Our family stayed at Drake's View June 13th - July 1st, 2013. We needed a villa with 4 bedrooms...teenage son and daughter requires separate rooms and a 4th bedroom for friends joining us for a week during our stay. There were several villas to choose from in our price range...ultimately it was the "view" from Drake's View that won it over! Wow, what an incredible, gorgeous view of Coral Bay and the BVI's...better than the photos on the site!!!
The kitchen, living room and dining areas are all on the upper level and flow into each other so you always feel a part of what's going on and with several seating areas, you can have your space too! There are 3 bedrooms on the lower level in the main house and a 1 bedroom private cottage. All bedrooms are equal with A/C and king beds with 1 in the main house having the option to be made into twins...this worked out well since our friends have a teenage son who came along and shared the room with our son. I should note...entry to 1 of the bedrooms in the main house is off the porch so you have to walk outside to get to it. This could be a concern if you have young children using that room, but it does make for added privacy if there is another couple using it. The kitchen was well equipped and used as so was the BBQ grill. We ate about half our meals at the villa while enjoying the "view"! We used the pool and hot tub just about every day after coming back from the beach...the kids really enjoyed the pool floats! The pool gets good sun until mid-day and is larger than most. It has a gradual slope to deep end and has a built-in bench all along the length of the pool. You can sit there or in the hot tub and enjoy a good view, but not the same awesome view as from the upper and lower porches! The villa has plenty of outdoor seating space, sun and shade, to gather as a group or find a quiet space to yourself! Even though you could see a couple villas on other hillsides, they were far enough away and situated to where we felt complete privacy surrounded by beautifully thought-out landscaping! In the evenings we enjoyed listening to music on the stereo...speakers worked great...while playing Scrabble and card games. The villa only has 1 TV...no big deal because we don't typically watch TV; however 1 rainy day we decided to rent a couple of movies to watch with the kids and was bummed to find out the DVD player didn't work. The villa caretakers were awesome when we called the next day to let them know...Dorothy had Fernando deliver a new DVD player that day! The large capacity washer and dryer are on the lower level and conveniently located...near the pool's ½ bath for wet suits and towels and near the bedrooms. They were used often during our 18 night stay and worked great! We loved Drake's View and the Bordeaux Mountain location...the view, close to Maho Bay and close to our family's favorite Coral Bay restaurant...Shipwreck Landing!
The "wish it had" list is very minor and almost not worth mentioning, but should note because it could be a major factor for some guests. There is no 1/2 bath on the upper level so when nature calls, you need to go downstairs to the ½ bath or a bedroom bath. There is no Sprint cell phone service at the villa so if we wanted to talk with family back home, we had to call them while we were in Cruz Bay. This came a bit of a surprise to us because we have had service during our other visits to St. John...2010 Villa Luminaria in Upper Carolina and 2012 Acqua Blu in Boatman's Point. It wasn't a big deal because the WiFi worked great and was reliable so we communicated with family back home through email or facebook in the early morning or late evening!
I would recommend Drake's View for anyone wanting a really nice villa with a gorgeous view! It is perfect for a family or 4 couples! We will definitely visit St. John again and hope to find Drake's View available at that time!
Feel free to PM me for more information!
Jo