Need to know
Rooms
30 suites.
Check–Out
Noon. Earliest check-in, 4pm. If you arrive earlier, you’re welcome to stow your luggage and make use of the resort until your room is ready.
More details
Rates are room-only (unless you've booked the 'culinary package'), but you can buy breakfast, à la carte, at the hotel, and your resort fee includes a welcome cocktail, valet parking, motor yacht transfers, watersport amenities, and staff gratuities.
Also
The resort’s Island Premier Suites are both ADA compliant, with widened doorways, lowered switches, lamps with pull chains, adapted bathrooms, ramp access and an elevator to the upstairs suite. For hearing impaired guests there’s a kit of visual aids, including a door knocker, doorbell, a bed-shaker alarm clock, telephone signaller, telephone amplifier, and Portaview telephone keyboard/text viewer.
Please note
You’ll need to let the hotel know your arrival plans, so they can arrange your transfers. And you’re advised to book treatments by phone directly with the spa ahead of your arrival.
At the hotel
Watersports centre with SUP, kayaking, Hobie Cats, and Boston Whalers, as well as a resort boat for snorkeling and Scuba excursions; seaplane and boat jetties; communal lounge (the Great Room); private beach; gardens; concierge; boutique; and free WiFi. In rooms: air-conditioning, ceiling fans, free minibar (alcohol is priced separately), coffee machine, free bottled water, umbrellas, binoculars, bathrobes, and custom bath products.
Our favourite rooms
With a generous footprint indoors and out, all suites are utterly private and dressed to impress with travertine flooring, heirloom rugs, antique furniture, a rich colour palette and woven details, creating a polished Caribbean-meets-colonial feel. Opt for an Island Romance Suite, Island Grand Suite or Island Premier Suite for an outdoor copper tub, and a day-bed on the deck, plus a private strip of beach with a fire pit. Most luxurious of all are the two Island Premier Suites, with expansive living space and two bathrooms.
Poolside
Between sunrise and sunset, you can set up camp on a cushioned day-bed beside the heated, saltwater pool – curvaceous and palm-shaded – that’s only steps from the beach. It has both step and ladder entry, and pool service from the thatched Palapa Bar cancels out any need to stray for sustenance. The resort also has a private beach, with parasol-shaded cushioned loungers lined up on the sand, and there’s food and drink here, too.
Spa
Even if you have no intention of indulging in spa therapies or using the relaxation areas, mani/pedi stations, or hair and make-up services at SpaTerre, it’s worth heading there to check out this eyecatching thatch-roofed two-story complex set around an open courtyard with a reflection pond at its heart. Five treatment rooms are available for CBD therapies, four-hands massages, facials and more, which use luxurious ingredients such as seaweed, macadamia-nut oil and organic vanilla. The spa’s open from 9am until 6pm, and the hotel recommends booking treatments in advance of your arrival. The Fitness Center stays open until 9pm and is home to ellipticals, Peloton bikes, rowing machines, free weights and benches with the option to arrange personal training. The Center has a dry sauna on the first floor, and if you want to book yoga or meditation sessions, the spa’s outdoor tiki is available.
Packing tips
Castaway chic – with an emphasis on swimwear, cover-ups and smart threads that meet the restaurant dress code for balmy island evenings.
Also
Although a resort since the 1980s, Little Palm Island was decimated by Hurricane Irma in 2017, then rebuilt. Its lively past includes spells as a cocaine-smuggling post, a movie set, and a private retreat for guests, including President Truman.
Children
An idyll for couples, this private-island stay is for over-18s only.
Sustainability efforts
When your island stay is in a delicate ecosystem in the Florida Keys, conserving its fragile beauty is an obvious priority. Little Palm Island Resort & Spa partners with a number of conservation groups locally, involved in reef and mangrove restoration, as well as beach and sea cleans. The hotel has banished single-use plastic, refills full-size bath products, uses LED lights, and has installed a high-efficiency HVAC system to reduce its energy consumption.