HotelChatter

There's a real feeling of space - you're never cramped, however full the resort is, and no-one takes your favourite spot by the pool. You'll need a car to get anywhere outside the resort but, as you have everything you could possibly want on the spot, you won't really need to. (The main town of St Thomas is an overrated experience anyway).

Luxury on luxury
And if ordinary luxury ain't up to the mark, pay a bit extra for Club Luxury - the rooms are even bigger and even better, and you get to use the Club Room with its leather sofas and papers and concierge service.

The best bits of the Ritz-Carlton are those not advertised - the iguanas, for instance, which are huge and multicoloured and everywhere. There's a little massage hut overlooking the sea. All rooms have an outside terrace and you can catch the Wi-Fi signal from almost all of them. Replying to colleague's email with a 'sorry, I'm on holiday, will deal with it when I get back' from a sunset-lit terrace overlooking a calm blue sea is one of the greatest pleasures of life.

Patagon Dive Center
The chief dive instructor at the on-site Patagon Dive Center, Arnoldo Falcoff, is an excellent instructor - calm, patient, multilingual and thoroughly experienced. If you can dive already or just want to try it out, the Ritz-Carlton's definitely the place to come.

It'll cost you
You'll be in the hole for anything from $599 to $1440 for two in a double room, plus a $55 per day resort fee plus the not-so-cheap food on top of that.

But really, if you have to ask the price you can't afford it. Take a rich friend and a strong credit card, then sit back and relax.

[Photo: Praveenmt]