I thought long and hard about various accommodations, hotel versus inn versus
villa. La Sagesse and Twelve Degrees North offered very attractive rates with
the intimacy and local flavour we like so much. And discount websites were
offering beachfront rooms on Grand Anse for under $100/night. But then I
stumbled across the website for Spice Isle Villas and that pretty much settled
my decision. This site is run by the indefatigable Nick Hughes, and let me tell
you, folks, this guy is a gem! His rental services just earned a special nod
from Conde Nast as being one of about 35 villa rental companies worldwide who
are most likely to match their clients with the perfect rental, among other
things. I chose Turtleback Pavilion, a new one bedroom studio villa as our home
for our first week in Grenada, based mostly on the fabulous photographs of it
online and the incredible introductory rental rate of US $885/week. Nick was the
soul of patience and promptness when it came to answering my questions, ranging
from How far is it to the closest beach (short walk to a very small one, less
than 5 minute drive to the main one, Prickly Bay) to What appliances are in the
kitchen (blender, toaster, electric kettle, microwave, coffee maker). He even
did some local research and put me in touch with a woman who lends a hand to
various schools and possibly a children’s home so that I could sent boxes of
children’s clothing and books ahead of our visit. He also picked us up at the
airport and drove us to the villa, and called us partway through the week to see
how things were going. No email of mine went unanswered longer than a day. I’m
telling you, Nick Hughes is the man to see about a villa on Grenada.

We arrived very late at night and our first sight of Turtleback was pure
magic—we were led down a garden staircase that was sensuously lighted to our
home for the week. The indoor living space is fairly small—just an open plan
studio with a full kitchen, bathroom, living area, and king size bed, with
central A/C. But the outdoor living spaces, which outnumber the indoor space
three to one, where truly magnificent. We had a large swimming pool, probably
about 15’ x 30’, a deck surrounding the pool scattered with lots of comfy
chairs, a covered breezeway with a dining table and more chairs, and then a
covered rooftop terrace that was larger than the studio that was compete with a
dining table, wet bar, and a sun deck.

The villa is owned by Sharon and Anthon Antoine, a couple so good-looking they’d
make your teeth hurt. He’s Grenadian and she’s from California, and they live in
an apartment on the grounds with their two sweet dogs, Oso and Tiger. The rental
included a home cooked meal for our first night, and it was excellent—Sharon
prepared the best callaloo soup I had during my entire trip, and she also
provided a green salad, a baked chicken with Moroccan spices, and a yellow cake
with lime glaze—all of which were delicious. They also do an initial
provisioning at cost upon request. They also do all of their own maintenance and
housekeeping for their two rental properties.
Nick took care of our rental car, and so Y&R rental delivered a small
Suzuki-type 4WD vehicle with left-side steering. We were so smitten with the
villa that we were reluctant to leave that morning, so we just ventured out to
buy some groceries at the nicely appointed Food Fair and to a pharmacy to buy
some sodium naproxen and an ice pack to help assuage the pain in my DH’s foot.
My husband is a great navigator and I was keen to drive, so we made a good team.
Then we headed back to the villa to take some sun, read, have some cocktails,
and listen to some music on the villa’s CD player (it also has a TV and DVD
player). In fact, each of our days was bookended in such a way—early morning
coffee, a nice swim, more coffee, maybe some reading, a nice swim…and then
cocktails, watching the sunset (sort of, as we didn’t face west), a swim before
getting ready for dinner. And then after dinner, a quick dip in the pool.
The villa was nicely decorated and appointed, with the small exception of the
lamps on either side of the bed—they were mood lamps, insufficient for reading
in bed with only a 15 watt bulb, and the overhead light in the ceiling fan was
positioned too far away to be much good, either. We would be hard-pressed to
come up with more “flaws” in this lovely place. We were very sad to leave, as
Turtleback definitely felt like home and we had become fond of the owners as
well as the dogs. I would heartily recommend both Spice Isle Villas and the
Turtleback Pavilion (or the larger Tradewinds Pavilion just above it, also owned
by the Antoines) for anybody looking for good value, a certain amount of luxury,
fabulous views, and dependability in terms of on-site housekeeping, maintenance,
security, guest services, etc.

In fact, my husband and I enjoyed our stay so much that we are returning to
Grenada next spring just after the World Cup with friends to stay in the larger Tradewinds Pavilion just above Turtleback.

We stayed at Reef View Villas, Turtleback Pavillion - the smaller of two villas on one property in Grenada, in November 2006.

The villas are well situated overlooking a quiet bay on the south coast of Grenada. They are both well maintained, clean and well equipped. Position is excellent for a romantic holiday.

The owners, Anthon and Sharon, were helpful and accomodating. The holiday was progressing very well with the owners keeping themselves to themselves (they live on the same premises!!). Although, we had detected a slight underlying pressure which became clear as they explained that they had lost a booking for the larger villa for most of November. This had lost them several thousands of dollars income. This was exacerbated as they had only recently opened.

Two evenings before departure, Geoff, my partner, asked Anthon and Sharon for some assistance in making a romantic setting for me. He simply requested (Anthon and Sharon said if they could help in any way they would do so), whether they could buy and set up some candles around the villa for when we returned home the following eveing after an all day boat trip. Anthon suggested he didn't buy any candles as the evening winds would blow them out. Instead he already had several large/medium and small oil torches around the garden and in his store below the house. Geoff obviously said he would pay for their time to prepare the setting and the consumables. Big mistake!!!!

The setting that evening was lovely - in the region of 50 oil lamps were dispersed around the pool, roof top terrace and garden. That evening Geoff proposed to me in this lovely setting.

Next day we were presented with the bill for the candles. They charged us 20 hours of labour (to buy the oil, remove the oil lamps from the store and place around the villa). They charged for rental of the lamps and consumables. The total bill $480-00. Only $30-00 were the consumables the rest was made up of labour and rental. We don't expect any of the above for nothing but we could have rented a jeep for 9 days for the same price and in fact the boat trip was less (dedicated 42ft Catamaran - at least $200,000 value, to ourselves, with fully qualified skipper, all day sailing/fishing, food and drinks included). Somehow 50 rented oil candles, placed randomly around a villa for a few hours doesn't equate to a greater value than a 42ft catamaran rental, or 9 days jeep hire.

We obviously queried the cost as anyone would do in any hotel or accomodation. Within ten minutes of discussing the exorbitant cost, in a very calm way, Anthon "lost it." It was clear he was under so much presssure and his bubble had burst. The language was a disgrace and so was his aggressive nature. We had no choice other than pay this bill as I was staying on the Island for a further week with a girlfriend and Anthon knew where I was staying.

This was supposed to be the most special week of our lives.

These two people were clearly under huge pressure. I believe that without this pressure, we would have not had this problem.

Reef View Villas is a great place to holiday but make sure you check that their bookings are healthy before you go!! Always get a price for anything you request.

We spent one fabulous week in Grenada in late June / early July, as the first stop of our honeymoon. It was our first Caribbean experience, and we were very lucky to have had it staying at the Turtleback Pavilion. We came across the Reef View Pavilions through an internet search, after our original accommodation plans had fallen through. This turned out to be an absolute blessing and we would definitely stay at Reef View again whenever we can manage to get back to Grenada.

Firstly, a few words about Grenada. If you are reading this, then you’ve probably already done some reading about this amazing island. We were a little apprehensive at first about going to Grenada at the start of the ‘hurricane season’ but as it turned out, the weather in late June / early July was fine and we only had any real rain on one day while we were there. Although the devastation caused by Hurricanes Ivan and Emily in 2004/5 can still be seen everywhere, life in Grenada has picked up again and we found it a really fantastic island to visit.

We recommend that you do get out and see as much of the island as possible (we met some tourists who barely left their resorts or Grand Anse beach), because there is a lot to see. Highlights for us were Grand Anse beach (it is stunning), a day-trip to Carriacou and Petite Martinique, driving around the island, the pretty capital of St Georges, and seeing the rural parts in the east and north of the island. The experience we had in Grenada was very different to that in some other islands we visited, such as Antigua and St Martin, and it’s a lot more ‘real life’ than those places, but if you can get into this as opposed to living in a tourist bubble, then it will be all the more special.

But now for the Reef View Pavilions. The location is great, in a nice quiet area and with beautiful views overlooking a small bay. We only rented a car for 2 days out of 7 but this was actually fine. If you don’t mind a short walk to and from the main roads (a few hills, but good exercise), you can get a mini-bus, complete with awesome reggae and soca music, to take you into St Georges and from there to the rest of the island.

The Turtleback Pavilion is a really beautiful little place with more than enough space for a couple. The kitchen has all the utensils that you might need for a good meal, there is enough storage space, and there is a DVD player and sound system too. The views from inside are nice and it was great to wake up each morning and be able to look out to sea while still lying in bed.

But you really cannot beat the private swimming pool and pool area, plus the huge upstairs open-air space, for places to relax. There are views of the bay from all of these places, and the upstairs area was a beautiful place to eat breakfast each morning (we sometimes found it hard to leave, wanting to stay there all day). By the way, you can walk down along a track to that bay in just two minutes, and it’s a really nice place for a quiet swim.

Our stay at Turtleback would not have been nearly as memorable were it not for the hosts, Anthon and Sharon. After the hospitality and kindness they showed us while we were there, they are welcome at our house in Australia any time! They both came to meet us at the airport, and then showed us around the Turtleback immediately. Anthon and Sharon had cooked a meal for us on our first night, made to order (beautiful chicken curry, Sharon!). They gave us plenty of information on where to go and what to do, and made sure that there were plenty of guides to Grenada on the coffee table. The small touches – like having a pre-paid mobile phone there for us to use, and offering to buy us groceries in advance – helped to set this place apart from anywhere else we stayed in the Caribbean on our trip.

If you want a fabulous villa in a beautiful location with great hosts, do not look past either the Turtleback or Tradewind Pavilions.


Jon Cullum and Veronica Vele
Melbourne, Australia.