Villa Embrace — 5 Bedrooms in Gustavia, St Barth

The house and how it is laid out

Five bedrooms, ten guests. The bedrooms are separate rooms rather than a divided floor, so a group of ten does not have to negotiate over who sleeps where. Outside there is a pool, a hot tub and a grill. Inside, a full kitchen with an oven and stove, a television, air conditioning and wifi. Fitness equipment is on the property, so training does not depend on finding a gym. That is the whole list of what is here; if something else matters to you, ask me and I will check it before you book.

In Gustavia

Embrace is in Gustavia. I am not going to give you a walking time to a particular beach or a restaurant, because those numbers get copied around and repeated wrong, and you only find out on arrival. If where the house sits relative to a specific place matters for your trip, ask me and I will tell you what it actually is. What I can confirm is the transfer: an airport shuttle can be arranged for the villa, so arrival does not start at a rental counter.

Who it works for

Five bedrooms sleeping ten suits two families travelling together, or a group of friends who each want their own room rather than a shared floor. The pool, the hot tub and the fitness equipment mean the day does not have to be built around going out. The outdoor grill alongside the indoor kitchen makes eating in a real option rather than a fallback, which counts when ten people do not all want to move at the same time. Rates are on request.

Living in the harbour town

Gustavia is the port, and the island's capital. Everything turns around the harbour. Boats come and go all day, the quays are lined with shops, and the streets around the water are flat. You can walk most of the town without thinking about the hills.

That is the real advantage, and the one I would point to first. Here you can leave the car parked and go out on foot in the evening. Few other places on the island let you do that.

The trade-off is movement. Gustavia is the busiest place on Saint Barth. In season the streets fill up, parking gets tight, and boat passengers come ashore during the day. Mornings are calm, afternoons much less.

There is no large swimming beach in town, only a small one you reach on foot. For a proper stretch of sand you drive: a few minutes to the central bay at St-Jean, a little more to the north-west coast.

Gustavia suits people who want to be in the middle of things and walk home afterwards. If you are after silence and no neighbours, I would send you to the heights or the north-east side instead.

What the villa has

• Air conditioning
• Airport transfer
• Fitness room
• High-speed internet
• Full kitchen
• Private pool
• Heated pool
• TV
• Wi-Fi

Common questions