Island-Sity

For Ms. Dawson, a 48-year-old Manhattanite and self-described “city chick,” it turned into one of the most romantic nights of her life. She spent the rest of the day plucking a dozen mussels from the buoys off the dock and digging for clams on the beach. She picked tomatoes and peppers from the garden and brought everything inside to make paella. Most importantly, the couple had the island all to themselves for the week, for a reasonable $3,250, plus $500 for use of the boat.

“It was one of the best vacations I had ever taken,” said Ms. Dawson, who, as a regional director for the Body Shop, travels constantly and unplugs almost never. She stumbled across the island when searching for rentals on the Internet; the couple already has plans to return.

Bill Huggins, Jonathan Island’s proprietor, is not the type one normally associates with private-island ownership. Mr. Huggins, a 51-year-old mortgage broker, and his wife, Alison, bought the property in 1998 because it was close to their primary home (in Narragansett) and yet felt totally remote.

“At first my wife wasn’t interested in it at all,” Mr. Huggins said. “One day I took her over there, and she said, ‘Oh my God, this place is beautiful. Please get me this house and this island.’ ”

Now, Mr. Huggins and folks like him are sharing their gems with travelers, as private-island rentals become attainable for those traveling on a more modest budget.

There are still, of course, glitzy islands available for rent, owned by celebrities and magnates like Richard Branson, whose Necker Island in the British Virgin Islands rents for $36,000 per night and up.

On the other end of the spectrum, Jonathan Island starts at $375 per night, and Melody Key, an island in the Florida Keys owned since 2003 by Nick Hexum, lead singer in the band 311, runs $1,400 per night for up to six guests. And Forsyth Island, a 1,744-acre refuge in New Zealand, costs about $1,400 a night.

“Every island is different,” said Chris Krolow, chief executive of Private Islands Inc., a real-estate agency specializing in the sale and rental of islands. “We have a few islands that are really out in the middle of nowhere, where you bring your own food, all the way to the very luxurious Rania Experience, with seven staff per person,” he said, referring to a package based in the Maldives.Counterintuitively, the island-rental trend might have its roots in the recession. In a down economy, island owners don’t want to shell out for the high cost of maintaining them. “Owning an island is an expensive hobby,” Mr. Huggins said. He pays a premium both on repairs and heating fuel, and when his mortgage business started to slow in 2007, he listed the island on the Internet.

Like urban subletters, some private island owners are happy just to break even. “The idea is not to make big money,” said Farhad Vladi, the founder of Vladi Private Islands, another island realty, and owner of Forsyth Island. “The idea is to cover the running costs and to keep the wheels in motion.”

For the renter, the appeal is obvious. Islands by definition offer that most valuable of amenities: privacy. During the few weeks a year he and his family can get to Melody Key, Mr. Hexum fishes for his dinner and writes songs outside in his underwear — neither of which is easy at home in Los Angeles. “It’s been good for my spirit to totally unwind,” he said. “Being on an island is such an incredible contrast to L.A.”

Private rentals can also be an antidote to the typical island resort, with a high volume of guests.

“I guess we’re kind of tired of the traditional hotel,” said Ron Kilius, a Toronto-based owner of a healthcare company, who vacationed this year on Royal Belize, an island off Belize with three homes that became available for rental in 2009. Whether guests rent just one of the houses for as low as $600 a night, or all three for $2,115, they can be assured that no other vacationers will be there. “My wife and I are pushing 60, so we don’t like a lot of hullabaloo.”

For the most part during their vacation, they lie about and read. “I guess after 30 years of marriage, what do you do?” Mr. Kilius said.

For couples without long guest lists, the private-island wedding has also become popular. Molly and Kurt Pitts held their wedding in November on Melody Key, partly to limit attendance. “We really just wanted something small, and we both love the water,” said Mrs. Pitts, a lending assistant in Tifton, Ga. After the ceremony, the couple stayed on for a week. “It was so peaceful; you don’t have anybody bothering you,” she said. “If you got a usual condo somewhere, you always have people around, hooting and hollering.”

Private islands aren’t for everyone. Those who want museums and nightclubs and 24-hour pharmacies should look elsewhere. And on some — Jonathan Island included — guests need to watch their water and energy use. Ms. Dawson admitted that being stuck on an island could have been a nightmare. But, she pointed out, “you’re kind of in the mind-set to figure out how to make it a good situation.”Other island owners have taken a more proactive approach in the conservation department. Melody Key, for example, lies “pretty much off the grid,” according to Mr. Hexum. The house has solar panels and a cistern, but a propane generator and extra water are in reserve for guests who want to take long showers and leave the lights on.

As Ms. Dawson indicated, it’s best to mentally prepare for the private-island experience. Even loners might find the hermetic isolation a bit overwhelming. “Time on an island is very different from time on the mainland,” Mr. Krolow of Private Islands Inc. said. “Two or three days can feel like a week.” To that end, he recommends that first-timers limit their adventure to a few days, and book the remainder of their vacation at a resort.

But solitude is in the eye of the beholder. Jim Arthur, a resort-wear manufacturer, will be renting out the 26-acre island in French Polynesia that he owns with his wife, Inger Pettersson, starting in 2010 — in hopes of meeting interesting people. At $2,500 a night, all-inclusive, the rental isn’t cheap, but the area is famously pricey, and Mr. Arthur is not out to make money. The couple plan to be as present or absent as guests please, but they hope to find, amid all the quiet, a sort of community. “My wife and I are world travelers, and we like to meet new people,” he said. “That’s one of our main reasons for doing this.”