Stylish Villa With Private Pool, walking distance to Jolly Beach and Marina

The villa is terrific and has every possible comfort. It’s also very stylishly decorated and enjoyable to use. Sue bent over backwards to make sure we were looked after. Jolly Harbour itself was a bit quiet when we visited with rather a lot closed, but we still managed to have morning coffee and a couple of great meals in the Greek restaurant, dinner in the wonderful Italian pizza restaurant, and burgers and roti in the Crow’s Nest bar. We spent a fair bit of time on the beach at Castaways bar as well - their curries are amazing. In terms of activities, Glenmore and Troy ferried us around to lots of activities such as sailing, hiking through the rain forest with Dassa, jet skiing, kayaking, swimming with sting rays and so on. All in all a very successful holiday.

Our Group of 8 stayed a week during Antigua's Carnival. Communication with Sue & Pascale was excellent. Airport transfers were provided to & from the villa.

Calabash Villa was as pictured. The TV has been upgraded to a Smart TV- Cable with ESPN, OWN, CNN, HGTV & FOX. Brand New Microwave. WIFI was Very reliable, many in our group used it for WIFI Calling & Facetime with family in the USA.

The pool was nice. Make sure that you turn the Pool light off when you're done to keep from cleaning it out in the morning. The light attracts bugs. The bedrooms were nice and spacious. Clean linen, towels & rags. Good firm mattresses. The kitchen was well supplied with forks, spoons, pots and pans, toaster. The yard was maintained. Cell Phone in the Villa had Contacts pre-loaded in the event that you needed to contact the On Site Manager or Driver. The shower had strong water pressure & drained very well.

We rented a Mini Van (Voxy) from the Airport so we could site see. Driving on the left side is not bad as you'd think. Impatient locals will pass you if you're taking to long. The R on the license plate let's them know that it's a Rental. We drove to Shirley Heights( Sunday Dinner around 6- 9, food & good drinks), Nelson Dock Yard (Awesome Dinner on Friday Nights between 6 - 10, get there early bc food will sell out, drinks & dessert)

2 Min walk to the grocery store, the beach was less than 10 to Jolly Beach. Ffryes beach is is short driving distance. There're server local bars by the Villa as well.

Our group was happy with the house & would book it again on our next trip.

Calsbash is a well appointed property with good amenities. Comfortable bedrooms and a well laid out lounge and kitchen area. Within about 5mins walk from Jolly Harbour shops/restaurants etc and a great private pool to relax by or in. The immediate area is OK but let down a little by the 1/2 built property nearby and the construction work/noise from the hotel going up just behind, but this should be quieter when finished. We had a few small issues upon arrival, but having reported these to the management company they were largely resolved within 24hours.

Adequate space out front for our rental car and gates can be padlocked for extra security (although really not needed as Antigua is, on the whole, very safe). Great WiFi supported everyone’s phones/iPads etc and surprisingly for Antigua (you will know if you’ve ever been there) only one power cut all week!

The grounds/garden are well kept with a fine selection of native trees, plants and shrubs.

Just one note on the decking area... the painted wood can get very hot in the middle of the day, so wear shoes or flip-flops to avoid burnt feet.

Didn’t use the washing machine or TV so I can’t comment on them enough to say they are there if needed.

We found the a/c a little weak but this is augmented by ceiling fans and was ok even on the hottest day (July is about 33c).

That’s about all I can think of except to thank Sue, the owner for her attentive communications with me before and during the stay.

Thanks

Graham.

It might have been "low season" for Antigua but for us it was the highlight of our year! Five of us (parents with our grown-up children) stayed for 10 nights. With enough bedrooms to go round, a spacious lounge, a well-equipped kitchen and plenty of chairs outside we had a relaxing time. The villa itself is smart, spacious and well-equipped. With the temperatures soaring to 36C by the outside thermometer the air-conditioning struggled a little :) but the ceiling fans helped a lot. Cooling off in the pool was great!

The local supermarket is literally a 5-minute wander down the road; and once we'd got used to the exchange rate and worked out what we needed we were able to buy water, ice, food, drink and get the fridge/freezer well-stocked. Soon the "kids" learnt the routine and were wandering down there regularly :)

Beaches - we hired a car (though used the taxi to/from the airport = good idea!) - and visited about 1% of Antigua's beaches - Jolly Harbour, Ffryes, Darkwood - all very easy to get to and amazing white sand, clear water, fish (snorkeling!) and amazing sunsets.

Further afield - we went on a road trip to half-moon bay (the other side of Antigua) and back; taking in English Harbour and other points along the way. The roads really aren't as bad as some reviews make out - it's slow (20/40mph) and take it carefully (pot holes) - but we didn't have any problems (maybe low season?!). Just watch out for the speed bumps - they are the most vicious ones I've ever come across! We're talking almost dead-stop over some of them!!!

We even ventured in to St John's more than once (no cruise ships around, so it was lovely) and to Fort James. Antigua is looking a little tired, and many part complete (or part started?) developments, which is such a shame for such a lovely place. The people were welcoming and friendly; we didn't have any negative experiences.

All in all a great time and we were very sad to leave! (and the overnight flight home wasn't fun to put it mildly, but that's a different story).

The house is exactly as pictured; all staff was nothing but pleasant and just perfect.