myTobago – your questions, review and comment about Tobago

We wanted to recommend this villa where we spent a superb week in October.

The villa is above Englishman's Bay with views of the Bay and rainforest. This is a great place to be, near enough to Castara for all its facilities but out of town and utterly peaceful. It also appeared to be very well situated if you wanted to do any good walking up and across the ridge. There was lots of local guides, I am guilt-ridden because I have forgotten the name of our (very nice) guide, but we found him on the road coming into Bloody Bay from the Windward Side direction with his mother(?) who had cakes.

The villa was huge for four people (and therefore super-huge for just two of us). It was extremely well designed and practical. The kitchen was superbly fitted out (just a coincidence that the owner is a French-speaker?) and we were able to make excellent food. The garden was beautiful. It was also very easy - good facilites, snorkeling gear to borrow etc.
There is a "gazebo" where we spent most of our time watching the birds and bats and playing backgammon. This is especially useful in the wet season when you just watch the rain for hours. (nice in a way).
No pool, but that simplified things and kept the price down. Also, the beautiful beach is very near, so who needs chlorine? The beach was a little steep for small children but great for everyone else. There was supposed to be good snorkelling but the viz was lousy when we were there (the rain I presume). Nice, very friendly cafe.
Buying food - we worked out that it's best to go to Scarborough for vegetables, nice drive and you can give local ladies a lift from the roadside, we had quite a haul by the time we got to town. At Scarborough market, the people were the friendliest we met, the choice is much better and you can get Italian ice cream (and Illy coffee) in town. Fish is super-slow at Castara and faster at Parlatuvier. Tasted glorious where-ever.
The owner John was very friendly and very very efficient, right down to ringing us when we arrived. Very concerned to make his guests happy and comfortable.
For anyone worried about security in isolated villas, (sad to have to put this down) there are other villas in sight, there is a phone line and mobiles have a signal so we had no worries at all.
Any disadvantages? Not really. Of course you don't get to be in the middle of a community and see village life.
We thought that by Tobago standards it was excellent value and would recommend it for one or two couples or a family. We don't have children so we don't look at things which parents might notice but I thought that it looked good for kids, the garden has some terracing, but then again, it is on a hill. I shall always remember the nights in utter silence under the full moon watching the bats, the lights of ships out at sea and the smell of the tropics....

we have also been the guests of mr Jean Guye, who speaks, of course, fluent english, german and french. We stayed for two weeks in june two years ago and had a delightful time. Mr Guye existed before TobagoForum and I must say that he supplied us with literally TONS of info about the area, what to do (and don´t!), where to eat, what to see and where to buy everything from fillet steak to rental cars. We followed most of his advice, except for the rental car one, and all the time felt extremely secure. His staff had a flexible schedule when asked for and mr Guye kept both them and his house in immaculate shape. Naturally his guests are expected to behave reasonably well as well. That does not mean anything other than following a few simple guidelines when in the building. I am of nature NOT a perfectionist, and never felt a whit compromised. We have kept up a delightful mail conversation with the Guye family ever since and he still sends Christmas greetings. After only one stay! We will most certainly return to Parrot Estate sometime in the future. Nice to see that someone on MyTobagoforum mentioned the topic. It would be fun if Steve W would test-run Parrot Estate and give his very own unbiased review...

I have noticed that this property is for sale at Island Investments Limited for $485.000 - I am very tempted.

Hmm! You will be interested to know that I have had long and fascinating correspondence with John Guye. He's even telephoned me from Switzerland a couple of times. There had been a possibility that we might review in 2004, but when it came down to it, the place wasn't available at the only time we could fit it in. I would certainly be interested in reviewing somewhere that far up-country, so watch this space.

I confess I didn't know it was for sale. That would automatically preclude a review I'm afraid.

Hi Steve, why would a villa for sale be extempt from reviews? from what I believe, villa Being, Sunshine ridge and most of the villas available for rent in the North seem to be for sale as well. And for many years... Could it be because large tracts of land earmarked for development above Little Englishman´s bay, Englishman´s bay, Parlatuvier and even King Peter´s bay are for sale for 2-4 million USD with permits for eco-resorts already granted? I believe the charmth and warmth of the desolate North may be gone in just a few years, especially with all the construction going, the runway eventually lengthening and the good old road to Charlotteville finally being driveable for the Great Unwashed, at least when not washed away itself.

Hi Stefan

Why waste time reviewing somewhere when the new owners may have purchased it as a private home and not as a rental? Also, the price, service and everything else about the property could/would be different under new owners. Our review might not apply - in fact it could even be misleading. So, we have a strict policy of not reviewing any property that we know to be for sale.

OK, I won´t hold that against You. By the way, what are Your views of my fears about all the land being on sale with permits and all?

Hi again.

These so-called 'permits' are the equivalent of outline planning permission. You wouldn't believe how complex, time-consuming and costly it is to get all the necessary approvals - and 'outline' permits come with no guarantees that the final plans will be acceptable.

Yes, I'm not happy about it, but it inevitably is going to happen sooner or later. I think we're talking closer to 20 years, rather than 10 though, that far up the coast. I also think that by the very nature of the terrain and facilities along the coast, they are likely to be low-key affairs - more like small collections of villas and certainly not high-rise hotels or anything. Fortunately there's a law on Tobago that no building can be taller than a coconut tree. OK, we can all think of examples that make it a pretty tall coconut tree, but things are changing and the THA do appear to have a strong will to preserve the island. A friend of mine is involved with one such development and the grief they've had getting permissions, and the stringent demands of the authorities, do give me some degree of confidence for the future.