A balmy retreat in

FIVE past six in the morning. The sun has just eased itself above the horizon and it's probably already hotter here at this ungodly hour than it's likely to get in London on any day in June.

Some cotton wool clouds dawdle overhead, palm trees rock backwards and forwards like bored commuters waiting for a train, the sea laps half-heartedly along the perfectly white beach.

Apart from the odd Crested Antillean Hummingbird and the occasional White-Cheeked Pintail, this breathtaking picture is exclusively mine.

For half an hour I have raced around the hotel's cycle trail on my bike - at Biras Creek every villa comes equipped with a brace of sturdy bikes - feeling as if I was chasing through paradise.

With the enthusiasm of an eight year old on his first BMX, I dashed up from the beach through the lush gardens - sailing past the colourful frangipani, the golden-barked turpentine trees and the neat tennis courts.

And then without a pause I dived back down towards the Caribbean Sea, scaring herons and egrets away from the path as they flapped urgently into the still air. I completed the circuit again and again until I was almost giddy.

Exhausted, I eventually flopped into one of the beach hammocks and thought about many things, but mostly I yearned for breakfast. Jet lag doesn't just make you sleepy - I find it makes you very hungry indeed. And breakfast, like everything else at Biras Creek, one of only four prestigious Relais et Chateau properties in the whole Caribbean, is a bit of a treat.

The first treat comes with the boat ride from Tortola's Beef Island airport. The ferry looks like a slowcoach, but hardly has it slipped its moorings than Blondie the boatman transforms it from tortoise to hare by gunning it up to an amazing top speed, skimming across the tops of waves.

After an eight-hour transatlantic flight from London to Antigua and then a 60-minute hop from Antigua, it was joyous to be whizzing over the deep blue Caribbean in bright afternoon sunshine.

Biras Creek Resort is on Virgin Gorda, the third largest of the British Virgin Islands and occupies a 140-acre private estate at the northern end of the island, far beyond reach by car.

It sits astride a spit of land with the Atlantic on one side and the Caribbean on the other.

The final part of the bracing 30-minute boat ride takes us up the 'Creek' to the resort. The main buildings of the hotel dominate the hilltop, looking rather like the lair of a Bond villain.

Michael Nijdam, who manages the resort with his wife Luciana, was waiting on the dock when I arrived. With just 33 suites, Michael and Luciana are able to maintain a personal relationship with guests.

Also on hand is Kate, one of the hotel's general assistants - a sort of holiday social secretary, a service unique to Biras Creek - who offers an immediate spin round the property to help me get my bearings.

The main buildings include a snooker room, library and the Arawak Room (complete with giant TV and US satellite link), where complimentary afternoon tea is served. This brief tour takes us down to the beach on the Caribbean side, then back to the Ocean suites beside the Atlantic, benefiting from the everpresent sea breeze, which renders air-conditioning almost superfluous.

There is no TV in the suite - you really don't need one. You do, however, have a capacious fridge stocked with complimentary beverages and a bottle of wine. There are also tea and coffee-making facilities.

The only thing I yearned for on my first morning as I waited hungrily for breakfast was a large packet of digestive biscuits - but then you can't have everything.

The room phone is set up to offer easy Internet access for those who bring a laptop.

On my first evening, therefore, thanks to the wonders of the inform- ation superhighway I was able to lounge on my balcony (my suite was so close to the sea, I could practically dangle my toes in it from my sunlounger) and listen to The Archers as I watched the sun go down. Borsetshire comes to Biras Creek.

At night the sound of the rolling surf was the perfect lullaby.

MICHAEL and Luciana are an impressive management team - Michael, with a Dutch father and Austrian mother, and Luciana, from an Argentinian/Italian background, both have a lifetime's experience of top hotels. They came to Biras Creek from the Montpelier Plantation Inn on the island of Nevis.

With two children - Sebastian, aged three, and Tatiana, one - there is a distinct warm, family atmosphere (this summer Biras Creek is wooing families with an attractive 'Family Getaway' deal that offers a free second interconnecting suite).

'We were attracted to Biras Creek because of its unique location and size,' says Michael.

To all intents and purposes, Biras Creek is an island on an island. Accessible only by boat, guests have the place entirely to themselves. As I discovered on my early morning bike adventures, there is very little to disturb your peace.

On first sight, I considered the place

the perfect honeymoon destination. Next morning, at breakfast, I found myself surrounded by several loveydovey, obviously 'just married' couples. As a solo diner, I might have felt awkward - it says much about the hotel and its staff that no one is allowed to feel left out.

It would have suited me to spend a week swinging idly in the hammock, but there was plenty of other entertainment.

There is a comprehensive range of complimentary watersports: sailing boats and snorkelling trips, for example. And, as well as bikes, guests have the use of a fleet of Boston whalers, each with an outboard motor. You can live out Swallows And Amazons fantasies by boating out to deserted coves and beaches down the island.

There are also two larger sailing boats available for use by guests free of charge.

If you would like to sail further afield, the hotel has a special arrangement with the luxury sailing yacht 'Mary Irene'.

There is also a good network of marked hiking trails: something to be attempted in the cool of the early morning or late afternoon, rather than in the bruising heat of the midday sun.

And the exercise is very useful in working up an appetite for the excellent cuisine every evening in the candlelit restaurant. After a sumptuous feed (followed by complimentary port and Stilton), I would stagger home in the warm darkness.

During the day I used to hope for a glimpse of one of the iguanas - there are four at the resort (named Hubertus, Wilhelmina, Godzilla and Mildred). Iguanas are not quite monsters on a Godzilla scale, but they are pretty scary.

After dark, I kept a very good look out - worried about meeting Godzilla on a dark night.

But then don't lizards have a right to enjoy paradise too?

Getting there

Caribtours (020 7751 0660) offers seven nights at Biras Creek (www.biras.com) from £2,079.This includes return flights with Virgin or British Airways, full-board accommodation, a sunset cruise and bottle of champagne. Free regional flights from Manchester and Glasgow are available if you fly British Airways.