St. Thomas Villas by

From your six-metre pool at Villa Papillon, on a north-coast peninsula, the land just drops away to reveal an unobstructed, 180-degree view of various US and British Virgin Islands across cerulean seas. Views which are best enjoyed from the comfort of your hot tub, which adjoins that pool. The surrounding deck comes with floats for kids and plenty of comfortable furniture, and guests have a good chance of spying whales during the day or shooting stars come nightfall. Should you get up early enough, sunrise is especially spectacular.

Set amid a small, gated community, the villa’s two multi-level pavilions frame a private courtyard ideal for shady reading and scented by colourful tropical plants and fruit trees. Back on the pool deck are two outdoor dining areas, surrounding a summer kitchen and impressive barbecue grill, while inside through all-glass walls are the lounge’s designer furniture and overstuffed leather chairs. Bamboo floors and 10th-century stone carvings from Asia lend a worldly feel; equally fascinating is a Baltimore News front page from 1912 covering the Titanic disaster.

Villa Papillon’s air-conditioned, ensuite bedrooms are scattered around for privacy’s sake. Each has an ocean view and king-size bed – one of them a California king for especially tall guests. There’s also a huge kitchen, crammed with endless Viking amenities below a gorgeous vaulted ceiling. Talking of gorgeous, just over the hill and only a five-minute drive away is white-sand Magens Bay, ranked among Earth’s ten most beautiful beaches by National Geographic.