We stayed at Estate Fortsberg June 5 - 12, and because there hasn't been much conversation about this villa, I thought I should review it.
I originally found the villa on VRBO, and found the owner to be very helpful and informative, although the villa is handled through an on-island realtor.
I've always been intrigued by this area of the island, because I've always been interested in the ruins of the fort that is there. The road, however, has always scared us off. This year we decided to go for seclusion and to consider the road an adventure and went for it. It isn't a scary steep road, only a little bumpy. My husband kept saying, "if only he had a grader blade in front of our jeep, he could fix most of the problems".
The house has 4 equal bedrooms, all equal except that one has 2 twin beds which aren't equal in quality to the other 3 bedrooms - which had super comfy beds. We had a single 18 year old in that room, so it didn't matter to our group. The bedrooms are well air conditioned, which was a necessity the week we were there. All bedrooms have well designed, outdoor stone showers.
The main living area is not air conditioned, and was comfortable most of the day. The only time it was hot was when the sun was setting and there is no way to block the hot sun beating though the palladian window over the front door. There also aren't any screens on that side of the house to create a cross breeze. We considered buying a fan to cool things down in the evening. (there are ceiling fans, but they didn't do the job) There was a nice flat screen tv, which we did use a couple of evenings to watch movies we brought with us.
The kitchen is well equipped with pots and pans, glasses, and so forth, but the realtor does not provide any ziploc bags, saran, aluminum foil, or such. We are used to renting villas where these things are provided, so it was an aggravation. We will go prepared next time.
The pool area was beautiful, with great views from Hurricane Hole to beyond Shipwreck Landing. The water view is better than we expected and there are only 3 other villas on that peninsula - we didn't see another person the entire week. There is a ping pong table, which is located in a covered area, so if the weather is rainy, it would be a nice diversion.
We will definitely rent this villa again, although we would not want to rent through the same realtor. The road was something we got used to as the week went on. The steeper parts have been concreted by the villa owner. The nice thing about it is that no one else was travelling on it, leaving us to enjoy a peaceful week!
This review was originally submitted by Infamily.