Living At Burlingame Villa

Villa vacations are a unique experience. The first time you rent a villa you probably will be full of doubt. After all, everyone is used to checking into a hotel or an all-inclusive resort. Information is easy to come by because large resorts can afford to advertise. Travel agents get commissions as incentives, agents can send a lot of people to one place, so why should they learn the difference of all these little places.

Consider the villa setting - We all have seen the movies of houses on a mountainside overlooking the Mediterranean. Picture yourself in that setting in the morning. You open the door to your room onto a porch overlooking the pool. In front of you is the Caribbean, the shadows of the golf course are still long as the sun rises over the mountains. You might hear a donkey on the road as the gardener from another villa travel to work. You relax drinking your morning coffee. There is no worrying about missing breakfast or trying to grab the perfect spot around the pool. The table is full of color from the fresh tropical fruits and the aroma of freshly toasted Jamaican hard dough bread.

Why would you stay at Burlingame Villa over a hotel?

Personal Attention - You will have staff with experience. Both Ivalyn, the cook, and Clinton, the gardiner, have been at Burlingame Villa for many years. Clinton, the gardener, lives in separate quarters at the villa. At the beginning of your trip you will discuss with Ivalyn when you usually like to eat, what types of food you like and how you would like them cooked. Ivalyn will prepare your meals when and how you like. Your rooms will be cleaned and made up every day. Clinton cleans the pool and the patio furniture. He helps serving meals and cleaning up in the kitchen. When they're five or more people in the villa, we add an additional maid. Personal laundry will be done once or twice a week. The staff is very knowledgeable and can assist you in finding anything you might want and/or need. Guests develop a warm relationship with the staff and quite often return more than once.

Privacy - You and your party will have the whole villa to yourselves. Each room has its' own bathroom. You have the choice of using AC, ceiling fans or leaving the shutters open for the breeze to cool the rooms. The villa is on an acre of land surrounded by gardens. You have a private pool. The upstairs terrace is shared by two bedrooms and is perfect for secluded sunbathing. There are no lines to wait on, no reservations to make at the restaurant and No Crowds. This leads to a stress-free environment.

Meals - You will probably find that you do not go out for dinner to much. Ivalyn's cooking is very good. Many of our guests let her do her thing. She prepares a wide variety of beef, chicken, pork and fish dishes. You will have to save room for desserts like banana cream pie, key lime pie, fresh fruit salad or her flaming bananas. Ivalyn will do the shopping for you, if you want, but most people enjoy going to the local open air fruit market in town and shopping in the local grocery store. Do not hesitate to try the new foods you will see in the store. Fish, Lobster and Crab are purchased at the local fishing village. The villa will be supplied with a basic two-day order of food delivered by a grocery store before you arrive.

Cost - Lets look at the dollars and cents. Suppose you are a group of four staying seven nights in the high season. You will pay $1650 a week for the villa, that's $413 a week per person. Now lets add and additional $560* for food, transportation, tours and other incidentals. That works out to be $973 a week per person and you are not giving up any of the luxury of a resort. Compare that to the all-inclusive and do not forget about the personal attention and privacy.

* $560 is an estimate of how much a person might spend on themself in a week. That would be an allowance of $80 a day.