We loved our stay!
The house is beautifully located, a ten minute drive from Soufriere. The view is spectacular. The house was clean and had everything we needed. Michael lives on the hut below the property and kept an eye on the house at all time. He was the most engaging and knowledgeable individual and made our stay memorable.
We definitely recommend having a rental car (you'll drive on the left side of the road and roads are really rough and steep) and a cell phone contract that allows calls abroad. That will alow you to navigate and visit the island.
Check in was not easy. We had to call a phone number and meet Phulgence at the Fire Station in Soufriere. This would have been impossible if we didn't have a gps to take us there and a cell contract for calls abroad. That said he came right away and led us up the hill to the house, left us the key, and even gave us some potable water, which was essential since it was January 1st and everything was closed.
You'll also need the phone to make reservations to restaurants and navigate around the island. Many beautiful beaches are a 10-30 minute drive away.
The real down to our stay was the checkout. We received no instructions, not through VRBO nor by phone. No one contacted us. We are property managers too and travel often, so we simply did the standard: cleaned the house, the dishes etc, and left the property locked with the key inside and a thank you note. We even left some rum behind as a thank you.
Little did we know that Phulgence did not have a second key. We met him on the road as we were driving to the airport and he was furious, yelling at us for leaving one hour before we had planned to (we did not even know he was aware of our departure time, since we had not spoken to him and we had only shared that in conversation with Michael). We apologized about the misunderstanding and kept driving. He called on our cell phone, still enraged, and kept me on the phone for ten minutes, yelling and going in circles. He even admitted that he did not have a second key because some other guest lost it and he had not made a second copy, yet he somehow expected us to turn around, miss our flight and pay someone to get him into his own house.
Very stressful experience.
Initial communications through VRBO with Denalia were lovely. We would recommend anyone to stay here but to make it very clear what the expectations are for check in and check out to avoid ending your vacation on a sour note.
