What to expect: Thick, tall, tropical plantings screen buildings and create the tranquil privacy that attracts couples to this Barbados hotel.

Amenity highlights: Lined with coral boulders, the resort's sea frontage extends 45.8 meters (150 yards) and leads to an adjacent 76-meter (250-yard) beach. Lounge chairs and umbrellas are also available on wooden deck area with loungers. A deck surrounding a 16.7-meter-long (55-foot-long) kidney-shaped pool provides another sunbathing area. Water skiing, windsurfing, sailing, snorkeling, kayaking, and hobbie cat are complimentary.

This intimate enclave is set in lush tropical gardens, with lawns leading down to ivory-colored sands and the Caribbean Sea. Although families arrive during winter and spring holidays, Treasure Beach Hotel primarily attracts couples seeking complete relaxation in a tranquil setting, personal attention when they need it, and memorable meals interspersed with sun, sand, and sea.

Recognized as the Caribbean's oldest continuously operating hotel, The Crane Resort and Residences in Barbados stands on a cliff above a picture-perfect beach, where pink-tinged white sands meet the azure Atlantic. The resort maintains its original 1887 ambience, exemplified by the lobby's creamy coral-stone walls and manicured, sculpture-dotted grounds. The hotel primarily draws celebrating couples.

Compactly terraced on a flower-bedecked hillside overlooking the Caribbean Sea, this resort appeals to families and couples seeking active holidays centered on the beach and water sports. Tranquil spots can be found, including an open-air lounge off the lobby with a bleached-wood ceiling, overstuffed seating, and a view of the sea and sunsets.

Restored and enlarged, this 7-acre former private club is secluded at the end of a long driveway lined by casuarina trees. The Colony Club Hotel attracts couples and families with older children seeking beach vacations that combine tranquil sunbathing with water sports. Children under age 12 are not permitted during February.

Designed for families, this 13-hectare (32-acre) resort on one kilometer (0.5 mile) of beachfront is large enough to be lively in some areas and tranquil in others, pleasing both children and adults. Adults also enjoy a restaurant reserved for them. A reminder of the resort's former life as a sugar plantation remains in the form of a stone tower.

Many British royalty and celebrities are regulars at the Fairmont Royal Pavilion Hotel, favoring the discreet hospitality offered amid 11 tropical acres of snoop-screening thickets. The hotel dates from the 1940s.

What to expect: Because children under 18 are not permitted, this Caribbean beach resort is designed for couples seeking relaxing holidays in the ambience of a private residence. Entrance to The House is through a gate with no sign to betray the resort’s presence. A white-clad Personal Ambassador assigned to each couple serves fruit smoothies on arrival and explains how the 24-hour ambassador service operates.

Amenity highlights: In addition to a sandy beach, this Barbados resort includes a two-level pool complex with a jetted section. Use of water sports equipment is complimentary at a partner property, 91 meters (100 yds) away.

Complimentary food service consists of a daily Champagne breakfast buffet, high tea, and nightly Port wine. The resort is home to Daphne’s restaurant, which offers Modern Italian cuisine.

Insider tip: Guests can walk or take water taxis to three partner resorts along the West Coast, where they may use pools and other facilities, and charge restaurant meals to their rooms.

Opened in 2005, this Barbados hotel is spacious enough so that attendees in the separate conference center don't disturb vacationing couples and families. The Needham’s Point setting is 3 km (2 mi) from central Bridgetown yet isolated from the busy resort districts.