If you haven’t entered any dates, the rate shown is provided directly by the hotel and represents the cheapest double room (including tax) available in the next 60 days.
Prices have been converted from the hotel’s local currency (USD1,250.00), via openexchangerates.org, using today’s exchange rate.
Paradise just got even better, with the arrival of the Aerial to British Virgin Island shores. The wellness resort is geared around guests’ wellbeing, starting with nutrition: the feelgood food is largely pescatarian, with much of the produce grown at the estate’s farm and dining destinations that change almost every mealtime. Over at the island’s Redemption Ranch, a menagerie of nine horses, 21 tortoises, four zebras and seven ponies (all rescued, having been abandoned or maltreated) is on hand for therapeutic purposes, just in case the island itself wasn’t tonic enough.
Double rooms from £1151.11 ($1,438), including tax at 15 per cent.
More details
Rates are all-inclusive in its purest sense: all meals, all drinks, and even transfers
Also
The Aerial is accessible for guests with mobility issues and has one accessible room, Tranquillity.
At the hotel
Free WiFi throughout, farm, ranch. In rooms: air-conditioning, free bottled water and bespoke bath products. Some rooms have TVs and mini fridges, but the latter can be added to all rooms on request.
Our favourite rooms
Dream is a circular reverie with a round bed, freestanding silver bath tub, a wraparound balcony and serious Rapunzel vibes, although we’re not sure how a princess would feel about the outdoor loo (it is adorned with pretty blue mosaics, though…). And if a rotund room is a must, Presence is another spherical solution.
Poolside
The saltwater pool is open for swims from 6am to midnight, but there’s no lifeguard on duty.
Spa
The whole island is basically a spa. You can meet with the resident wellness therapists at the start of your stay to decide on your healing and rejuvenation goals. The spa has a beach gym, ice baths, a yoga platform and treatment rooms.
Packing tips
Preferably, something that needs healing, since you’ll be in the right place…
Also
The Aerial is the passion project of its owner, who wants to use her island to help guests to better themselves – achieved by hosting regular summits and programmes, such as inviting veterans along to help cure their PTSD.
Children
Children are welcome, but please enquire about bringing kids along so that the hotel can accommodate them in the most appropriate rooms (there are some connecting options available). Babysitting can be arranged with advance notice, too.
Sustainability efforts
The hotel has its own farm on the island, where it grows much of the produce used in the kitchens – everything else is sourced with a keen eye on provenance. All cleaning products are eco-friendly, too.
The staff have this covered, with various dining spots throughout the island – you’ll be notified in advance about where to head for your next meal.
Dress Code
Everything is on island time, but it’s probably best to change out of the athleisurewear.
Hotel restaurant
There’s not so much a restaurant at the Aerial, more a series of dining destinations, which change frequently (staff will alert you to where you’re eating, whether it’s up on the Higher Love deck, poolside, or a short Moke drive away at the beach). Guests are supplied with lunch and dinner choices at breakfast (usually based around what’s growing in the farm), and will then make their way to the designated spot, which will be illuminated with tiki torches and fairy lights after nightfall. Your daily food intake might feature shakshuka for breakfast, ponzu-marinated tuna for lunch and zucchini fritters with a date, lemon and butternut squash purée, toasted almonds and roasted vegetables for dinner. If your inner carnivore is calling, a steak can of course be sourced.
Hotel bar
Drinks, including an assortment of cocktails and mocktails, are served wherever you want them on the island, and there are bars by the pool, at the beach and in the main house.
Last orders
Breakfast is served from 8.30am to 10am; lunch sittings start at 1pm and end at 2pm; and dinner is from 7pm.
The Aerial is a private-island paradise a swift sail from Tortola in the British Virgin Islands. The landmass it’s on is called Buck Island and you’ll have it all to yourselves.
Planes
Beef Island is the main airport serving the BVIs. Land here and the hotel will arrange transfers (included in the rate) to take you from the airport to Hodge’s Creek marina, from where you’ll board a boat to the resort.
Other
Helicopters can touch down on Buck Island.
Worth getting out of bed for
All 43 acres of the Aerial’s private island are yours to explore – there are hiking trails, a yoga platform, watersports and daily wellness activities. Swimming can take place in the outdoor saltwater pool or in the Caribbean Sea. A boat trip is almost mandatory in the BVIs – staff will pack you off with a picnic as you set sail for neighbouring islands. Your first port of call should be the Baths, a boulder-lined beach with excellent snorkelling prospects. Over at the Aerial’s Redemption Ranch, guests can meet the island’s resident therapy animals – they were all rescued and are ready and willing to share their healing journeys with guests. You’ll also be able to tour the estate’s farm or just stake out a sunlounger on its beach.
Local restaurants
The all-inclusive rates and pinch-me private-island backdrop mean you probably won’t be in a hurry to set sail for inevitably less-fair shores, but if you insist, the staff can arrange boat trips to restaurants on neighbouring outposts.
Every hotel featured is visited personally by members of our team, given the Smith seal of approval, and then anonymously reviewed. As soon as our reviewers have returned from this health-giving hotel in the Caribbean and unpacked their bikinis and board shorts, a full account of their beach break will be with you. In the meantime, to whet your wanderlust, here's a quick peek inside the Aerial in the British Virgin Islands…
The sunny shores of the Caribbean may be a tonic in and of themselves, but if you really want to feel good, a stay at the Aerial in the British Virgin Islands could be just what the doctor ordered. This new wellness resort with a difference has Buck Island all to itself, with a farm supplying the kitchen with superfoods, circular suites to make guests feel like princes and princesses in the tower, and zebras. Yes, zebras – you may be a long way from the plains of Africa, but four stripey equines (along with a menagerie of other rescue animals) are residents of the island’s Redemption Ranch. Having gone on their own healing journeys, the creatures are available for therapy sessions with guests. Rooms are named things like ‘Courage’ and ‘Gratitude’, so even if you didn’t arrive with an intention for your stay, you’ll soon be equipped with one. Get those chakras ready to be realigned.
