Gouverneur Beach, St Barts: The Wild One Down the Steep Road

Gouverneur matches Saline for beauty and beats it for drama. You reach it down a steep road on the south coast that opens onto one of the great views of the island: a wide sweep of pale sand in a perfect curve, the sea in front, and nothing built behind it. There is no restaurant, no bar and no shade, and that emptiness is the whole point. This page is the practical half of the picture, so that the drive down ends well.

Getting there and parking

Gouverneur is a car beach. The road drops steeply from the ridge to a small parking area, and from there it is a short walk, about five minutes, to the sand. The clearing fills fast: after ten in the morning it is often full, while Saline usually still has room, which is one reason locals come early. If you would rather not drive, a driver can drop you and agree a time to come back, and from the water the bay is a beautiful anchorage, so arriving by boat on a day on the water saves you the car park altogether.

On the sand

Nothing is sold here and nothing is built, so the beach asks a little of you. Bring water, an umbrella and whatever you want to eat, and take all of it home again: there are no bins, and that is part of why the place stays beautiful. There are no toilets either, as on every beach on the island. For families the trade is simple: Gouverneur is a fine adventure with older children and hard work with toddlers, with its open water, its lack of shade and the walk from the car. Our guide to the family beaches explains the alternatives.

The water

Gouverneur is an open, exposed beach, and the sea decides the day. Mornings are usually the calmest and most private time to swim. On the right day the water is wonderfully clear and the setting is hard to beat, and it becomes the best beach snorkel on the island; on a day with swell it is not worth the drive for that, so check the conditions before you commit. Like the other wild beaches, Gouverneur collects sargassum at certain times of year; it is one of the usual ones, so look at recent reports before a long drive in late summer.

When to come

Early, and ideally on a Sunday. Corossol and Gouverneur on a Sunday morning before nine are as calm as this island gets, and St Jean, for comparison, is empty at first light and busy by ten. The reward for the early start is a Caribbean beach almost to yourself, fifteen minutes from town, and a parking space.

Staying above the bay

The hillsides above Gouverneur hold some of the most secluded villas on St Barts, with the bay below. If the quiet of the beach is what you want from the whole trip rather than one morning, this is where to look. The villas above Gouverneur are listed by position on the hill.

Gouverneur is one of the fourteen beaches of the island, and the one to keep for a morning when everyone is up for a small adventure. For the quieter list, see our guide to the quietest beaches.