Sugar Mill Hotel

Owned by longtime food and travel writers Jefferson and Jinx Morgan since 1982, the Sugar Mill Hotel is one of Tortola’s best hotels. Built in 1640 as an oxen-powered rum distillery, the historic cottage colony has all the thoughtful touches of a traditional Caribbean inn—island-inspired watercolors hand-painted by Jinx herself, lush tropical gardens, and 23 ocean-view rooms with balconies and kitchenettes—plus plenty more that most hotels don’t have. Namely, an über-romantic restaurant, housed in a candlelit stone building where rum was once boiled, and a small private beach known for some of the best snorkeling and surfing on Tortola.