Playa De Sala

Two suites let you walk out of the shower into the open air: the Wood Room onto its balcony, the Stone Room through a private door onto a sun deck, where the house suggests you air dry. Ask for them by name when you book.

Three fishermen from Westmoreland, in Jamaica, lost their engine and drifted for more than three weeks before their boat washed ashore on Ambergris Caye. The men went home. The boat stayed, and Playa De Sala bought it and made it the bar on its beach. We Jammin' now serves tropical cocktails from the morning until five, a lobster menu in season and dinner under the stars on Wednesdays, and it settles any doubt about the hotel's sense of humour.

There are five suites, each named for what it is made of or what it has in it. Three are on the second floor and the Wood Room is the one to book: a king bed of Belizean hardwoods, sea views across the bay, and a wood-tiled shower with a door straight onto the private balcony. The Spa Room takes its name from its bathroom, with a soaking tub under a chandelier and a vanity of imported marble, and has a handcrafted four-poster facing the water. The Stone Room has the sea at the front and a mangrove lagoon at the back. Downstairs the Travertine Room stands alone, nearest the pool, and the Tub Room has the better story, a bed made on the island from poisonwood, a local timber whose name does it no favours, that comes apart into two singles. Members book at rates we hold for the Club.

Sala's Kitchen serves lunch and dinner, with fresh seafood specials every day from local chefs, and the rooftop bar above it opens from two until nine. The hotel calls it the only rooftop bar in the south of the island, and at sunset nobody on it seems inclined to check. A continental breakfast for two, a welcome drink, bikes, kayaks and paddleboards all come with the stay, and the bill carries no resort fee.

The address is 4.5 miles south of San Pedro Town, about half an hour by golf cart, on what the hotel calls the only bay on the caye. Tarpon Bay has an infinity pool looking over it and a private beach along it, with mangroves on either hand. Hol Chan Marine Reserve lies to one side and the Marco Gonzalez Maya Site to the other, and the shallows bring herons, ospreys, rays and bonefish, which is why fly fishers come.

It suits couples and anglers who want the south of the island to themselves. It does not suit anyone planning to walk to dinner in San Pedro, and the drive back is one to make with the golf cart's headlights checked. Children under 13 are not taken. At five the boat closes, the last of the guests climb to the roof for the sunset, and the Jamaican hull on the sand has, at last, stopped moving.