On December 26, Heidi Klum shared a video on her Instagram account in which she appeared topless, sunbathing on a semi-deserted beach in Saint Barthélemy. It is not the first nor the last video that the German supermodel has posted during her Christmas vacation from this Caribbean island that, for years, has served as a winter attraction for the rich and famous. Of course, she's not the only familiar face who has already landed in the popular destination: Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck have been spotted behind the wheel of an electric vehiclealso buying jewelry in one of the many establishments dedicated to luxury on the island, or bathing in the sea on a private beach. Lauren Sanchez, Jeff Bezos' fiancee, has chosen this location to celebrate her 54th birthday in the company of her friends and her future husband. Mike Tyson or Michael Jordan have already gone sailing aboard their yachts. Other regulars on this island are the actor Leonardo DiCaprio, Beyoncé, Jerry Seinfeld, Paris Hilton, Paul McCartney, Ivanka Trump and Mariah Carey. What does San Bartolomé have that another enclave does not have to attract these great fortunes? Exclusivity and privacy are, as it could not be otherwise, two of the most distinctive signs of the island.
Saint Barthélemy, also known as Saint-Barthélemy or St. Barths, is the place where Hollywood rests. Just 24 square kilometers in the French Antilles, in the northeast of the Caribbean, 22 white sand beaches and crystal clear waters, a population of only 10,289 inhabitants (according to the 2019 census), a small number of luxury hotels — seven, specifically — and many other private villas offer enough privacy for a supermodel to go topless without appearing on the cover of a tabloid. It was not always like this, but the island became fashionable in the late 1950s: “His luck changed in 1957, when David Rockefeller fell in love with the island and built a house perched on the edge of a beach. . He would soon be followed by a continuous flow of great American fortunes looking for their plot of paradise,” explained journalist Mónica Montero in a piece about this place in The weekly country. Before the rich sought their plot of paradise, San Bartolomé was a humble island, as explained in a piece in The New York Times: “Until 40 years ago, jobs were so scarce that residents left for other islands, mainly St. Thomas, where workers from St. Barthelemy founded a fishing village in the 19th century for work reasons. San Bartolomé itself did not have electricity until 1980.
Almost 70 years later, everything has changed in San Bartolomé. The Internet is full of lists of so-called hotspots where one can rub shoulders with celebrities in the mere 24 kilometers of the island: J. Lo, without going any further, stays at the luxurious colonial-style Cheval Blanc hotel, which offers rooms, suites and villas that Beyoncé and Jay-Z, Sean Diddy Combs, Ryan Seacrest, Madonna or Marc Jacobs. Some of the most popular beaches are Flamands, Eden Rock or St. Jean, where the famous Nikki Beach club is located. The port of Gustavia is usually filled with actors, singers or businessmen who come and go on their yachts. And precisely Gustavia, with its cafes, its French or Caribbean haute cuisine restaurants – Bonito, Le Ti St. Barth, or Maya's are some of the best known – and its numerous shops, is another of the areas where famous people can be seen. making purchases.
It makes sense, another of the great attractions of San Bartolomé is that it has status duty free, this means that luxury products are significantly cheaper, since the corresponding taxes can be deducted. Hermès, Louis Vuitton, Dolce & Gabbana, or Prada (the latter with a boutique unique in the world, inspired by the colonial atmosphere of 1950) are some of the luxury brands that have a franchise in San Bartolomé, in addition to fine jewelry brands such as Cartier. As if this were not enough, the island is also known for its beauty treatments: the popular Guanahani Hotel is home to the Clarins spa, considered one of the best in the entire Caribbean. Nightlife is another of the island's attractions, which has a large number of clubs private enough for celebrities such as the aforementioned DiCaprio or his clubbing partner, actor Tobey Maguire, to party. without fear of paparazzi.
In addition to the charms as an earthly paradise and mini tax haven, another of the island's attractions for beautiful people It is its aforementioned privacy, which begins with the difficulty of reaching it. The simplest thing? Arrive by yacht or private plane. For those who want to arrive by commercial flight, they will have to first fly to Saint Martin, the closest island, located 22 kilometers away, and then take a plane — for around $250 — or a ferry — for $70. The price of hotels and resorts is also a deterrent for most budgets: a room in one of the establishments starts with a price of 800 dollars per night and, in most of them, there is an obligation to stay, at least a week. A few years ago, the baseball player Justin Verlander and his wife, model Kate Uptonmade headlines for renting a villa of more than 1,000 square meters that cost a whopping $450,000 a week.
All that glitters in San Bartolomé is not gold. As the journalist Nina Burleigh explained in the aforementioned article by The New York Times, since 2022 there has been a legal dispute that pits the (less and less) locals who seek to preserve the fragile nature of the island against the hotel entrepreneurs who want to continue expanding their domains for the enjoyment of the 1%. The local government considers that 60% of the island is non-buildable green zone, and yet, “stories abound of rich or famous people who buy properties in green zones and move the border lines. Islanders joke that the real green zone on St. Barthelemy is the American dollar and that the official symbol is the construction crane.”
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