Bacolet Beach

Bacolet is the cove that hides in plain sight, just around the headland east of Scarborough yet a world away from the capital's bustle. It is small, a horseshoe of dark gold sand perhaps a hundred and fifty metres across but wide and deep, backed by palms and the broad leaves of Indian almond trees that throw real shade. You reach it down a flight of concrete steps from the cliff road, and at the bottom a beach bar serves cold drinks. The scale is intimate rather than grand, and the mood is quiet, often shared only with guests from the boutique hotel above.

The honest read is that this is a beach for atmosphere more than for a guaranteed swim. Bacolet sits on the windward side of the island, and although a reef does most of the work of calming the water, undercurrents and rougher seas can still reach in, especially through the winter months. On a settled dry season day it swims beautifully, but it is not the place to count on glassy water with small children. For that certainty the leeward southwest beaches near the airport are the safer choice, while Bacolet rewards the traveller who comes for the shade, the seclusion and the sense of a corner most visitors never find.

There is a curious fame here too, quietly carried. This small cove and its green hinterland stood in for the world of Walt Disney's Swiss Family Robinson, and it drew visiting stars in the mid twentieth century, which lends it a reputation out of all proportion to its size. None of that shows on the sand now. Come in the late afternoon, take the shade of the almond trees, swim gently while the reef holds the water, and let the cove be what it is, a small, characterful, palm shaded pause a few minutes from the capital. Read the sea honestly, keep the place tidy, and it gives back calm.