“You don't have to die to get to heaven” Before my stay at Casa del Perro Feliz, I had never been to the Yucatan peninsula and I found the listing for the house on the internet. As you know, there can be a big difference between the experience promised in the listing and your actual stay. Everything about my 10 days at this fabulous house far exceeded my expectations. The house is spacious and sweet. Maria and Ulises, the caretakers, are dedicated and gracious. The bay is a Caribbean dream. We were there for the Christmas and new year holidays and we almost never even saw our neighbors--which meant we had the whole bay to ourselves. The nearby town of Tulum was exciting and the food was great. There are many things to see in the peninsula but, for us, the most magnificent were the cenotes. Swim in as many of them as you can. There is one 5 minutes walk from the house, but our favorite was the Grand Cenote, a few minutes drive. This was a memorable and rewarding trip for me, my wife and our 3 children. I'm saving up so we can go back.

“Beautiful House” With a perfect view of the blue ocean and a really nice service we fully enjoyed our stay in akumal, the Hause is clean, comfortable, with a nice view and a pool. I can just say good things about it, is well located, just one minute walk from the restaurant and bar la buena vida and 5 minutes walk from the beach and the dive shop. Thanks for everything

“We called it Paradise!” The place was AMAZING. The pictures online are awesome; the place in real life is breathtaking. The house is small. Two tiny bedrooms, one with a full(?) sized bed in it and the other with two twins. There's a little living room with a futon. A small bathroom inside and then the gorgeous outdoor bathroom attached to the master bedroom. I've never been in an outdoor bathroom before but it was crazy cool...especially at night when you light the candles! The house itself is very tastefully decorated. It has a beachy/nautical theme, but not gaudy, just perfect. Don't worry about the smallness of the house, though, because you seriously won't spend any time inside. The whole property is designed for the guests to be outside. We spent a ton of time on the blue outdoor couches, watching our 5 year old in the pool with the ocean in the background and listening to the waves or the music from the sonos system (an awesome touch!). Hilda, Euris and Papo are great. Hilda makes the best food and even taught me how to make flan (I recommend asking her to make that). Euris is so easy to be around. He drove us to the Parque Nacional Jaragua. My husband, who speaks Spanish, learned a lot about the area from him. They got along great! Papo kept the pool clean for our daughter and even tolerated her "helping" him. He spends a lot of time keeping the grounds looking so great. And his bonfires are the biggest we'd ever seen. We like our privacy and we're a little worried about having staff around all the time, but all three were so friendly and unobtrusive that it felt like a true paradise. When we booked the house we had planned for it to be just me, my husband and our daughter. Our in-laws were with us for the first part of our vacation and then we had planned to split up for our stay at Las Guayacanes but due to some miscommunication, they were without a place to stay for the first night. We invited them to stay with us until their place in Santo Domingo was ready. They ended up staying two nights (even though they were paying for a hotel room in the capital) because the property was so great. Euris drove them into the city when they were ready to leave. A few days later we decided to drive into the city to visit with them and invited them back to paradise for our last two nights . Again they agreed whilst still having to pay for their hotel room in the city(again). That's how great the place is!!! Also Edmundo is a great host. He responses are very quick and he'll readily answer any questions you have. He's done a great job with the rental. It's fantastic.

“This is a gorgeous and spacious lake home with plenty of amentities for adults and child. 5 Stars!!!!” This property is on a gorgeous location on top of a small hill. The view of the lake from the house is breathtaking. Our group enjoyed our stay thoroughly and we took full advantage of the amenities in the property like out door fire pit, hammock, boats/kayak allowed by the home-owner to be used by us. The house has enough space--we were a group of 9 people and the space was ample however there is only one shower so that might be a limitation. the kitchen was very spacious and had all the stuff needed for cooking. It would have been nice if there was a functional grill for using outdoors--the one that was there was kind of old and did not work very well. There was some strange odor in the dishwasher but that might be because of its limited usage. Overall, this place is highly recommended for vacation stay. The owners were really nice and friendly and the view and location is absolutely spectacular! My Response Thank you for your kind words. I do want to say that we have replaced the outdoor grill. I'm sorry you had trouble with it. I checked the dishwater also but could not smell or see anything in the trap. We disconnected the plumbing to examine and clean. Whatever the odor was, it's gone. My apologies. I am glad you enjoyed yourself. Upon your next visit, you can enjoy our new 16x30 log railing deck we just finished 8/19/14! Appreciatively Yours, Shawn Skeele

“Can't wait to go back!” The house was gorgeous! We went with 2 other couples and 2 teenagers - it was perfect for our group. We loved the decks on different levels - our group was able to spread out nicely in the house. The pictures of the inside of the house don't do it justice - the furnishings were very nice and the house is well stocked with games, beach bags and a cooler. And the beds were very comfy! We also loved how one of the bathrooms had a door to the outside so you didn't bring in a bunch of sand every time you used the bathroom The house was easy to book and the owners were extremely helpful and answered all of our questions pre-trip The beach is lovely. We had a great time beach combing and watching the pelicans. Maria and Bernadino were great. We had them cook dinner for us one night and it was amazing. They set the table for us, cleaned up and packed up leftovers. There was enough food left over for dinner the next night. We loved Tulum. We were in Mexico at the height of spring break, yet we had the beach to ourselves. The kids loved Matinee cenote and we arranged a snorkle/dive trip with the dive shop at the end of the road. 2 people in our group are divers, but the rest of the group wanted to snorkel. They were able to accommodate the entire group and we had a great time

“The Best of Costa Rica!” This was my second visit to Villa Encantada! After the first visit in 2010, my daughter decided this was the place to get married! We returned with a group of 30+. The bridal party(14) stayed at the Villa and Glenn helped to place the rest of us in properties close by, including his sister's house up the hill. The whole event could not have been better! Let me say that Glenn is a great guy and incredible host! If you want to experience the best of Costa Rica, stay with Glenn at the Villa! The grounds are as beautiful as the pictures indicate and you can be entertained right on the property. The Tabacon Lodge and Skywalk at Volcanoes National Park are under one hour drive. Shopping and dining in Nuevo Arenal has a true Tico feel and much better than dealing with the big tourist towns. Pura Vida! Thank you Glenn!

“Truly Amazing property!” There are no words to describe how wonderful it was to wake up to the magnificent views at Casa Espanola. The concierge and staff at my vacation Costa Rica were very attentive to all our needs. We were there for my girlfriend's bachelorette party and we were a group of 15! From the beginning, geralyn and Amy did a great job planning out our trip. I was very anxious about how the trip was going to turn out because i had never been to Costa Rica, but they were always so prompt with responding to my emails and executing all that was promised. Geralyn set up all of our excursions ahead of time. She even scheduled massages at the property! You won't want to leave this place! The pictures do not do it justice! It is even more beautiful in person. We posted photos on instagram with the hashtag #casaespanola so that you can see some photos from our experience. There were 4 floors and each had an ocean view! It was refreshing being able to wake up to that every morning! Every day, the cleaning staff came and cleaned up the property thoroughly, so the house was so nice every time we got back from our daily outing. Oh and our private chef, Chef Harold, was amazing!!!! He and his wife are so nice and the food is delicious! They have a menu on site and they will cook anything you request as long as they can get the ingredients. I would recommend Costa Rican cuisine because it is really yummy. All you have to pay for is the cost of food. And it is definitely worth it! The beaches are close by and easy to get to. The cost of transportation is about $1.75 per person each way. We had breakfast at Cafe Milagro. Their food is really good and the coffee drinks are deelish! You must see Manuel Antonio park. It is about a 20 minute stroll through the park where you see cute monkeys and other exotic animals. Once you get to the end of the park, you get to Manuel Antonio beach which is totally worth it! We had a blast. We also went to playa biesanz which is nice and private. Our trip was at the beginning of rainy season (May 28th-June 1st). I was really anxious about the weather because of the weather reports. I will say this: please disregard what you see on your weather app. It said that it was 100% precipitation and that it would be cloudy and raining every day. The weather was amazing pretty much all day. It would get cloudy in the late evening and it did rain a couple nights, but Costa Rica is so amazing that it didn't even bother us. Especially since we stayed at casa Española. I forgot to mention that they even provide you with 2 cell phones in case you need to get in touch with your concierge! How amazing is that? You can use the phone to make any local calls. So after the first couple days, i was able to call my own taxi lol I’m sure some of the other girls will post a review so you can definitely see how happy we were with our experience! Stay here! You won't be disappointed! To Amy, Geralyn and the rest of the staff at My Vacation Costa Rica, Thank you again for your hard work and the amazing experience!