Jamaica's GoldenEye resort, the birthplace of James Bond, adds 26 luxury huts to its iconic grounds this month. Travel writer Amelia Mularz of Mr & Mrs Smith—the boutique hotel website and booking service—chats with the property's visionary, Chris Blackwell, and heads to the Caribbean.
It's hard to imagine a music mogul-turned-hotelier living in a hut. But for Chris Blackwell—the founder of Island Records and the man who discovered Bob Marley—that is exactly the case. Through lush greenery, I can see the roof of his humble abode as I clumsily maneuver my kayak along the lagoon at GoldenEye (perhaps I've had one too many Red Stripes at lunch). Directly to the left, I spot the smaller hut that Blackwell uses as an office, and right up against the water there's a stone patio with a built-in bar. The music legend is known to invite guests that he sees floating by for a cocktail—most likely one made with his very own Blackwell brand rum. On this particular day, Blackwell isn't home; he's traveling in Malaysia, which is probably best for my paddling equilibrium.
It's my first visit to GoldenEye, the former estate of Ian Fleming and the place where the author wrote all 14 James Bond novels. Blackwell, whose family has roots in Jamaica dating back to the 18th century, purchased the property in 1976. After selling Island Records in 1989, he established Island Outpost, his collection of boutique hotels. Today, the Island Outpost group includes GoldenEye, The Caves (a waterfront property in Negril) and Strawberry Hill (an escape in Jamaica's Blue Mountains).
To be fair, Blackwell, who is now 78, doesn't only live in a hut. He also has an apartment in New York City and a home near Reading, England. A few weeks prior to my Jamaican adventure, I met with Blackwell at his place on Manhattan's Upper West Side. Amazingly, despite it being a snowy March day on an island better known for its rats than its reefs, the man still pulls off a beachy vibe. He emerges from a back room, where he's been organizing old records (appropriate spring cleaning for someone who signed Jethro Tull, Cat Stevens and U2, among others), wearing a Montauk sweatshirt and with hair that looks almost wind blown. If he told me he'd been out Jet Skiing on the Hudson River, I would have believed him.
We sit at his dining room table with a bottle of Blackwell Rum and pieces of fresh pineapple. On a shelf, directly over his shoulder, there's a Jonathan Adler cookie jar with the word "ganja" emblazoned across the porcelain. This has to be the best environment in which to discuss Jamaica, aside from being on the tropical island itself.
"I think a hotel today needs to be an energy center," he tells me. "Not just a place where you go to sleep." For its part, GoldenEye is practically a creative mojo mecca. In addition to its rich literary past, the resort has hosted cultural forces ranging from Grace Jones to Jay-Z to Johnny Depp. It's also the place where Sting wrote "Every Breath You Take" and Bono wrote the theme song to the GoldenEye film.
Before now, the resort consisted of a grouping of villas and cottages, some facing the sea and others facing an interior lagoon. But the 26 new beach huts, which launch this month, represent a different approach to island living—one that's a bit more personal to Blackwell as they're modeled after his own minimalist dwelling.
Most noticeably, the huts are smaller than the cottages and villas, but what may be even more striking is that there's no air conditioning (the other units do have A/C). Instead, the new structures have high ceilings and oversized, louvered windows to maximize the effect of the natural breeze. "I really feel that to come all the way to Jamaica and then shut yourself off from the night sounds, you're missing half the experience," Blackwell explains. "I'm an audio person, so I love the sounds." An ironic side note: one of Blackwell's first jobs, at around age 19, was selling air conditioners in Jamaica. Unsurprisingly, it's an industry he has no interest in revisiting.
As for the size of the beach huts, Blackwell naturally gravitates toward smaller spaces. An only child born into one of Jamaica's most powerful families, Blackwell grew up in Kingston in a house he describes as "the opposite of a hut." He says, "You can rattle around in a huge house; you can be lonely in a huge house. A small place feels warmer and more comforting."
Me, personally, I would never turn down a sprawling suite or an oversized villa. My own NYC apartment could be described as a fourth-floor walkup shanty, without high ceilings or gentle winds, so I never hesitate to dabble in the finer things. However, during my first night at GoldenEye, in beach hut #22, I understand exactly what Blackwell is saying. The hut is octagonal with windows on every side except two – the one that leads to the bathroom and the wall with the bed. It's this configuration that Blackwell loves. "It's almost round," he says. "There's something primal and natural about that shape."
I leave all the shutters open and let the sea breeze circulate; it makes two batik beach towels hanging from wooden hooks sway subtly—even the textiles here are chilled out. I can hear reggae playing in the distance and then the music changes… is that Mariah Carey? Soon it's just the sound of frogs and crickets. An urbanite to the core, I don't understand that I'm supposed to pull the mosquito netting around the bed to shield me. Even still, I manage to fall asleep bite-free.
In the morning I feel refreshed. I don't need a coffee, but I'm excited that there's a French press and Blue Mountain beans in the room, so I have one anyway. I sit on my private veranda (every hut has one) with my mug and try to decide where I'll swim first that day: Snorkeler's Cove (home to the Oracabessa Fish Sanctuary), Button Beach or the freshwater pool that's right next door—all options are new to the resort.
That's the thing—if there's any concern that more than two dozen new structures and all the additional bikini-clad bodies they entail will crowd paradise, Blackwell has thought it through. On top of the added swimming holes, guests will also have their pick of two extra bars and a rooftop terrace. The huts offer options, too. There are one- and two-bedroom units, built at varying heights for maximum privacy. Some huts have ground-level lounges with wet bars and Smeg refrigerators, some have open-air showers, and some have outdoor claw-foot bathtubs.
Another perk, the new huts are less expensive than the existing room categories. While the cottages start at $620 per night and the villas go from $800 per night (the Fleming Villa begins at a cool $5,500), the new huts start at $400 per night. Blackwell's hope is that the lower price point will attract a crowd that might not have been able to visit otherwise.
"What I love about the record business," he says, "is that somebody who has a lot of money and somebody who doesn't have any money can buy the same record. I love that people of different financial situations can be as one when it comes to art or music. I want to achieve that same thing in the hotel business, and that's why I built these huts."
If you go to GoldenEye…
- Eat ackee and saltfish for breakfast at the resort's Bizot Bar. Yes, fish first thing in the morning sounds aggressive, but it's delicious.
- Take a stand-up paddleboard yoga class with spa director Sienna Creasy. She's a bundle of positivity and she'll have you doing extraordinary things, like headstands while floating.
- Order a Cliffhanger with dinner at the Gazebo restaurant. It's freshly squeezed watermelon juice mixed with a hint of ginger, Blackwell Rum and Appleton Gold Jamaica Rum.
- Book a massage at the lagoon-side FieldSpa and then snorkel to your appointment, because where else can you do that?
- Go on an Island Outpost tour in Kingston and explore the roots of reggae music.
- Channel Ursula Andress and pretend you're a Bond girl every time you emerge from the sea.
