Inside Palm Heights, the A-List’s New Favourite Winter Escape

Close to midnight on New Year’s Eve, after a lobster and caviar dinner, the theme tune from The White Lotus erupted from the speakers at Palm Heights, Grand Cayman. It sent happy chills down everyone’s spines because it so perfectly embodied the fantasy we had all been living in for the past two weeks. (Only without the lingering feeling that something bad was about to happen. Well, apart from the inevitable: having to go home at the end of our stay.)

Palm Heights, the 52 all-suite boutique hotel situated on the pristine white sand of Seven Mile Beach, is more White Lotus than White Lotus. When you’re there, you almost forget that a world outside of it actually exists, because nobody leaves. The holiday is the hotel, and its roster of guests (which they prefer to think of as an extended family) becomes your community. Over the festive period, holiday-makers included Bella Hadid with her boyfriend, Chloë Sevigny (who threw her hen party here last year) and her family, Emily Ratajkowski, and Paloma Elsesser. Most of them are returning guests, but you won’t find any of them on Palm Heights’s Instagram grid—not even in regrams. This place is chicer than shouting about it.

Founded by Gabriella Khalil in 2019, the resort—with its palm-lined pools, sunny-yellow parasols, and striped beach towels—oozes good taste. Every roomy suite is oceanfront or ocean view, and furnished in prestigious design pieces from the ’60s and ’70s, but without an ounce of pretense. 

The food is another draw, and one of the reasons why no one feels the need to go elsewhere. Jake Brodsky, the impossibly good-looking chef who is also practically a pro boxer—and, to add, happens to have the singing voice of an angel—has created a menu that somehow still manages to tantalize your tastebuds some 17 days in. The highlights: fish Milanese (I don’t even particularly like fish, but this one has some kind of zesty lime-yuzu dressing, served up with cucumbers and avocado), the vegan curry (I’m not vegan and I’m not crazy about vegetables but it’s delicious), beet and avocado tartare, creamed sweetcorn laced with chili, filet mignon… I could go on. 

And then there’s Davide, probably the best restaurant manager in the world, who seems to know everyone’s name and has the best wardrobe of immaculate white linen suits I’ve ever seen. That’s all at Tillies, just one of the hotel’s restaurants. There are others, like Paradise Pizza for wood-fired pizzas and shawarmas; Mambo Italiano for standout cacio e pepe; and Yashinoki, a sushi and sashimi bar that can rival Nobu. No, really.  

Palm Heights’ cast of characters is arguably half of its appeal, but unlike your favorite TV show, the season never ends. Take Bambi for example, the resident DJ/vibe master/all-around cheerleader, who encourages a green juice and ginger shot each morning at breakfast. Some call him master of ceremonies; Gabby refers to him as mood director. Both are apt. Then there is Raul Lopez, of the New York fashion label Luar, who is always up for some good style commentary (he doesn’t really have a role or title, but insiders here call him “mother”), and swim instructor Bryan, a.k.a the Swim Mechanic, who has the sweetness and patience of a saint when it comes to classes for little ones and grown-ups with a fear of water, too.

Earlier this month, Palm Heights unveiled its spa, a 60,000-square-foot marble-clad haven of treatment rooms, sensory spaces, hot and cold plunge pools, and the best hammam I’ve ever experienced. There is a newly built state-of-the-art gym boasting a wide selection of wellness classes in addition to reformer Pilates, boxing (Ramla Ali and Richard Riakporhe are fans), and more squat racks than you can shake a stick at.  

“As with any person or place that is the zeitgeist, it feels like so much more than the sum of its parts,” says Sara Byworth, communications consultant and Palm Heights regular. Like its founder, the resort manages to be that elusive equation of cool and glamorous. “It’s quite impossible to describe why it is that this deftly-curated space captures your imagination when staying to such an extent that you will undoubtedly find yourself plotting your return before you’ve even left the premises,” she goes on. 

Until then, you can take a little piece of it home with you: Palm Heights merch just launched.