Venture  /  Travel Prestige  /  North America
Caribbean · Atlantic · Pacific

The Big 3 of North America

St. Barts · The Hamptons · Malibu

The North American three are the clearest illustration of the argument: in each case the prestige is produced by a single piece of infrastructure, and in each case you can measure it.

St. BartsSaint-Barthélemy · French West Indies
A 640-metre runway is the entire admissions policy. No jet has ever landed here.
640 m
The HamptonsLong Island · New York
The only place here where the luxury good is time, and it is openly for sale.
JPX
MalibuLos Angeles County · California
Twenty-one miles of coast, one road, and a rebuild that is not finished.
One road

What the three have in common, and what they don’t

St. Barts has a 640-metre runway that no jet can use, which caps arrivals at whatever a turboprop fleet can carry. The Hamptons has Route 27, and a helicopter service that exists purely to avoid it — the fight over East Hampton’s airport has run through the courts since 2022 and is really an argument about who gets to skip the traffic. Malibu has 21 miles of coast and one road along it.

Malibu is also the one that has changed. The Palisades Fire took a large part of the beachfront in January 2025; PCH reopened that May, and as of August 2026 the city is still pressing Caltrans on erosion protection through the burn scar, with more than 300 destroyed beachfront properties in the rebuild pipeline. The address has lost none of its status. The coastline is mid-repair, and anyone describing it otherwise has not been recently.

The barriers side by side

640 m
St. Barts — The runway at Gustaf III (SBH) — about 2,100 ft, approached over a hill, ending at the sand. Too short for any jet.
JPX
The Hamptons — East Hampton Town Airport. Renamed from HTO in the 2022 privatisation attempt; ruled public-use again on appeal in April 2024 and charted that way since.
One road
Malibu — The Pacific Coast Highway. Reopened through the burn area in May 2025 and still under emergency repair, with erosion works ongoing.

One measured obstacle each.

Figures checked 23 August 2026

Every number and date on this page was verified against a live source on that date, and each one is cited on the destination’s own page. Taxes, seasons and access rules change — confirm anything you are booking against.

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Questions

What are the Big 3 of North America?
St. Barts, The Hamptons and Malibu. In each case the prestige is produced by one piece of infrastructure: a 640-metre runway that no jet can use, Route 27 and the helicopter service that exists to avoid it, and 21 miles of coastline with a single road along it.
Which is hardest to get into?
St. Barts, and it is not a matter of money. Gustaf III Airport’s runway is about 640 metres, approached steeply over a hillside, and only light short-takeoff aircraft can use it — pilots need a specific certification to fly the approach. There is no jet service at any price; everyone transfers through Sint Maarten onto a turboprop or takes the ferry.
Is Malibu worth visiting after the Palisades Fire?
Yes, with accurate expectations. The Pacific Coast Highway reopened through the burn area in May 2025, and the canyons, the surf and the coastline are all there. But more than 300 destroyed beachfront properties are still in the rebuild pipeline, and in August 2026 the City of Malibu was publicly pressing Caltrans to accelerate erosion protection for the highway through the burn scar. Check conditions before committing to anything time-sensitive.

The other two sets

The Big 3 of EuropeThe Big 3 of Asia The Big 9 — all of them