i know there are a few of you who have stayed in these houses. i'm looking at open deck and adaigo. (any thoughts on these specific houses?) is the snorkeling excellent in mahoe? also looking at a couple villas near leverick bay and cypress house near the baths. what are the pros and cons of these 3 locations? how long does it take to drive from one spot to another? is leverick kind of busy? can you hear noise from the beach/resort/docks in the villas?

our ideal is quiet, fairly secluded, beachfront, pool, great snorkeling out our door. we need 3 brs - one with king or 2 beds.

Look no further than Mahoe Bay - it's perfect - secluded beach with a very good snorkeling reef that spans the entire bay just yards off shore (you can snorkel for an hour and not come close to seeing everything), it's quiet and you get fabulous views of neighboring islands and the setting sun. There's an excellent Italian Restaurant within a few minutes walk and your only a 10 minute drive from Spanish Town, the Baths, several other restaurants and great beaches with additional snorkeling. Quite honestly, it just doesn't get much better anywhere in the Caribbean.

FYI - Liverick Bay is much more built up, the beach there is small and snorkeling is nowhere near as good as at Mahoe Bay.

Regarding distances; The Baths are 10 minutes from Mahpoe Bay. Liverick Bay is at the opposite end of the island, about a 20 minute drive along a narrow, twisty and often steep road from Mahoe and 30 minutes from the Baths area.

Ditto to what A_Traveller says. If you close your eyes and try to visualize your ideal spot in your mind's eye you'll see Mahoe Bay. Enough said!!!!

You've gotten perfect replies so far, Virginia. I can only add my "amen" and say that we rented Open Deck last year. It was perfect - just as good or better than pictured on the website. We had a perfect view of the water and the sunset from our deck/pool. The beach is a one minute walk and we hardly ever saw anyone on the beach or in the water. We snorkeled for hours. Lots of great coral.

virginia, I stayed at Adagio last summer with my husband and our granddaughter. It was a perfect location on the island on a beautiful beach. The villa was large and comfortable, offering a/c in the bedrooms if we wanted it.

I found the snorkeling to be good but not excellent, but still very interesting because of the pinnacle-shaped coral formations. Bleaching was apparent but we still had fun snorkeling for hours at Mahoe. Very calm water, serene setting, never very crowded.

Mahoe is centrally located and offered snorkeling on site. For the opposite reasons, I didn't even pay much attention to the LEverick Bay area. While it didn't take too long to drive there, I'm glad we didn't stay there because all of the activities we were interested in were in the central or southern parts of the island. Leverick Bay seemed to give off the whiff of sailors in the same way that Tortola does, at least to me. It wasn't strong enough to be off putting, but there was a tang of non-belonging. I just liked other parts of the island better.

If you have any specific questions about Adagio villa, please let me know. I don't know that my pictures from there would should you anything more than its own website would, but I would happy to share them with you.

thanks to all four of you for the replies. you confirmed for me that this is our ideal location.
now i'm looking at adagio, cool runnings, and my new favorite open deck. would the 4 min walk to the beach from cool runnings be difficult for a fairly steady 80yr old to walk? (my bff's mother is coming)
the thing is i'm finding very different pricing on all 3 villas from the various listing sites. can anyone recommend an agency that was helpful in your planning.
ej i'd love to look at your pics.
thanks everyone.

I agree with everything said so far. Mahoe is great. We had considered villas on Leverick bay as well and were so glad we ended up at Mahoe instead. Primarily because of the quality of the beach/peacefulness of the location etc. We were at Bellamare. The walk to the beach should be fine for your bffs mother. Its not steep and somewhat paved if I remember correctly. Very peaceful and scenic location.

virginia, i'll try to post a link to my virgin gorda pics when i get home from work tonight. i doubt I'll have time to weed through the villa pics from the rest of the trip, though.

the walk from adagio to the beach was minimal and entirely paved. probably a 3 minute walk at an average pace, a little longer for somebody who walks slowly. since we didn't mind the walk, we enjoyed being a bit higher up to enjoy the views of the bay.

Hi Virginia,
Great choice with Mahoe Bay! To date, that has been our favorite place we’ve stayed in the caribbean. We stayed at Caribbean Wind, directly on the beach which we loved. All the villas seemed very private. The beach rivals any in St. John, and it’s footsteps away. The sunsets are great. We enjoyed Leverick Bay for the beach bbq and music, but I’d recommend staying at Mahoe over Leverick. Note-Leverick has a food store which seemed to have more variety than the food store closer to the Baths. Bitter End was nice for a visit as well for lunch. For the Baths-get there early-by 8:30 if possible. By 10 it will be swarming with people day tripping. We thought Georgios was overpriced for what it was (the nice italian restaurant nearby) but loved Dog and Dolphin (if you go up the dirt road behind the mahoe bay villas it will end at this restaurant-it’s pretty cool). There’s a tennis court for all of the villa guests to use, but bring your own racquets. Also, I’d recommend flying to tortola and taking a ferry to VG. Here’s a link to my pictures. Enjoy!

http://www.kodakgallery.com/ShareLan...share&Ux=0

the more i read from you guys the more excited i'm getting. drat we don't leave til late oct.
kelly your pictures are one of the things that attracted me to VG to start with.
me fav pic is brooke out on the beach with her morning coffee and no one else to be seen. lol.
we are early risers and will probably get to the baths at 7am.
why do you say to fly to eis and ferry? rather than fly to vg. i have contacted island birds about flying but they are $500pp/rdtp. i think that's a bit much.

Ejcrowe, were you comfortable with just the three of you in Adagio? My husband and I are very interested in Adagio and for the price I shouldn't care, but I just wondered if it was way too much for just the two of us.

We are interested in Cypress House as well, so I also would like to hear any pros or cons between the two.

KPlumm, we were very comfortable in Adagio just the three of us. Because the main building only houses the living room, kitchen, dining area, and two bedrooms, we didn't feel like we were rattling around in a too-large space. The other three bedrooms are not accessed through the main pavilion; instead, one of them is underneath the main pavilion and two of them are in a shared building on the other side of the pool. While it was certainly spacious and we loved it, it wasn't too big for the three of us.

virginia, I'm uploading pics to Shutterfly right now. I'll post a link when I'm finished.

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/w...p;linkid=link3

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/p...1Abt2zhw3bsXQQ

okay, one of those should do it. i don't know how to make the tiny urls.

I agree with everything that's been said, except for one thing. I think that it's a bit of a haul from the beach up to Adagio. It's not slippery or hazardous in any way, but it's definitely a haul (little haul, not a big one). On the other hand, Adagio is a more "upscale" villa than, say, Open Deck. Both are very very comfortable. Views are somewhat better from Adagio because of the height. Road noise (infrequent) would bother me in Adagio, but would probably not bother most people.

One other note: We thought Giorgio's (the neighboring restaurant) was mediocre at best and way overpriced).

Prices: should be the same no matter whom you rent from-- except if you rent directly from owner at, e.g., Adagio. Virgin Gorda Villa Rentals is the on-site management, so that's a good co. to rent from. They've been very prompt about correcting various little problems.

Like the others, we love Mahoe Bay! (Don't like Leverick area at all; do like area around Baths and Spring Bay very much.)

That reminds me - I looked at some of the rentals on Spring Bay, within a short walk to the Baths and thought that might be a place to stay next time. There was one in particular that stood alone directly on the beach. While I loved Mahoe, I thought the beach was more picturesque here because of the rocks and palm trees:
http://www.guavaberryspringbay.com/accommodations.htm

maggi,

Is this the villa on Spring Bay that you remember seeing?

http://www.puzzlepiece.net/villas/beachhouse/

Thanks

Ick! I disliked Guavaberry when we stayed there. A 10 minute hike to the beach was enough roughin it for me! Stayed at Little Dix Bay (the best in the whole Carib, to us), Mahoe Bay too. We're going back to Mahoe because it is serene, right on the beach. Good accommodations (MUST rent a car for half your trip! taxi's are expensive and everything is spread out). Don't care for the touristy/sailor aspect of Leverick Bay and that area. Liked our day trip to Biras Creek but didn't prefer their beach over Little Dix. Georgio's is expensive and not quite worth it. Pina Coladas at Mad Dogs a must. Sunset at The Mine Shaft, and hanging out with the owners is a must. There are a couple other good restaurants by the docks that are good as well. I'm missing the island already talking about it!

Michelle

Hi Virginia,
Glad my pictures helped inspire you. It really is a beautiful location. Regarding flying direct from San Juan, when we went Air Sunshine was the only airline that flew to VG (unless you chartered a private plane). We had a really bad experience with AS both ways, which is why if I did it again I would fly to Tortola and ferry it over. Since all the other posters on this thread have been there I would be curious as to how they got there and how their experience was. Might help us when we return someday.
Ps-check out Flying Iguana for lunch too-it’s the restaurant by the airport. Great food and scenery!

Bill,
I think this is the one. I saw it only from the outside, but it looked about the same proximity to the beach as the photo. I liked the area very much. If you decide to go, make sure and write us a trip report.

sofun,
the villa at Spring Bay in question is managed by Guavaberry.
It is beachfront at Sprng Bay and not one of the standard villas that are a part of Guavaberry.

maggi, we're going June 2009, so you are going to have a long wait for a trip report LOL! I think we are going to do one of the places at Mahoe.