Some tips on renting Caribbean villas
St. Lucia, a 27-by-14-mile island, has two lush tropical peaks called the Pitons and some of the best snorkeling in the Caribbean. Credit: VillaRental.com
Imagine you've just arrived in the Caribbean. You're surrounded by hibiscus, lantana and birds-of-paradise as golden morning sunlight pours over you. Long stretches of pristine beach in the distance border sapphire seas dotted with the crisp white sails of boats.
But instead of slipping into the cooling ocean, you find yourself covered to the elbows in axle grease with sweat pouring down your back and limbs aching from trying to change a tire on your rental car with a rickety jack.
That's the position we found ourselves in on the second day of our nine-day trip to Antigua last fall. We were sorely regretting that the wholesale company that had rented us our villa, which didn't have a representative on the island, had also made our car reservation.
After we finally got a painfully skinny spare tire onto our beat-up sedan, we crossed our fingers and prepared to cover two miles of the worst road we had ever seen between our rental villa and the highway. The potholes were big enough to swallow a small marching band.
The website of our villa rental company said it would inform clients if a four-wheel-drive vehicle was necessary on any of the islands that they serve. It didn't even offer us the option. So we found ourselves driving across the island to pick up an SUV on our own dime.
Hours later, we returned safely to our villa in a sturdy Kia Sorrento, but we were out $470. We learned a lesson about renting a villa in the Caribbean: If you're searching online for a rental villa, look for the local companies that specialize in each island. They know the homes they rent and have a customer service representative on hand. Avoid the websites of wholesale companies, which simply consolidate listings. They can leave you twisting in the wind -- and, granted, it's a pleasant wind tinged with sea salt, but you're still twisting helplessly.
You can also find rental villas on such websites as vbro.com or homeaway.com, where the villas' owners will rent you their home directly -- and thus can be held responsible if they don't deliver what's expected. Here are five Caribbean islands with an abundance of nice vacation rentals:
ANTIGUA
We rented two bedrooms in the Dieppe Bay House (a five-bedroom Mediterranean villa, dieppebay house.com) in late November for $500 a night. The staff included an amiable maid, a gardener and a pool caretaker. Because it was still the low season (May-November in Antigua) and the home is on a wild beach, we were able to rent at a discount.
ARUBA
A bit pricier than average is Casa Juliana, a three-bedroom home with a swimming pool that costs $242 a night for six people in Aruba's low season (April 15-Dec. 15). The rental price includes an allowance for electricity, which is expensive on Aruba, Wilson-Teeken explains.
ST. LUCIA
Oasis Marigot offers the first floor of a villa called the Great House, which has one bedroom and a swimming pool, along with an attached structure with one bedroom called The Cottage, for $1,295 a week (working out to $185 a night) for two couples from April 16 to May 31. St. Lucia's high season runs from December through April, and the months of May and June are popular with honeymooners, Mr. Binette said. Currently, the Great House is $229 a night.
ST. BARTHELEMY
ST. JOHN, U.S. VIRGIN ISLANDS
While prices can range from $360 to more than $1,430 a night in high season (Dec. 15 to about April 15), renters can expect a 30 to 50 percent dip in the low season, she says. Winsome House, a two-bedroom, two-bath villa designed in the style of a historic plantation home, is $679 a night during the high season for two couples; in the low season it's $371 a night.
