Palm Vista: we've had much better for the money.....

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Rating: (Good)

What can we say about Palm Vista.....

Beautiful huge views, fantastic breezes and no bugs (provided the big breeze is blowing off the sea as it typically does. You are situated at the very top of Skytop Road overlooking Fish Bay and to the left, untouched national park. It really is a spectacular view!

Now to the property itself. The pool is tiny and some of the chair cushions had a tremendous amount of mold on them and should be replaced. The kitchen was suitable, had everything we needed, other than hot water at the sink to rinse dishes but it was an inconvenience to wash your hands while cooking. An important note, the listing says each bedroom has its own ac which it does. That means, the living area does not! For the most part you typically have a huge breeze and the need for the ac isn't there. However, the main entry door had a retractable screen door which couldn't be used since the lower screen portion was torn. That limits the breeze unless you want bugs in the house.

If you plan to cook in the kitchen using the oven, prepare to sweat! There is no vent hood with a gas stove so make sure you have the windows open and the ceiling fan on high. Trying to cook with a gas stove with a ceiling fan on high is interesting. Better be strong and tall as a great deal of effort is required to open the windows in the kitchen, only one of them opens over the sink, the other slides up crooked. There a back breaker for sure.

As far as dining, you only have a bar top as you can see in the picture or you are eating outside. You have very dim lighting if you decide to eat out after dark, no outdoor fans either to detour the bugs.

The furnishings are rather dated on the upper level, not on par with a $4000 a week villa. It appears that everything other than the couch and coffee table in the main living area was picked up at a tag sale. We've stayed at much nicer fully air conditioned, upscale villas, with gourmet kitchens and upscale furnishings in the same price range. This villa gave us the feel of a project that exceeded budget as everything appears to be to minimize cost. Each bedroom has door and window sensors to insure the ac is ran with all doors and windows closed. If anything is open, the ac goes dead. To say it was a pain to close the bathroom door in the main living area to avoid shutting off the ac in the upper level bedroom would be an understatement. You are stuck in your bedrooms if it gets hot and humid, one bedroom in the upper level and two in the lower level of the house. Satellite tv is upstairs only. If you have kids, everyone is in the unairconditioned small living area. Better hope for good weather to have all the doors and windows open otherwise it will be uncomfortable unless you lock yourself in a bedroom. Fortunately for us, we were just a couple and we brought our Apple TV to watch tv on the tiny monitor in the bedroom.

We understand the costs for everything on the island are high but if you are going to charge a premium, it shouldn't just be for a view. This villa, you pay for the view and that is it as far as we are concerned. There is no master bedroom per se, no master bath and surely no grand kitchen or living space.

The villa is clean. We'd expect with a two week stay that a maid would come after the first week, not happening. As I stated, you get a view for the money, that's it. And the outdoor grill, it's on it's last leg. Oh, and my wife says there are no pot holder and the spatula is broken




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