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Style: A modern villa with canary yellow walls and a green tin roof, touched with traditional Caribbean features, excellent outdoor living on a huge west-facing veranda
The Beach: A path leads down to Tom’s Beach
The Rooms: Two bedrooms with en suite bathrooms, guest bedroom with own kitchenette
Key features: Comfortable Carriacou island villa, pool (L-shaped, 20ft x 10), very private, well appointed kitchen, screened and glassed rooms with air-conditioning and ceiling fans, stylish, locally made wooden furniture, phone, broadband connection, radio, cd players; very large covered living space and veranda, laundry room, open lawned garden and views onto the Caribbean Sea
Children: No children under twelve
Staff: Maid service two-four mornings a week (can be more by arrangement) |
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Description
Indigo is a modern, very private holiday home set on the shoreline of Carriacou, Grenada’s smaller sister island in the Grenadines. It is a large house for just two bedrooms and so it is very spacious and comfortable - on an island where many of the houses are relatively simple. Indigo also has an original design. It is centred on a huge ‘room’, a living space covered by a roof but otherwise mostly open-sided. It has a hundred and eighty degree view over Hillsborough Bay and the hills of Carriacou island. With just two bedrooms (which are separate from one another), Indigo is secluded and very private and an ideal hideaway.
You approach the villa along a relatively long drive through the coastal forest of Snow Hill in the north of Carraicou, eventually coming to a gate at the end of the track. Even from here the house is not really visible. You have to descend another section of drive lined with a metal balustrade which curves around to the rear of the house. And as you arrive you see that the villa is not painted in the blue that might expect of the name Indigo. Instead its walls, inside and out, are a light yellow and it has a green tin roof.
You enter at the rear of the building, through a metal grille door, coming first into a small hall with a lavatory and a box room and then into the main feature of the house, the huge covered space that acts both as open-air dining room and sitting area. This is open on two sides, with a shallow pitched, pickled pine ceiling supported on pillars. Its openness enables classic Caribbean living, which blurs the indoor and outdoor. The veranda is large enough that you can always find a shaded spot during the day. As the sun drops low enough to flood the room it is no longer that hot. There is a bar in one rear corner, a simple dining table and chairs to the left and a sofa, chairs to the right and a hammock outside the master bedroom.
To the side of the space, over a classical Caribbean criss-cross balustrade, is the pool and a small sundeck with loungers. At the front it gives onto an unroofed section of veranda that is ideal for outside dining in the evenings. And from here you will see that Indigo is actually built on a mound above the coast. The lawned gardens ahead of you drop away gradually in front of you to a small shoreside clifftop of scattered trees. The view carries through these to the West and over Hillsborough Bay. It is framed on the left by the hills of Carriacou Island and there are small offshore islands in the centre ground, but otherwise it has an uninterrupted sea horizon. Perfect for watching for the Green Flash at sunset.
For all the open space at the heart of the villa, there is a certain formality to Indigo. It has a relatively simple modern construction. It is tiled throughout in sandy coloured ceramic and is well equipped (a step up on many other houses in Carriacou), with many modern comforts – all the enclosed rooms are air-conditioned, for instance. There are traditional West Indian architectural features such as the criss-cross balustrade and louvred panels that can restrict or encourage a breeze. Also, the furniture is quite elegant. The armchairs and four-poster beds are made of hardwoods by Grenadian furniture maker Rudolf Herrera.
As you look west towards the sea, the main suite of rooms is to your right. You come first into an open-plan kitchen, dining and living room. The kitchen is well equipped with a large fridge freezer, a blender and other equipment. The cooker sits under a central island and breakfast bar and to one side there is a glass-topped dining table for four. Towards the front of the house there is a set of four comfortable armchairs with foot-rests. There is also a CD player. At the rear of the room there is a small office with a desk and a broadband connection. A cupboard here contains CDs, books and games.
The master bedroom leads off this room. The yellow colour scheme of the house continues inside, where it is offset by the white of the bedspreads and the mid-brown wooden furniture. A large four-poster with hefty spindles and slatted headboards sits at the centre of the room, facing west. It looks through sliding doors at the front of the house, first onto the veranda and then onto the bay. A bathroom at the rear contains a glassed-in shower.
The second bedroom is set on the other side of the open-air living space, giving the two bedrooms privacy from one another. Slightly smaller than the master, it has a similar four-poster bed with white linen and it looks over the pool to the west. Its shower room is also to the rear and it has its own small kitchenette, with a fridge-freezer, kettle and toaster. Like the other ‘enclosed’ rooms at Indigo, the bedrooms can be air-conditioned.
Indigo is among the most comfortable Carriacou island villas, in an island where many of the houses for rent are relatively simple. With only two bedrooms it is quite small, but it has good space well designed for indoor-outdoor living and it is very secluded, so you can easily hide yourself away. |
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Beach & Swimming
A path leads from the garden, via a gate at the edge of the property, down to Tom’s Beach, where there is a reasonable section of mid-brown sand. There is snorkelling not far offshore at both ends of the beach.
The closest of the island’s excellent beaches is at Anse la Roche, just north of Bogles. Although development is possibly on the cards, the beach has no facilities at present and so you will need to take all you want in the way of water and food. Alternatively you can head down to Paradise Bay on the other side of Hillsborough, another excellent stretch of sand, where there is a beach bar.
Indigo has an L-shaped swimming pool. The longest stretch is 20 feet long and it is 10 feet across. |
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Sports & Recreation
Watersports are limited on Carriacou. The scuba diving, however, is pretty good and there are several companies. Try Carriacou Silver Diving in Hillsborough, which is not far away. They will also rent you snorkelling gear.
There are several excellent day sails based in the island (people come from as far afield as Grenada for them), which visit the islands off Carriacou and also the Tobago Cays a few miles to the north. If you would prefer to travel independently, you can get one of the water-taxi men to run you out to Sandy Island off Paradise Beach. They are happy to pick up from the beach at Indigo. |
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Locality
Indigo is in the north of Carriacou, in a small villa community called Snow Hill close to the village of Bogles. Hillsborough, the island’s capital town (more of a village, really) is just a few minutes away. Here you will find supermarkets, a couple of ‘sites’, including the small museum, and a handful of restaurants, including Callaloo and the Garden Restaurant. Close by, towards Bogles, is the Round House, a very nice restaurant set in a private house.
Beyond Hillsborough along the coast is Paradise Beach (though you have to go inland to get around the airport), the liveliest beach on the island. And not far beyond here is Tyrell Bay, where there are several restaurants and bars to go with a fantastic view of the sunset through the yachts and local trading boats. Try Turtle Dove and Lambi Queen, or the bar on the pontoon in the bay.
There are also a number of islands off Carriacou, many visible in the distance from Indigo, which make for excellent day trips. It is also possible to go there independently - the easiest to reach is Sandy Island, a ribbon of coral and sand just off Paradise Bay. You can arrange for a boatman to take you out there – and collect you again later in the day. |
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Useful Hints
Down Island Villa Rentals can arrange for a cooked meal to be delivered to Indigo on your first evening so that you do not have to think about it on your arrival. It is part of their restaurant delivery and fresh food ‘Heat and Eat’ service. They can also stock your villa with groceries in advance if you wish. After your booking is confirmed, Down Island will send out a provisions list. Alternatively please see the Provisions List and email it to Down Island Villas when you confirm your reservation. The cost of the shopping will be added to your account. These services are subject to a service charge of up to 15%.
Getting to Carriacou
Getting to your villa in Carriacou can be a little complicated. The easiest access is probably via Grenada, from where there are about three daily flights on SVG Air. However the latest flight is at about 4pm, so (depending on your international connections) you may not be able to make the island on the same day. You might consider a two-centre holiday with a villa in Grenada. Another option is the fast ferry, the Osprey, which runs twice daily both ways between the islands. The last sailing to Carriacou is at about 5.30pm.
Barbados is better served with international flights than Grenada and so it may be easier to route your journey via there. Inter-island flights are not ideal, but you can take a share charter flight to Union Island. From here there are two different options, a short hop by plane (be aware that the last flight usually leaves by about 4pm) or a water taxi ride from Union Island to Carriacou. Another option to consider from Barbados, the most direct of all, is to take a private charter in a small plane. This is obviously convenient and, if there are enough of you, prices will be comparable. The option of a private charter probably gives you the best chance of getting to Carriacou on the same day. Contact SVG Air.
A couple of days a week there are also services from Carriacou via Canouan, which is not far away in the Grenadines. Canouan can be reached from San Juan in Puerto Rico.
For more details on flight times, please see Getting to Carriacou. |
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Rates
| | 16 Apr-15 Dec 2009 | 16 Dec-15 Apr 2009-10 | 16 Apr-15 Dec 2010 | | Indigo (sleeps 4) 1-2 guests Extra persons | 300 20 | 330 20 | 300 20 | Rates are quoted in US$ per night and are subject to 10% service charge. All rates are subject to change without notice. Minimum rental 5 nights 30 Apr-15 Dec and 6 nights 16 Dec-29 Apr. Children over 12 yrs welcome. A deposit of 25% of the total rental cost is required to confirm bookings and is refundable less 10% if cancelled 60 days prior to arrival |
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How to Book
If you wish to make further enquiries or a reservation, please use the WEB LINK or DIRECT EMAIL ENQUIRIES facility at the top of this page to make contact with Down Island Villas in Carriacou, or if you wish to telephone them, their telephone number will be revealed if you click on the CONTACT TELEPHONE NUMBER link. If you wish to see more villas available for rent on Carriacou, please see our review of Down Island Villas. |
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Meet & Greet
Down Island Villas will meet you at the airport or the ferry dock in Hillsborough when you arrive on Carriacou. They will take you to Indigo, where the housekeeper will settle you in and answer any questions you have about the villa or about the island.
On departure, most guests drive themselves back to the ferry dock or the airport, but if you would prefer, Down Island will arrange transport for you free of charge. |
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Getting Around
It is well worth exploring Carriacou island during your time there and so a car is a useful addition to a visit. You can explore the island, visit the beaches for the day, collect your groceries and eat out when you do not want to cater for yourself. We recommend a rental car with every Caribbean vacation villa rental and suggest that you make a reservation in advance through Down Island Villas, who use our recommended Carriacou car hire company, Martin and Wayne Jeep Rentals. Or you can do so through your travel organiser.
Down Island’s delivery driver will bring the jeep to Indigo so that you can complete the paperwork. They will then accompany you to the Police Station in order for you to get your local Grenadian driving licence (price EC$30 for each driver), and give you an orientation tour of Hillsborough and the area at the same time. Be aware that at the height of the season between December and April, as well as during August and Thanksgiving (November), cars on island can be booked up, so it is a good idea to reserve one in advance.
Buses do run around the island, from Hillsborough past Snow Hill to Bogles and across to Windward. You will need to walk down to the main road. Services are unpredictable. Taxis will come to the villa itself. |
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