- Re: Culebra beach rentals

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Culebra beach rentals

Author: Christy Lazerus (---.dhcp.stls.mo.charter.com)
Date: 03-31-07 22:05

Just got back from my first trip to Culebra. WOW !!! I had been a little concerned about some of the reviews for the Culebra Beach Villas, but once we got there and saw them we were pleasantly surprised. We stayed in #13 for 2 days then in #12 for 2 days. #13 was nice, had a little issue with the shower head, but let the manager (Tony) know and he had it fixed within half an hour. The rooms are very clean had one room with a queen bed and satelite TV. bathroom with shower, and main room had a kitchenette with a table and two twin beds. All are basically the same, but each is individually owned, so each unit has its own style. The biggest convenience of all of these villas are the porches. Like I said we stayed for four nights and when we weren't at the beach we were on the porch. All of the units have these wonderful wrap around porches. #13 has a hammock and two tables with chairs also a porch swing and BBQ pit. #12 had a hammock a nice wooden bench, a wicker Couch and Chair and a nice glass table with four comfy chairs. also a BBQ pit. #12 also was surounded by Hibiscus bushes that were usually being visited by hummingbirds.
Tony was very friendly and showed me the inside of several other units Two of which hold up to 8 people. #17 and #18. each had three bedrooms a living room 2 baths and a bigger kitchenette there porches wrapped all the way around them and would be perfect for a bigger family.
I went with my three sons two college age and one in middle school. We did not rent a car and opted to spend all our time around Flamemenco Beach. It was beautiful. We went snorkeling at Carlos Rosario about a 20 minute hike over the hill from Flamenco Beach. Well worth the hike. We ate a couple of times at the Beach, My kids loved the rice and beans and the chicken on a stick. Really spent as much daylight time on the beach as possible.
The only bad part of the trip was getting there and getting home. The ferry schedule does not bode well for the midwest traveler. We left St. Louis at 10:30 am We arived in San Jaun around midnight , and hung around the airport for a few hours before catching a cab to Fajardo $85. got in line at 5:30 am for the 9:00 ferry. it was packed. we knew some kids that arrived around 7:00 and did not get on the first ferry so they had to catch the 2:00 some other kids we knew took a plane because they missed the ferry so definitly should come during a weekday or plan to be there very early. I would suggest to anyone going to Culebra to spend a night in San Jaun and not catch a ferry on a weekend as there are a lot of locals that take the ferry over to Culebra for a day trip which really made it crouded.
However, the ferry ride itself was really cool. We sat on the top deck which is open air and seeing the islands in the morning was breath taking. We were sitting in the middle of a large group of locals and they were really nice and were laughing all the way to Culebra (the ferry would hit a wave and would get everyone on the one side wet. ) keep this in mind if you are dressed in nice clothes.
Traveling around the island was not too bad. We did not rent a car and seemed to luck out. One of the other guests gave us a ride to the store. And one time my son and I started to walk to town and a very nice lady saw us and gave us a ride, and other than that we took a publico $2 pp to town each way.
Our last night there we switched to the Hotel Kokomo so we would be close to the ferry for the 6:30am departure. We arived there around 5:30 then walked around town. We ate dinner at The Dingy Dock. food was great , atmosphere awesome. People extremely friendly.
Hotel Kokomo was pretty run down. but worked for our purpose of being close to the ferry.
Had never been out of the states, and had a wonderful time. If you are expecting the Ritz, then stay away. If you are wanting to spend time on a pristine Island paradise then this is the place to go.
Can't wait to go back, will definatly stay at the Culebra beach Villas.

Christy

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Re: Culebra beach rentals

Author: Doug (---.dsl.stlsmo.swbell.net)
Date: 04-01-07 11:45

Nice trip review, Christy. I'm from StL also (go Cards Today!). It used to be much easier when St. Louis was an AA hub. There were non-stops on Saturdays and Sundays, year round, and on weekdays during high season.

What I do is use Kayak.com to identify workable flights. To do this you must figure out what San Juan-to-Culebra options are viable for you and work backwards from there. Kayak has a very powerful functionality that allows you to search by date and then modify the search to only show ones that arrive by a certain time. As you may already know, airfares from Isla Grande airport in Old San Juan are considerably lower, due to a gate tax imposed at SJU. I believe there is a 530 or 6 pm flight from Isla Grande. Even with the $20 cab ride, it usually saves you money to go via IG. My priority is to get to Culebra as soon as possible, followed by cost. If paying a little more gets me there faster, I usually grab it. The tough part is the ever-changing nature of the commuter airlines that serve Culebra, so you must re-affirm flight times every time you visit.

If you can do so, carry-on-only is a great way to go, saving you time waiting for checked luggage AND allowing you to stay inside security if you are connecting out of the International airport, SJU. I have even mailed clothes to myself there, to avoid a checked bag. When I buy bulky stuff there, I have them ship it to me.

One last item. If your group is five people, you can consider chartering a flight. We did this 2 years ago at New Years. We had a couple checked bags and we even stood at the wrong carousel for 10 minutes (DOH!) yet were less than an hour from wheels-down SJU to wheels up headed to Culebra. Round-trip was $10 more thn commercial out of SJU, but the covenience was heaven. The pilot even had a six-pack of cold Heinekin for us.

If all this sounds confusing, email me before you book, next trip.

Doug

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Re: Culebra beach rentals

Author: El_Pavo (---.dynamic.uiowa.edu)
Date: 04-04-07 14:38

I agree about Culebra Beach rentals. My wife and I were there around March 12-15. I would definitely return. Peaceful, quiet, right on the beach. Can't beat that. It was also nice to have your own kitchen and grill (even though we didn't use the latter). We enjoyed getting up and drinking some coffee while reading on the patio (with the cats and roosters) before heading out to snorkel or swin. The villa was clean and well-maintained. We had absolutely no problems or complaints.

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