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PRIVILEGED LIVING: SANCTUARIES OF THE BVI
by Deb Andrews, Editor-in-Chief

Quiet and Private Islands

"I feel so privileged." the blue eyed, tanned beauty sighs, as she stretches her long limbs out over the hiss of waves.

Above her an eggshell blue sky daubed with occasional white clouds marks time.

The airport runways and apron are a sort of up market parking lot with priceless views for a number of private jets and charter helicopters. These elite aircraft ferry people discreetly in and out of the islands against the breathtaking backdrop of the ocean and Guana and Scrub Islands.

In the early nineties, a glimpse of Princess Di and her sons arriving to stay at Necker Island, Richard Branson's private Virgin Island, was not uncommon. Today, you will often get a peep of a Saudi Princess or a US senator.

Just this month billionaire Larry Page got married in the BVI squishing a about 180 guests, which reportedly included Bono, Johnny Depp, Leonardo Di Caprio amongst others, into tiny Virgin Gorda! A feat of prestidigitation that deserves a lot of respect!

It’s a fact that the BVI has turned hosting visitors to its beautiful archipelago into an art form, and has over the years learned how to manage its public visitors, privately.

For this very reason it is one of the most popular destination hideaways for all those in the public eye seeking private sanctuary on a beach in the Caribbean.

You cannot disappear on a beach in Barbados or St. Barts. You can disappear in the BVI. There are so many islands and so many beaches; all you need is a comfortable boat... or helicopter, and a little local know-how.

Even the Royal BVI Yacht Club is entitled to a 'royal'. In March 2000 HRH Prince Andrew, the Duke of York, paid a visit to the territory and conferred the title on the BVI Yacht Club. BVI Islanders are used to British royals, in recent years they have welcomed the Queen, the Duke of Edinburgh and Princess Anne to the islands. They are practiced at ceremony and pomp.

In a small ceremony HRH was asked by the Yacht Club Members "to convey to Her Majesty, on his return to England, their thanks for the great honour bestowed, not only on this country, but in particular, to the Royal British Virgin Islands Yacht Club."

One wonders whether he did. Andrew…”note to self, must remember to tell Ma that the chaps at the Road Town Yacht Club are tickled pink about their new name”.

The British Virgin Islands cover 150 sq kilometers of land spread over a much larger area of the Caribbean Sea, and 80 km of that land is coastline. This means that there are less than 2 square kilometers of land for every kilometer square of coastline and beach. In comparison Great Britain with over 1000 islands has a ratio of 16 square kilometers to every kilometer of coastline, and the USA has a ratio of nearly 500 square kilometers to 1 linear kilometer of coastline.

Add to this, that much of the BVI land is on tiny remote islands that are almost impenetrable rock and scrub, and you have not much real estate left.

As a result, land and consequently property is at a very, very high premium in the territory. Further, the lifestyle quality, the infrastructure, the quiet privacy and the infinite abundance of the picture-perfect seascapes and coastscapes, have evolved to create a very competitive BVI real estate market.

A constant lament from keen investors and would-be expats is “it’s almost impossible to buy property in the BVI.”

It’s an unarguable fact.

The BVI government has also created a few National Parks to reserve land and virgin vegetation to preserve the natural history of the archipelago in trust for their children and their children’s children. And so it should be! But now, there is even less land available for development.

The Premier's Office is very selective with the many eager developers from all over the world who knock on their beautiful glass departmental doors in what is known as the Administrative Building. The BVI Government Administration Building is rather upscale and sophisticated despite its location on a sandfill reclaimed area in the quaint capital of Road Town.

RAFFLES TORTOLA

RAFFLES HAS A PEDIGREE THAT FEW OF THE WORLD'S LUXURY HOTEL GROUPS CAN MATCH.

But when Raffles Hotels and Resorts, a brand of international luxury hotels, approached the BVI, that glass swung open with a rare welcome.

Tortola is a small island of only 13769 acres, so to allow 50 of them to be owned by one Resort development, is a measure of the Government’s trust in what this showcase project can offer the British Virgin Islands.

Raffles has a pedigree that few of the world’s luxury hotel groups can match. The original Raffles Hotel was opened in Singapore 1887 and was host to legion members of some of the biggest and richest royal families from all over the world. So many artists, writers, musicians and politicians enjoyed its famous hospitality until one hundred years later the most famous Hotel in Asia was declared a National Monument.

With Raffles Hotel Singapore as its flagship, the company expanded with Hotels in Singapore, Cambodia, China, Switzerland, California and Canouan iisland in the Eastern Caribbean.

Ten new resort properties are currently under development including more in Asia, Dubai and, of course, Raffles Tortola in the British Virgin Islands.
Recognised by Conde Nast Traveler in 2006 as the #2 International Hotel Company surpassing both Four Seasons and the Ritz-Carlton who serve the same type of clientele, Raffles adds further prestige to the mix of this naturally exclusive island nation.

Even more, Raffles brings a royal quality to an archipelago known for its secluded white sand beaches, world class sailing, diving and outstandingly beautiful land and seascapes.

The Raffles Tortola Resort is expected to open in 2010 and will include a 100+ Room Resort, a Spa, tennis courts, a free form swimming pool, Jack Nicklaus Signature golf course just minutes away, restaurants, and over 200 private residential properties.

The first phase of private residential property to be built is the 20 Founders Villas. Following the release of these for sale, there will be another 175+ properties offered for purchase.

THE PROPERTY

The Founders Villas are 3495 sq ft interior and another 3265 sq ft exterior, for a total of 6760 sq ft of uniquely designed, four bedroomed luxurious living and a pool as an integral part of the terrace. Starting at around 2.5 million dollars (US), the Founders Package includes a complimentary Land Rover and a nice range of international memberships and discount benefits.

These two and three story properties rise like fine sculpture, out of the valley and hillside on the north eastern coastline of Tortola overlooking Guana Island.

A SANCTUARY INDEED FOR A PRIVILEGED FEW.

Between the privately owned Guana Island and the beautiful white-sand, palm-fringed beaches of Raffles Tortola, there is a calm channel of aquamarine-coloured Ocean, rich with the promise of all things of the sea, sailing, diving and swimming.

It is fitting that Raffles with its brand of, ‘Residential Sanctuaries for the Privileged’, should be sought and found in the British Virgin Islands. A sanctuary indeed for a privileged few.

Living in a Founders villa at Raffles Tortola combines the sophisticated luxury of a modern designer home in an island seascape setting. Time passes judged, not so much by the clock, but by the heartbeat of island life.

In the cool early morning as the sun rises unseen behind the hill to the south, a lone Boston Whaler speeds daily across the channel, carrying the day workers to the exclusive Guana Island Resort. On the still morning air, their laughter carries across the water.

On winter days the swell breaking along the resort beaches can be large enough to surf, a distant relic from the ferocity of a winter Atlantic storm which has romped halfway across the planet from Massachusetts to Norway. But on hot summer mornings when the sun rises unseen south of St. John, the sea is a warm bath, curving and curling around the fine dusting sand carrying away yesterday’s footprints.

Throughout the day, pelicans dive for food ungracefully, like First World War bombers crashing into the ocean. But it’s a different bird when riding the ‘lift’, skimming the waves, stretched and immobile minute after minute, until it rises higher and higher to begin another bombing mission.

By breakfast time the first white sails can be seen drawing across the horizon, those sailing away from Anegada south west to Jost Van Dyke looking forward to a bibulous evening at Foxy’s. From the valley at Raffles Tortola, Anegada is hidden behind Guana Island. But at the top of this hill the distant horizon to the North West can be seen, where Anegada is defined by the paler reef waters that surround the coral island.

By lunchtime yachts are leaving Cane Garden Bay sailing in the opposite direction upwind to anchor for the night in Trellis Bay in order to spend a rather lively night at The Last Resort.

To the North West on winter evenings the sun sets gloriously, a golden prelude
to the Tortolan night. In the warm sunshine afternoon, the gardens gleam with Antillean humming birds flashing green and turquoise, and bananaquits painted in a primary yellow nosing into the hibiscus and the white oleander. The sounds of the afternoon seem to be the sea grape trees rustling in the dry breeze, and the gentle hiss of the beach waves, occasionally broken by the hum of a neighbour’s land rover going up the hill to the gates of the Resort.

One wonders where they will be going. Surprisingly, there are a vast number of things to do on Tortola… so it might be hard to guess.

From the gates a left turn and down the hill accompanied by the unmissable views of Virgin Gorda and the Dogs, will have them in Trellis Bay to Aragon’s Art Studio or the Cybercafé for a smoothie and a sandwich and some windsurfing, or playing golf (when the course is completed); or even the airport in five minutes to meet friends or family arriving to stay.

Or perhaps the villa is rented and the new guests are being met by the Management team at the airport. For those Founder Member owners who are not ready to live in the BVI but would like the investment, there is a Rental Programme in place through the Hotel.

A right turn will take them along the Ridge Road. This is the spine of Tortola which in forty minutes of splendid unimpeded views of all of the Virgin Islands takes you to the West End of the island and no further! On a very clear day you can even see Dutch Saba, some 90 miles to the South East.

It’s not given to many to live in the British Virgin Islands with its population of less than 30,000.

The opportunity to own a Raffles Tortola Founders Villa is offered to even fewer.
What is the collective noun for 20 luxury Founders Villas at Raffles Tortola, in the British Virgin Islands?

I think perhaps ‘a privilege’ would be just about right!

For more information about Raffles Tortola:
CLICK HERE

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