Barkley's Baths: Belmond Cap Juluca

TLF partner Barkley Hickox is the office bath enthusiast and aficionado. Barkley’s Baths focuses on her favorite tubs around the globe.

The name Anguilla comes from the Spanish word for “eel,” which is appropriate for this low-lying slip of an island, lolling in the Caribbean Sea east of Puerto Rico and the BVIs. With a maximum elevation of just over 200 feet above sea level, this is a destination that’s low on drama and big on relaxation, which is just one of the reasons it’s among my favorite places in the world.

While the island is only 16 miles long, it’s home to over 30 beaches, many of which regularly appear on lists of the world’s best. They’re all beautiful, but I grew up on the sands of Maundays Bay, the perfect white crescent lapped by almost cartoonishly blue water that’s home to Belmond Cap Juluca. The sea is so calm and perfect here, visitors describe it as bathwater, a word that always makes my ears perk up.

But it’s not just the natural topographical wonders of its setting that make Cap Juluca the best property in the Caribbean for bath lovers. When I’m on the island, the name of the game is maximizing my time afloat, whether there’s a roof over my head or not, and inside the hotel’s famed white, Greco-Moorish-inspired walls, you’ll find the tubs that started it all for me – double-wide marble basins overlooking private solarium gardens, where tropical plants soak up the sun. Leave the garden door open so the island breeze wafts in – do not disturb signs were made for lazy afternoons in tubs like this, and I can think of no better way to relax before a perfect Caribbean evening (I’m thinking sunset drinks on the sand at Cap Shack, seafood under the airy vaulted ceiling at Jacala, and live music at the world’s best beach bar, Bankie Banx’s Dune Preserve...)