Beaches in Saint Barthélemy

One of the smallest and most expensive islands in the Caribbean: twenty-one square kilometres of dry volcanic rock and scrub, a French overseas collectivity since 2007, and Swedish for most of the nineteenth century — which is why the capital is called Gustavia and the island keeps a duty-free status inherited from that period. There are fourteen or so beaches, all public by French law, and the geography arranges them usefully: the leeward north-west coast holds the sheltered ones, Saint-Jean and Flamands among them, while the windward east at Grand Cul-de-Sac and Toiny takes the trade wind and the swell. Saline and Gouverneur in the south are reached over a hill with nothing built behind them, by deliberate policy rather than by accident. The island has no high-rise building and no cruise berth, and the airport at Saint-Jean takes only small aircraft on a short runway over a hill, which has done more to shape who arrives here than any rule. Hurricane Irma struck directly in 2017 and much of what stands is newer than it looks. Practically: the dry season runs December to April and prices within it are among the highest anywhere in this sea; a car is necessary and the roads are steep and narrow; and the ferry or a twelve-minute flight from Saint Martin is how most visitors arrive.