BEST.VACATION.EVER. My week at Selah Villa was wonderful. If you haven't seen the photos, Selah Villa is beautiful. It's a stone's throw from Jewel (the former Hedonism resort), and features its own private beach, tennis court, and a wonderful pool. It comes with all the accoutrements you'd expect, even including two kayaks (a twin and a single) and a catamaran.
The staff is AWESOME! Patrick, Ryan, and Lesreen took care of our every need. They were always surreptitiously in the background, ready to assist us at a moment's notice. Occasionally we would take a nap, and Lesreen would re-make our bed again! Ryan's cooking was awesome, we never felt any need to head outside for a restaurant, having a marvelous meal with a superb ocean view nightly was spectacular. Ryan was terrific at customizing our menu and keeping everybody fed and happy.
For those not familiar with Selah Villa, the staff purchases, delivers, and prepares the food, the vacationer pays for it. Ryan helped us manage our groceries and food bill very well.
The tennis court is great. I was a bit disappointed that the tennis court didn't have a net strap.
The snorkeling and scuba here is world class. Great snorkeling in Selah Villa's own little private bay, as well as the rocks by the Jewel resort. Great reefs out there with plenty of aquatic life. There is a sunken ship and plane nearby (about 60 feet down) for those that are scuba minded. The Selah Villa private beach features a couple of palapas with hammock and plenty of loungers on the beach.
Loved the pool and jacuzzi. It's a forty foot square infinity pool. Water is warm and inviting. The near end is super-shallow for adults to lounge around in, the middle area is shallow for kids to play around in, and the far end is deep enough to swim in. Plenty of pool toys for everyone.
The tech at Selah Villa was good. Two LCDs, one with netflix. Good selection of movies. PC and wireless. Probably the biggest glitch I experienced was the internet speed. Most of the days there I experienced frustrating sub-dialup speeds. Resetting the router did help for a while. For the last two days of our trip we got decent speeds, no problem. Your mileage may vary.
It's not an inexpensive vacation, but when you factor in the fact that the rental rate plus groceries is all you need, it's not as bad as you'd think. You have to spend your time on this world somewhere; this is one of the finest places to do so. Five stars.
