2 Studios & 2 Bedrm Apartment With Amazing Views Of The Sea & Sunsets. Currently No1 On Tripadvisor
200 yards from Beach. Set Back and Above the Road
2 Studios (Sleep 2+ Each), 'Our Place' (Sleeps 4)
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Villa Carpe Diem was completed in late 2007. Half timbered construction over a block ground floor. It is our house and was designed for US to live in and constructed of local materials using all local labour. The whole point of the house was to take advantage of the view of Castara Bay. It is set back and 80 feet above the Northside Road in the village of Castara, a small unspoilt fishing village on the Caribbean coast of Tobago. You will not find jetskis etc but you will find peace and quiet and a chance to really relax. The beach is safe and kept clean by the villagers. Lifeguards are on duty during the day. There are NO hustlers! They are usually asked to 'move on'. In the village are guides and boatmen to take you into the rainforest, visit waterfalls, take you fishing & then to a bbq the catch on a secluded beach. The local bars are friendly with locals, expats and visitors all 'liming' together. Crime is almost non-existent. Come here & write that book you always meant to write!
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| Rental Period | Per Night | Per Week | Per Month | Min. Stay (Nights) |
| 1 December 2011 - 31 May 2012 | $85 | 5 | ||
| 31 May 2012 - 30 November 2012 | $75 | 5 |
Sunset 2 (Studio Apartment, Sleeps 2/3) Prices
| Rental Period | Per Night | Per Week | Per Month | Min. Stay (Nights) |
| 1 December 2011 - 31 May 2012 | $85 | 5 | ||
| 31 May 2012 - 30 November 2012 | $75 | 5 |
'Our Place' Prices
| Rental Period | Per Night | Per Week | Per Month | Min. Stay (Nights) |
| 1 December 2011 - 31 May 2012 | $150 | 7 |
Notes on prices
We are always prepared offer a discount on the room rate for longer lets and during the low season. Its always worth asking us as we have had the occasional cancellation at short notice & may not have updated the diary acordingly.
We also let out the Green room upstairs seperately when we are not on island at $150USD per night
Payment received by Credit card via Paypal or bank transfer to our UK account.
Changeover day
All flights in and out are in the evening but to enable us to prepare the rooms for the next guest we do ask for a 1/2pm checkout. If there are no incoming guests that evening then of course you can stay longer & still do that last minute swim...
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Sunset 2 (Studio Apartment, Sleeps 2/3)
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Both rooms are furnished exactly the same! Both share the same view out over the bay with loungers perfect for alfresco meals. Both studios have their own access. We have a 'Graco' cot available for a baby or toddler. It has it's own mosquito net. |
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'Our Place'
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Because of demand we have decided to let our 2 bedroom apartment to 'discerning' guests. Comprising 2 ensuite bedrooms with queensize beds (made in the village from local red cedar) from which you can see the sea without getting out of bed! Large kitchen diner/lounge. All rooms open out onto a 50 x 10 ft veranda. Fully equipped kitchen with 4 burner gas stove, large Samsung fridge, kettle, toaster, juicer, grill, caffetiere etc etc. Large dining table and chairs for alfresco dining. We have never eaten inside yet! Large comfortable sofa for lounging and reading from which you can also see the sea. All rooms have a very high roof allowing for good air circulation so no a/c! All rooms have fans. Home office area with wi-fi hotspot,tv/dvd/monitor. Broadband is available via wi-fi hot-spot. Very comfortable accommodation, after all it is where we live when we are on Tobago! The view is the reason we built here! |
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Notes on accommodation
This apartment & studios may not be suitable for toddlers! The balconies are very climbeable The drop from the studio balcony is only about 4 feet onto a flower bed! We have a 'Graco' cot for babies and a single bed can be made available for a child or another adult. They all have their own nets. Balcony has sunloungers, most people take the table and chairs out onto the balcony for their stay . Bamboo blinds can be lowered to provide extra shade.There are beach mats if required. There is a washing machine available for guests to use. There is a laundry service available in the village.
Accessibility
The path up from the road is a concreted slope with 3-4" steps every 20 feet or so. I would not like to exclude people with mobility problems and know how independent you can be! I would rather test it myself before saying it is completely accessible!
There is a short walk up from the road but as suitcases all seem to have wheels these days...There is parking on the road below.
Outside
Our friend Doris & her husband Denzil, look after the house when we are away and Panday another good friend is planting out the grounds. It was 'virgin' hillside before we built but is rapidly growing back. We have extended the balcony and now each studio has a separate access. Each studio and the apartment have 2 loungers and a hammock is also available. In season there are 3 different mango trees, numerous bananas and plantain, lime, paw paw, guava, cassava etc. There is an outside shaded bbq area and Pizza/bread oven built from reclaimed old colonial bricks. We also now have a new deck just for star gazing!
Coast/Beach
The village has 2 beaches divided by a small headland which you can wade around. You have to hold your towel and camera above your head but it is at most 4-5 feet deep. The sea is safe and the beach and the sea floor sandy. Both beaches are about 200 & 400 yards from the house. The swimming is safe and there are lifeguards during the day. The snorkeling is great with coral within a short swim off the beach. All the beaches on this side of the island are good. the coastline is breathtaking.
Golf
There is a golf course in the south of the island at Mount Irvine! Set with coconut palms and near a good beach. A friend does play there as does a local hotel owner but I have not played it yet.
Skiing
Maybe if global warming goes crazy I suppose one day there will be skiing in the Caribbean!
Special interest holidays
The main thing people come to Tobago for is the fact that it is quiet and peaceful. We have 2 Sevylor Reef 205 inflatable kayaks available to hire. You can swim out to the reef, (I cannot swim very well!) so to enable more people to enjoy it for snorkling and without walking on the reef which is a definite no no, we thought we would have these for us and our guests to use. There is also a dive operator close by. The fishing is really good either off the beach in the evening or out on a boat with a local guy. Fly-fishermen come here every year. The rain forest comes down to the sea here, there are lots of trails to walk or you can get deep into the forest with several government registered guides for company. You can watch birds from the house visiting the feeders.
Travel
The airport is at Crown Point in the south 45 minutes by taxi/car. It is actually quicker & much more romantic to go by boat back to Store Bay about 200 yards to the check in! Ferry to Trinidad 1hr.Hire a car in the village if needed. Otherwise it will just sit there most of the time. Driving round the island will take a day or 2 out visiting villages, beaches and checking out the highlighted points in the Rough Guide!
There are buses up and down the coast and hitching a ride is a local 'ting.
Distances
We are in the village on the hillside between the 2 beaches. Scarborough is about 45 minutes but it is hot there and we only go when necessary. Further up the coast are Englishman's Bay, Parlatuvier, Bloody Bay and of course Charlottville. All within easy reach.
The roads are good but do have lots of turns and the occaisional pothole.
Further details
Local shops have all the basic necessities. Local fruit and vegetables etc all tend to be grown without chemicals!. The fish is available everyday from around 3pm and is incredible. Fresh bread is baked most days in the village.
The nearest supermarket is in the south. It is a good idea to stop on the way up and get a few items.
Great safe beach with lifeguards. Good snorkeling right off the beach. Scuba operators will pick up off the beach to go up to the Sisters Rocks ( My wife 'swam' with hammerheads there!)There is the oldest national park / rain forest and it abounds with birds, various flora and occasional fauna too.
Sunscreen is needed as the sun is overhead most of the year the latitude being 11 degrees!
Local restaurants serve a variety of local dishes. The local bars are very friendly and liming with the locals is the usual way to spend the evening. (Rum is cheap here).
Booking notes
We take a 50% deposit at the time of booking with the balance to be paid one month in advance of travel. If we are on island the balance can be paid in cash upon arrival.
In the UK you can pay by cheque or bank transfer. Otherwise PayPal is good. Any extra charges must be met by the guest though please. Check us for last minute offers as we do get short periods between lets which we can make a deal on!
Guest comments
My wife and myself have just been for a fortnight's stay in Villa Carpe Diem, in the village of Castara on Tobago. Quite simply, it was the best trip we've ever had to the Caribbean (we've been to Barbados, Antigua and Monserrat before) and we can't wait to get back to Villa Carpe Diem and Castara again. It pretty much defines for us what a Caribbean trip should be all about: as relaxed as you want to be, a lovely,
unspoiled fishing village of really friendly and helpful locals plus plenty of day trip activity if you feel like it. Most of all – the beautiful, comfortable, clean and well-organised accommodation we had in Villa Carpe Diem: it's no good being somewhere terrific if you aren't happy with where you're staying locally. We generally prefer self-catering rather than hotels so that we can suit our own schedule and cook local when we want to, always an added extra when you're somewhere new. Villa Carpe Diem fitted the bill for us perfectly.
House swap
So tempt us!
Owner profile
Yvonne and Chis with sunset and Caribs!
About the owner
I have spent all my working life to date making things happen for others. This is Yvonne and myself making it happen for us and as a bonus we have been able to create a beautiful place for others to enjoy as much as we do. We have both had and still have pretty stressful jobs. I am in the live music production business and Yvonne was a property manager for a local estate agent in the UK. We have worked hard and still do as few of us are really ever able to retire early and enjoy the fruits of our labours. So we call it semi retirement. You only go around once so you cannot let life pass you by. We all do and then it is too late, you do not get a second chance. We love life. Living or staying in Castara is about as good as it gets!
Year purchased: 2006
Why the owner chose an apartment in this location
I was sitting on the hillside when it was all scrub looking out at the view of the bay after I found out the land was available and said 'This is it!'.
We decided we needed to stop thinking about a house in the sun and actually build it before we were too old to enjoy it! Then we could share it with family and friends. We fell in love with the village after coming here on holiday and getting involved with the aftermath of the only hurricane to hit the island in a 40 odd years. We were made welcome from the start.
The area and the village ,beach etc just tick all the right boxes for us. You only get a chance to do something like this once.You say lets look elsewhere and then think why did we not stay in Castara.
Opportunities like this only come once in lifetime...
Unique benefits of the property
It is quiet, apart from those cockerels...., safe, great beach, rain forest, a reef, good fishing, sunshine, I am sorry but we would have been mad not to have said yes.
It is away from the busier south of the island with it's more tourist oriented areas but still less than an hour from the airport and main town of Scarborough if, and it is a big if, we ever need to go there!
We can walk down to either beach , shop go for a drink without needing a car. We buy fresh fish or catch it ourselves, local produce is there at the end of the road or actually in the garden. The best mango tree is behind the house, they drop, roll down and end up by the kitchen door!
At the end of the day we have the one of the best views in the village and it would have been selfish not to want to share it.
For booking and further information
Property Ref CB207
Contact Name:
Chris Runciman
(UNITED KINGDOM) +44 778534794
Owner
Alternate Contact Details:
(TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO) +868 7106588
Local mobile in Castara Tobago
Owners Website: Click here
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Property Ref CB207
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