Every person I asked on the four-day trip I just returned from in St. Barts told me that they ended up in the French territory because they wanted to live for a year in a place that always felt like summers do in the South of France. Many had traveled from Nice or Marseilles, planned to stay for a year, and never left. According to them, St. Barts has a bit of everything they love about their hometowns, but on the island, it’s August all year long. And now that I’ve experienced it myself, I know what they mean. From the French pharmacies that carry viral products like Nuxe Huile, La Roche-Posay Cicaplast spray, and Biafine to the tranquil beaches and pastel-colored structures, traveling to St. Barts felt like taking a much shorter trip to the French Riviera from JFK airport, where I started my journey.

Having heard about this ahead of my trip, I knew that I had to pack for the occasion, selecting the same sorts of pieces from my wardrobe that I would if I were heading to Antibes or Villefranche-sur-Mer. I wanted to bring with me all of the colorful items in my wardrobe that don’t always make sense for New York City, especially coming out of a very long winter. In a shocking move for a minimalist like me, I brought only one black clothing item—a simple halter top—with the rest of my carry-on suitcase (the Tradewind flight we took from San Juan to St. Barts had a strict weight limit for luggage, so there were no checked bags for me) containing a mix of pink, orange, and red. Given my limited packing space, I only brought along four pairs of shoes: running shoes, a pair of black Prada slingbacks for evenings, The Row mesh flats, and white flat sandals from Larroudé’s just-launched collaboration with the Rosewood Le Guanahani resort, which just so happened to be the reason I was in St. Barts in the first place. One purse, minimal jewelry, and lots of skincare were the only other pieces that accompanied me on my four-day getaway in St. Barts.

Below, find the 11 outfits I packed for my trip and a full-on photo dump of arguably the most luxurious destination I’ve visited—ever.

Upon arrival at the Rosewood, I was escorted to my suite, where the view from the private balcony showed the sun setting over the lagoon. Every second that I wasn’t in my bed or getting ready for the rest of the trip, I was outside on one of the sun chairs working, drinking coffee, or honestly, taking pictures of this view.

On our first night, we had a pretty low-key dinner at the hotel’s restaurant in the Beach Club. We’d all been traveling since around 5 a.m., so I was more than happy to keep things pretty casual. For the occasion, I slipped on one of my all-time favorite wardrobe items: this Tory Burch sculpted, hook-and-eye minidress from the brand’s S/S 23 collection. I own the matching midi skirt as well but didn’t have enough room to pack it, which ended up being absolutely fine. I like how it looks as a mini, especially in a tropical setting like this.

Early the next morning, I woke up to grab a coffee in the Beach House before our group yoga class down at the water. Usually in hot weather like this, I stick with shorts for working out, but I knew we were doing yoga when I was packing and chose to go with leggings instead. These are from Nike. With the set and a little Aritzia workout jacket, I wore my Adidas Adizero sneakers that I recently got and have been loving for classes and outdoor runs alike.

Our yoga instructor took us to this wooden platform down by the rocks on the ocean for a relaxing vinyasa class with the sounds of the waves as background music. We didn’t get too far here because a quick bout of rain arrived and forced us inside to the spa, where we continued class under an awning. For some reason, the rain just didn’t bother us in St. Barts in the same way it does in the city. It rained on a couple of occasions and usually we just stuck it out because it came and went so quickly. Being so close to the water, though, our mats were getting too wet, so we eventually had to switch locations.