THE TAB: US$3,280 per night

Courtesy Frégate Island Private

And there's a three-night minimum. That rate includes meals (the food is terrific), but everything else — wine, spa treatments, and the helicopter ride over (US$1,085 each way for up to four people) — is extra. What's the payoff? For starters, there's the chance to stay on Frégate Island, home to the seventh-rarest bird in the world, a colony of 500 wild giant tortoises (one more than 200 years old), and, from May to August, 20,000 nesting seabirds. The flip side is cultivation, the chance to stay at Frégate Island Private, which has 16 walled cliff-top bowers and a spa that makes great use of the 4,200 fruit trees that grow here. (You can even go out and pick your own ingredients for a facial.) Even the privacy is uncommonly good. "You don't have to try very hard to be alone," said a woman on the pool deck, who was by herself until I came along. And then there's Anse Macquereau, a tiny beach reserved for one couple at a time on a first-come, first-served basis. In short, Frégate Island embodies my long-held notion of resort paradise, the Hotel Bel-Air on Gilligan's Island. — G.W.

reservations@fregate.com, www.fregate.com