We saw the private accommodation advertised last year under 'speciality accommodation' and we thought that it would be suitable since it seemed a secluded spot away from the main tourist areas. However, what seemed like a romantic retreat turned into a complete nightmare. The cottages are a 40minute drive away from the main town; from the main road the cottages are down a treacherous unfinished, unlit dirt track with inch-high mud. This place is definitely not for families with small children or those with elderly parents. When we arrived there was not even a bottle of water in the fridge, no restaurants nearby, no shops. You are completely isolated. The owners did not stock the fridge with basic provisions such as water, rather on arrival you have no choice but to eat at the small restaurant they have on site.
There is a beach nearby but they have not yet finished the steps down, which means that should you want to go to a local beach you need to walk down an extremely steep rock face with overgrown weeds and through part of a forest with rocks and fallen down trees. To travel to the main beaches you will need to take a Bus/Taxi or rent a car.
However, the main problem apart from the abovementioned was that there was no hot water when we arrived and neither for 2 days after. We were told by the owner that there was a broken wire in the system which meant that we could have either cold or hot water but not both. The system works via Solar power and they have insufficient back-up to cope with days when there may be no sun. When I spoke to the Owner about this he was very defensive, although did eventually agree to notify guests via the website. However, he did not offer us any compensation for the invonvienience.
If you want secluded, romantic accommodation in the Caribbean with hot running water, do yourself a favour and book into Maca Bana villas. They have a much more professional operation with luxury villas on a beautiful caribbean beach.
This review is the subjective opinion of a TripAdvisor member and not of TripAdvisor LLC.
Management Response
theo69, owner
(Management representative)
Oct 25, 2007
We are sorry to hear that these couple could not enjoy there stay at our place. They only had one week vacation and it started with rain (it rained for more or less 3 days and we felt really sorry for them), but the October is still in the rainy season like we told them in one of our emails. But on the other hand we are a little bit sad, because they want to blame us for some things we can’t change or we not even mention or advertise on our website.
We don’t offer something on our website we don’t have and we don’t lie about where our Cottages are located. And somehow they knew and wanted a secluded spot away from the main tourist areas and on the other hand they expected supermarkets, restaurants and even the town of St. George´s within walking distance. That’s kind of impossible.
You need 20 min by car to St. George´s, sure a bus takes maybe a bit longer because they stop for other people.
For us secluded means away from the airport, away from the biggest hotels, away from the main tourist areas and so on.
When they arrived they asked us if they can go to a bar in the evening and we told them that we do not have a bar within walking distance because we are away from the main tourism area.
We also asked them if they need something to eat or drink. We gave them a big bottle of water and offered some snacks like a sandwich, burger, salat or pizza. And they decided to join us for pizza, salat and some drinks. We then asked them, if they need anything like food or drinks for the night and the next morning. They told us they were allright and would like to have breakfast for the next three days.
During there stay at our place they only complained about the hot water and even after we asked them if everything is allright they did not say anything.
They arrived on a really rainy day and we already had 2 rainy days before and because we provide hot water by solar heater (If we have a couple of rainy days, this may mean that there is not enough hot water.) there was only slightly warm water, and because the system runs on gravity they mixed it with to much cold water. We also explaned to them that because of the different waterpressure from the hot and cold water they have to mix them a little bit more carefully, but it is no problem to use both hot and cold water. These broken wire they mentioned was a broken valve and this is allready repaired.
On the first morning I drove with them to Gouyave to get a local drivers license for them so they hired our car several times.
Because of the rain the road to our place was wet but we never had inch high of mud. The trail going down to our beach is cleared (the fallen tree was a broken branch of an old tree which was removed a few days after). But they went down in real downpoor of rain and certainly stones are getting slippery when they are wet. We do not advertise that we have steps going down to the beach (ORIGINAL text from our side: We are on a cliff above a secluded sandy beach. There are two small nature trails leading down to our beach (about a 5 min walk).).
For them the main beaches are the beaches in the tourism area. And we do mention that it is a 30 min drive to the Grand Anse Area.
We also don’t understand how they can compare us with a villa resort that costs four times the amount of money.
And know for these couple this Villa Resort, which is next to the airport and the biggest hotel in Grenada, is secluded!
This response is the subjective opinion of the management representative and not of TripAdvisor LLC.