Mustique. On the island before sunset, with every connection already made.

Mustique has no jet capability and never will: the strip is short, it sits on a small island with high ground either side, and it has no lights. So the real decision is which gateway your aircraft uses, and it is worth taking seriously because the connecting flight is short but the consequences of missing it are not.

Barbados (BGI) is the usual answer from Europe. It is the easternmost island, so it is the shortest transatlantic leg, it has full private handling, and the Grenadine connection operates from there more often than from anywhere else. St Lucia (UVF) is the alternative in the high season. St Vincent's Argyle airport (SVD) is the nearest gateway of all and takes larger aircraft, which makes it worth a look if your itinerary suits it. Grenada (GND) works from the south. Whichever you pick, the connecting flight is flown by the Grenadine operators, who fly these hops all day and know the field.

See private jet charter, ultra long range jets, heavy jets and turboprops for the aircraft side of the question.

Because the strip closes before sunset, the whole itinerary hangs on your arrival time at the gateway, not your arrival time at Mustique. In practice that means landing at Barbados, St Lucia, St Vincent or Grenada with a comfortable margin in the early afternoon, so that customs, immigration, the walk to the light aircraft and the load still leave daylight at the far end. An arrival that slips by ninety minutes on a transatlantic leg can turn an eight hour day into an overnight on another island.

The honest planning answer is to decide in advance what happens if it does slip. Either a night at the gateway and a first flight in the morning, or a boat across that evening, which is possible in a way that a flight is not. Neither is a problem when it has been arranged beforehand. Both are miserable when the first anyone thinks about it is on the apron at dusk. Holding the whole chain and having the alternative already standing by is the most useful thing we do on a trip like this.

Mustique sits in the middle of one of the best cruising grounds anywhere. Bequia is an hour or so north under power, Canouan and Union Island and the Tobago Cays are a comfortable day south, and St Vincent is close enough that the island can be used as a base rather than a destination. The anchorage at Britannia Bay is the usual place to lie, with moorings administered by the island itself, and guests come ashore by tender.

For a group of any size a yacht solves several Mustique problems at once. It removes the connection entirely, it carries the luggage that light aircraft cannot, and it turns the surrounding islands into day trips rather than expeditions. We arrange charters and tender movements through operators and agents we know. See yacht charter, motor yachts, sailing yachts and how chartering works.

Our own cars and our own chauffeurs are in London and Manchester, so the departure is the leg we control directly: an early car from the house to Luton, Farnborough, Biggin Hill or Northolt, luggage loaded properly for a long flight, and a chauffeur who knows the private terminal gate rather than the passenger drop off. See private jet transfers and airport transfers.

In the Caribbean, cars and boats are arranged through operators we know, with one person at Odyssey holding the itinerary and watching the inbound flight. If it moves, the connection, the transfer and the villa hear about it from us rather than from you.