putch, I don't know if they have a usual policy or not, but when we were there last month, they let me go through 4 different rooms in order to choose a room for my husband's daughter when she goes back down there next week. I wish I could be more helpful when it comes to remembering room numbers!

The very most private room is room #1, like I said, which is a freestanding cottage structure away from everything else. If you truly want privacy, this is the only one that offers it in spades. The view, however, is somewhat impeded by vegetation--the very thing the gives the privacy.

There were two rooms with a private patio. One is on the far right handside as you're in the pool and facing the inn. Its patio opens right onto the grass and faces the pool. It does not have any privacy.

The other private patio room is on the far lefthand side as you're in the pool facing the inn. Its patio is raised above the ground a bit and it has a privacy wall on one side, but it, too, is completely exposed to anyone who happens to be in the pool.

The room that I chose for my husband's daughter has a small Juliet balcony whose doors can be thrown wide open to the view of the Caribbean. It doesn't face any public areas, so it had a good deal of privacy, but it does lack a private patio. If you want to find out the number that room is, ask Alta at HacTam what room number that Cara Moser is staying in for 30 June-5 July. Tell her that you're in touch with Emily Crowe just so she knows it's not a random invasion of privacy question.

I would also say that any Caribbean deluxe room on the second floor would offer privacy in the sense that their windows and balconies are above the public areas and prying eyes couldn't see anything. However, the doors are louvered on every room (except possibly those that are accessed through the library), and if you leave your door louvers open, anyone walking by can look right in your door. This is another reason that the room for Cara is more private--the entrance to it is in an alcove behind the bar. You can't see into the room from the public spaces.

hope this answers your questions--I don't think there's much more that I can tell you. Sorry!

It just occurred to me that if you'd prefer, I could email Alta and find out the room number that Cara is booked in. Just give me your real name so that I can reference it in my email.

emily

dear emily,
i sent an e-mail to them and was told by "joey" that only caribbean rooms are available for the week in feb. i'm interested in; not caribbean deluxe. if you could find the room number that you reserved for your husband's daughter i would appreciate it. i suppose i would see if it's a caribbean deluxe or just caribbean.
marian (putch)

i'm assuming the caribbean deluxe rooms are the more desirable ones and, therefore, get reserved a year in advance. are the other rooms "acceptable" or do you feel as though you don't have the privacy you would want. thanks for any info.

putch, I just shot off an email to HacTam requesting the room number where Cara will be next week. I'll let you know as soon as I hear anything.

You know, I'm not sure what the difference is between a Caribbean and a Caribbean Deluxe room. Does the website say? 'Cause I sure don't remember that it did.

Again, the privacy issue depends on a few things. The couple of rooms on the first floor have patios that are ostensibly private, as in only to be used by folks in that room. But they are open for in the yard/pool to see what is happening on the patios.

All rooms have doors that are louvered. If you leave the louvers up, people would be able to see in as they walk by your door. Most rooms are situated so that the doors are in the public areas, but not all. But I don't believe that the room category has anything to do with accessible or inaccessible (read private or not private) of the outer door. Am I making sense? I kinda feel that I might be repeating myself.

So, if you're looking for privacy in that you don't want people walking by your door all of the time to get to the pool or to get to breakfast or whatever, there are a few rooms that would suit your needs, but I have no idea what room category they would fall under or what the room numbers would be.

But the fact is, the whole inn is pretty darn private. With only 19 rooms and a fairly small staff, there are not a lot of people wandering around looking through doors. I hope that answers your question.

i believe the difference is either that the caribbean deluxe are on the second floor and/or they have a patio or terrace.
i feel like i'm making a big deal over very little. i just don't want to not make a reservation early and then lose out. i love the fact that the price includes an american breakfast. i'm going to have to decide within the next week or so. thanks for all your help. a colleague went to vieques this past february and is going to tell me the place she stayed in. she couldn't remember on friday...

Ejcrowe, thank you for such an awesome trip report. How thoughtful for you to give up so much time to be so thorough
for everyone else' benefit O:-) what great grandparents you guys are too !!!

putch, I just heard back from Alta, who tells me that Cara's room number will be #4.

i've only been told, so far, the room that is available is a caribbean room, on the 2nd floor, overlooking the ocean, with a king size bed. i asked if they could please give me the room # but so far i don't know what it is. where is room #4 located? i'm really a bit turned off by the 3-4 hour wait between the time we get to san juan airport and when our flight takes us to vieques. we get to san juan at around 1:40 and the flight doesn't leave until around 4:45 and gets to vieques at around 5:05. i feel like we're losing a day. returning, our flight from vieques is around 9:30 a.m. and our flight home is not until 1 p.m. did you have a similar experience?

putch, room #4 is on the first floor, the one adjacent by corner to room #5, which is the room with the private patio.

Sounds like the room they have available is identical to Cara's room, except of course for location.

We were on the second floor and our room was about 2 feet away from the kitchen. All of the other rooms are much farther away, as I recall, and should have no problem with kitchen noise. As it was, we didn't hear any noise in our bedroom. It was only the sitting room with the daybeds that heard anything from the kitchen in the morning. I'd recommend taking ear plugs anyway if you're a light sleeper, as the roosters are louder than anything else.

Have you tried looking at another airline to take you to Vieques so you don't have such a long time in SJU? To be honest, we would have been happier with just a bit more time going to Vieques, as our flight from the States was running about 20 minutes late and it took us some time to walk to the Cape Air check-in desk. There are no signs in the American Airlines concourse to find it, so we had to stop and ask many people along the way. We also had no time to stop for any food, so we were a little cranky and headache-y with low blood sugar by the time we got to a very late lunch in Vieques.

COming home we didn't have that issue because we stayed one night in Old San Juan. If you have the time to do it, I would highly recommend it!

What a great read!!! I have to say that even the descriptions of the "less than ideal" turn of events would not be a deterrent to future trips for me!! I would like to think I would handle things as well as you did.

We experienced a similat mosquito issue in St Kitts - they were in our closets and carry on bags- they liked the cool, darker places!!

That aside, PR is next on my list of places to travel. I was leaning towards Rincon, but your trip report makes Vieques sound fantastic - and traveller friendly!! I look forward to your advice when I post my questions re: the area!!!

paulalou, the next time we head down to PR, we really want to do it right by seeing the whole island, including Rincon. Our only problem is that there are so many islands we want to return to (Nevis, Jamaica, PR, Vieques, St. Lucia) and so many new islands we haven't tried yet and want to (a sampling of the Out Islands, Anguilla, Saba, Tobago), that it will be impossible to do them all in a timely fashion. Ahhh, well.

the only room at the hacienda tamarindo, they tell me, that's available is room 23. do you know anything about this room?
one person said it's right where they serve breakfast in the morning. is this a real problem?

Hello,
I am amazed by the wealth of infmaion sharing about Vieques! thank you! Ej you should be earnign free stays for all you wonderful "tips"!

We are going to be staying at the Hac Tam in Novemeber for a quick get away.

Does anyone know anyting about the High standard rooms? Ej you mentioned looking at rooms for a future stay.
Did you look at any in that category?
My concernis that they will be in the basement!!!
thank you!

putch, I did not see any rooms on the second floor, and I don't remember where #23 was located. There were at least four rooms whose doors opened immediately on to the breakfast area, including ours at #19. #23 was either right there in the breakfast area, or on the same level but a little bit beyond the breakfast tables.

sunni, I did see one High Standard room. It was on the first floor facing the pool area. The reason it had no view was because of the shrubbery outside the windows. The room itself was just fine, but a little lacking in natural light because of the window being blocked. The entrance to the room was through the library, which is the only air-conditioned public space. If you like a/c in your room, this might be a good room because the a/c in the library would reinforce the a/c in the bedroom.

Thank you ej. Lack of light was my concern. I think we'll just bite the bullet & go with a deluxe. We typically book rooms/appt ect right on the beach so we are willing to pay the extra cost for the location. Where this property is away from the beach (where we spend most of our time) I thought we could just go with the "run of the house" so to speak as we would be spending most of our time at the beaches!! We like the light & outdoor space while we are at the room though.
I think that will be a mistake. Thanks once again for your feed back.

I am quite curious to see how the beaches compare to Anguilla after all the wonderful comments about them.
I have never seen beaches that compare yet! The closest has been the Turks.

I am waiting to hear back on a 2nd floor deluxe with balcony....away from the kitchen.

It would be nice if there was a room map on the web site. I find that very helpful when properties have one posted.

While I have never been to Anguilla, I have researched it, being on my "list".

I do not think the beaches will compare. Though they are beautiful, most are not of the pure, white sand variety. I was a little disappointed after my first visit, but STJ was the BVI's were all I had to compare it too.
But I have to say some of my favorite times were sitting on Sun Bay by myself as the afternoon was the sun was starting to go down. The light changes, the palms make shadows, the horses grazing...you will love it!

emily,
i booked our week stay today with Joey at HacTam for room #23. he asked me if anything in the "caribbean deluxe" category came up between now and feb. would i be interested and i said, "yes". he said the deluxe rooms are on the first floor . would you be able to tell me a room "NOT" to accept?

Okay, so if I'm understanding their term correctly, there are only two one-bedroom Caribbean Deluxe rooms. They're the two rooms with the patio that I discussed at length in my previous responses on this post. Both patios face the swimming pool, but one is at ground level and has no privacy whatsoever. The other is a little higher up because of its situation on the hillside, and it has a privacy wall on one side to prevent passers-by from seeing the patio. However the patio is fully exposed in the direction of the swimming pool.

I'm guessing that the free-standing room on the other side off the pool also falls into Caribbean Deluxe category. Of the three rooms, it is the only one with true privacy, as it has a private patio that I believe is shaded and sheltered from prying eyes by foliage. This room only has a queen size bed, however.

Thanks for a great trip report. I haven't been to PR since 1987 (my brother's wedding :) ) It was not a destination wedding. She was from PR. I had been several times prior to the wedding, but not since. They are moving back and we are considering visiting next spring (staying in a hotel), but having the kids (ours and his) get together.
Anyway, I had never heard of Vieques until just recently and you have made it sound so nice, we may have to take a side trip over there.
One of the things I like about PR is that there is so much to do and see outside of just enjoying a nice resort. I am planning to brush up on my Espanol. My daughter is taking spanish 2 and I spent last year relearning spanish 1 with her :).
Sorry to ramble, but really enjoyed your thorough report. It is nice of you to take your grandchild on such a trip.

ttt for Valerie

topping for dg