At the alfresco bar beside the pool at Montpelier Plantation & Beach in a still-sleepy Nevis, head bartender Kaddy mixes me one of his famous rum punches.

At this historic Relais & Châteaux boutique hotel, which celebrates its 50th birthday this year, I swim a few laps in the turquoise and royal blue mosaic-sheathed pool before lounging, propped up by a cerulean-hued pillow. I could linger here forever, but I have a cooking class in the afternoon. I already hiked up a dormant volcano led by an expert guide, and biked down to the resort’s sugary crescent of private beach, so I think I’ve earned the nibbles ahead.

With 19 colonial-style, white-painted cottages dotting the former 600-acre sugar mill, Montpelier Plantation exudes a perfect fusion of British breeding and prodigious African culture, passed down by generations. With a distinctive residential feel, where everyone knows your name and you can enjoy a drink with owner Muffin Hoffman, the hotel caps a hill above the sea, surrounded by a thousand shades of green, cooled by a fruit- and floral-scented breeze. With no traffic lights and few cars, Nevis is home to monkeys, donkeys, goats and a preponderance of ever-crowing roosters.

“It’s like the Caribbean from bygone days,” one guest said to me while we indulged in our spicy rum punches. Boasting elements of its history such as huge cauldrons from sugar plant days, Montpelier’s most evocative remnant from the past is Mill Privée, a circa-1747 sugar factory tower, now an acclaimed gourmet restaurant.

Visit anytime in 2017 to take advantage of the Montpelier Golden Memories Anniversary offer, a five-night extravaganza offering daily breakfast, massages for two, a rainforest hike led by expert guides, a romantic picnic lunch on the resort’s private beach, a sumptuous six-course dinner in the 300-year-old Mill Privée, and poolside chocolate and Champagne.

You’ll fly into sister island, St. Kitts, where you will be met by staff and then transferred by boat to Montpelier.

Montpelier Plantation & Beach

P.O. Box 474
Nevis, West Indies
tel 869 469 3462