We returned back to Anguilla in February of 2010. We were in Anguilla in May of 2009 and stayed at KU Hotel. This time, we stayed at a villa that we just could not pass up the deal. We also were able to get good airfare to St. Martin from being member of Everything about St. Martin (Jeff Bergers web site). We did the same thing as before, flew into St. Martin, took taxi to Marigot and caught the ferry over to Anguilla. Pretty fast. The ride over to Anguilla was smooth. The villa we stayed at was called Windsong Villa and it is located in the area called East End Village of the island. The villa is about a 5 – 10 minute walk to Mimi's Bay, which is remote and quiet. No one else there, but locals who may be fishing. Very hard to find, but Frank who is the owner of Windsong, gave us the directions to it. You are also within walking distance of Sile Bay, but Mimi's is prettier. But, they are all pretty remote. To get to Sile Bay, you will need a four wheel drive since in certain areas, the road was awful and a small rental car would have disappered in the ruts. Mimi's road was not as bad, but the initial hill that the road goes up, you almost would need a four wheel drive. I would not trust a small rental car on that road.

Windsong Villa is a quaint place and very peaceful. The area is very quiet and you feel very safe. But, that is usually the case in all of Anguilla. The villa is not air conditioned and during the day, it was warm in the room. We were surprised on how warm it was during our stay and it was a little humid. Not sure how the villa would be during the hot summer months. You had a nice pool to yourself and a nice roof top terrace that you could watch the sunrise over Sile Beach. All in all, I would recommend the villa, but do not expect this to be a luxury villa. I would say that it was almost like having a cabin in the woods, but instead of being in the woods, you are in paradise. Also, Windsong is only about 15 minutes to Shoal Bay East which is still our favorite beach in Anguilla. Frank, the owner of Windsong, is a very good host and makes sure that you are taken care of. I recommend him for that. He also made sure that he gave his guests their privacy, even though his house is right next to the villa. The only time you really saw Frank was when he left for work and returned and when he would take his three dogs out for their walks. He helps with the stray dogs in Anguilla and has adopted, I believe, all three of his dogs this way.

The villa is also not that far away to the grocery stores that we would go to. Our favorite grocery store is Lakes Grocery store which is located in Stoney Ground or the Valley. The closest grocery store to Windsong was named Best Buy. It was okay, but it was also the only grocery store that carried Pepsi products. It did not have as good of a selection as the other 2 grocery stores, but it appears that most of the local residents in the area go to this grocery store. The other grocery store between Best Buy and Lakes Grocery store was JW Proctor. This was probably the nicest of the three and had a great selection of meats and cheeses and other various items.

The other good thing about staying at Windsong was that it was real close to Island Harbour which is where Le Boin Pain Bakery is located. This is our favorite bakery on the island. I would drive there every morning to get a fresh baguette and a few pastries. It was only about a 10 minute drive from the villa and it was worth the drive everyday. They also have great sandwiches which we had one day for lunch. One sandwich was more than enough for the both of us. Very big and very good.

The restaurants that we went to while in Anguilla in February 2010.

On Friday night, our first night, we wanted to eat somewhere close to our villa which was located on the East End of the Island. So, we went back to Madeariman's that is located in Shoal Bay East, next to Uncle Ernies and KU Hotel. The restaurant was a little busy and service was acceptable. The food was okay, but nothing to write home about. I noticed that our server looked familiar and asked if he had worked before on St. Martin. He said that yes, he was one of the servers at the Sunset Restaurant that is located at the Grand Case Beach Club. He said that the chef and a few others decided to leave Sunset and when that happened, he also left. So, what a small world. This time around though, we were not as impressed with the food as we were when we ate there in May of 2009. Both of our entrees were okay, but not up to what we were expecting.
Saturday night we went to Roy's Bayside Grill in Sandy Ground. This was recommended by Frank from Windsong Villa. The food was great and we had a table that was right next to the beach. But, it was a rainy evening and chilly. But the service was good and the atmosphere was nice. Would recommend. Both of our entrees were very good.
On Sunday night, we went back to Luna Rosa which we went to twice on our stay in May of 2009. The atmosphere was still great, with great service and great food. Would recommend again. This was one of our highest priced dinners in our week.
On Monday, we decided to go simple and we went to the Sunset Bar and Restaurant for lunch, which is located on Shoal Bay East, but past Madearimans. We ate here since this is where we had rented the beach chairs and it is a lot more quiet on that end of the beach than by Uncle Ernies or even Elodies. The beach is the same as in the other places, so why not go somewhere more peaceful. The food was good and the service was good. Would recommend this over Elodies which we went to in May of 2009 and thought it was okay. Gwen's Reggae Café is still one of the better places to eat if you want something for lunch while at Shoal Bay East. But we liked Sunset Bar because it was quiet and they also were playing reggae music.
On Tuesday, we had lunch at Trattoria Tramonto which is located on Shoal Bay West. We wanted to try a different beach and if you have lunch at the restaurant, the beach chairs are free for the day. So, we arrived late morning and than a few hours later, we had a late lunch. The food was fantastic. Service was good. It was worth it. We would recommend this anytime. The lunch was expensive, but it was worth it since the food was so good. This was also recommended by Frank at Windsong.
On Wednesday, we decided to go simple and we went to Elvis's Beach Bar in Sandy Ground for dinner. This was enjoyable. Elvis is a great host and again, it was a chilly evening and it had just stopped raining. If you want to go somewhere to chill out and just watch the crowd, than this was good. Even though, there was not much of a crowd on the night we were there.
On Thursday, we went to the Straw Hat located on Mead's Beach. This was very good and the service was great. The lady who served us was from England and she had a fantastic accent. This was also recommended by Frank, but we also knew that this was supposed to be a good restaurant. It did live up to its reputation.
We tried making dinner reservations for a new restaurant that just opened up and Frank highly recommended. But we could not ever get reservations, so we decided to go for lunch on Friday. Jacala Restaurant is located on Mead's Beach. The food was fantastic and the service was very good. This was worth going to and we think the dinners here would be awesome. But, the lunch was very good. All what they need though, is to have more beach chairs available for their customers.
On our last night, Saturday night, we decided to go to Barrel Stay in Sandy Ground which again was recommended by Frank. This was our most expensive meal of our stay. The food was very good and the service was very good also. They were not very busy, so we had good service. Would recommend this to anyone.

As you can tell, most of the restaurants that we went to were recommended by Frank. And he was spot on with every one of his recommendations. He never did steer us wrong.

Frank did also recommend that we go to The Viceroy which had just opened up in the last few months. The Viceroy is located on Meads Beach and has a great sunset. He recommended that we get there and have cocktails and watch the sunset. The waitress who served us was very friendly and very good. The views were unbelievable. This was worth it. We enjoyed ourselves so much that we went back on our last night and had cocktails again. This time we meant two guys who just arrived a few hours before and were just awe struck by the hotel. They said that their room was awesome. We had a great time talking with them and were even late to our restaurant reservation at the Barrel Stay. But, heck, we were on island time.

Beaches that we went to were: Shoal Bay East, Upper Shoal Beach (I still consider this one big beach, but the maps and everyone else has this as 2 beaches), Mimi's Beach, Sile's Beach, Mead's Beach and Shoal Bay West. Out of every beach that we have now seen in Anguilla, by far, the best one is Shoal Bay East or Upper Shoal Beach. Of course, Meads and Shoal Bay West would be top beaches if they were not on Anguilla. This is also true of Rendezvous Bay which is a gorgeous beach, but still Shoal Bay East and Upper Shoal are just spectacular.

The one thing that we have discovered, which is probably a good thing, is that out of the above beaches that we went to, you cannot rent beach chairs at any of the above beaches except for Shoal Bay East and Upper Shoal Beach. You could not rent at Shoal Bay West or Meads Beach. The only folks that were on beach chairs were the ones that were located at the resorts. Maybe that is why you see everyone going over to Shoal Bay West and Upper Shoal. Keep that in mind when you go to any of the other beaches. Not sure about Rendezvous.