Cooper Island Beach Club

Cooper Island sits in the Sir Francis Drake Channel, a small landmass reached only by boat from Tortola. Manchioneel Bay forms its northwest shore, and the beach club runs along the sand there, screened by palm and seagrape planted decades ago. It is off-grid. Solar panels supply the power and water systems, a submerged membrane reactor treats waste water to bathing standard, and the kitchen runs a microbrewery producing beer by the barrel using the same solar current. Eight guest rooms sit right at the shoreline, built from recycled teak, fan-cooled rather than air-conditioned, with screens instead of glass to let the sea air move through. Some rooms open into two-bedroom, two-bathroom suites via a connecting balcony door. Below the water, a dock destroyed by Hurricane Irma in 2017 has become its own reef, colonised by fish and coral over the years since. Divers head out from here to the RMS Rhone wreck and surrounding reefs with a PADI operator based on site. Sailors moor in the bay itself: forty mooring balls, half of them first-come, serve yachts up to 60 feet, with dinghy access straight to the restaurant and rum bar. The rum bar alone stocks over 350 labels. You can watch the brewing kettles through a window at the Coffee Box while waiting on a flat white made with locally roasted beans.