Guilt Takes a Holiday
Rosewood Hotels & Resorts, which operates Little Dix, is not alone in having figured out that the indulgent holiday of yesteryear, or the "spring break" of today, is anathema for many American travelers now. We're a jittery and puritanical lot, with our one-week summer vacation to Europe's three or four. And we are forever assuaging our vacation guilt by striving to improve ourselves, the environment and even the members of the local work force who make the beds, tend the bougainvillea and service the computer lines. (Little Dix invites the citizens of Virgin Gorda to attend the "Paradise Chats" free of charge.)
While it is common for European vacationers to drink wine with lunch and take siestas, Americans bring the conscientiousness and pace of their workweek with them on their holidays. It's a feat well known in the Hamptons, where New York's competitiveness is now transported, wholesale, to the beaches of the East End. Battles over the real estate and parking spaces there, not to mention the day care and nightclubs, are a regular feature of each summer's supposedly lazy relaxation.