Where to find true privacy in a St Barts villa, coast by coast

On a 25-km² island, privacy is a matter of geography, and some coasts guard it far better than others. Toiny, on the wild eastern shore, is the most secluded of all — a handful of houses, no through road, the ocean and the hills for neighbours. Gouverneur, above its cliff-framed southern cove, offers isolation with one of the island's great beaches below. Colombier, green and roadless at its tip, is reached by the few and seen by fewer.

We match the coast to the kind of privacy sought. A honeymoon wants Toiny's silence or Gouverneur's seclusion; a family wants a private stretch that is still near a usable beach, which points to the quiet ends of Lorient or Flamands. We read orientation too — a villa hidden from the road but open to the sunset is the rare combination worth holding out for. Ultimate privacy is not the most expensive villa; it is the rightly placed one, and knowing the difference is a matter of living here.