One thing you’ll notice when you’re looking to book a room, is that there are a lot of room types and they’re all very different. Of all the hotels we’ve stayed at, I’d say this is one where you really have to pick what is best for your lifestyle and priorities.
All of the rooms have natural elements, handmade furnishings and are extremely unique from a layout perspective. Technology is certainly not the main focus here, as TVs are cleverly tucked away inside suitcase-looking coffee tables and light switches are a combination of old-school switches and colorful knobs and oddities. While it takes an excruciatingly long time to find all the lights at the end of the night, the style of the knobs and “homemade” switches is a very Soneva thing to do. While we feel it would be a better guest experience to modernize and make things a bit more consistent, it’s also part of the “charm”.
The bath amenities are all-natural and very nice. They are available in refillable containers, which is not something I love unless they refill them and sanitize them between guest stays. Some of our rooms did have half empty bottles, while others were full. Regardless, they offered after-sun lotion, reef safe sunscreen, mosquito spray, shampoo, conditioner and body wash.
We had the opportunity to try three different rooms: a Family Villa Suite with a pool on the sunset side, a 2-bedroom Crusoe Suite with a pool and the 2-bedroom Water Retreat.
The Family Villa Suite with a Pool was not our favorite, to be honest. It was quite outdated, with a non-functioning water kettle, doors that couldn’t quite seal correctly and a view of the neighboring island that included a very bright light straight into the room all night. Since the doors didn’t seal correctly, the AC didn’t quite get the job done. Also, small note but the wine glasses in this room were not nearly as nice as the wine glasses in the two other rooms we were in. There is a very small second bedroom with a queen bed. It’s not quite an ideal kids room since there is only one bed, but I’m not sure how you could fit two beds in there. I eluded to this earlier, but in general, I would personally avoid the sunset side due to the local island that is so close. Frankly, this villa category feels like it’s “left behind” and may even end up being converted to something else in the future as I can’t imagine too many guests are elated with the views, in particular. The room did have a nice outdoor bathroom with a sunken tub and garden area, which was our favorite part of the room.