, restaurants, and spa for a $1,000 if the guests are not members.

Despite the local luxury crowd, I was surprised that there wasn’t much shopping or designer stores available on the island.

Additionally, the only way to get around the island once you arrive is by a private driver or renting a vehicle.

We used Soho House drivers when we ventured out around the island for $20 a ride, but were mostly content to spend our days quietly on the beach.

I thought my stay at Soho Beach House Canouan was one of the more relaxing trips I’ve taken.

My room had a chic beach vibe with an emperor-sized king bed canopied in mosquito netting. There was no TV in the room, but it did come with plenty of fun books on travel, design, and history. The bathroom was also well stocked with a selection of high-end toiletries.

Ground-level rooms open onto the beach, but we requested a second-floor room for more sweeping balcony views.

My medium-sized hotel room, which I booked during high season, ultimately cost me $1,218 with tax per night for a total of $8,529 for the week. But I think the cost was well worth it given how it compared to other hotel prices on the island, and perhaps more importantly, to have time with family and friends, which for me is the ultimate luxury.

While we were in Canouan primarily to relax, my group did take a sailing trip to the Tobago Cays and stopped at several sparsely inhabited and a few uninhabited atolls one day.

The day trip cost $350 per person, but included lunch, snorkeling equipment, and an open bar.

I thought that price was a bargain compared to chartering our own vessel or one of the super yachts that we saw dotting the horizon.

According to my research, private boat charters on Canouan range from €3,000 to €70,000 a week, plus provisioning and fuel costs, while mega yachts can run as high as $1.2M per week. 

I love Soho House’s focus on wellness and have uniformly found their spas to be top notch.

Whenever I am in Miami, I book a massage at the brand’s Cowshed Spa with Robert who, in opinion, is the best masseuse in the US.

So to be honest, I was a bit skeptical about the quality of spa services I would find on such a remote island.

To hedge my bets, I booked a deep tissue massage at both Soho Beach House Canouan and the neighboring Mandarin Oriental. The Soho House one was perhaps the best deep tissue massage I’ve ever had.

I also appreciated that at Soho Beach House Canouan, I paid $250 for 90 minutes, while at the neighboring Mandarin Oriental, the service cost the same price, but for just 60 minutes.

However, I did love that Mandarin Oriental’s spa was built into a hillside. It reminded me of something I’d find in Southeast Asia. My masseuse at Mandarin Oriental told me she was brought in from the Amanpuri in Phuket, Thailand, and many of her colleagues came from Bali.

Beyond the spa, our hotel led us on a very steep hike up to the island’s peak and we also took complimentary yoga classes during our stay.

While I thought the beach at Grand Bay where Soho Beach House Canouan is located was great, we took a short, 15 minute-ride over to L’Ance Guyac to experience another side of the island one day.

This beach club is located inside the gates of the Mandarin Oriental and Canouan Estates compound.

Guests of Soho Beach House Canouan like us were permitted to visit if we booked a lunch or dinner reservation at L’Ance Guyac, which came with access to this very remote and turtle-filled playground.

I thought the food at the restaurant was great, albeit a bit pricey — $200 for a lunch of ceviche, two wraps, and no alcohol — but I looked at it as an entrance fee to an amazing retreat to justify the cost.

Most other days, we ate at Soho Beach House and found their deli to be more casual and reasonably priced. 

While Soho Beach House Canouan served familiar staples like burgers, pizza, and pasta, I also noticed a strong emphasis on fresh seafood.

While my group was not comprised of big drinkers, our bills would often average about $50 to $75 a person when we stayed on property, and I personally gravitated toward their simpler fish and whole lobster preps.

We also ate at the Mandarin Oriental one night for a special festive pop-up meal prepared by Michelin-starred Chef Giancarlo Morelli.

The food and service was exceptional, but the bill for a meal for two, inclusive of service and two drinks, came out to be $600 for the tasting menu. It was yet another reminder for me that this is a destination for a well-to-do crowd.

Ultimately, my favorite thing about my visit was also the most surprising, that on an island where luxury and wealth reign supreme, my stay felt anything but pretentious.

After dinner, Soho Beach House Canouan guests would play board games, have karaoke nights, or dance on the sand. The latter was the highlight of my trip. We rang in New Year’s Eve by dancing on the beach to the sounds of a DJ as fireworks went off and champagne flowed.

I also think Canouan is an island designed for people who want to get away from it all.

With only a few accommodations, and little to do aside from eat, swim, and board yachts, guests visiting the island are unlikely to ever feel crowded or overwhelmed.

Often, I found it to be a place where the best thing to do was relax in what felt like a private, untouched paradise.