Our stay did not start well. On arrival at dusk and in the rain we found that apparently due to an accident the vast majority of the lights did not work. There was one light working and some power sockets worked which was confusing. We were told this would be fixed soon. After a tortuous conversation with the local representative who speaks very little English and not knowing how long 'soon' would be we decided to take the option of staying in an apartment a few miles away until it was fixed. There was no working flashlight or other backup lighting available otherwise we may have opted to stay.

This somewhat tainted our opinion of the property but after careful reflection I still cannot fully concur with all the previous rave reviews. For instance some say that the house is ‘modern’ and ‘luxurious’ which it is not. What it is really is a well loved and used family home. This has the advantage of having additional features associated with home living but the disadvantage of having particular quirks which take some adjusting to.

There is only one television which does not receive good reception and also a DVD player but a very limited supply of DVDs. Being forewarned we brought our own. However these units are located in bedroom 1 which makes communal viewing difficult. On the plus side the wifi works really well all over the property.

I am surprised that given the area is said to be safe nobody mentions the excessive security measures built into the property. The additional fencing and barbed wired detract from any views of the beach. The gate to the beach has corrugated plastic sheeting on it making it almost impossible to lock or unlock it from the beach side. But worst of all are the horrid heavy thick barred sliding doors to each of the rooms. During the day they can be heaved open but at night they need to be closed to keep out the bugs which means you confined to a virtual prison cell and have no contact with your fellow inmates in the other rooms. The main attractions are supposedly the views and sound of the ocean but these are not so great to wake up to when seen through iron bars.

Given that the majority of the occupants are likely to mainly speak English it would seem appropriate that the local representative should speak this sufficiently so that they can deal with problems effectively. The current representative speaks virtually none. All our dealings were with the owners in France who responded promptly.