This Secret Hideaway in the British Virgin Islands Has Seven Beaches, a Nature Sanctuary and No Crowds

There’s no sign, no marina, no welcome center. Just a quiet cove and a soft landing. A boat drops you off on a private dock, and suddenly, you’re not in the Caribbean you thought you knew—you’re on Guana.

Spread across 850 acres in the British Virgin Islands, Guana is more than a resort. It’s a living, breathing island—seven beaches, mountain trails, cliffside gardens, and a rhythm that doesn’t come from playlists or pool DJs, but from the sea and the wind and the trees.

You don’t just stay on Guana. You become part of it.

A Wild Canvas of Land and Sea

There are no cars. No public bars. No day-trippers with selfie sticks. Just raw terrain and quiet paths. You walk from white-sand beach to forested hillside. You hike up to the Sugarloaf for a view that puts everything in scale—sea to the left, sea to the right, your own footprints behind you.

More than a dozen hiking trails crisscross the island, passing old stone walls, native orchids, and the occasional iguana sunning on a rock. Guana is a nature preserve as much as it is a retreat—home to one of the region’s most successful ecological restoration projects.

They like to call it a “nature sanctuary with a happy hour,” and that’s a rather apt description.

Because it’s not curated. It’s real.

A Stay That Feels Like Coming Home

There are just 18 rooms and villas, most of them tucked into the hillside above White Bay. You wake up with the sunrise and fall asleep to nothing but tree frogs and distant surf. No room is the same, but they all share that quiet luxury that comes from hand-built stonework, Caribbean shutters, and views you don’t want to leave.

Meals are served up at the Clubhouse—a long porch with a breeze that never stops and a view of the bay below. The fruit and vegetables come from the island’s own orchard and gardens. There’s mango, papaya, breadfruit. You taste the land in every bite.

And if you want lunch alone on a deserted beach? It’s arranged.

Play, Paddle, or Just Be Still

Down on the sand, the island moves at your pace. You can snorkel straight off the beach, kayak into the mangroves, or paddleboard in glass-calm water before breakfast. A tennis court hides among the palms. A garden spa offers ocean-view massages with the scent of hibiscus on the breeze.

And when it’s time to stop doing, there are hammocks under sea grapes and quiet corners everywhere. Guana doesn’t ask anything of you. It just gives you back time.

A Different Kind of Caribbean

Guana doesn’t need branding. It doesn’t need reinvention. It’s been family-owned and quietly brilliant for decades. There’s no Wi-Fi in most rooms. No televisions. You remember how to talk to people again. Or how to be alone, in the best way possible.

It’s not a place for everyone. But for the ones who find it, it becomes the only place.

Rates at Guana start from $1,095 per night right now. You can reach the island by boat from Trellis Bay in Tortola. You can now fly nonstop from Miami to Tortola’s Beef Island Airport on American Airlines. Rates are $626 roundtrip right now, according to Google Flights. The flight takes just under three hours (it’s the only nonstop flight from the mainland US to the British Virgin Islands).