The Meridian Club

Pine Cay is a secluded 800-acre privately owned island, conveniently located just 560 miles southeast of Miami. The only resort on the island, the Meridian Club is beautifully positioned on a two-mile stretch of talcum-powder beach, considered by many as the finest in the Caribbean. Soothing trade winds ensure comfortable temperatures and low humidity year round.

The Club is an environmentally sensitive resort, ideal for those seeking an unspoiled retreat. Its 12 rooms and the Sand Dollar Cottage, are set among sand dunes, sea oats and sea grapes, fronting on the beach. Some of the privately owned homes that share the island are also available for rent.

The resort is well known for its excellent cuisine, attentive staff, and "barefoot elegance." Its rooms and rental homes , tucked along the shoreline and dunes, all offer panoramic views of the water and the island.

The two-story Clubhouse -- with its indoor restaurant, bar, and guest lounge -- overlooks a shimmering pool and the Caribbean Sea. There are outdoor dining areas on the terrace and in a colorful tropical garden, facing the beach with its thatched “tikis” (shade huts) and sunning chairs.

Guests spend their days relaxing and/or taking advantage of the resort's many extraordinary outdoor activities. Options include biking, sailing, shelling, snorkeling, playing tennis, and swimming in the ocean or fresh-water pool. The staff can arrange exceptional bone-fishing, reef and deep-sea fishing, plus excursions to nearby Turks & Caicos islands.

A walkway leads through manicured gardens -- bright with flowering hibiscus, tropical plants, and a Mahoe tree with gorgeous yellow blooms -- to 12 guest rooms in duplexes and quadplexes not far from the Clubhouse. Further along the path, the Sand Dollar Cottage has its own private setting amidst the island pines.

The Island

Since there are purposely no automobiles, televisions, radios and ringing telephones at the Meridian Club, you are left to enjoy the island's natural beauty and tranquility. The surrounding waters (which average a pleasant 75 - 80 degrees Fahrenheit) teem with marine life. For divers and snorkelers, underwater visibility often exceeds 100 feet, and there are miles of coral gardens within easy reach. Ashore, Pine Cay remains a pristine natural haven, dotted with palmettos, pines and seven freshwater ponds, the perfect habitat for abundant local fauna and flora.

Some say that Columbus refilled his water barrels from Pine Cay's freshwater ponds during his quest for the New World. In the centuries that followed, countless mariners and marauders no doubt did the same. Yet despite Pine Cay's location on an ancient, much-navigated trade route, its only permanent settlement seems to have been a Taino Indian village in around 800 A.D.

Then, in the late 1960s, a scholar-turned-dreamer set out to create an island escape, which eventually became the Meridian Club, Ltd. Today, the Club and a small group of private homeowners are dedicated to preserving the island in its peaceful, natural state. The Caribbean of days gone by..

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