Our criteria are simple. We insist on being right on the water. We’d rather not sleep in motel-style, side-by-side lodging. And we don’t want to pay more than $160 a night—even in high season.
Jamaica
Rockhouse Hotel, 876/957-4373, , doubles from $100.
Seclusion isn’t easy to come by in the party town of Negril, with its sprawling resorts and thumping dance beats, but that’s exactly what Rockhouse delivers, primarily to hip couples and families hoping to avoid anything close to a spring break experience. Rockhouse’s rounded thatched villas are strung atop a low cliff carved with stairs that lead down to the warm waters of Pristine Cove. The 19 units peeking out of the jungle right at the cliff’s edge start at $250 in winter, but the long buildings set a bit farther back are easier to pull off—seven studios with sea views ($130) and nine standard rooms with garden views ($100), all with minibars, safes, A/C, and mosquito netting around four-poster beds.
Guests chill out at the 60-foot horizon pool, take yoga classes, or stroll along the property’s serpentine paths and stepping stones, which inevitably lead to quiet nooks, isolated beach chairs, and what most people say are the best sunset views in Jamaica. The action on Seven Mile Beach—including the nightlife hub of Jimmy Buffett’s Margaritaville and live reggae on the beach at Alfred’s (Tuesday, Friday, and Sunday) and Roots Bamboo (varies)—is a quick $5 to $10 cab ride away. Closer to your cabana—right next door, actually—is Pirate’s Cave, where patrons eat grilled lobster before jumping off the cliff and swimming into the sea cave underneath.
Country Country, 888/790-5264, , doubles from $155
The 17 cottages of Country Country occupy a narrow acre covered with tropical gardens and brick-lined paths in the middle of Negril’s hopping Seven Mile Beach. No two cottages are the same, though A/C, ceiling fans, louvered shutters, a porch, and a cabinet hiding a TV, fridge, and tea set are standard. Other than that, you might find bamboo bed frames, whimsical murals of starfish, or a fleet of conch shells surrounding the windows. The walls and gingerbread trim are painted in bright shades of lemon, eggplant, leaf green, burnt tangerine, and stonewashed blue. Sisal rugs surround either a king-size bed or two twins, and the loud bedspreads somehow go well with the purple lamp shades spangled with yellow stars. Most cottages are stand-alone buildings with neat little gardens and cool stone floors, but a few are double-deckers. Second-floor units come with hardwood floors and views over the vegetation to the water (you pay $20 more a night to stay upstairs or in the one-floor cottages closest to the water).
At the edge of the beach, there’s an open-air thatched-roof bar and restaurant for jerk chicken and fruity drinks. Country Country’s owners recently acquired adjacent land and plan on doubling the number of cottages and installing a pool and tennis courts by fall.
Jake’s, 800/688-7678, , doubles from $115.
Sitting alongside rocky shoals washed by the warm surf of Jamaica’s South Coast, Jake’s Easter egg–colored guest cottages are funky boutique versions of the Caribbean shack. The two dozen buildings overflow with odd, endearing details that are an exercise in culture-clash chic: Indian minaret–shaped windows, driftwood door frames, glass bottles embedded in plaster walls, Arabian-influenced domes, hammered-tin doors, Mayan-inspired weavings. The grounds are dotted with flowering bushes and desert greenery—cacti, yucca, gnarled little trees. What you get instead of a room with a TV, phone, and A/C is a welcoming, laid-back vibe. Don’t bother trying to find Jake, a parrot who’s not around anymore—it’s a long story.
The place was designed by Sally Henzell and is currently run by her son Jason, both of whom are particularly loved by the surrounding fishing village for starting a nonprofit that pays for medical rescue services, school computers, fishing tournaments, and even literary festivals where Shakespeare is performed in Jamaican patois. Hustlers are virtually nonexistent in the area, and Jake’s bar and pool serves as a gathering place for locals and guests alike. “We’ve felt like we’ve had the place to ourselves for the past week,” says John, a Toronto magazine publisher, as he watches his daughters play by the pool with a village girl in her school uniform. “Our own Jamaica.”
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