MICHELIN Keys, Explained: The Caribbean Hotels That Earned One

A Michelin Star tells you where to eat. A Michelin Key tells you where to stay, and the Caribbean now has 56 Key hotels.

For a couple planning a destination wedding, a honeymoon, or a vow renewal, the hotel is the venue, the home base, and half of the memory. Since 2024, the Michelin Guide has awarded Keys to the hotels it considers the most outstanding in the world, and the Caribbean has become one of the most closely watched regions on the list. Here is how a Michelin Key works, how it differs from a Star, and which Michelin Key hotels in the Caribbean have earned the honor.

Keys and Stars: two honors, one standard

Both distinctions come from Michelin’s anonymous inspectors, who visit as ordinary guests and judge what they find. Stars go to restaurants for the cooking on the plate. Keys go to the hotels for the quality of the stay.

	Michelin Star	Michelin Key
Awarded to	Restaurants	Hotels
What it judges	The cooking	The stay
Levels	One, Two, or Three Stars	One, Two, or Three Keys
Top level	Exceptional cuisine, worth a special journey	An extraordinary stay

The Key was introduced in 2024 and unveiled worldwide in October 2025. It carries the same weight for hotels that the Star carries for restaurants.

How a hotel earns a Key

Michelin’s selection teams stay at a property anonymously, sometimes more than once, and measure it against five universal criteria:

1. Architecture and interior design
2. Quality and consistency of service
3. Overall personality and character
4. Value for the price
5. A significant contribution to the neighborhood setting

The Key goes to hotels that excel across all five. There are no quotas, and every hotel in the Michelin Guide selection is eligible.

Three levels describe what the Inspectors found. One Key is a very special stay. Two Keys is an exceptional stay. Three Keys is an extraordinary stay.

Three details worth knowing

Price. The selection spans every budget. Golden Rock Inn on Nevis, a Two-Key property, appears on Michelin’s own list of the most affordable Key hotels.

Restaurants. A Key reflects the stay. A hotel’s restaurant earns its own recognition, so a Star restaurant can sit inside a Key hotel, and the two honors can differ.

Scale. On September 18, 2026, Michelin announced its second global Key selection: 2,832 hotels worldwide, with 2,020 holding One Key, 657 holding Two and 155 holding Three. In the Caribbean, one hotel holds Three Keys, Cheval Blanc St-Barth Isle de France. In the 2026 selection, Michelin lists 56 Key hotels across 21 island destinations in the region, led by St. Barth with nine and Jamica and Turks and Caicos with five each. Grenada’s three put it level with St. Lucia, Anguilla, and the Cayman Islands.

Grenada: three Key hotels on one island

Grenada entered the Key selection in 2025 with three properties, the first time the tri-island nation had multiple hotels in the Michelin Guide. Each sits in a different part of the island, which gives a couple three distinct settings to choose from.

Calabash Hotel, Two Keys

Calabash is the only hotel in Grenada with Two Keys and one of 16 across the Caribbean. It retained the distinction in the 2026 selection.

The Garbutt family has owned and run the hotel since 1987, and co-owner and director Adele Garbutt helps lead it today. Thirty-six suites, most with balconies and sea views, open onto Lance aux Épines beach on Prickly Bay. A roster of complimentary activities fills the day, and evening gather around the piano lounge, where a smart dress code adds a note of old-world decades.

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Spice Island Beach Resort, One Key

One Grand Anse, the island’s best-known beach, the family-owned resort spreads 64 villa-style suites across eight acres. Every suite has a terrace facing the gardens or the beach, and some have private plunge pools. The resort operates all-inclusive, which gives a couple one number to plan around when food and drink for a small celebration are part of the budget.

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Six Senses La Sagesse, One Key

Six Senses La Sagesse opened in 2024 as the brand’s first resort in the Caribbean and retained its Key in 2026, its second in a row. The 38-acre property sits on Grenada’s southeast coast between the sheltered water of La Sagesse Bay and the Atlantic-facing L’Anse Pere shoreline.

There are 56 pools suites, each with a private terrace and plunge pool, plus 15 villas of one to four bedrooms. The layout follows a Caribbean village around a small lagoon. Walking paths are made from nutmeg shells and cocoa skins, a nod to the Spice Isle, and kitchen gardens supply the restaurants. For a wedding or milestone celebration, the larger villas give a wedding party room to stay together, so ask the resort about ceremony spaces and packages. The resort is about 35 minutes from Maurice Bishop International Airport.

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Michelin Key hotels elsewhere in the Caribbean

Michelin’s own roundup of the region’s top tier, hotels with Two Keys or more, spans 11 islands. Beyond Grenada, these are the standouts.

The only Three Keys Hotel in the Caribbean

Cheval Blanc St-Barth Isle de France, St. Barth. The only Three-Key hotel on a Caribbean island is also the only one in the region with France’s Palace classification. Rooms are scattered along Flamands Beach. Michelin points to complimentary utility vehicles for exploring the island, yoga and in-villa spa treatments, and locally sourced meals by the sea. La Case by Jean Imbert anchors the dining, and the spa is by Guerlain.

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Two Key stays worth knowing

• The Caves, Jamaica. Twelve cliffside cottages sit above natural sea caves, minutes from Seven Mile Beach. Greer-Ann and Bertram Saulter designed the thatch-roofed cottages, and locally sourced organic meals are included in the rate. A candlelit private dinner served inside a sea cave is the experience Michelin highlights.
• Jade Mountain, St. Lucia. Twenty-four infinity pool sanctuaries and five whirlpool suites are open on one side to the Pitons and the sea. There are no TVs or radios.
• Cap Juluca, A Belmond Hotel, Anguilla. Maundays Bay is wrapped by 113 accommodations in a Moorish-meets-Santorini style. Holiday programming has included a Calypsonian-led music workshop and an island craft market day.
• Hermitage Bay, Antigua. The resort is built around the South African philosophy of Ubuntu, “I am because you are.” Freestanding wooden suites overlook one protected cove, many staff members have served for more than ten years, and the organic garden runs on composted kitchen waste.
• Jumby Bay Island, Antigua. A ten-minute private yacht ride reaches a car-free, 300-acre island with three beaches and an all-inclusive stay. It is also a major nesting site for endangered hawksbill sea turtles.
• Amanera, Dominican Republic. Twenty-five modernist casitas sit on cliffs above a mile-long beach, and guests can take Taíno medicine walks through native flora.
• Secret Bay, Dominica. Twenty-two villas of Guyanese hardwood and red cedar were built into the cliffs without heavy machinery, and a 293-foot funicular carries guests up from the water.
• Boardwalk Boutique Hotel, Aruba. Twin sisters founded this adults-only village of 46 casitas on a historic coconut plantation. Dining, spa products and artwork come from local businesses.
• Golden Rock Inn, Nevis. Eleven rooms occupy a hundred-acre property that dates to the early 1800s, founded by the artists Helen and Brice Marden, with spring-fed pools and no TVs.

Michelin’s fifth criterion, a significant contribution to the neighborhood or setting explains why several of these names stand out. Boardwalk’s local partnerships, Cap Jaluca’s calypso and crafts programming, and Calabash’s four decades under one family each show a hotel rooted in the island it sits on.

One Key stays worth knowing

Bermuda, the Bahamas, and Turks and Caicos have no Two Key hotels. Every Key property on those islands holds One Key, which Michelin calls a very special stay. Jamaica and Antigua add more at that level.

• Jamaica. Round Hill Hotel and Villas opened in 1953 as a private seaside club, and many of its oceanfront villas were designed by Ralph Lauren. GoldenEye is the former estate of Ian Fleming. Geejam in Port Antonio carries the island’s reggae story, and Rockhouse in Negril uses local wood for its furniture and works to be part of its community.
• Bahamas. Rosewood Baha Mar opened in 2017 on Nassau’s Cable Beach with a residential calm and Café Boulud on site. The Cove Eleuthera sits between two white-sand coves and is one of four Key hotels in the Bahamas. Caerula Mar Club opened in 2020 as the first new hotel on South Andros in decades, with bonefishing, sailing and snorkeling on offer. The Potlatch Club, a mid-century celebrity haunt on Eleuthera, has reopened with 11 suites, cottages and villas on 12 acres.
• Bermuda. Both Key hotels sit in Tucker’s Town. The Loren at Pink Beach opened in 2017 with 45 rooms, suites and villas above a pink-sand beach it has to itself, plus a Sisley spa and the seafood-focused Pink Beach Club. Rosewood Bermuda spreads across 240 acres on Tucker’s Point, with four outdoor pools, a private beach club and golf.
• Antigua. Curtain Bluff opened in 1962 with 22 rooms and now has 72 suites, still all-inclusive, with two beaches on either side of a bluff and a celebrated wine cellar. Service there often runs across generations of the same families. Carlisle Bay, on Old Road beach along the quieter southwest coast, also holds One Key.
• Turks and Caicos. All five Key hotels hold One Key. Grace Bay Club, the islands’ first luxury resort, divides its Grace Bay frontage into three beachfront sections. COMO Parrot Cay occupies a private island of about 1,000 acres. Amanyara is the Aman resort on Providenciales, with an oceanfront beach club serving freshly caught seafood. Rock House has 46 accommodations on 14 acres along Samsara and Sunset Beach, and Wymara Resort & Villas brings a Greek island-inspired look to Grace Bay Beach.

One Key hotels also appear on St. Barth, St. Lucia, the Cayman Islands, Puerto Rico and other islands. The full list is on the Michelin Guide website.

What to know before you book

• A Key rates the stay. Wedding capability needs its own conversation. Ask each property about ceremony and reception spaces, guest capacity and package details before you fall for the room.
• Marriage requirements come first. If you plan to marry in Grenada, confirm the requirements for visiting couples through Grenada’s official tourism channels before you set a date.
• Status is reviewed every year. Confirm a hotel’s current Key on the Michelin Guide website before you book.
• Book well ahead. Popular Key properties can fill months in advance, and a wedding party multiplies the lead time.
• Consider two addresses. Calabash on Prickly Bay, Spice Island on Grand Anse and Six Senses on the southeast coast are three different settings. A wedding at one and a honeymoon at another is a plan worth pricing.

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Which Key resort belongs on your shortlist?