One Night in Palm Heights, the Internet-Crowned "It Girl" Getaway

Welcome to One Night In, a series about staying in the most unparalleled places available to rest your head.

At the tail end of August, I took one of my girlfriends, Krista, out to a birthday dinner at Corner Bar in New York’s internet-ordained Dimes Square neighborhood. As a woman who barely takes time off, I was thrilled to hear she’d just come home from a laptop-free vacation at Palm Heights, a sublime Cayman Islands boutique hotel. "You have to go," she said with conviction. "The food is New York caliber but on the beach." I recognized the zeitgeist-y property from seeing it come across my Instagram feed on accounts of friends that had already visited—a publicist I work with regularly, a former colleague and agency creative director, and a Vogue editor. It’s also become a low-key favorite to a select celeb set like Emily Ratajkowski and Bella Hadid. Chloë Sevigny celebrated her bachelorette party there, and Hailey Bieber shot a GQ cover story at the resort, referenced in the article as "the hottest hotel in the Caribbean."

If a hotel were an "It girl," Palm Heights is really her right now. The see-and-be-seen-at enclave, founded in 2019 by creative director Gabriella Khalil, is shrouded in colossal palms and if-you-know-you-know lore on Grand Cayman’s pristine Seven Mile Beach. The all-suite boutique hotel—part of a former Hyatt featured in the 1993 Tom Cruise film The Firm—has become a recognizable setting for tropical selfies in circular mirrors and a digital yellow brick road of striped towels and beach umbrellas from its captivating clientele’s IG posts. The rooms are furnished with vintage ’60s and ’70s design pieces handpicked by Khalil, which are high-taste but unfussy, not unlike the hotel’s programming. There are weekly karaoke parties and rooftop film nights. And, because Palm Heights hosts a rotating group of artists and athletes to lead retreats and do residencies, an exercise class, for example, might be led by an Olympian or someone like Cami Arboles, the movement expert who taught SZA to pole dance.

From what I’d seen and heard, Palm Heights seemed to be at the center of a Venn diagram of my own personal interests: creativity, wellness, impeccable midcentury decor, and a lot of spaces to hang out in a bikini. So when an opportunity came to stay there on a quick, indulgent (comped) reporting trip, I dragged one of my other best girlfriends, Valerie, with me. Days before we headed out, Krista messaged me and said: Omg. You’re gonna meet Bambi. Say hiiii, and hit me when you’re back. With unwavering trust for any recommendation from Krista, I looked forward to meeting Bambi.

Monday

10 p.m.: We’re only spending two nights at Palm Heights, and we arrive far later than I would’ve liked. But when we approach the considerable marble-and-chrome front desk in the cozy lobby, it’s clear we’ve arrived at the place to relax. 

The front desk agent, Moises (I’ll come to learn, everyone here is on a first name basis), meets us with two glasses of champagne on a tiny tray with Palm Heights coasters and cool eucalyptus towels to freshen up from the balmy, 80-degree evening. He walks us up to our fifth-floor suite and gives us a tour of its 1,000-square-foot layout, with two bedrooms—each with a king bed flanked by travertine side tables—and two large bathrooms clad in light marble and tile. The living room is anchored by a modular built-in sofa that dwarfs my six-foot frame, plus a small dining area and a wet bar. There are plenty of notable vintage pieces, like a Zelda armchair by Sergio Asti for Poltronova. The earthy color palette—white, sand, ocher, umber—allows the lush palms and turquoise ocean views to take center stage through the sliding glass doors that connect the living area to the balcony.

There’s fresh orange juice, pineapple, dragon fruit, cookies, and homemade kale chips ready for us to snack on, alongside a handwritten note, a beach towel–like tote bag, and bug repellent bracelets for the evenings. Before leaving us to settle in, Moises walks us through the hotel’s wellness programming and the on-property events for the week. A rooftop crystal sound bath at sunset, quiz night at the on-site Paradise Pizza, and the hotel’s first comedy hour—sign me up. He also invites us to come down to the front desk first thing in the morning for a proper tour of the grounds.