29 The Village

I wasn’t staying in the apartment, so I can’t rate the service. I was there to give a businesswoman, who was sharing it with her son, a two-hour massage and specialised pedicure. The ocean views were spectacular, and the waves sounded amazing.

We had such an enjoyable stay. It’s a beautiful place.

The outside is lovely, with beautiful views over the beach, and the indoor pool is nice. The rooms and bathrooms are okay, but not the best anymore, and the kitchen looks old and could use a makeover. I don’t know if people are aware, but two huge sewage pipes run into the beach. The water is contaminated, and dirty toilet paper washes back onto the sand. That doesn’t feel safe even for a walk along the beach, let alone a swim. Environmentalists took water samples, and the results came back contaminated.

Finding the place was difficult because the address was strange. The apartment itself was lovely and very well equipped, with impressive attention to detail, but it was not clean. The toilet in the second bathroom hadn’t even been flushed, there was old toothpaste on the basin tap and shaving hair in the main bathroom basin. Someone had also left men’s jeans in the cupboard. The floors felt crunchy underfoot, as if they hadn’t been swept or mopped, and the bedding smelled. When I wiped the bedside table in the tiny second bedroom, the tissue came away black with old dirt. The lift was out of service, so carrying luggage up four flights from the parking garage was very inconvenient.