Take me back there, right now.

We had such a glorious time. The cottage is tiny but wonderful -- clean, airy, bright. There's no A/C because it's designed with windows on all sides and a ceiling fan to help the cross-breezes along. We were comfortable in mid-May. It felt like much more of a real island experience than staying in a resort. I was nervous about privacy because this cottage is attached to a larger house. They told us the plantings would provide privacy, and they really, really do. The entire place is cloaked by beautiful tropical plantings, with the exception of the view straight out to the ocean. The only time you'd see other people is on the path to the shared parking lot, which crosses directly in front of the cottage by the double screen doors right in front of the bedroom. There are curtains you can pull in front of the doors, though. The garden shower is very private. The wall around it is probably 7 feet tall, with vines and plants coming down the walls. It was awesome. The views pictured on this website are not exaggerated, btw. I was pretty sure the photos were prettified in some way, but the view is exactly as pictured, and I have a bunch of photos on my camera to prove it. Basically, that's what you see when you're sitting up in bed. They're not exaggerating about the road, either. The first time we drove up it, we were both white-knuckled. By the end of the week, we were rocking and rolling down that road like old pros. It was great. A little tutorial from the car-rental agency didn't hurt, either. We used the grill, but we never got around to using the hot tub -- we'd rather have spent our time on the beach. The WiFi was not quite strong enough to stream Netflix, but there is a small TV with a DVD player, so I'd bring DVDs if you want to watch movies at night. We liked Coral Bay way better than Cruz Bay, the more populous town on the other end of the island. There are far fewer people and more donkeys/chickens in the road, which was amusing, and just as many great beaches. We went over to the west end to visit, but we always ended up preferring Coral Bay. Word of warning: If you're going to the islands in May or later, be sure to bring plenty of DEET, because the mosquitoes will be out in force, including in the garden shower. As one local told us, "Better spray than dengue."