Strolling hand-in-hand along the paved promenade next to a sun-splashed marina, they could be any young couple enjoying a Caribbean vacation.

But this romantic pair is the Duke and Duchess of Sussex who, DailyMail.com can exclusively reveal,

have jetted to the tiny island of Canouan in St Vincent and the Grenadines following a week spent promoting mental health projects in New York.

A photo taken by a passer-by on Friday shows the pair leaving a gourmet food store inside the Sandy Lane Yacht Club and Marina in Glossy Bay.

Meghan, 42, is wearing a simple ivory maxi-dress and a ribboned Panama hat while husband Harry, 39, is casual in navy shorts and a white t-shirt and flip flops.

The pair were without children Archie, 4, and two-year-old Lilibet, and were ‘affectionate’ with each other according to the onlooker.

The source told DailyMail.com: ‘They looked happy. As Harry walked out of the shop, he slightly bumped into one of the barrels [outside] and they both giggled and Meghan reached for his hand.

‘They just looked very happy to be having a holiday together.’

Meghan and Harry had been shopping at Faye – an upmarket grocery store that bills itself as offering an ‘exclusive selection of fresh seasonal organic products, from vegetables to cheeses, sweets, seafood and exclusive meat cuts’ imported from France.

After browsing the shelves, the couple enjoyed a stroll along the bougainvillea-festooned promenade before boarding a luxury tender that whisked them away towards Canouan’s north shore.

The tiny Caribbean island is just three miles wide but has a reputation for being the place where ‘billionaires go to escape millionaires’ due to its gorgeous sandy beaches and a handful of upscale resorts.

Options include the glamorous Canouan Estate Resort and Villas, the Mandarin Oriental, and the Soho Beach House Canouan.

Rooms at the Mandarin Oriental start at $837 and rise to more than $9000-a-night for the property’s lavish four-bedroom villa while the Soho Beach House is a relative snip at $1,200 for its most luxurious room, although members like Meghan get a discount and pay $1,020 per night.

Meghan has long been associated with the Soho House properties due to her long-standing friendship with Markus Anderson, the lifestyle club chain’s Chief Membership Officer.

It was Anderson who arranged a private room at Soho House in London for the Montecito-based couple’s first date, while Meghan threw a low-key hen night ahead of her 2018 wedding at Soho Farmhouse in Chipping Norton, UK.

Like Oxfordshire, Canouan is popular with many of the couple’s friends and acquaintances, with George Clooney and his wife Amal among the famous names who have fallen in love with the island’s charms.

Other fans of Canouan include Robert Downey Jr and Leonardo DiCaprio, both of whom have been known to vacation there.

The island – whose name means ‘island of turtles’ in the Carib language – is a short 45-minute hop from Barbados or an even shorter 15-minute trip from St Vincent.

Commercial flights to Barbados and St Vincent are widely available while Grenadines Air Alliance has frequent scheduled flights between the islands, although many celebrity visitors opt to fly in direct on a private jet.

It is also a stone’s throw from another royal favorite – the island of Mustique, also part of the St. Vincent and Grenadines, where the late Princess Margaret owned a lavish villa named Les Jolies Eaux [the pretty waters].

In recent years, Mustique has become a favorite with the Prince and Princess of Wales who often holiday there with their three children and Kate’s parents Carole and Michael Middleton.

Like Canouan, Mustique is a tiny, secluded island that provides the last word in luxury accommodation and boasts several celebrity fans, including Mick Jagger, Bryan Adams and Tommy Hilfiger who all own homes there.

The Sussexes Caribbean vacation comes at the end of a week that saw them return to New York City for the first time since getting involved in a ‘near catastrophic’ car chase in Manhattan in May.

The pair were widely ridiculed after releasing a statement that described a ‘relentless pursuit’ lasting for two hours that resulted in ‘multiple near collisions’ only for the NYPD to say the incident was merely ‘a bit chaotic’.

This week’s visit proved less controversial with the duo taking part in a summit to mark World Mental Health Day.

The eco-conscious pair, who were staying at the Equinox Hotel in Hudson Yards, did attract some flak for being driven a block in a seven-car convoy of gas guzzling SUVs to the event but otherwise enjoyed a smooth trip.

Meghan, who wore a $987 Altuzarra blazer for the panel discussion, used the discussion to share her fears for children using social media, saying:

‘As parents, though our kids are really young, they’re two and a half and four and a half… but social media is not going away.

‘I think by design, there was an entry point that was supposed to be positive in creating community and something has devolved, and there’s no way to hear that and not try to help these families have their stories be heard.’

The couple’s New York trip also saw them visit a school in Brooklyn and weigh in on the crisis engulfing the Middle East after Hamas terrorists murdered 1,300 Israeli civilians in a horror attack last Saturday.

A statement released via the website of the Archewell Foundation read: ‘At The Archewell Foundation, with Prince Harry and Meghan, The Duke and Duchess of Sussex, we stand against all acts of terrorism and brutality.

‘We are supporting our partners and organizations on the frontlines in Israel to provide the urgent aid needed, and to help all innocent victims of this unconscionable level of human suffering.’

 Follow us to see more useful information, as well as to give us more motivation to update more useful information for you.

Source: Los Angeles Times