Why Luxe Eco Lodges are Rising in The Caribbean
It’s that rare sense of freedom we’re all searching for
“This is my ideal world,” Asha Frank told me, standing on the fifteen acres she holds through Barbuda’s communal land. “Because I control my destiny.”
Frangipani is a Barbuda eco lodge that runs on solar power. Asha and Afiya Frank own it. The two sisters built it on Two Foot Bay, on the wild Atlantic coast, and for ten days it gave me an entire shoreline to myself.
Yes. The whole coast. No neighbours, no wifi, no other footprints in the sand.
I went looking for clarity and I found a place that simply hands it to you.
“This is my ideal world”
“Because I control my destiny,” Asha said, “and the opportunity that I’ve been given, because I live in Barbuda, is the fact that I own this fifteen acres piece of property through our communal land system, which essentially is free land for Barbuda.”
“It’s very freeing. I control my hours. I control my time.”
That is not a figure of speech. On Barbuda the land is held in common, so Asha holds her fifteen acres without buying it, and that arrangement is what keeps this coast from being sold off. You can read the deeper story of Barbuda’s communal land if you want to understand why Barbudans guard it so fiercely.
Is the land in Barbuda really free?
Yes, for Barbudans. Asha put it plainly: the communal land system is “essentially free land for Barbuda.” Barbudans take a plot for a home or a business at no cost, and big developments need the community’s blessing.
That single fact is why a small beach house can sit alone on a coast another island would have filled with resorts.
“Being at one with nature, not trying to intrude”
I asked Asha what the vision was. She talked about the land more than the lodge.
“The vision that we have for this place is to share the way of life. Living in nature, being at one with nature, not trying to intrude.”
I asked her what not intruding looked like in practice.
“We use local plants, so we don’t import the beautiful palm tree. We have a local palm, so we use the local palm. We use the balsam, that literally just grows wildly. We don’t even have fencing. We have cows that are roaming freely, we have donkeys. It’s a give and take with nature. We take a little bit, we make sure we’re always giving.”
And she tied it to something larger, without a trace of preaching.
“On a global scale, it’s necessary to live like this, based on what is happening in the world with climate change. We as a people need to move collectively and look at the ways we can live at one with nature, less intrusive.”
From the UK to an island that slows the world down
Asha did not grow up here full time. I asked how she found moving from the UK to somewhere this remote.
“I have a connection with Barbuda in the sense that my father’s from here. So it is difficult, it’s not easy. Even when you leave for a short period of time and live in a place that is a metropolitan world, you change. There’s always that adjustment you have to make when you come back and live with nature.”
She reached for the one moment the whole world understood.
“If you look at what happened with Covid and the world just stopped, no flights, no planes in the sky. I saw an image where there was a deer walking through the city. It’s something that’s a hundred percent doable. It’s just slowing down, literally, and making more conscious decisions about living in a place that is not as fast pace as a city.”
What exclusive isolation actually feels like
Here is where I come in, because this is the part I kept talking about to camera.
I have been isolated before. You can be isolated at a waterfall or in a forest, and a lot of us can reach a waterfall or a forest. What I felt at Frangipani was something I call exclusive isolation, the kind that is a little trickier to get to and gives you the whole place in return. The last time I felt it this completely was on safari in Botswana, out with the animals, no synthetic noise, nothing fabricated, just the sounds the animals make. If you know that feeling, you will recognise it in my notes on Tuli Safari Lodge.
Frangipani gave me the island version. It felt like I had the whole island to myself. I used the beach as my office. I put a little table out at the shack, sat there (often with no clothes on, because there was truly no one to see), and any time I needed inspiration I just looked out at the ocean.
The only noise is the waves. And that is what offers clarity, absolute clarity. When you are caught up in annoyance you cannot restructure the way you think. When you have that clarity you can. That is what we seek as meditators, to clear the mind completely, and you can actually do it in a place like this.
Ten days, and not one neighbour
By the time I had to leave, I was quietly hoping the boat would be cancelled so I could stay one more night.
It was Thursday, and I had come the Monday of the week before, so I had been there about ten days. Truly peaceful. Truly, truly peaceful. You have no neighbours here, none whatsoever. It is just you, the only human being, and then you are among all the other beings: the fish in the ocean, the donkeys, the cows roaming around, the birds, the frigate birds.
Those frigate birds are the island’s signature. Barbuda holds the largest frigate bird colony in the western hemisphere over at the Codrington Lagoon sanctuary, and at Frangipani they just circle overhead like they own the airspace.
The balsam tea tastes like a softer neem
Asha had told me the balsam “literally just grows wildly,” so of course I had to try it.
This is the balsam tea. I tasted it and the closest reference I can give you is neem, except gentler. Neem smells stronger than this and tastes stronger than this, so picture neem with the volume turned down. A clean, green, local cup that grows a few steps from where you drink it.
Frangipani also keeps a small herb garden, an indoor kitchen and an outdoor kitchen, and a firepit, so you cook slowly with what is there. I am plant based, and the larder suited me perfectly (they do provide lassos for guests who want to try for lobster, so message Frangipani directly if that is you).
Getting there, and who it is for
Frangipani sits at Two Foot Bay, about 9.4 km from Barbuda’s airport, and you reach the island by a short flight or the ferry from Antigua. Asha and Afiya meet you in person and settle you in before they leave you to the quiet. The lodge runs on solar, the water is harvested rainwater drawn from an onsite well, and there is no wifi.
The beach house has two rooms, one twin and one double. It is family friendly, and because the isolation is so complete, clothing is genuinely optional. The price sits at the investment end, and I will not pretend otherwise.
The other side of the island has its slow hum of high end development and celebrity backed beach clubs. The Atlantic side stays defiant. If you want the polished, serviced Caribbean, Antigua next door does it beautifully, and somewhere like Lamblion Apartments is a soft landing. Frangipani is the opposite end of that spectrum, and it knows it. Around it you can also walk the cliffs to the caves at Two Foot Bay, the only place in Antigua and Barbuda with Amerindian petroglyphs.
My reflection, ten days in
You can probably see I got significantly darker, and that was just being on the beach. More than the tan, it was being able to create. I edited footage from Antigua, from London, from Colombia, from Georgia, and for once I did it with absolute clarity, because the environment finally let me.
I have travelled to over a hundred countries, and Frangipani sits firmly in my top three most secluded places on earth. No people. Total silence. Just liberated privacy and an entire coast to dance and sing on, knowing nobody will see you.
And yes, I know what you are thinking, because I said it to my audience too: it is quite expensive. I am able to do this because you keep me going. So take it from me. Stay a week, brew the balsam, let the world go quiet, and then come back and tell me I am wrong.
Hugs,
QOV x
Explore more of our verified eco stays, or wander the rest of Barbuda and the wider Caribbean.
Frangipani Eco Lodge is a genuine eco lodge, off grid and oceanfront, the kind of low impact luxury rising across the Caribbean as travellers tire of the all inclusive machine. You can read more of these in our Caribbean destinations, and if you travel for the freedom of it, the clothing optional guide to Jamaica is the neighbouring island’s version of the same idea.
If Asha’s fifteen acres sound like your kind of quiet, you can check dates and book Frangipani Eco Lodge. Book early, there is only one of you allowed on the whole beach.
Thank you for reading to the end, my loves. If you want plastic free swimwear for that empty beach, our partner Freedom Ecowear gives 12% off with the code Vitality.
This is a verified HTT eco-stay!
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