The Good: The public beach is a three minute walk from the front door, and it is a classically beautiful white sand beach. We rarely saw anyone else there, so we had the lovely stretch of beach to ourselves. Be sure to bring water shoes, since there are plenty of rocks in the surf. The beds were comfortable, and the three separate bedrooms were good for us and the kids. Tamara is extremely helpful and accomodating of our needs. She is an excellent cook, and we have incorporated some of her recipes into our regular rotation.
The Bad: The furniture was not comfortable for sitting and relaxing. There were missing screens for windows and a missing mosquito net for a bed, and this led to many mosquito bites. Be aware that this property is around a half hour from Montego Bay and at least an hour from the attractions around Ocho Rios. If you want to relax at the beach, and maybe go to some of the lovely old houses near Montego Bay, plus the bioluminescent bay, it is a convenient place to stay. There were several things we would have done but were just too far away.
All things told, it’s a reasonable value for the cost, as long as you’re aware of the caveats above. However, for us…
The Ugly: Despite the daily cooking and housekeeping promised in the listing, we were informed that there would be no service on Sunday. One of the nice things about this vacation was going to be not having to deal with any of that stuff. When we complained to the manager, after MUCH annoying back and forth she promised to refund some of the money, although now she’s dragging her feet, and we have enlisted the help of VRBO. The second cook/housekeeper who came when Tamara was off, used our personal kitchen equipment without our permission (we had instructed only to use them with us there and Tamara told her 2x to make sure to let us show her what to do and to ask before doing any cooking for us) and damaged a beautiful knife opening a can, even though we brought a can opener. The owner complained greatly about “I can’t afford to pay for this,” and when we were able to arrange for a reasonably priced repair ($45) she then refused to pay (maybe I can pay half). Again, we hope VRBO will provide support for us.
As mentioned above, the property is a reasonable value, but I’ve found that when there are reviews like this one it’s usually worth looking elsewhere to avoid the hassles that might interfere with your tropical vacation.