Four Seasons Resort – Pinney’s Beach, Nevis, Lesser Antilles
Where Beach and Golf Both Rank Number One
Is it any surprise that the Caribbean’s best golf course is on a formerly British island? The Four Seasons Resort on small, slow-moving Nevis is a golfer’s dream, combining an exceptional (and never crowded) championship course designed by Robert Trent Jones Jr., with luxury resort accommodations, superlative service, and a location on the island’s most beautiful powdery white-sand beach. The 18-hole, 6,766-yard course was carved out of mountainous terrain, leading up to an awesome par-5 fifteenth hole: At 550 feet, overlooking the sea, its breathtaking backdrop is a dormant volcano capped in clouds.
The course’s plantation-like main house was designed to reflect the island’s traditional British character (Admiral Horatio Nelson and Fanny Nisbet were married at the Montpelier Plantation back in 1787), and is surrounded by 350 acres of exquisite grounds, abutting the water at gorgeous Pinney’s Beach, a 3-mile, reef-protected stretch that knows few rivals. If you feel like slumming it, Sunshine’s Bar and Grill, a shack plunked down right on the beach, serves a mean Painkiller.