Theresa

We are planning a trip the week of Xmas and New Years but are having difficulty finding reasonably priced airfare and villas. We are looking for a villa or private home on St. Lucia, Anguilla, St. Kitts or other nice island. Many of the websites that offer these actually feature the same houses. <BR><BR>Has anyone had luck finding owners to rent from? Any suggestions on a villa approx. $3,000 per week during that time?<BR><BR>Theresa

Cissy

Theresa: You might try www.news.ai for possibilities in Anguilla.

Mary

Try http://villas.ai or mycaribbean.com for villas on Anguilla. Those sites don't include other islands & the "villas" site has webpages for the individual villas so you're usually dealing directly with the owners.

tivertonhouse

Try cvoa.com -- the caribbean villa owners association site which also has airfare specials on Air Jamaica and America for villa renters..

brad

I would agree-- try CVOA...Although we didn't use CVOA for the villa rental {we went through a management company that is associated with CVOA}, I think you can deal directly with some of the owners of the villas. My fiancee and I just rented a villa in St John and went through CVOA for airfare . They were about $275 cheaper than the airline websites.<BR>good luck

Theresa

Thanks all for the info. I'm going to check these sites out today.<BR><BR>Theresa

karengrau

Theresa,<BR> We used Villas by Linda Smith for our villa vacation in Jamaica. It was fabulous, but can be pricey if you're footing the bill yourself (appx. $7,000 for the week, not including meals,etc.). However, had we shared the expense with the other couples we went with, I think the price was more than fair (6 bdrs, 6 baths, pool, beachfront, staff, etc.), and it beat a hotel room ANY day! Check out www.caribbeanway.com. They also come highly recommended, as did Linda Smith. There is also the site villasofdistinction. Good luck!<BR><BR>Karen

denette

Theresa,<BR>My husband and I rented a condo in Provo/Turks-Caicos through a website "VRBO" (vacation rentals by owner) and through this website there are many, many condo and villas on many islands for rent by owners themselves. It was extremely reasonable and saved us a considerable amount of money, and our experience with the particular owner was fantastic. He was so informative, so generous, even rented us one of his personal vehicles for just $25.00 a day and filled it with gas and commented not to worry about filling it back up (though we certainly did),picked us up at airport and arranged to pick up his vehicle at airport after we departed. He was super, though I suspect he was a rare jewel and that level of service is a rarity.<BR>Try the VRBO, you may find something you like there. Hope this helps.<BR>

Nancy

Hi Theresa,<BR>We also have had a good experience with vrbo.com in Mexico.

Theresa

Between my husband and myself, we've been emailing many of these sites back and forth all day. Thanks for all your reco's. <BR><BR>Our issue now may be that we've received reasonable quotes on St. Maarten, St. Croix, Anguilla and St. Lucia. We're delighted especially since we're going at the most expensive time of year (thru Xmas and New Years). We now have to decide which to choose. From these boards, I'm thinking St Lucia may not have the wonderful beautiful beaches that we enjoy. Also, I need to consider which one is more reasonable to fly to from Atlanta.<BR><BR>Thanks so much everyone.

Mary

If you haven't been before, you might not know that a cheaper way to get to Anguilla is via St. Martin (Juliana Airport -- code SXM). There are direct flights from Miami and from the SXM airport, you can take a $14 cab ride to the French side (Marigot) & then a $12 ferry to Anguilla (about 20 minutes & they run every 30 minutes from 7-7 every day.