Strawberry Hill

High Life Banana Republic gone Irie? Perhaps. But it could be more British colonial stripped of ideological baggage. Yet the style at the Strawberry Hill resort brings a thoroughly modern eye and new techniques to find effects quite flattering for those who need pampering. The nostalgia is persistent, however, and gorgeously so. The biggest surprise is to find interiors so seductive in a setting so naturally stunning. If architect Ann Hodges fitted Strawberry Hill's 12 cottages deftly into the contours of a mountain, interior designer Tanya Mellich sprinkled her spaces with perfectly chosen furniture for lounging and de-stressing. Mellich's sustainable use of the area's natural materials and local furniture are the ultimate integration of human leisure with its own surroundings.

Her fretwork, in sometimes surprising themes (dance hall in my cottage, erotica in another), embellish rooms that render all the styles of Caribbean design with new imagination. Not to be outdone for a minute, nature brings clouds to your patio when you look straight into the sun, sitting upright in a four-poster bed at five o'clock. Minutes later the clouds build a bank of orange hues as the sun begins a precipitous drop behind majestic mountains. Doctor (Humming) Birds pierce the silence more loudly than dewdrops slapping banana leaves ready to join in the refreshing breeze at this height.

The sun's afterglow teases the remaining light, while nearly 3,100 feet below only the waters of Kingston reflect daylight. Eventually electric power gives the city shape and seeming solitude. Strawberry Hill knows itself since 1780, when British Prime Minister Horace Walpole named it after his English estate. Admiral Lord Nelson visited the place when it was a naval hospital in the early 1800's. Magnate and Strawberry Hill owner Chris Blackwell says he remembers going there as a child for tea with his parents. He bought the property in 1972 but didn't open it to the public until 1986, as a restaurant. Hurricane Gilbert destroyed the main residence in 1988, and three years later Blackwell commissioned Hodges to build him a wooden cottage.

Her design won an architecture award and he gave her the whole project. By 1994, 12 one, two and three bedroom cottages had been built. The gardens at Strawberry Hill walk you through color and texture as easily as the abundant butterflies flap their way from flower to flower. The property is landscaped lavishly, with an almost rain forest generosity. Mountains ring the 360-degree view, challenging Strawberry Hill for impact and beauty. It's walking country in these environs. Hiking tours through trails that wind through the Blue Mountains take visiting feet close to nature and add excitement to a stay at Strawberry. A five-minute stroll from the property takes you to Useshima Coffee Company, a Japanese owned coffee plantation, where friendly guides tell you everything known about the beverage. Dinnertime brings an imaginative menu and a potent Strawberry rum punch of exceptional quality. The bartender says he sticks to the traditional equation: 1 sour (lime), 2 sweet (syrup), 3 strong (one part over proof rum, plus 2 parts red rum) and 4 weak (crushed ice).

Strawberry's New-Jamaican cuisine gives you a classic in the pan seared plantain crusted snapper with passion fruit, lime butter sauce. It perfectly follows an appetizer made of dasheen and sweet potato gnocchi in sundried tomato basil cream sauce. Pure decadence. Nights at Strawberry are luscious, filled with temptations and hilly ideas that seem naughty on the plains. Electric blankets in superbly comfortable beds become a last resort when the imagination runs dry. But at Strawberry Hill, that shouldn't happen.