The Caribbean's Last Secret

Part of the fun of vacationing on the Puerto Rican island of Vieques is to see the looks you get from folks back home. Many Americans recall the long-running controversy over U.S. Navy war games held on Vieques. They picture the place as a bomb-scarred moonscape, its waters poisoned with depleted-uranium shells. And that's exactly the image that some visitors would like to perpetuate--keeping to themselves the secrets of the island's miles of pristine beaches, brilliant coral reefs and unique glow-in-the-dark waters.

The truth is, the Navy bombed only about 1 sq. mi. on the eastern end of Vieques, even as the military presence blocked the island's hidden coves and forested mountains from commercial development. Since the Navy pulled out of Vieques on may 1, its protective role has been assumed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. And word of the last Eden in the Caribbean has been rippling up from backpackers to more luxury-minded travelers.

To be sure, admiring tourists have been journeying there since Christopher Columbus, who in 1493, sailed past the 10-mile-by-5-mile gem and dubbed it Graciosa, Spanish for "graceful." (Vieques is an old Indian word for small island.) Lately, conference planners have been smitten by the place and have scheduled executive retreats at the Martineau Bay Wyndham resort.

The site opened under Wyndham's management wyndham.com in February after the owner's 15-year struggle against not-in-my-backyarders and the logistical challenges of building a 42-acre, 156-unit resort on a remote former sugar plantation. Located on the northern shore, the Wyndham is the only resort of its size on the island. It offers a conference and banquet room for 180 people and plans to add a casino, spa and dive shop. Rooms, which range from $250 to $500, are luxurious if scarcely distinguishable from what you might find, say, on Grand Cayman. And the air conditioning is so ubiquitous and powerful that it reaches icy fingers to you even as you approach the reception building across sun-baked asphalt.

Leisure travelers will find more local flavor on the island's south shore, where rooms range from $150 to $370 a night. The 16-unit Hacienda Tamarindo (787-741-8525) offers an elevated view of the ocean and homey rooms decorated with old circus posters and other curiosities. Its next-door neighbor, the Inn on the Blue Horizon (787-741-3318), has one-room cottages with country-style wooden furniture, just steps from the sea. And the celebrated, open-air architecture of the Hix Island House hixislandhouse.com) farther inland, lets you feel as if you're camping but with all the privacy and amenities of a luxury rental, including appliance-filled kitchens, with rosemary and oregano bushes lining the path to the pool. The Hix House's altitude brings a steady ocean breeze through the rooms, and you won't mind the lack of air conditioning, except perhaps on the occasional summer spell when daytime temperatures can rise past 90°F.