If you’ve seen one island, you’ve seen them all, right? No. Wildly, emphatically no. There are those whose white sands are spellbinding, whose cuisine is exquisite or whose staff are freakishly intuitive. So, what if you could combine your favorite details from across the world to build the ultimate private retreat? Witness Robb Report’s own fantasy island, taking the best bits of eight of our favorite isles. Apologies in advance, as this is one place that even money can’t buy. Yet.
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WATER: Taransay, Outer Hebrides
Image Credit: Taransay Yes, that Outer Hebrides. In Scotland. But wait: The sea surrounding this necklace of islands off the west coast is lapped by the edge of the Atlantic Ocean and crystal blue. Temperatures might be “bracing” year-round, but the purity and clarity of the waters more than justify the need for an occasional wet suit or two. Thronged with deer and eagles, Taransay is uninhabited but owned by the same family as nearby Borve Lodge; visitors can explore the windswept waters without ever seeing another soul. See, aren’t you glad you came?
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BEACH: Islands of Copperfield Bay, Bahamas
Image Credit: Copperfield Bay Modest illusionist David Copperfield revealed a complicated relationship with extreme privacy when he snapped up not just one island but an entire archipelago in the Bahamas, starting in 2006—and promptly renamed them after his favorite illusionist. Forty beaches dot the 11 islands of Copperfield Bay, each featuring powder-soft white-sugar sand. Rotate through them to stay basked in sunshine all day.
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STAFF: Necker Island, British Virgin Islands
Image Credit: Virgin Limited Edition/Jonathan Cosh Trust Richard Branson to hire a team who can handle requests for any activity on a whim. One specialty is the beach Olympics, a serious undertaking including sports such as champagne diving—that’s plunging to the bottom of a pool to pick up a bottle or two—and blindfolded kayak races. Newbies can acquire skills easily on-site, as Barack Obama did, learning to kiteboard from the staffers here.
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AIRSTRIP: Ambergris Cay, Turks and Caicos
Image Credit: Ambergris Cay Sidestep the inconvenience that’s often the by-product of an island’s far-flung location with an airstrip like the one at the resort on this three-mile-long cay. The 5,700-foot private runway is primed to receive jets as large as G450s. It has also usefully just received re-certification as a port of entry to the country, allowing you to skip red-tape arrivals and be lounging ocean-side minutes after touching down.
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FOOD: Guana, British Virgin Islands
Image Credit: British Virgin Islands This barefoot luxe spot in the BVIs is almost entirely self-sufficient, including relying on its own farm for the produce that feeds the island. There’s an orchard here stocked with tropical fruits from soursop to papaya, plus multiple greenhouses to help grow vegetables and a 100-chicken-strong coop. All that, plus a bounty of Caribbean seafood hauled in by fishing boats. Heaven.
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BUILDING: Long Island, Queensland, Australia
Image Credit: Elysian Eco Retreat Perched in the Whitsundays cluster at the edge of the Great Barrier Reef, Long Island’s Elysian Eco Retreat is an off-grid, fully sustainable resort. But with room for up to 20 guests, it’s often bought out instead as a private retreat. The eco-friendly architecture relies entirely on the sun for its power needs and on fiber thatch roofs for natural cooling, reducing the scorching midday temperatures by almost 20 degrees.
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SPA: Sensei Lanai, Hawaii
Image Credit: Sensei Lanai Oracle billionaire Larry Ellison owns 98 percent of Lanai, the second-smallest inhabited island in Hawaii, and just installed a Sensei wellness center at one of the two Four Seasons properties there. It features a raft of treatments rarely offered elsewhere, from Polynesian bodywork in the Lomi Lomi style to thermal body mapping, which pinpoints sources of tension for a deep-tissue massage. Isn’t this island great?
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MARINA: Sandy Lane Yacht Club, Canouan
Image Credit: Sandy Lane Yacht Club Italian developer Andrea Pignataro has snapped up a large chunk of this five-square-mile island in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, aiming to turn it into his own de facto fiefdom and a worthy competitor of nearby Mustique. The marina, though, is an exception, as billionaire Dermot Desmond operates it as a sister spot to its namesake resort in Barbados: Here, there’s room for superyachts up to 328 feet in length.
