Bridgetown holiday villa rental, Garrison Savannah with beach/lake nearby, balcony/terrace, air con, internet access, telephone

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Rafeen (villa)

Home description

Rafeen is a 180 year old listed property situated opposite the Savannah race course in the historic garrison area of Barbados. The colonial style house is full of charm and character with gracious reception rooms and a large original terracotta tiled verandah complete with a bar over looking the race course which makes for relaxed viewing of the regular race days as well as horses exercising daily. The furnishings are mostly antique mahogany and the dining and drawing rooms are spectacular. The extensive gardens include a secluded pool with a pool house, and many and varied fruit trees. The wonderful south coast beaches are moments away and all the amenities of Bridgetown just a kilometre down the road. This is a very convenient location for exploring the whole island. The house comes complete with a daily maid service and all the little things to make your stay comfortable like snorkeling equipment, children's toys, games and books. Pool toys and a well equipped kitchen. Towels and sheets are excellent quality and there is attention to detail throughout the house.

Rafeen House	Front terrace
pool and back garden	Front garden

To see more photos please visit http://www.holidaylettings.co.uk/54945

The St Micheal Parish region

The Garrison area of Barbados is a couple of kilometres south of Bridgetown and is steeped in history. The Savannah is a huge grassy space referred to as the lungs of the city. This once served as the Imperial Army’s parade ground and the military buildings still stand around the perimetre of the Savannah including the fort itself and many old cannon make for historic and interesting viewing amongst the coconut palms and mango trees. (Please see section on military interest). The Savannah is active in the cool of the early morning and evening with activities ranging from basket ball and rugby games to kite flying, walkers and joggers. The race course surrounding the savannah is active early morning with horses and people exercising. The horses are frequently taken down to the beach near the Grand Barbados Hotel pier to swim. It is definitely worth getting up early to hear the chimes of the clock tower peal out “Morning has broken” and wander down to Pebbles Beach and see the horses swim in Carlisle Bay.

Bridgetown / Garrison Savannah area

The Garrison Savannah itself is a local attraction and The Barbados Museum is a few minutes walk around the Savannah Road. Race days are exciting and you can choose to watch from a distance or from the comfort of the front terrace, or wander into the thick of the action and place a bet.
Local beaches are close by and beautiful. The Savannah and Amaryllis hotels are a very short walk (10-15 minutes at a slow dawdle) away offering beautiful beaches (Savannah good for shells and rock pools and the Amaryllis good for swimming) as well as beach bars and restaurants. Both welcome non-residents. The beaches have some shade and also loungers and umbrellas.
The next beach front is the tennis club (details follow) the beach here is undeveloped and beautiful but slightly rocky so not so good for swimming – surfers use it a lot.
The Hilton hotel has the next bit of beach front where you are not so welcome to use the facilities but if you want you can sit on the beach. In our opinion the other beaches are better.
Pebbles beach is a public beach that is a slightly longer walk (say 20 minutes) with a car park. The beach is spectacular and the hut in the car park Cuzz’s does the best fish cutters ( soda bread rolls) on the island. There is not much shade here and no loungers and umbrellas.
The yacht club is next door and is members only – again you can use the beach but not the facilities.
The beach all around Carlisle Bay is fabulous with access to great snorkeling. You can see the catamarans dropping off divers and snorklers to the wrecks in the bay which are in fact only a short swim from the shore. You may see turtles on your way. There are many cafes and restaurants along the bay some offering loungers and umbrellas – Shade is in short supply so you may need them.
If you walk the length of Carlisle Bay you will reach Bridgetown where you can browse through the shops and find great fruit and veg markets. The careenage on the near side of the bridge provides a lovely dock side setting a some nice cafes (Waterfront, Limelight +/- Jazz) to recover from the walk. Alternatively you can get to Bridgetown in a ZR van or bus (both cost $1.50 ). There are many Taxis that will offer you a ride as well.

How to get there

30 minutes from Grantly Adams Airport by Taxi or hire car. We can arrange both for you.

Activities near Bridgetown

Facilities

Further details indoors:
Rafeen is a very old house, having survived the 1833 hurricane which devastated the island. The walls are over a foot thick and so it is very cool and pleasant. The 2 enormous reception rooms are furnished in antique mahogany, including a huge and spectacular dining table that comfortably seats 10. They run the width of the house and three double doors give access to the lovely front veranndah overlooking the large front garden and then the savannah race course. Racing happens almost everyother week and you can sit in comfort with a gin and tonic to watch.
A large hall area is directly off the reception rooms from which the bedrooms, bathroom and kitchen lead. We use this as a "snug and it has a comfortable daybed, large linen cupboard as well as a desk with wifi access and the phone and the television with cable.
The bedrooms are comfortable and the master bedroom has an en suite shower room and a fabulous superking size 4 poster bed Bedroom 2 has a large double bed and bedroom 3 has two / three single beds. The hall area is large and suitable for another bedroom and has a daybed for the purpose, which maybe screened off for some privacy.
The pool house has a sofa bed for extra sleeping if needed.
The light,airy characterful, but well equipped kitchen opens out to the back garden with a lovely seculded pool and pool house with a covered pergola area for alfresco dining and barbeques.

Further details outdoors:
The back garden, as well as offering the attraction of a pool is full of fruit trees and in season you can pick your own grapefruit for breakfast as well as lemons, limes, oranges, mangoes and bananas. The monkeys may beat you to it for the bananas and mangoes but they are great to watch. In fact they pass through the garden most days so keep an eye out.
The front garden also is a beautiful and relaxing space with large established trees and shrubs, as well as beautiful flowers including orchids. Watch out for the humming birds that regularly visit the flower beds. The huge shady sandalwood tree has a rope and a swing.
Lovely beaches are a short walk away with beach bars and loungers if desired, or you can aim for more secluded beaches with white sand and not much else. All directions are on our website and at the house. Turtle watching can be arranged for pick up walking distance from the house by catermerran.
Bridgetown and all its attractions is a short drive or bus ride away, the bus stop is a few hundred yards from the house. The Westcoast and St Lawrence Gap, both popular tourist destinations are an easy drive away as are all the activities inland. All details and recommendations are included in the information pack at the house.

Further details

This is an old property and has masses of charm and antique furnishings, we ask that people are respectful of that. We have tried to include all modern amenities to ensure a comfortable stay such as AC in all bedrooms and a daily maid service. Children will love it here, in fact we have 3 under 5.

Rental rates

Period	From	To	Weekly	Nightly rate		Minimum  stay
				Weekday	Weekend
Summer	9 Aug 08	2 Oct 08	1000£ 1,000	200200	200200	Flexible
Autumn	2 Oct 08	1 Dec 08	1500£ 1,500	250250	250250	Flexible
winter	1 Dec 08	22 Dec 08	2000£ 2,000	300300	300300	Flexible
Christmas	22 Dec 08	6 Jan 09	2500£ 2,500	0-	0-	1 Week
winter	6 Jan 09	1 Mar 09	2000£ 2,000	300300	300300	Flexible
Gold cup	1 Mar 09	9 Mar 09	2500£ 2,500	0-	0-	1 Week
Spring	9 Mar 09	2 Jul 09	1500£ 1,500	250250	250250	Flexible
Summer	2 Jul 09	9 Aug 09	1000£ 1,000	200200	200200	Flexible

The owner's weekend rates apply to: Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights

NB: Prices may be subject to change at the owner's discretion.

Baby sitting and cook service available $15 barbados per hour

Availability

See below for next 6 months' availability - to see the next 24 months click here

Contact owner

To contact this owner please visit: http://www.holidaylettings.co.uk/54945

Contact details for home 54945 Please mention Holiday Lettings
Name:	Emma Brookes
Mobile:	+44 (0)771109 5380
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Advertiser joined: 18 Jul 2008 This property added: 18 Jul 2008

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