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Creating atmosphere is one of those black arts. It’s hard enough when you have people to whip the sound and light of setting into ambience, but harder still, I suppose, when the intended atmosphere is all about quietness and seclusion.

But then, perhaps tropical beauty simply speaks for itself. Recently I was in Palm Island, one of a number of tiny blips in the Grenadines in the south eastern Caribbean. The setting is practically perfect, particularly at dawn, when the air is still and fresh. From the patio of a stone cottage, the view gave through a sandy garden of palms and sea almond trees to a startling aquamarine sea. Around me was the tiny hoot of ground doves and the twittering of bananaquits. The beauty can be overwhelming sometimes.

The Grenadines have specialised in this style of escape, doing nothing on a desert island, for 30 years, since the first sailing bums washed up here in the 60s and started to build hotels. In the early days they worked under unbelievably trying circumstances (just imagine unloading a digger without a dock, not to mention the food supply problems with three changes of boat), but over the years they (Mustique, PSV, Palm Island and others) have grown into some of the smartest retreats in the world, offering a rare combination of sophistication and simplicity.

The Grenadines are on a roll at the moment. Money is pouring in. Recently two new places have come on line. Palm Island has been revamped and there is a huge new hotel in the previously unnoticed island of Canouan. And more is on the cards, filling available beach space, revitalising old projects that never quite made it, peppering uninhabited outcrops with villas. Well. They may go ahead. The ownership of the tiny islands concerned has to be sorted out first and that is notoriously difficult in the Caribbean.

The walk to the dining room added footprints to the night-time stories already written in the sand: a land crab’s busy scratchings, an iguana - feet paddling either side of the straight line of a dragged tail - and the double buggy wheels of delivered suitcases. Breakfast was in a wicker armchair on a thatched hardwood deck, pillars with rope balustrades, with a view across to other Grenadines etched on the horizon.

So, how do you describe an atmosphere of artfully styled nothingness? There wasn’t really much to do. And nor did I want anything to do. People are not the point, either, in a place like this. They drift in and out, following similar whims as yourselves. But there is a Caribbean calm, intense in the tropical sun, and the sedative wash of the waves. A swim. Then back to the beach. A walk in the afternoon cool. It’s regenerating. At night the dining room has a different feel. The darkness has closed in like walls. And by this stage you’ve generally lost the ability to make any decisions. A simple menu can be an unholy trial.

There was just one moment in my visit to Palm Island that pricked the classic Caribbean serenity. The hotel pool. Coming around the corner, I was cast into cartoon-like confusion (eek! hair and eye-lids briefly electrified). What? A fake waterfall and a line of outlandish brown rocks on a desert island?!

‘I wonder why they lined it with those odd-looking potatoes,’ chipped in another hotel guest.

After so much beauty and nothingness you may hanker for something energetic. Palm Island has a few watersports. On the other hand you may not. All the same, most people do take a sailing trip out to the Tobago Cays, a cluster of uninhabited islets set in reefs where tropical fish dip and dart. And on weekend evenings there’s always the jump-up in Union Island, a short boat trip away. Now that’s a place with an atmosphere. The bar, a cavernous construction of breeze-blocks, heaves with energy, in an easy mix of sailors and islanders, whipped up by a local band running through the year’s carnival calypsos from Trinidad.

Caribbean islands that are no distance apart can be surprisingly different in feel and even the tiny Grenadines are no exception. Carenage Bay in Canouan, just a few geographical miles from Palm Island, is a dimension away in spirit. In fact it is really a Mediterranean resort that has been transported to the Caribbean - gourmet French and Italian cuisine, a casino, golf course and Bulgari accoutrements in the bathroom. People dress for dinner and even wear jewellery to the beach, which is a little unexpected after years of diminishing dress codes around the islands.

Carenage Bay certainly looks like nothing else in the islands. The architecture was transplanted from the Emerald Coast of Sardinia, the colours, which jangle like a paint-swatch - burnt orange, red and yellow ochre and pastel pink - are from Mexico and the dark green roofs, each topped with pointy eaves like pairs of kitten ears, are from Thailand. Again, slightly unexpected.

From the inside, though, the rooms are exquisite. Vast beds with a view, sparse, uncluttered walls, and slender metal furniture. And once the doors are flung open onto the veranda, they should be a fine place to continue the tradition of doing nothing.

But where Palm Island is small, slow and soporific, Carenage Bay is bigger and upbeat. People matter more. Some are here to be seen for a start. They glide by in a nuance of a bathing suit, magnetising eyes. They scoot around in golf buggies, from beach to bar, and tennis court to treatment room. (And of course they shuttle around the golf course itself, though what with the ocean wind, limited space on the fairways and a merciless rough, the golf itself is quite a challenge.)

At lunch and dinner, front of house greet you with the rubbed hands of accommodating efficiency. The air is of trusty service and style, even a little glamour and glitz. After dinner, overlooking the resort from The Piazza Italian restaurant, you can head off to the casino, where people are magnetized by lady luck instead.

After the first few days on recharge on Palm Island, Carenage offers something a little more active. What with these two, and the sailing, or a villa on Mustique or Bequia, it’s worth considering the Grenadines as a second centre to add to a trip to Barbados.

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