Little Palm Island Resort & Spa

ADULTS ONLY, tech-free 5-acre island just off Key West
This adults-only resort occupies a 5-acre island 28 miles from Key West and offers vacations without TV, telephones, or clocks.

Nearly hidden by tropical gardens, 14 thatched-roof bungalows house 30 tropical suites, all with jetted tubs.

Pleasures include an Asian-themed health spa, myriad water activities, and wildlife such as rare Key deer and Roseate Spoonbills.

What to expect: President Harry S. Truman and wife, Bess, visited often when the island was a private fishing retreat, and President Kennedy came when PT-109, the story of his World War II exploit, was filmed here. Today Little Palm Island attracts an international clientele of celebrating couples, lawyers, doctors, businesspeople, and celebrities seeking peace, quiet, and privacy. (Guests must be at least 16 years old.)

Amenity highlights: Staffed by 30 specialists, the spa offers massage, body and facial treatments, beauty services, yoga, and fitness training. Swimming and sunbathing sites include a 75-yard beach furnished with padded lounges and umbrellas and a good-sized lagoon-style garden pool. Complimentary water gear includes outboard-motor pontoon boats and Boston Whalers for fishing, snorkeling, and excursions to other islands (fishing and snorkeling equipment included); kayaks; canoes; paddleboats; and small catamarans. For fees, there are scuba diving and snorkeling excursions to Looe Key National Marine Sanctuary, deep-sea and flat fishing, eco-tours, and sunset sails on a 45-foot sailboat.

Insider tip: Tiny Key deer, an endangered species, frequently appear on the island after swimming narrow channels from other islands. It's illegal to feed them–and you never know when you’ll see one--but one story goes like this: an intrepid Key deer, attracted by the mint leaves, poked his nose into a guest’s mojito cocktail.

At night tiny dock lights illuminate the ocean, while other lights shine on some of the 250 Jamaican Tall coconut palms gracing the shoreline, and tiki torches flare by beachside dining tables--the island sparkles like a floating emerald. Before that, the falling sun bathes the island's west side, attracting guests to cushioned seating on Sunset Dock.
The Island Spa occupies five spaces: the second floor of a thatched-roof building; an open-air, tiled-floor palapa with private outdoor shower for couples massage and yoga classes; a bamboo-lined hut for wet treatments and Vichy showers that includes a private outdoor shower and an outdoor wood-tub spa; an air-conditioned fitness center with exercise equipment, free weights, and a porch furnished with an Indonesian lounging bed and a stationary bicycle; and a hair-and-nail salon.

Massage and treatment rooms feature vaulted thatched ceilings, crystal chandeliers, slate floors, sisal area rugs, wainscoting, bamboo sconces, and soothing Indonesian music. Two rooms include open-air porches with Japanese soaking tubs, showers, and wrought-iron candleholders.

Specialty treatments include Javanese Lulur Royal Treatment (scented massage, shower, rose-petal Japanese-tub soak, and lotion); Volcanic Earth Clay Ritual (clay body mask, Balinese foot massage, shower, Balinese body massage); and Thai Kelapa Ritual (coconut, rice, and Vetiver scrub, Thai foot massage, scented Japanese-tub soak, Thai body massage). Other treatments include massage with hot, smooth, river stones; milk-and-honey body wrap; and sunless body bronzing.
Commemorating their many visits to the island, the Great Room Library features nearly life-sized portraits of President and Bess Truman in tropical-garden settings.

Located well away from buildings, the island's Zen Garden offers a Japanese-style haven shaded by tropical trees and including lily ponds crossed by a tiny scarlet-wood bridge, flowing and bubbling water sounds, little bamboo groves, and a tiny thatch-roof hut fronted by a wood deck furnished with two cushioned rattan armchairs. A lamp provides gentle illumination at night. Chimes catch breezes.

Furnished with lounge chairs, a dock running along one side of the island provides an ideal vantage point for observing wading birds, including Roseate Spoonbills and various herons. Accessible through knee-deep water, a thatch-roof floating platform 40 yards off shore near Sunset Dock shades two padded lounges.

Sturdy wood lounge chairs with thick white pads are located throughout the resort, from docks to sunny and shady spots within the dense, jungle-like garden covering the island (28 varieties of palm trees included). Oversize hammocks hang here and there for private reading and snoozing in sun or shade. Sand paths wend through the island.

The resort offers 30 extra-spacious suites in 14 wood bungalows and most contain two suites each. Raised above a ground-floor breeze space, each bungalow features a peaked thatched roof, bamboo accents, louvered windows, terra-cotta tile floors, sisal area rugs, and rough-hewn, railed front decks that provide an ocean view and are furnished with a table and two padded wood chairs. Other than the deck, bungalows blend in with the island's tropical plantings, so one is barely visible from another, providing exceptional privacy.
Suites do not contain televisions, radios, or clocks. Telephones exist, but only to provide on-island connections. Two telephones on the island, one in the library, which also contains the resort's only television set, and the other by the dining room, offer off-island connections.

Suites feature one of three tropical decor styles: Indonesian, Polynesian, or British Colonial. Each suite contains a front living room, a bathroom suite with two-person jetted tub and, just outside, a private outdoor shower, and a back bedroom. In addition to comfortable seating, each bedroom contains a king bed: four-poster, bamboo-frame, or rattan-frame, depending on decor. Mosquito netting drapes the bed (for aesthetics only) and a wood-paddle ceiling fan--identical to one in the living room--hangs within the netting. Suites are also fully air-conditioned.

Suites include Cocomango scented toiletries, umbrellas, bathrobes, minibars, and data ports. Smoking is permitted outside only. (The resort is not smoke-free. Cigars, in fact, are available for purchase.)

Dining Room - This all-wood, air-conditioned restaurant provides linen-service dining under a chandelier and wood-paddle ceiling fans, as well as on outside decks and at waterside tables illuminated after dark by tiki torches. From the kitchen, food service is available anywhere on the island that guests desire.
An American-style breakfast menu features lobster hash. Lunch offers choices such as crab cake with smoked tomato purée; conch chowder with sherry sour cream; chilled shrimp with watermelon, cucumber, tomato, Napa cabbage, and spicy basil ponzu sauce; and Roquefort-crusted beef fillet. Dinner selections include skillet-roasted chicken with chicken-confit spring roll and kaffir-lime risotto, and grilled mahi mahi.

Palapa Bar - Open-air poolside bar. Tropical drinks from freshly squeezed lemon and lime juices.

Slim's Bar - Pre- and post-dinner cocktails and brandy.

Monkey Hut - Open-air lounge featuring live music nightly. Cushioned wood chairs and tile-topped tables.

Complimentary use of equipment includes outboard-motor pontoon boats and Boston Whalers for fishing, snorkeling, and excursions to other islands (fishing and snorkeling equipment included); kayaks; canoes; paddleboats; and small catamarans.
For fees, there are scuba diving and snorkeling excursions to Looe Key National Marine Sanctuary, deep-sea and flat fishing, eco-tours, and sunset sails on a 45-foot sailboat. Customized boating trips are also available, as is water-skiing.

An outdoor board with oversize chess pieces and checkers includes high, cushioned chairs under thatch roofs that shade players while they contemplate moves.