This trip report covers our week long stay at Villa Carolisol in Cofresí, Dominican Republic from May 16 – May 23, 2004. My husband, our 14 month old son, my grandmother and I decided to rent a villa right outside Puerto Plata in order to escape the hustle and bustle of Santo Domingo and for much needed relaxation. We found Villa Carolisol through its website and contacted the co-owner, Sally Ford who provided us with detailed information on all aspects of the villa and Cofresí. Sally was a pleasure to work with. She ensured that all of our questions were answered before booking the villa and followed up with us after we returned to the States.
The Villa
Villa Carolisol is located in the resort enclave of Cofresí, just 10 minutes outside of Puerto Plata. The Cofresí area is beautiful, tranquil and lush with vegetation. The beach, as in most of the North Coast, is not white sand, but it is pretty and very clean for a public beach. Villa Carolisol is part of a group of villas which are privately owned. While we were there, we took the opportunity to see other villas and I would say that Villa Carolisol is one of the most beautiful of the group. It also has the appealing location of being just about 50 yards from the beach.
The three level villa itself is not luxuriously appointed- actually, it is simply decorated with basic linens, antiques and rustic furniture. There are two patios, a full bathroom and three guest bedrooms on the first floor. The second floor has a large kitchen, another full bathroom, living room and dining room. There is also a fantastic terrace facing the beach furnished with rocking chairs and a hammock. My husband spent many hours on that hammock. The third floor has a bedroom with a full bath and access to the rooftop terrace. The backyard contains a wonderful kidney shaped swimming pool and a basketball court. The entire villa is walled in for privacy and security.
Staff
Jacob and Lina will make sure your every need is taken care of while you are at Villa Carolisol. Lina is the villa’s cook and she will arrive to cook breakfast at 8:30 am. She will clean and do the laundry as well. Lina will show you a menu list to choose from and you will then shop for groceries with her accordingly. Jacob arrives at 4:30 p.m. to serve dinner, clean up and take care of the villa overall. He stays overnight in his own quarters when the villa is occupied. Both Lina and Jacob are wonderful and they work very hard to make your stay the most enjoyable it can be. When there are more than six people at the villa, Lina’s daughter, Ingrid, comes to help. We hired Ingrid as a babysitter for our 14 month old son and she did very well with him.
Things to do
You can either spend your days doing nothing or taking part in organized tours which you can book without even leaving the villa. Cofresí also offers some diversions. The EMI Sun Village and Hacienda Resorts are within walking distance to the villa as well as the new Ocean World complex. At your doorstep is famous Chris and Maddy’s Restaurant. Even though Lina’s cooking was superb, we ate several times at Chris and Maddy’s. Eating here is something that should not be missed.
Traveling with baby
If you are traveling with a baby, a villa vacation is great. Keep in mind, however, that Villa Carolisol is three floors so if your little one is mobile [and active] like my own, then you will have to take extra precautions. We baby proofed the villa by taking our own safety products such as electrical outlet covers, adhesive mounted toilet lid locks, etc. We did not use the toilet lid locks as we all just made sure all bathroom doors were kept closed. Keep in mind that the stairs leading to the second floor will have to be monitored at all times. We used a living room chair to block off the stairs from our son. It would be great if Sally could install a wrought iron gate at the top of the stairs just like she has at the bottom of the stairs. I suppose you could also take a pressure mounted gate with you if this is really worrisome and your little one is not too strong yet.
Additional things to take for baby:
A monitor: I took our Fisher Price monitor and it was a life saver! Since three of the guest bedrooms are downstairs and the living room, terrace, and dining rooms are on the second level, it was essential for us to be able to listen to our son while he was asleep.
Beach/pool toys: There are some pool toys around, but we took additional toys for our son and we are so glad that we did. We had a blast making sand castles at the beach. We also took his baby boat to use at the pool.
Tons of sunblock: My favorite is Baby Blanket, which contains both titanium dioxide and zinc oxide. Also, make sure you have a hat for baby and SPF clothing if your baby is less than six months. We love the SPF clothing from onestepahead.com.
Food/medicines: We ended up taking our son’s favorite cereals and his Infant Tylenol for his teething pains as well as some Pedialyte. We also took tons of Off Deep Woods mosquito spray. If you are concerned with DEET, Natrapel works okay.
Diapers and diapering products: I cannot emphasize enough to take your own diapers to the D.R. Disposable diapers are very expensive, especially American brands. While in the States we choose to use cloth diapers on our son, we did take a package of disposables. In retrospect, I suppose I could have packed his Mother Ease cloth diapers and just washed them myself in the washer just like I do back home. Hummm, next time.
Stroller/Carrier: We pondered with the idea of taking my son’s Maclaren Vogue stroller, which is the one we always use when we travel, but decided against it. We would not have been able to push the Maclaren in Cofresí very well. For the beach you would probably need a Mountain Buggy or something like that. However, I did miss the Maclaren in the streets of Santo Domingo. What we did end up taking was our Tough Traveler carrier and that was a life saver!
A car seat: No one uses car seats in the D.R. so take yours and install it if you are going to use a car. Seats are very easy to install these days, especially the better brands like Britax. Their Roundabout is a breeze to install.
Conclusion
Overall this was a fantastic vacation. We highly recommend Cofresí and Villa Carolisol in particular. We wanted to relax and enjoy quality family time above all. We definitely accomplished that.
http://www.ifb.com/puerto-plata/villa-carolisol.htm
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Review of Villa Carolisol in Cofresi
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