By Alexander Britell and Guy Britton

You can’t look away.

Even when the water is as calm as a lake, when the green hills stand, pristine, and the clouds hold in place, the view is dynamic, energetic even without motion.

It’s one of the most remarkable views in the Caribbean, a stunning sweep of the rolling, verdant contours of the British Virgin Islands. 

You can watch for hours, for days, lazing in the pool and staring out at the immense natural beauty that’s always been the siren song for travelers to the BVI.

This is AnaCapri Estate, a more than 5,000-square-foot villa that is a portal to another kind of British Virgin Islands Experience.

The estate, which can accommodate 10 guess, has three bedrooms, a guest room, 3.5 bathrooms (along with another apartment unit) and a striking Italian-style design that brings the grandeur of a Tuscan retreat to a hillside in the BVI.

As you stay here, you begin to appreciate just how remarkable the construction quality is, something that manifests itself in the details: the ultra-fast Wi-Fi, the Sonos system, the terrific kitchen, the outdoor grill.

Its size and layout make it particularly good for families, offering the perfect mix of intimacy and space, with a corner for everyone to find for themselves and marvelous common areas to enjoy together.

It’s a place that you love more the longer you stay here, as you fire up the grill to cook steaks, or listen to Spotify in the pool, or enjoy a late afternoon rum on the deck, as you turn the living room balcony into a panoramic reading room.

Or enjoying the extravagant views of the master suite, a place that begins to feel like your own private castle.

But while the place is remarkable, like any great villa, it’s a gateway.

Because when you stay in a villa like this, you’re truly living in Tortola, shopping at the local market, driving around its winding roads, stopping for rum provisions at TICO.

A great villa is a gateway to another side of a destination.

Because while this archipelago is known for its sailing adventures and its private-island hotels, experiencing the BVI in a villa is a rare treat.

And that’s particularly true on Tortola, a place that’s so often a jumping-off point to explore the far reaches of the BVI that sometimes travelers forget just how wonderful a place it really is.

And like AnaCapri, the longer you live in Tortola the more you appreciate its hidden jewels, from beach days on Cane Garden Bay to hot new rooftop restaurants.

But if you want to do some island hopping, you don’t need a boat, either.

You can spend your mornings and evenings at the villa and take the myriad ferries around the destination for spirited afternoons. You can have lunch at Scrub; a painkiller afternoon at Soggy; a full day of lobster-searching in Anegada.

But it all comes back to the beauty to the views, here, up on the hillside, looking across the confluence of islands like Virgin Gorda, Guana, Little Camanoe and even, as far as your eye can look, Virgin Gorda.

And then, at night, you begin to look up, instead of out. And you see constellation after constellation, brilliant stellar maps, a view uncorrupted by light pollution, just pure night sky.

You can’t look away. You don’t want to look away.

And the longer you look, you don’t want to leave, either.

For more info on AnaCapri, email karen@dreamvacation.com.

— CJ