Desperate for a holiday? Join Beyoncé and the Kardashians in St Barts, a luxury paradise island mostly untouched by coronavirus
A hideout to the rich and famous including Beyoncé, Jay-Z and Leonardo DiCaprio, the French-speaking Caribbean island is booming since reopening to tourism
In a villa perched high on a hill overlooking the sea, a family lounges poolside with their children. A mother is practising yoga on the teak patio, taking cues from a private instructor, while a private chef wearing a mask and gloves cooks breakfast in the villa's open-air kitchen.
It's mid-July, and the family has been on the glamorous island of St Barts for nearly three weeks. Stiles Bennet, president at Wimco Villas, which operates 375 luxury properties on the Caribbean island, says it's not an uncommon sight in 2020. Where families averaged five- to 10-day stays for their summer holidays in previous years, holidays this year are stretching considerably longer.
As the coronavirus pandemic made its way across the globe, St Barts shut down its borders on March 16. Borders reopened on June 22, and many of those who have since arrived on the island feel it hasn't changed much.
The white-sand beaches are open. The gourmet restaurants and buzzy beach clubs serve customers as usual. Designer shops – Louis Vuitton, Prada, Cartier, Hermès – still welcome patrons. Like many other parts of the world, St Barts now requires masks to be worn indoors. Outside, you can remain mask-free, though social distancing is encouraged. If not for the masks, it would be easy to feel like this sliver of paradise has gone unscathed – and in some ways, it has.
How paradise responded to a pandemic
Officially known as Saint-Barthélemy, the island is an overseas collectivity of France located in the French West Indies that is known for attracting a glamorous, jet-set crowd. It's not uncommon to see billionaires lounging on superyachts or socialites dancing until the early morning at VIP beach clubs – and celebrities including Beyoncé, Jay-Z, Leonardo DiCaprio and the Kardashians have all paid a visit. It's a see-and-be-seen type of place, but people also flock to St Barts for its verdant landscape, seemingly untouched beaches and craggy coastlines.
The 23-square-km (nine-square-mile) island, which takes roughly 20 minutes to drive around, is home to 9,880 full-time residents. Tourism is the island's largest industry; in 2019, St Barts welcomed 295,000 tourists. The island's peak season is December through March, though many still come in the low season, April through August.
When the pandemic hit, France's President Emmanuel Macron ordered the island's borders shut on March 16. Residents were ordered to quarantine at home. In total, to date, there have been just eight cases of Covid-19 on the island and no fatalities.
