Petit St. Vincent

Petit St. Vincent is the southernmost island of the Grenadines, a hundred and fifteen acres of hill, scrub and white sand with the Caribbean on its western side and the Atlantic on its eastern. Twenty-two cottages stand on it and nothing else does. That ratio is among the lowest in this register, and the plan turns it into a system: there are no telephones in the cottages, and a guest who wants something runs a yellow flag up a bamboo pole, or a red one to be left alone. Staff read the flags from a distance. Privacy here is administered rather than merely provided.

The island was uninhabited and belonged to a woman on neighbouring Petite Martinique. Haze Richardson and Doug Terman, two former Air Force pilots chartering a schooner, arranged its purchase with a client in the mid-1960s, cleared the ground living aboard for seven months without water or power, and had the Swedish architect Arne Hasselqvist design twenty-two cottages and a pavilion. It opened in December 1968, built almost entirely by hand. Richardson stayed as temporary manager, became owner in 1985 and never left. Phil Stephenson and Robin Paterson bought the island in 2010.

Density as doctrine. Five acres to a cottage, and a protocol to keep even the staff at a distance until called. The territory is not just held; it is rationed on purpose.

Two coasts on a small island. The Caribbean on one shore and the Atlantic on the other give a hundred and fifteen acres two different seas, which is the same trick Curtain Bluff plays with a bluff and twenty.

Sources

• Encyclopaedic record and operator history - island of a hundred and fifteen acres at the southern end of the Grenadines; twenty-two cottages designed by the Swedish architect Arne Hasselqvist; opened December 1968 after more than two years of construction carried out largely by hand
• Published history - Haze Richardson and Doug Terman arranged the purchase from a resident of Petite Martinique on behalf of a charter client, Richardson became owner in 1985 and died in 2008, and the island was bought by Phil Stephenson and Robin Paterson in 2010
• Operator material - no telephones in the cottages; service is requested by raising a flag, with a second colour signalling a wish not to be disturbed; access is by air to Union Island and then by the resort's launch

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Private Resorts arranges each stay on request, quoting the rates available for the resort and dates. No benefit should be assumed unless it is confirmed in writing for the individual reservation.

Classified by The Resort Collection House · The Register · Edition 2026 · LHL-E-308
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