Richard Branson's holiday hotspot - the British Virgin Islands

THE British Virgin Islands make an appropriate retreat for Virgin Blue's big boss - and lucky for him, paradise comes with a home office.

View from a room on Necker Island, Richard Branson's home away from home. Picture: Supplied

SIR Richard Branson considers himself to be a "lucky bastard" because his favourite holiday spot is also his home away from home.

When he isn't gallivanting around the world, the Virgin Blue and V Australia boss retreats to Necker Island and runs his international empire from a hammock on a porch that looks over the perfect blue water of the British Virgin Islands.

"I have travelled the world and found this beautiful island - Necker Island is the most beautiful jewel in the Caribbean, perhaps the most beautiful jewel in the world - and I have tried to create the place I never want to leave," Branson says.

"There are spectacular reefs all the way around, the sea is cleaner than the Great Barrier Reef, you can look from the house and see eagle rays, dolphins and whales. We have 250 flamingos on the island, giant tortoises and two-metre iguanas.

"The climate is fantastic all year around, there are no nasty things like snakes or diseases. The Caribbean is dreamy in that sense and there are no nasties in the water like in some parts of Australia."

Branson says Necker Island serves as a sanctuary away from the spotlight that comes with living a life in public.

"It is a place, being a high-profile person, where I can go and pull up the drawbridge," he says.

"I never worry about putting shoes and socks on, I don't need to worry if I don't put clothes on, and I can have friends and family here and not feel like I am in a glass bowl, and it is a place to have real time with friends, which is a difficult thing to do in the city.

"A lot of celebrities come there. Princess Diana and Princes William and Harry used it as their escape home. Actors and actresses and rock stars come there and can be completely relaxed.

"Lots of interesting people come, it's a wonderful magnet to attract wonderfully interesting people. We have an elders' temple there and Nelson Mandela, Archbishop (Desmond) Tutu, ex-president (Jimmy) Carter, Kofi Annan and other wonderful people come for meetings and try to bring peace to conflict regions."

Necker Island is part of the Virgin Limited Edition, Branson's personal retreats around the world that operate as luxury hotels. The collection includes a private game reserve near Kruger National Park in South Africa, a mountain retreat in Morocco, a chalet in the Swiss Alps and a Spanish villa.

The British Virgin Islands hideaway, which is spread over an idyllic 30ha, is normally offered whole as a private retreat for 28 guests but during special "celebration weeks" couples and singles can reserve individual rooms and share the island "houseparty style".

Branson, who plans to celebrate his 60th birthday in July by running the London Marathon and kite-surfing across the English Channel with his children and their cousins, says Necker Island is a haven because it lets him engage in the sports he loves.

"The good thing about the island is you are not plonked in front of a television, you are outside because there is plenty to do," he says.

"I love kite surfing and that's something I do with my children, and there are great winds for kite surfing.

"We play tennis, we have a mini submarine, a 3msubmarine that goes 150m underwater, which means people who don't have their scuba licence can see the beauty under the ocean.

"One of the drawbacks of Necker is that I am training for the London Marathon and trying to replicate the distance on Necker means I have to run around it 30 times, and I have been trying to come up with new routes around the lake and out to the end of the dock.

"I am a great believer in people working from home, that offices are just to check up on people, and you get more from life working from home. I think a lot of people could work from home and be getting more out of life, and I am in the lucky position that I can do that from Necker."

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