Tosca Villa - Review Page 5

Dining & Shopping

Tosca and the Sanctuary Villa Resort are extremely well-placed from a dining point of view. A substantial percentage of Tobago’s best restaurants are within a five-minute drive.

Closest of all - just at the bottom of the hill – is Indigo. It used to be one of our favourites, but has won the dubious accolade of providing the most expensive meal of our last two trips. Other popular restaurants within 5 minutes of Tosca are: Seahorse Inn, Pavillion Restaurant, The Polo Bar, La Tartaruga, the Mot Mot Restaurant, Patino’s, La Terrazza, Me-Shells and Melange. Increase the drive from 5 minutes to 20 and virtually every good restaurant on the island is within your domain. See our Restaurants article for full details.

For a more modest offering, Pizza Boys have an outlet at the bottom of the hill. We used them three or four times in 2005 and were impressed by a vast improvement in quality – and the prices were particularly reasonable at TT$40 for a medium-sized Hawaiian pizza.

Next door to Pizza Boys is Marie’s Place, which is the best mini-supermarket along this section of coast and useful for basics. For anything more, you will need to go to Moorshead’s Gourmet Foods, just a five-minute drive away, or to the main Penny Savers supermarkets in either Canaan or Carnbee (both a 10-15 drive).

Eating out is great, particularly with so many good restaurants around, but the cost can add up. Also, it is sometimes nice not having to dress up and go out some evenings. We used to nip down to the Mount Irvine Beach Facilities, less than 5-minutes from Tosca, and buy freshly caught fish. You can’t miss the fish stalls – they’re just tables beside the sea wall and you’ll know when the catch is in from the number of cars blocking the road as everyone jostles to get the best cuts. Just point to the fish you want and tell the fisherman how much you want and whether you want it filleted or as a fish steak.

Malcolm Taylor’s visitor notes in the villa are extremely comprehensive and accurate and will tell you everything you need to know.

Vehicle

A major plus when renting Tosca, and something that should not be forgotten in your budgeting, is that the villa comes with free use of the owner’s Daihatsu Terios 4x4. Naturally there are a few restrictions, such as drivers having to be over 25 and accepting responsibly for the first £200 of any insurance claim, but these are more than reasonable under the circumstances.

An increasing number of villa owners rent cars to guests. Technically, this could lead to insurance problems as it is extremely doubtful that any of these vehicles are covered by the proper ‘hire and reward’ insurance necessary for rental vehicles. The Taylor’s method is therefore a lot better. You do not hire the vehicle – it is a standard feature included within the property rental.

Hiring a Terios of similar age and condition from any decent rental agency on Tobago would cost around US$50 per day – say US$330 per week. The fact that this is included in the villa rental cost should not be overlooked.

Security

The Sanctuary Villa Resort has only one road in and out and this is guarded by uniformed security 24 hours a day. Tosca appears perfectly secure, without going over the top and having bars across every window. There is a lockable security door at the bottom of the stairs leading upstairs, but we certainly didn’t consider using it.

Conclusion

Our five days at Tosca passed so quickly that we wondered where the time had gone. In some ways we felt we never got to know the villa, and yet, perversely, we felt immediately ‘at home’ as soon as we crossed the threshold.

Tosca is a private home. It is decorated and furnished as such and you are very aware of the fact. It is cool, light, bright and breezy and despite being stuck inside most of every day, writing this review and other myTobago articles , I never got hot and bothered or had to retreat to an air-conditioned bedroom.

I have some reservations about the Sanctuary Villa Resort and wouldn’t consider staying at some of the villas there, but I have to say that Tosca is a little gem. Without any doubt it is a perfect home-from-home and represents a wonderful base for a holiday in Tobago. We can highly recommend the villa.

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