Well... first of all, let me say that we had a fabulous time in Anguilla. What a wonderful island with wonderful people. (Photos here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/adamhonig/sets/72157624517043011/)
And let me also say that our time at Sur La Plage wasn't terrible, but it certainly wasn't the a good value for what we spent and the owner clearly isn't interested in her guests.
Our villa, the "owner's villa" was a two bedroom, two bath house. There were numerous, obvious issues with the house that became apparent when we arrived:
- The air conditioning in the main room simply did not blow cold air. Since it was about 90 degrees, this was a concern. It took three days for the freon to be replaced.
- The jacuzzi tub featured prominently on their website was over-run with ants. I'm not talking about one or two, I'm talking about fifty or so. And though it was dutifully cleaned each day by Iris the housekeeper, they returned within hours. It was unusable.
- Both bathrooms were like mini saunas. non ventilated and very stuffy. one of their bathrooms was right out of the Brady Bunch (dark brown on light brown themed), the other ridden with ants....great
- The kids' room had no shades on the windows, which seemed to face east. So they were woken with the sun each morning at 5:50am. We eventually covered the windows with black plastic garbage bags, then with cardboard, then with a heavy blanket which eventually helped.
- The living room features a wicker love seat with a very old cushion which can barely hold two people, and certainly not comfortably. The other seating is two matching wicker "wing chairs".
- The screens in the house had enough holes that by the end of the trip, us and our kids were covered with mosquito bites. Half of the the window cranks (that crank the windows closed) were broken and so the windows didn't fully close, which was a boon to the mosquitos. Plus since they were broken, they shed parts enabling my two year old to present his 5 month old sister with a good sized screw.
- The mattress in the master bedroom was obviously purchased in 1978. Its springs were extremely uncomfortable. After a few days of sore backs, we mentioned this to Iris and she said "many guests complain about this" and she produced a foam
- Smaller things included the fact that it took 45 minutes to bring a pot of water to a boil on the stove, the air conditioning once we got it working blew directly at the only couch in the living room, the driveway to the house had so many potholes on it that we scraped the bumper and bottom of the car numerous times on each trip, the "beautiful walkway" to the beach requires one to run a gauntlet of sand flies, the beach chairs on Mead's Bay are surrounded by small thorny cacti which seem to be growing in the sand, and only one deck chair had a usable cushion.
In short, the house is just not being taken good care of. It is frustrating to spend four or five days of your vacation chasing down the owner, dealing with the house keeper to get the house in good working condition. And don't get fooled into thinking that it was just this villa -- our friends stayed next door and had the same issues. Though there were some good things there (see below), I strongly advise someone looking for a villa rental in Anguilla to look elsewhere.
Iris, the housekeeper, seemed to try hard to address these issues but her approach often wasn't suitable. In response to the air conditioning not working, she suggested that we simply allow the non-existant breeze to cool the house.
Iris was a help, but sometimes too much as she would wash clothes we didn't ask her to wash and they wouldn't be available for us the next day. Like my bathing suit, which disappeared for two days, and our son's favorite pajamas that he loves sleeping in.
The good things about the villa include:
- The outdoor shower was the best thing going for them. probably the best thing about the villa. it was private and encompassed with gorgeous flowers with a view of the very plush back yard.
- Free wifi, once I showed Iris how to turn on the cable modem
- My wife was very pleased with the nice body wash that they provided in the one usable shower
- Mead's Bay is beautiful and had great places that are a short walk like the Frangipani beach club.
- They have an arrangement with the hotel across the street, La Sirena, to use their pool, which was OK.
- The villa was on the wonderful island of Anguilla :) and we drove to many nice places like Cap Juluca, Shoal Bay, etc., very easily.
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