Villa Dreamin Blue – Luxury Villa in Happy Bay, Sint Maarten

Villa Dreamin Blue sits high on the hillside above Happy Bay, with one of the widest sea views on the island: the water wraps around the point, and the position catches both the sunrise and the sunset. It is a four-bedroom house for a family or group of eight, and it can be booked as three or four bedrooms.

The house makes the most of the height. The terrace runs along the view, planted with palms, and three of the four suites open straight onto it, each with an en-suite bath. Down on the terrace there are two heated pools and a jacuzzi, so a crowd never has to share one patch of water, and for the wellness-minded there is a fitness room and an infrared sauna tucked into the property.

Below the villa, a walking trail drops to two of the prettiest beaches on the island. Happy Bay is the wild one, undeveloped and usually near-empty, reached on foot; Friar's Bay next door is the social one, with chairs, umbrellas, and a couple of beach bars on the sand. Between them you get both the quiet and the company.

The kitchen is fully equipped, the house is gated and looked after with daily housekeeping, and Grand Case and its restaurants are about ten minutes north when the group wants a night out.

For that night out, La Villa in the heart of Grand Case is a lively French table on the island's food street, and our concierge can book it and arrange the cars.

Low-season weeks start at $8,603 for the four bedrooms. The day tends to end where it started, up on the terrace between the two pools, the same rail catching both the sunrise and the sunset over Happy Bay.