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British Virgin Islands Hotel & Villa Reviews

Elm Villa, Tortola, BVI 10/25/2009
Reviewers Rating: Excellent
Elm Villa, Tortola, BVI – This place is a find.
My family and I rented Elm Villa for a week this summer and loved it. We give it top marks all around. This villa is not your typical rental property. It is clearly a second home, which the owners rent out part of the year.
In residence at the villa is a full time housekeeper, Mariel, who lives in a separate basement apartment. Mariel makes a big difference to the overall experience. First, since her full time job is to look after the place, the Villa is meticulously maintained and spotless. Second, unlike most rentals, which offer maid service one or two days during the week, Mariel is there everyday, making the beds, helping with the dishes and generally cleaning up. That said, she is not underfoot. She is unobtrusive and generally looks after the house while you are out. Third, if anything goes wrong, needs attention or if you need assistance, she is right there to address whatever comes up straight away. As a result, you have more of a five star hotel experience than a rental experience. Mariel is terrific and truly happy to help with whatever you need. For instance, we sent a shopping list ahead and she stocked the kitchen and bar for us prior to our arrival; allowing us to head straight to the beach instead of the supermarket. She, her local knowledge and help make all the difference. You don’t think about it in advance, but we had hours of extra free time over the course of our stay because Mariel was looking after the household for us, shopping, cleaning, making beds etc.; besides who wants to deal with these chores on holiday; at Elm Villa you don’t have to. She even cooked dinner for us one night!
The Villa itself is beautiful. As mentioned it is not your typical rental; over used and full of mismatched furniture. This is a vacation home of a wealthy family and it shows. It is very tastefully decorated, well maintained and features recently renovated bathrooms and kitchen.
Perched on aptly named Windy Hill, high above Cane Garden Bay, the Villa offers spectacular views of both the Bay and Jost Van Dyke. The layout and furnishings give it the feel of a classic 19th century British Colonial outpost, perfectly attuned to its Caribbean location. The house opens up on one side to a large covered deck and dining patio, which are more covered outdoor extensions of the living and dining rooms. In addition one of the bedrooms opens up onto an uncovered veranda over looking Cane Garden Bay.
While the pool deck, dining patio and back veranda have spectacular views, the trees have been allowed to grow up around the living room deck. At first thought this seems a shame as they block the view, but in reality this is a brilliant feature, as it affords a cool, green space, perched in the tree canopy. This balance between sweeping views and forest retreat is fantastic, offering the best of both worlds.
As we were visiting in July, we were a bit worried by the fact only the bedrooms, not the main house, are air conditioned; however with the house opened up, the high location affords a wonderful breeze that blows through the rooms keeping all cool within a simply wonderful indoor/outdoor living space overlooking some of the most spectacular scenery and tropical foliage you will find anyplace on earth. I should also note, although open, we encountered no mosquitoes in the house; which I think also can be attributed to the high location and breeze.
The pool deck and grounds are lovely, professionally landscaped and once again of 5 star hotel quality. One great design feature of the grounds is that the pool can be closed off from the decks and house by a gate. This was a primary concern of ours as we had a 2 year old in tow. We found many of the Villa’s on the island had non-childproofed decks and pool areas. Elm Villa is the exception. The owners clearly have small children and the Villa is set up with this in mind. The decks are child safe and the pool area secure from the house. Beyond that the entire outdoor area is walled off, so there is no possibility for the children to leave the Villa unattended. This is a great comfort and removes a big source of stress from your holiday if you have small children; they can’t fall, drown or escape so long as you keep the gates closed. My only recommendation is to bring a doorknob child lock for the front door. If your toddler has figured out how to open a door, you’ll need it. There are also loads children’s toys, books and videos available in the villa for use. There is even a child’s bedroom, with a low bed, which our son just loved. If you have young children, this Villa is a no brainer; it’s the one for you. If you don’t, the fact the property is child friendly does not detract, as this is a fantastic house for adults, just the same.
Finally we found the owners very easy to work with. They live in the UK and we managed the business side of the rental over the Internet and via FedEx. I was a bit nervous about managing such a transaction, with private individuals, over the Internet; but I took a leap of faith and it paid off. The owners are 100% trustworthy and very helpful.
Elm Villa gets our very highest recommendation. I can think of no negative comment or caveat from our experience there. We had a terrific time and the Villa far exceeded our expectations. If you are looking to rent stellar accommodations on Tortola, this is the place for you! We will definitely go back, and are even kicking around the idea of making a stay at Elm Villa an annual family tradition; which, at the end of the day, is the highest praise of all.
The Villa does not pop up straight away when searching for a place to rent on Tortola. In fact I found it on the very last day of my search, as I was about to sign up for another place. You can find their direct website at the following link:
http://web.mac.com/alex.tarn/iWeb/Elm%20Villa.Tortola/Welcome.html
My recommendation is to contact the owners directly via the above link. However, you can see additional photos and write-ups at these other sites:
http://www.holiday-rentals.co.uk/p156317
http://www.cyberrentals.com/rental/p156317
http://www.greatrentals.com/rental-property/p156317
http://www.vrbo.com/114006
http://www.homeaway.com/vacation-rental/p156317
http://www.toadhallcaribbean.com/property/Elm%20Villa/
Jason Hinsch
Annapolis, Maryland, USA
JHTradeway@hotmail.com

Jason Hinsch

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