Tiny and uninhabited, Joe Grant Cay lies amid the Turks and Caicos islands. (Photo courtesy of Amphibious Adventures)

Quiet, secluded and often off the beaten path, these powdery treasures are for those island lovers for whom the beach is the thing. Ultra-romantic and blessed with natural good looks, these hidden Caribbean beaches are so serenely idyllic you can almost, to paraphrase T.S. Eliot, hear the mermaids sing.

Slideshow: See all 9 secret shorelines

La Blanquilla, Venezuela
Day-tripping castaways can swim and snorkel the sparkling coves of the "white island," one of Venezuela's remote Federal Dependencies (offshore islands) in the western Caribbean. No one lives here but the Guardia Costera (Coast Guard), wild donkeys and the occasional fisherman, boater, or tour group on a desert-island sojourn. With alabaster beaches and tranquil seas, it's a favorite anchorage for cruisers. Divers can explore the undersea wall 65 feet offshore, encrusted with rare black coral. A good way to see La Blanquilla, 70 miles northwest of Margarita Island, is by chartered boat. Explore Yacht Tours (tel. 0212 6352166; ) is a Caracas, Venezuela-based company that charters crewed powerboats and sailboats.

Smuggler's Cove, Tortola, British Virgin Islands
It's a bumpy ride by four-wheel-drive or a leisurely stroll down a long dirt road to this quiet, secluded beach on Tortola's West End. But it's worth every bead of sweat once you reach this creamy crescent of sand. The sapphire seas at Smuggler's Cove are warm, clear and practically ripple-free. Sip a frozen drink at the only commercial enterprise in sight, the ramshackle Smuggler's Cove beach bar, where you can rent beach chairs and snorkel equipment to putter about the coral reef 100 feet offshore. Sit back and toast to the island of Jost van Dyke across the seas.

Gold Rock Beach, Grand Bahama Island, The Bahamas
Escape to Grand Bahama Island's secluded Lucayan National Park, where wooden walkways lead through a dense mangrove swamp to one of the Bahamas' most fetching beaches. At Gold Rock Beach, luminescent seas recede at low tide to reveal soft rippled sand. Wade in the pink-tinged shallows and spy stingrays gliding along the sandy bottom. Admission to the national park is $5, and the beach has no facilities to speak of (bring your own food and beach paraphernalia), but this hidden gem is worth the effort.

Joe Grant Cay, Turks & Caicos
Recently snatched from the jaws of a five-star resort development, Joe Grant Cay is a castaway fantasy come to life. A tiny uninhabited cay sandwiched between the islands of Middle Caicos and East Caicos, Joe Grant Cay has a sheltered harbor on its leeward side and a cinematic sweep of ivory sand on its windward side. You can take a day trip exploring the sparkling reefs off Joe Grant Cay with Amphibious Adventures and even circumnavigate the island in a small boat or kayak.

Coco Point, Barbuda
Fifteen miles long by five miles wide, Barbuda is home to just 1,200 inhabitants. This little gem of an island has some of the prettiest beaches in the Caribbean, including this pink-sand pearl on the island's southern coast. Yes, a small lodge fronts one stretch of beach, but the rest you may have all to yourself. Wade in the sparkling jade shallows or dig your toes in the ridiculously soft sand.

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“Get me a stretch of sand and a hammock and I’m happy,” says Kirsty Hathaway of U.K.-based BeachTomato.com, a fashion and travel site focused on beach vacations. “Awaking to the sound of rumbling waves, completely immersed in nature and wildlife. This, for me, is the epitome of true escapism.”

Escapism looks a little different for everyone, but we can all agree that a reasonable price tag spells relaxation almost as much as a hammock and a cold one. So we’ve rounded up our favorite affordable beach resorts worldwide, each checking in between $50 and $250 per night.

Slideshow: See all the best affordable beach resorts

After all, a beach vacation isn’t rocket science. The three key ingredients are simple: sun, sand, surf. It’s not all about the tanning butlers or 12-course molecular gastronomy tasting menus or the flat-screen pool-cabana entertainment systems. And it certainly isn’t about watching your bank account wash out to sea. 

Jose Ramon Cagigas / Courtesy of Le Reve Hotel & Spa

An unpaved maze of roads leads the way to Le Rêve Hotel & Spa, an intimate, 25-suite boutique property with more romance and charm than its neighboring mega-resorts in Playa del Carmen, Mexico.

So what can you get that’s comfortably priced? How about Auberge Carnish, an airy modern cottage along a rugged curve of the Scottish coast where otters frolic in the misty dawn. Reclaimed merbau hardwoods and bath products of local lavender and seaweed bring the outside in. Price tag? $175 per night.  

It’s also perfectly possible to splash out in a trendy destination like Panama, and still come in within budget. Donald Trump’s curving skyscraper in Panama City should do the trick — with a deep-soak tub and high thread count included. Pair that urban beach experience with a stay along the Pacific coast beaches — fantastic for surfing — at the rustic-but-stylish El Sitio (from $99 per night). 

Further afield, you, too, can find your bliss among the beaches of Goa, India, which have welcomed bohemian types since the ’60s. Amarya Shamiyana, a collection of four Moghul-inspired tents in a palm-shaded oasis — just down the beach from Jade Jagger’s boutique — channels that carefree, chic spirit. The hotel bursts with color, from playful hand-painted damask murals to metallic beanbag chairs, and puts you within walking distance of the beautiful party people (from $110 per night).  

Luxe-mod Peruvian surf breaks? Nouveau preppy Kennebunkport, Maine? Avant architecture in Norway? Yup, we’ve got those too. So go ahead and dive in. The forecast is sunny for this choose-your-own-resort adventure.

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CuisinArt Resort & Spa sits by the crystal blue of Anguilla's Rendezvous Bay.

Beachgoing travelers know the truth: not all Caribbean hotels are created equal. And during a long winter, when all you crave is warm sun and soft, colorless sand, you want to know that you’ve picked the right spot.

Slideshow: See the finest lodgings in the Caribbean

To help you make the best choice, Travel + Leisure asks readers each year to score their favorite hotels on rooms, location, service, restaurants and value. The top-ranked hotels in the Caribbean, Bermuda and the Bahamas run the gamut from affordable boutique hotels to clubby all-inclusives. But what they share is excellence — and a stamp of approval from thousands of travelers.

Four of the top 20 Caribbean hotels are in St. Lucia, but you won’t have to worry about fighting the crowds: it’s easy to find a quiet paradise on the shoreline of this volcanic atoll. Ladera Resort, in Soufrière, had the highest score here — its secluded, open-air cottages have sweeping views that stretch from the towering Pitons to the turquoise sea. And the view gets even better at night, when you can stargaze from a private plunge pool.

Jamaican hotels won big this year as well, with four top spots. Couples Tower Isle, the highest-rated winner in Jamaica and No. 2 in the Caribbean, has been a romantic getaway since the 1950s, when Eva Gabor and Noël Coward cocooned at the resort. Fresh from a recent $30 million renovation, the all-inclusive property offers twilight catamaran tours and unlimited time on the golf course — all, of course, without having to pay extra. A lesser-known Jamaican gem is the Rockhouse Hotel, set on a craggy cove and known for its affordable rates — often less than $125 a night.

Homing in on excellent accommodations is important to the 10.8 million American travelers who headed to the Caribbean last year, according to Sylma Brown Bramble, director of the Caribbean Tourism Organization. According to Bramble, “The Caribbean has hotels that suit any type of traveler, from families to single travelers — and many have an affordable price point.” In fact, according to Smith Travel Research, the average price of a Caribbean stay is less than $200 a night.

So which Caribbean hotel nabbed the No. 1 spot? Head to eco-friendly Nevis, where Nisbet Plantation Beach Club comprises 36 breezy cottages on a stretch of beachfront sand so white it could be mistaken for snow.

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Ready to expand your horizons? Chart a new path to paradise with this guide to the lesser-known gems.

Slideshow: See the islands to escape to

Curaçao

Best for: Social butterflies and sun-worshippers.

The largest and most cosmopolitan of the Dutch-allied ABC Islands (along with Aruba and Bonaire), Curaçao also has some of the region's best weather — it lies outside the storm-prone Hurricane Belt.

Dominica

Best for: Adventure junkies and solitude-seekers.

Dramatic, rain-forest-cloaked peaks, bubbling volcanic lakes, excellent diving and a 115-mile-long hiking trail that leads from one end of the island to the other. The drawback? No direct flights from the U.S.

Grenada

Best for: Just about anyone.

The Spice Isle has every tropical flavor: mountains, forests and waterfalls: black- and white-sand beaches; laid-back, affordable guesthouses; and bucolic villages that haven't been tarnished by tourism.

Montserrat

Best for: Thrill-seekers (that volcano's still technically active).

Check out the Soufrière Hills volcano (it created a modern-day Pompeii out of the former capital in 1995) from the observatory or just enjoy the empty beaches, lush hiking trails and robust marine life.

St. Kitts

Best for: History buffs and animal-lovers (vervet monkeys hang around some beaches).

Long in the shadow of pricier Nevis, St. Kitts is home to a thriving West Indian culture and remarkably preserved architecture. A few 17^th-century plantation homes have been converted to inns.

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Courtesy of La Banane

The French West Indies island of St. Bart's is home to white-sand beaches, over-the-top villas and celebrity devotees. It also includes one of the Caribbean's most stylishly revamped hotels, La Banane.

After hitting the beach in low-key French St. Martin, you watch the sun set over Cul de Sac Bay from the terrace of your rustic-chic studio — one of only six at Karibuni Lodge.

My initial encounter with this intimate side of the Caribbean was back in the mid-1990s, when one of my first assignments for Travel + Leisure was to report on a handful of new small hotels. Given my happy memories of that mission, when I was offered a chance to again dip into the Caribbean's small-hotel scene, it didn't take much persuading. And this time, not only were there many more properties to check out, but many of these new tropical gems exhibited bolder and more exciting design than their 1990s counterparts.

Take the Midcentury Modern sleek of St. Bart's stunningly reimagined La Banane. A two-tiered pool now gives way to nine white bungalows with pastel-colored walls and custom-designed tiles. Hotel Chocolat, a newcomer to St. Lucia, takes a more natural approach, blending the design of its 14 villas almost seamlessly with its surrounding lush cacao plantation. Its small scale means guests get special treatment, like learning to make their own chocolate bars with an expert chef.

In addition to breaking new ground on the style and amenities fronts, some of these hotels opened up new geographic frontiers as well. The most notable example is Rosalie Bay Resort — the first luxury resort on the wild, pristine, and still virtually unknown island of Dominica. The pioneering resort is setting a sustainable example for those to come; it relies on solar panels and has its own wind turbine, organic gardens, and spring-fed onyx-colored swimming pool.

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Courtesy Design Hotels

The bar deck at Papaya Playa Project, Design Hotels' first-ever pop-up hotel, overlooks the Caribbean.

Taking a leaf from a burgeoning number of retailers and restaurateurs worldwide, Design Hotels, which handles reservations globally for independently owned hotels, recently announced an innovation in the lodging industry: a pop-up hotel.

The Papaya Playa Project opened in Tulum, Mexico, on the Caribbean coast of the Mayan Riviera last week and will remain open through May 6.

The hotel features:

• 99 cabanas, most with private bathrooms, some with shared facilities;
• a spa with treatments based on Mayan healing practices;
• restaurants run by KaterHolzig, a hot Berlin club, and 42°RAW, a Copenhagen restaurant whose food is cooked at 42 degrees Celsius or below. 

Nightly rates range from $25 for the most modest accommodations in the off-season to $675 for a five-bedroom private house in the high season.

Claus Sendlinger, chief executive of Design Hotels, said the pop-up hotel — which he described as a “five-month Burning Man on the beach” — is a conversion of an existing resort on the beach in Tulum, which he predicted should attract guests from metropolitan areas in the Northern Hemisphere. 

“In uncertain economic times, sometimes it’s very difficult to get investments for bigger projects,” Sendlinger said.  “This is a prime destination, with buildings that were unoccupied. It became a space where the pop-up phenomenon could be started.”

His concept, he added, was inspired by Comme des Garcons’ “Guerrilla” pop-up stores launched in 2004, and others that followed.

"I'm not drawn to this," said Christina Norsig, chief executive of PopUpInsider.com, an online exchange for temporary properties, and author of “Pop-Up Retail: How You Can Master This Global Marketing Phenomenon.” While not surprised a hotel company ventured into the pop-up world, Norsig questioned Design Hotels' approach with the Papaya Playa Project.

"Hospitality is harder to pull off in a pop-up concept because of the level of quality and service that travelers today expect when going to a resort," she said. "It's a tall order to open in a location for six months and execute a polished concept."

Sendlinger said Design Hotels — which currently represents 14 hotels in nine Mexican destinations, including another one in Tulum — could make the Papaya Playa Project permanent or open additional pop-up properties in other destinations, depending on how well the concept plays out.

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