This Resort on Antigua With Private Hillside Pools Was Voted One of the Best Stays in the Caribbean

""It's beautiful, man," the Antiguan customs officer said while passing back my passport after I shared my address on the island of the newly renovated Hermitage Bay. "But it's at the end of a bumpy dirt road-don't think you're being kidnapped. Paradise is at the end of the road." Antiguans unfailingly mention their 365 beaches -one for each calendar day."

"The resort's origin story begins with Andy Thesen, a financier who traded spreadsheets for hospitality, carving this retreat from a sloping hillside in 2006. Today, Daniel Shamoon, the London-based founder of Luxury Hotel Partners, whose constellation includes Nobu outposts in Marrakesh and Marbella, owns the resort. Following a meticulous multi-million-dollar renovation touching everything from dining venues to accommodations, Hermitage Bay emerged renewed on November 1, 2024."

"Most Caribbean resorts fall into predictable camps: either billionaire bunkers with three staff per guest, or assembly-line all-inclusives where sunburned visitors clutch watery rum punch in plastic cups. Hermitage Bay exists in a refreshing third space-intimate yet unfussy, polished without pretension. "We're not just competing with Caribbean standards," Shamoon told me during a sunset boat ride. "We measure ourselves globally." His vision materializes in the delicate fusion of local authenticity with international sophistication."

Hermitage Bay opened in 2006 on a sloping Antiguan hillside and was later acquired by Daniel Shamoon of Luxury Hotel Partners. The property underwent a multi-million-dollar renovation and reopened on November 1, 2024, with upgrades to dining, accommodations, and public spaces. The resort occupies low-profile cottages tucked into green slopes and favors an intimate, unfussy aesthetic positioned between ultra-private luxury and mass all-inclusives. The operation emphasizes a fusion of local authenticity and international sophistication and earned recognition in Travel + Leisure's 2025 World's Best Awards as one of the Caribbean's top resorts. Access includes a bumpy dirt road leading to secluded beachfront.

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