TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums St. Maarten - St. Martin Villa Review

https://www.vrbo.com/360474

La Calenthe
We’ve stayed at many villas in SXM pre & Post Irma. La Calenthe is by far the most breath taking when you arrive.
'La Calanthe', named after a beautiful variety of Orchids is a beautiful Villa. It sits right in front of the ocean all the bedrooms look directly to the ocean with their own terraces.
All 3 bedrooms have King size beds. A single bed can be added upon request in 2 of the rooms.
2 Bathrooms each with a shower and 2 sinks.

The caretakers, Corinne and Bruno, a french couple, live in a bungalow just next to the villa, so it's really secure and if you need tips, or have specific requests...you can just ask them. ( IN FRENCH)

Very private with a 180° view right on the ocean, you also have a convenient & private access to the ocean through a custom built aluminum ladder that sits on the bottom of the ocean. The pool is big and beautiful.

The kitchen is fully equipped but if you don't feel like cooking, we can have a french private cook only for you (not included in the villa price.)

Everything is accurate in the description but we didn’t get cleaning every few days. We always had to deal with garbage and only had sheets once in 10 days.

Bruno and Corinne are wonderful but if you only speak English there knowledge is limited. As we had left 4 dogs at home, Jazz there 5 month old (May 19) Shepard mix was just our solution. He’d greet us in the morning and always watched Bruno swim off the pier at our place.

If you have more than one car…parking can be tight. We figured out an extra spot next to the garage. 11 big speed bumps in and out to the main road each way.

Off-Season – 10-15 minutes to phillipsburg
 30-40 Orient Grand Case – 5-7 P<
 Headed East----towards Phillipsburg—forget about it.
 Maho – 10 minutes
My biggest issue if I am paying $400+ per night I don’t want to see signs everywhere to conserve water and electricity. It does say A/C in bedrooms but that they ask you to use at night only. This was fine in the smaller rooms but the A/C in the Master never actually cooled down to 72 degrees.

As stated the main area is not A/C. We did get used to it and they do have fans. After locking up the place for dinner and closing the shutters, it was very hot upon our return and we all went to our separate rooms.
Positive – Breathtaking View
Negative – No A/C in common areas.

Thanks for the review. I agree, that is kind of cheap, when you are paying that much, to be confronted with signs all over the place like that.