Elite Traveler Spring 2020

INSPIRE

love with the island’s untouched beauty, he built a home atop a rock promontory situated between two pristine beaches and founded an intimate hotel. He invited his famous friends, like Howard Hughes, Greta Garbo, John D Rockefeller and the Rothschild family, to share in the island’s remote magic. Unsurprisingly, the island became known as an elite, jet-setting destination, in part due to the immense amount of travel required to get there. To this day, St Barths’ operates one of the shortest and most challenging runways in the world, accommodating smaller planes, like the Pilatus PC-12. The small airport was even officially renamed to Rémy de Haenen in his honor. “St Barths is what it is now because of Rémy,” says Fabrice Moizan, the exuberant Eden Rock St Barths’ general manager, over lunch at the hotel’s Jean-Georges Vongerichten-helmed Sand Bar. “[Because of Rémy] Eden Rock is the core of St Barths.” The hurricane allowed Eden Rock to reflect on its past and thoughtfully consider what it wanted to bring into the future. Before this, the hotel’s popularity never allowed it to fully close. In this new era, paying homage to the man that started it all felt right. The lobby bar is aptly named Rémy Bar, whichMoizan calls the core of the hotel. It has a British-colonial aesthetic and an impressive cocktail menu (order the Eden Colada, a delicious mix of two rums, fruit juice and champagne— this is St Barths, after all). You can even live like Rémy once did in the De Haenen suite, an ultra-chic, modern replica of his original house on the top of the rock. It’s hidden from the rest of the resort, and has stunning vistas of the sea from a private wraparound terrace. The hotel also redesigned the interiors of its suites and villas, and added a new fitness center and spa; the Beach Bar; a boutique and library; and three sensational new suites atop the rock, in place of its former dinner restaurant, bringing the hotel’s total room count from 34 to 37. “This is what we envision for the next 15 to 20 years,” says Moizan. “We want to keep a vibe that is welcoming and easygoing. We retain the chicness and elegance without being too pretentious. It’s a good balance.”

Photos Oetker Collection’s Eden Rock-St Barths, Fabrice Rambert, E Labouerie