Java Wood Villa

The beds were comfy and clean, and the rooms and bathrooms have a quirky feel. The place is a little away from the main thoroughfare and quite run down. You get what you pay for, so it may suit a tight budget, but I won’t stay here again. On holiday I want a bit of luxury, especially in the heat and humidity, and these rooms don’t offer much of that.

The pool was clean, the room was a decent size, and the bed was comfortable. Those were the positives. Otherwise, avoid this place. The rooms are too close together, and you can hear neighbours brushing their teeth as well as the mosque at 5am. There’s no lock on the outside door. I requested a bug net before check-in and got no response; it wasn’t installed. When I asked again, they brought one with holes, and there was dirt on our bedsheet. They cleaned the room the first morning but not afterward. We also had no tap water on the last night or the next morning, while nearby hotels didn’t have this issue. The host lists over 1700 properties and replies with automated messages. The listing was inaccurate: there was no à la carte or Asian breakfast, garden or terrace, safety deposit box, free toiletries, fire extinguisher, first aid kit, smoke alarm, or carbon monoxide alarm. It says the beach is 150m away, but Google Maps shows a 1km route from Java Wood Villa to Turtle Shore. It claims to be a 4 star hotel, but there’s no restaurant, room service, gym, spa, and so on.

The place has a lot of mosquitoes in the room, bathroom and around the pool, and there was no mosquito net at first. There’s no water fountain to refill bottles, and the hotel is a bit inland, so you really need a bike to get around. The price also seemed a little high for the experience. Akbar made our stay really pleasant, though. The service was extremely good, and he quickly found us a mosquito net when our room didn’t have one. He was very helpful and nice. We appreciated the private pool, the good breakfast (available as an extra), and the convenient bike rental through the hotel at the same prices as elsewhere on the island.

Friendly, warm staff who feel like family. The little one-bedroom villa has a clean pool and a nice, soft bed. It’s in a quiet area, though a bit far from the harbour, the main attraction. It takes about 10-15 minutes by bike. Some of the wood flooring isn’t firmly installed, so be careful. It would also be nice to have a toilet roof cover for privacy, since you can hear activity from the next room.