After spending a fantastic week aboard a CatCo 440 Lagoon, we wanted to spend a weekend at a nice relaxing place with a pool, and we got just that. 6 of the 8 people on the charter stayed at Lemon Grass villa in Cane Garden Bay December 18 to 21. It was a real treat. It's a very private location with Three Bedrooms/Three bathrooms, One bedroom on the upper level and two on the level with the pool, all air conditioned with ceiling fans, all had TV (but we didn't really turn them on), a great living room and kitchen area which was very open with a great view of Cane Garden Bay and the Ocean over to St Thomas. There is a grill if you want to use that as well.

The pool was slightly cooler than I thought it might be (great for hot days). It was refreshing and easy to get used to, but night swimming isn't really going to happen because it needed maybe 5 more degrees for that. Great pool though with lounge chairs all around.

Lemon Grass villa IS NOT way up the hill (if you know Tortola, there are crazy up/down hill roads that are fairly insane to walk up), so it's an easy walk into Cane Garden Bay. We walked it 4 or 5 times a day to either get something at the Bakery, Bobby's Market, or to hit a bar or place to eat.

We weren't able to fully appreciate the Bakery in town. We stopped by Friday afternoon upon arrival and they were out of most things and someone told us to come back tomorrow. We came back Saturday and they didn't have anything and on Sunday they let us know that they really have the weekend off and make wedding cakes and requests. We stopped by at opening on Monday morning and bought some coconut bread which we promptly made into the most fantastic french toast you've ever had. They also make small pies and I'm not sure what else. If you know some Spanish, that might go a long way in getting what you want.

Cane Garden Bay is beautiful, and is especially nice when the cruise ship isn't in road town providing lots of foot traffic to the CGB beach. My cousin's wife snorkeled there, but I think the swells were going and she couldn't see too much (much better snorkeling on our charter).

We ate at Quito's Friday evening and it was quite good. As I recall, we ate a fish special and I all but licked the plate. My only complaint was they said there was live music Friday and Saturday, and so we thought we'd come back Saturday. I'm not sure what happened, but there was no live music Saturday.

On Sunday, my cousin and his wife walked over to Brewer's Bay where his wife snorkeled and then they saw/took pictures of jumping dolphins (a real treat).

One thing you CAN NOT MISS is Bananakeet Cafe up the road from CGB. They serve fantastic sushi and it's way up on a point where the view (especially sunset) is unbelievable beautiful. My cousin and his wife walked there for lunch once (90 minute walk), but the six of us took a taxi up there. The taxi driver came a little early to drive us back and we invited him to eat with us. Great guy with fun stories (Sam).

All in all, it would be as good of a base of operations as any I believe, and the villa is awesome.

FYI - We found Lemon Grass via posting here at TTOL, and Cheryl from Purple Pineapple was fantastic at arranging our stay, answering questions, and even popped in right after we arrived to show us around. 1st class job!

Rich