Canouan: Welcome to the Caribbean’s best kept secret

There are picantes and Taiwanese fried chicken on the menu: two immediate gifts that I am in a Soho House. However, something is wrong. There are no creatives talking shop – instead, all I hear is the soft lapping of waves lapping the beach.

There is also no rooftop view over an urban sprawl; instead, all I see are some tall palm trees swaying in the air.

I am in Canouan, a small island that is part of St. Vincent in the Grenadines. And if you’ve never heard of it, you’re not alone. This archipelago (pronounced Ka-no-wan), located 30 miles south of St Vincent, is just 3.5 miles long and half as wide, and has been considered the Caribbean’s best kept secret.

On the island’s west coast, on an impossibly perfect stretch of sand called Grand Bay, it seems almost incongruous to find an outpost of Soho House here, as if it had somehow washed up on this remote spot. However, Soho Beach House Canouan, the brand’s first property in the Caribbean, offers all the hallmarks of the club’s global success plus a host of extra benefits as well.

A bonus is that while 80 percent of the guests are members, you don’t have to stay here. Be warned though: it’s most likely you’ll be gone by the time you’ve checked out.

Found over a higgledy-piggledy row of two-story, wooden houses on stilts are 40 bedrooms overlooking the beach. From the white-on-white decor to the blue-tinted roof, the interior oozes Soho House’s typical boho vibe.

There are mid-century chairs for lounging, macrame art on the walls and white blinds to make the room cozy at night. Soft baby blue rugs and pastel cotton bedspreads add subtle touches of color.

Meanwhile, the bathrooms are bursting with Cowshed and Soho Skin products and the rooms are chock full of well-thought-out essentials: from a clothes steamer and extra phone charger to a Dyson hair dryer and pin-striped beach bag.

You can browse the boutique, which sells a curated collection of home wear and chic resort wear, and work out in the split-level gym. It also offers yoga and pilates classes. But generally the atmosphere here is to sink one’s teeth into the sand and do nothing.

It’s almost the antithesis of the network ethos found in most of Soho House’s urban addresses. There is also the fact that the trip to Canouan can take a while: you transfer from Barbados in a small plane that can often stop at islands along the way.

To acclimatize, it’s all about the downing tools. Go to the palapa restaurant to order conch ceviche, followed by red snapper with coconut rice with a canouan cooler (a local version of a rum punch) to wash it down. You’ll be on island time before you know it.

Opened in 2021, Soho Beach House Canouan still maintains the air of an insider’s secret, with most of its charm found in perfectly executed moments. There is dinner on the jetty under a sky that sparkles with amber stars. You will enjoy tuna and watermelon tartare, plantain chips and spicy dips and jerk chicken cooked on a wood-fire grill.

Then it’s time to pad back to your room, where soothing music plays from Robert’s Radio (Netflix junkies, be warned: there’s no TV). It’s just the right atmosphere to sit on the balcony with a good book and a coconut cosmo in hand.

During the day there are boat trips to the Tobago Cays – an uninhabited group of five islands famous for their brilliant turquoise waters and a horseshoe reef with

After swimming with green sea turtles, you can have lunch on grilled lobster, saltfish cakes and coconut-infused Tahitian fish live fish. After swimming with green sea turtles, Sparrow’s Beach Club on Union Island is a local hangout where you can lunch on grilled lobster, salted fish cakes and coconut-infused Tahitian fish.

With just 1,700 inhabitants, most of whom live in the small village of Charlestown, Canouan Island feels beautifully untouched by tourism. In fact, it has only been on the tourist scene since 1999, when a wealthy developer bought most of the island with a dream of turning it into a version of Mustique.

As well as a handful of sprawling properties, he built a hotel on the north-east coast, which has since undergone various permutations and now operates as the lavish Mandarin Oriental.

Another bonus here is that a stay at Canouan offers guests an “invisible key” concept. This means that no matter where you live, you can dive into all the facilities, which include tennis courts and an 18-hole championship golf course (which will reopen next year after a renovation).

The island is easy to explore: you can traverse sandy lanes and emerald rolling hills in one of the estate’s golf buggies or on an aesthetic aquamarine bike. There is hardly any traffic, instead there is an endless stream of resident red-footed tortoises poodling by everywhere.

It turns out that the name of the island means “island of turtles” in the ancient Caribbean and it is believed that there are more turtles living here than humans. At Mandarin Oriental, Canouan, you can choose to stay in one of the 26 palatial suites – think: marble bathrooms, terraces with sea views and canopied beds.

At the hotel’s hillside spa, signature massages are offered with the doors open so the ocean’s lapping waves provide a naturally soothing soundtrack. There is also a selection of sleek villas that belong to the hotel, as well as those that come under the wider Canouan Estate.

The six-bedroom Silver Turtle House, for example, has its own infinity pool and a framed thank-you letter on the wall from where Prince Harry once stayed.

Private culinary experiences throughout the island and a selection of five restaurants at Mandarin Oriental, which all guests can book, offer a good choice for eating out, and you can also have private chefs cook for you at your villa.

On my last day, I hike to the top of the highest mountain, Mount Royal, with a local guide. As we ascend the steep incline, hermit crabs fly across the path and snow flies between the trees.

At the 877-foot summit, the green hills of the island spread out below me. I see the luxury yachts docked in the harbor and a private jet landing at the airport. Life looks very good from here.

Stay at Soho Beach House Canouan from $815 per night and at Mandarin Oriental, Canouan from $1,400 per night for a bedroom suite, including breakfast. sohohouse.com; mandarinoriental.com