On December 26, Heidi Klum shared a video on her Instagram account in which she was seen sunbathing topless on a half-empty beach in Saint Barthélemy. It's neither the first nor the last video the German supermodel has posted during her Christmas vacation on this Caribbean island, which has served as a winter attraction for the rich and famous for years. Of course, he's not the only familiar face to have landed in the popular destination: Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck have been spotted behind the wheel of an electric vehicle, as well as shopping for jewelry at one of the island's many luxury establishments or taking a dip in the sea at a private beach . Lauren Sanchez, Jeff Bezos' fiancée, chose this place to celebrate her 54th birthday with her friends and future husband. Mike Tyson and Michael Jordan have already gone sailing on their yachts. Other regular guests on this island include actor Leonardo DiCaprio, Beyoncé, Jerry Seinfeld, Paris Hilton, Paul McCartney, Ivanka Trump and Mariah Carey. What does San Bartolomé have to offer so that another enclave does not have to attract these great riches? Exclusivity and privacy are, as it could be, two of the island's most distinctive features.
Saint Barthélemy, also known as Saint-Barthélemy or St. Barths, is where Hollywood rests. Only 24 square kilometers in the French Antilles, in the northeast of the Caribbean, 22 white sandy 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 to do so a supermodel can appear topless without appearing on the cover of a tabloid. It wasn't always this way, but the island came into fashion in the late 1950s: “His luck changed in 1957 when David Rockefeller fell in love with the island and built a house on the edge of a beach. . Soon a continuous stream of great American fortunes would follow in search of their paradise plot,” explained journalist Mónica Montero in an article about the place in El País Semanal. Before the rich sought their paradise, St. Barthelemy was a humble island, as they explained in an article in The New York Times: “Until 40 years ago, jobs were so scarce that residents fled to other islands.”, mostly after Santo Tomás, where the workers of San Bartolomé founded a fishing village for work reasons in the 19th century. San Bartolomé itself had no electricity until 1980.
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Almost 70 years later, everything has changed in San Bartolomé. The Internet is full of lists of so-called hotspots where you can meet celebrities on the island's 15 miles: Without going any further, J. Lo stays at the luxurious colonial-style Hotel Cheval Blanc, which offers rooms, suites and villas, in which also included Beyoncé and Jay-Z, Sean Diddy Combs, Ryan Seacrest, Madonna and Marc Jacobs. The most popular beaches include Flamands, Eden Rock or St. Jean, where the famous Nikki Beach Club is located. The port of Gustavia is usually full of actors, singers or businessmen coming and going on their yachts. And Gustavia, with its cafés, its French or Caribbean haute cuisine restaurants – the best known include Bonito, Le Ti St. Barth and Maya's – and its numerous shops, is one of the areas where you can meet famous people. make purchases.
It makes sense that another big advantage of San Bartolomé is that it has duty-free status, meaning luxury products are significantly cheaper as the relevant 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 the 1950s) are some of the luxury brands that, in addition to fine jewelry, also have a franchise in San Bartolomé, as do companies like Cartier. As if that wasn't 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 attraction of the island, which has a large number of clubs so private that celebrities such as the aforementioned DiCaprio or his club partner, actor Tobey Maguire, can party. without fear of paparazzi.
In addition to its charm as an earthly paradise and mini tax haven, another attraction of the island for beautiful people is the aforementioned privacy, which already begins with the difficulty of getting there. The easiest? Arrival by yacht or private plane. Those wishing to arrive by commercial flight must first fly to Saint Martin, the nearest island, 22 kilometers away, and then take a plane – for about $250 – or a ferry – for $70. The price of hotels and resorts is also off-putting for most budgets: a room in one of the establishments starts at a price of $800 per night and most of them have a stay requirement of at least a week. A few years ago, baseball player Justin Verlander and his wife, model Kate Upton, made headlines for renting a 1,000-square-foot mansion that cost a whopping $450,000 a week.
All that glitters in San Bartolomé is not gold. As journalist Nina Burleigh explained in the above-mentioned New York Times article, since 2022 there has been a legal battle pitting the (ever fewer) locals who want to preserve the island's fragile nature against the hotel entrepreneurs who want to expand Pass on your domains to enjoy the 1%. The local government estimates that 60% of the island is undevelopable green zones, and yet “there are many stories about rich or famous people buying properties in green zones and moving the boundary lines.” The islanders joke that the real green zone on St. Barthelemy is the American dollar and that the official symbol is the construction crane.”