The most Old World luxe hotel in the Bahamas, the Ocean Club (now run by Four Seasons) was built by A&P heir Huntington Hartford himself after he bought Hog Island in 1959 and rechristened it Paradise Island. 
 
This is the epitome of elegant island luxury, with palms waving from an immaculately manicured lawn by the beach, 24-hour butler service, a terraced set of Versailles-style gardens rising to a reassembled set of cloisters from a 12th-century French Augustinian monastery, and chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten’s Bahamanian-spiced French Asian dishes at Dune restaurant (reviewed separately). 
 
Rooms in the original Hartford Wing are done in plantation style, with mahogany and cane furnishings. Those in the beachside Crescent Wing are more modern. There are also cottages by the tennis courts and a trio of three- and four-bedroom villas right the beach. 
 
(If you saw the 2006 James Bond reboot Casino Royale, you’ll recognize that 007 stayed in one of these villas and later played a poker game against the baddie in the club’s Library—yes, that bit was supposed to be Eastern Europe, but they filmed it here; the movie’s early “Africa” sequence and the “Venice beach” scene were also both filmed in the Bahamas.)