Tosca Villa - Review Page 1
Reviewed by Steve & Jill Wooler in February 2005
To start the villa review section of our 2005 tour of Tobago we decided to visit Tosca, a semi-detached villa on the Sanctuary Villa Resort.
Sanctuary is one of Tobago’s largest and grandest development projects, occupying a 21-acre valley on the hills of the Grafton Estate, overlooking the Caribbean Sea. The original design concept was for a 56-bedroom hotel, 40+ one-to-three bedroom detached and semi-detached villas and a dozen or so hillside condominiums. At the time of writing, only 9 semi-detached houses and 7 detached villas had been completed. The hotel is 70% complete, but worked ceased in 2003 when funding ran out. The concept has now changed and development is expected to continue in mid-2005, with the partly-finished main building being used for condominiums rather than as a hotel.
Readers may be forgiven for thinking that the Sanctuary Villa Resort development is therefore a derelict building site. Not so! The structure of the hotel is complete, so completion largely involves internal work. Unlike many of the villas on the development, Tosca is far enough away to avoid inconvenience and fortunately does not overlook the main house or the unfinished condominiums.
In truth, it turned out to be an ideal choice of holiday accommodation…
Background
Tosca belongs to London-based couple, Malcolm and Annie Taylor. There is a fascinating story behind their purchase of the villa which is worth retelling here. Readers who would like to read the full story would be interested in Malcolm’s fascinating articles about life on Tobago, which have been published in the Daily Telegraph, The Lady and Tobago News, as well as on myTobago of course (view here).
Malcolm and Annie turned to the classified adverts for Cyprus in the Sunday Telegraph, fancying a short break in that country. A rental villa advert caught their eye. They had never heard of anywhere called ‘Tobago’ in Cyprus but the property sounded nice. They telephoned the number given and were told that the advert should have appeared under ‘Caribbean’. Undaunted, and liking what they were told, Malcolm booked the villa.
The property was one of the Heaven Villas on the Sanctuary Villa Resort development. They fell in love with both Tobago and the resort. By the end of the week they had placed a deposit on one of the unsold villas and became the proud owners of Tosca.
Location
The Sanctuary Villa Resort is located on the Grafton Estate, near Stonehaven Bay on Tobago’s Caribbean coast. The development is just a short 15-20 minute drive from the airport.
The Crown Point beaches are attractive and popular, but have become over-commercialised and can often be crowded. The beaches along the Caribbean coast are much quieter and much more natural. Other than a few beach traders, these beaches are largely free from any sort of commercialisation.
The Shirvan Road, running along the lower Caribbean coast road, from its intersection with the Crown Point-Scarborough highway, is rapidly becoming Tobago’s restaurant gold strip. More than half dozen of Tobago’s most popular restaurants are housed along this mile or two of road – all within a 5-10 minute drive of Tosca.
When one combines these factors, the Sanctuary Villa Resort is as good a location as any. It is within 15-20 minutes drive of everywhere in the main Crown Point-Plymouth-Scarborough triangle and ideally located to tour Tobago’s northern coastline and rain forest.
The Sanctuary development is located in a quiet valley well away from the main road. Although only a 10-minute walk from the nearest restaurant, take-away, mini-mart and a shade longer to the nearest beach, the uphill return is much longer. Walking will only appeal to the very most athletic of visitors. Fortunately, Tosca comes with full use of the owner’s Daihatsu Terios 4x4.
Architecture
Drawings of the completed Sanctuary Villa Resort are quite attractive, with the rather grand Great Plantation House Hotel dominating the high ground at the head of the valley and a beautiful water feature cascading down the central valley. Running down either side of the valley are nine identical privately-owned two-storey Heaven Villas, each split into two semi-detached 3-bedroom villas.
The resort’s marketing literature describes the architectural style of these villas as Island Vernacular. I think this is as meaningless as my own first thoughts - Caribbean Pastiche. Whatever their style, they are certainly distinctive with their high light-blue roofs, pale yellow brickwork and green and yellow balustrades.
This review is obviously about Tosca (villa number 2), not about Sanctuary Villa Resort. Readers interested in other property on the development should be aware that the desirability of units varies enormously. Our endorsement of Tosca does not necessarily apply to other properties.
The Heaven Villas on the western side of the development (9-18) overlook the foundations of the uncompleted hillside condominiums. Even when completed, the view is likely to be reminiscent of the worst Mediterranean developments.
The villas on the eastern side of the development have few of these problems. Those at the highest point (5 to 18) have the best views of Buccoo Reef and the Nylon Pool. They look over the top of the hillside condominiums, but sadly their view is also dominated by the unfinished hotel building.
The first four villas (1 to 4), which include Tosca, escape all these disadvantages and are by far the most desirable villas on the development. Only the very end foundations walls of the hillside condos can be seen and the upper floor and roof of the hotel. However, they still have good views of Buccoo Reef and are currently the only Heaven Villas not blighted by the unfinished project.
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