Satinwood: Earth friendly with amazing views

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Rating: (Great)

A group of 8 of us stayed at Satinwood in April of 2013.
BEDROOMS
There are 2 king bedrooms in the main house, each with lofts above them with 2 twin beds. The lofts are accessed by a ladder. Each bedroom had it's own bathroom as well. In addition, there is an apartment on the lower level with bedroom, bath, sitting area, and small kitchen. All the beds were select comfort adjustable beds, which I love.
BATHROOMS
The bathrooms upstairs have high tech composting toilets, but the only way you'd know that is because you don't flush them. There is absolutely no smell at all. Seriously, don't let this deter you, they were no issue at all. The lower level suite has a traditional toilet.
KITCHENS
The kitchen was fully equipped with everything we needed and the home had a nice size gas grill on the deck which we used quite a bit.
LIVING/DINING ROOMS
The seating area was comfy, nothing special, but nothing lacking. The home had cable TV and a decent sound system. The dining area had sufficient seating for all 8 of us.
OUTDOOR LIVING AREA
The home has a lovely deck off the main area, and two smaller decks off the upper bedrooms - all with an amazing view. The lower level has a patio and laundry area. The pool deck is nice, with a table/chairs and some lounge chairs.
POOL
The pool is decent sized for St John with tiled sides and surfaced bottom. It gets great sun up till about 1:30 (in April), then is mostly shaded for the rest of the day. We had no issues with the water temperature, but remember we are from Michigan and open our own (unheated) pool in May.
EXTRAS
The home is totally off the grid, with solar power supplemented by a generator when needed. We did have a small electrical issue on our first night, but the maintenance man was there super fast and took care of it.
The home had 8 beach chairs, three coolers and sufficient towels and beach towels for all of us.
VIEW
The view is absolutely breathtaking. It overlooks Coral Bay, the East End and the BVIs. The sunrises were great. I got up for them every morning, and I am not a morning person. The view is really the biggest selling point of this property.
ROAD TO VILLA
The home sits almost at the end of The Majestic Mile in Upper Carolina. It is totally paved all the way from Centerline. There are 3 switchbacks, but they were easy to navigate and they all had mirrors. I didn't find the drive up or down scary in the least.
DRIVEWAY
The driveway is fairly tame, by St John standards. For one car, it would be very easy, as there is a turn around area. We had two cars, but figured out a workable system. The first car would pull in while the other was waiting just before the parking area. Then it would get turned around and pointing out in the turn around area. The second car would then pull in all the way and to the left. This way, the first car could pull straight out in the morning, leaving the turn around area clear for the second car to turn around. I did back all the way out the driveway one time - I don't recommend that method.
SUMMARY
I recommend this villa for most travelers. It's not super updated or upscale, if that's important to you, but it is clean, comfortable and has absolutely amazing views. I probably wouldn't want to stay here with young children, due to the ladders to the lofts. Nor would I want to put anyone of my (40ish) age up in the loft for the same reason, but it's perfect for tweens, teenagers and young 20's. The lofts did have this cool basket and pulley system for getting big things and up and down that was very useful.




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