USVI-On-Line

Of Cinnamon Tarn or Anole, which would you choose?

Cinnamon Tarn hands down.

While Cinnamon Tarn is a short drive into John's Head Rd. from Centerline, Anole is located farther down. Personally, I don't really wish to stay that far into John's Head Rd.

We've stayed at Cinnamon Tarn and loved the property. The only slight negative for us was that the large hot tub is "in" the deck rather than "on", and since the railings are pretty thick, once you are in the tub, you sort of lose the gorgeous views. However, you do enjoy the views thoroughly from everywhere else at the villa (except from the bathrooms).

Pics of Cinnamon Tarn (in case you haven

Linward - I stayed at Anole three years ago.

As mentioned in another thread on Caribbean Villas (the management co for this property) it was the single worst villa experience I have ever had in my 14 years of traveling to the VI.

Before I begin, let me say that I have NEVER had a problem with ANY villa we have rented across STJ. We rented 6 places in all over the years (and returned to one of those villas three times).
I have NEVER complained about any property we've stayed at. EVER. Until Anole.

Certainly a lot can happen over three years but at the time we had the following problems:

1) SERIOUS roach and bug infestation due to lack of proper pest management. They were literally in bed with us at night and carpeted the floor. It was as disgusting and miserable as it sounds.

2) VERY uncomfortable furniture in the living area

3) crappy gas grill

4) railings that you could not dare lean against for fear of collapse.

5) Tops of railings that came off in your hand to expose rusty nails.

6) rat traps visibly positioned throughout the bedrooms.

7) No working flashlights or lanterns. This was a problem since the power was out when we arrived near dusk.

repeated calls to CV yielded no results over our 10 day stay.

9) They say there are movies, games and books. Games are incomplete and unusable, the movies are mostly gone or rediculously outdated.

10) pool furniture was moldy, nasty and in VERY poor condition.

The miserable experience resulted in a 30% refund from CV -- since I spent 30% of my vacation killing roaches I figured I should be compensated.

One should also be aware that John Head Road is indeed an adventure. Some have reported that work has been done on this road but driving on it to get to Anole was a PITA. I like off-roading but it got a little old after a while.

The only upside to Anole was the view and the pool. It indeed has a gorgeous view and the pool is heated (which is nice in December).

As I said this was a few years ago and perhaps the owner has decided to make changes.

I just checked the CV web site to see what pics they have up and they are the same ones that I saw on line when I rented the place.

From the pics it looks fabulous. But I can tell you that they must have hired an awesome villa stylist because it just doesn't translate in real life.

Anole was outdated and rough three years ago and I somehow doubt that much has changed in the meantime.

It's EXTREMELY RARE for me to say DON'T rent a villa. But I am saying it now. DON'T rent Anole unless you can see CURRENT photos and determine if these problems have been corrected.

I haven't stayed at Cinnamon Tarn, but I would take Liamsaunts advice on this one and stay there.

IMHO it's a safer bet.

one more thing. I was anxious to try our stay in Catherineberg because I thought that being in between Cruz Bay and Coral Bay would give us easy access to both.

In the end it turned out to be more of a pain because we were really close to neither. Plus we ended up having to use Centreline road almost exlusively (as driving down John Head to North shore is even MORE of an adventure than the other direction). being in the middle (unless you wanted to use John Head on the way down to the NS road) you had to go around so getting anywhere seemed to take longer (does that make sense?).

Personally I love driving the North Shore road vs Centreline which is more of a means to an end and no view.

I want to say that these are my opinions based on my experience. Some may love Anole, love Catherineberg, and love Johns Head and Centreline road. That's OK. But it just didn't work for us. These days we're happier in Upper Carolina near Coral Bay.

I'll be happy to answer any questions if you have them.

Good luck with the villa search!

We stayed at Cinnamon Tarn in April 2010 & LOVED it! The most gorgeous views I have ever seen from STJ...from the moment you raise your head off the pillow to the time you recline again at night...absolutely incredible.
There is no AC but the winds were blowing while we were there & that was not a problem for us at all except for the last day or two.....winds stopped & it got a little hot for us (being from Texas we do like our AC) but absolutely no problem as long as the winds are blowing, which they usually are. The grounds remind me of a botanical garden; loved walking around the front & adventuring through the back.
Would stay there again in a heartbeat....my favorite place to have stayed on STJ so far!!

Another vote for Cinnamon Tarn. We were blown away by the view every second we were there. It's that amazing! The villa was in awesome shape and had excellent amenities. We give a 10 out of 10! Best villa and view on the island for the price. Hands down.

Thank you all for your responses; you have saved us from making a potentially grievous mistake. We are grateful.

Pickle, your pictures of Cinnamon Tarn are better than their website's.

Grommit, our heart went out to you - we would have been devastated if not rightously irate to have gone to all the trouble and expense of setting up the vacation, only to discover that those we contracted through for our villa had not been forthcoming and honest in the arrangements; nor had the decency to do anything about correcting the problems with the villa they represented.

The CT view is awesome....only downside is no AC....

Chiming in on Cinnamon Tarn...if it is open for your dates, rent it! It is a great house. I love the layout and the views are amazing.

Anole is much further down the John Head Road than Cinnamon Tarn, and the ride down is rough. We rented the house next door to it in April, and I came home with the entire right side of my body covered in bruises from being constantly slammed into the side of the jeep on the drive to and from the house.

Liamsaunt-- I'm glad to know I'm not the only one who dislikes JH Rd.

I guess it's one thing if you don't have to travel far down the road but when you travel half way down to your villa where you have the switchbacks (such as they are) it gets a bit ridiculous.

One day there was a water truck trying to get UP the road from the North shore end. There's barely a single pathway to begin with. Imagine running into the truck and having to BACK up those rough switchbacks in the rain!

On the map it looks like it would be a great cut thru (it's the only mid island cut thru to the NS rd) and most people completely miss it.

We spoke to someone who lives there full time and he told us that the neighbors/owners don't want it paved because they don't want more people using it.

As I mentioned before we really like going off the beaten path and roughing it. But you get so beat up traveling that road back and forth that it is close to miserable IMHO. To the point (between the cockroaches and the road) that we just stayed away from the villa and were dreading the trip to and from the place.

If you have a 4WD and are feeling adventurous give the road a try (and then imagine doing it at least two times a day every day for a week) and you'll now what I mean.

It would have to be a really great deal and a really awesome house for me to rent a place that far down JH road again. But that's just my opinion.

We rented Cinnamon Stones (above Anole) for 3 weeks several years ago. This was before the "improved" John Head Road and I swore I'd never ever go back to Catherineberg but I'd consider Cinnamon Tarn (we've stayed there 3 times) and Island Sun since you don't have to drive too far down John Head. I've gotten spoiled with AC in bedrooms in other villas so since many/most of the Catherineberg villas don't have AC, Catherineberg gets pushed further down the list.

The views, however, from Catherineberg are unbeatable.

Staying at Cinnnamon Tarn in December. Stayed at Cinnamon Bay Estate a few years ago. Can't beat the views!!!

I would love to try Le Chateau next door to CT...has a real pool where CT has that jumbo hot tub...
http://cateredto.com/VillaPage/LCT

Anyone tried both...? I wonder how CT compares to LC??

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?hl=en&ie ... 3dd832cac7

Sherban I have not stayed at Le Chateau but a couple other folks on the forum have and they shared their pictures with me. The upshot is that it is great for one couple but a group would be tough because the bedrooms are extremely unequal.