![]() To see an even more beautiful beach I would recommend taking the ferry to Anguilla and go to Shoal Bay- it is absolutely amazing and more secluded than St. I wouldn't pay that kind of money to stay there again despite the beautiful beach. Overall, you don't stay at Esmerelda for the notion of comfort or luxury or good customer service. I would highly recommend the pizzeria/creperie there as the best of all of them. There are some okay restaurants nearby at the Village of Orient. The lobster was tender and the filet was sumptuous. The food was fantastic, though pricey, and the staff was great. However, the best part about Esmerelda, next to the beach, is Le Astrolabe, the restaurant. We waited for an hour to rent a car at the front desk and finally gave up and got a taxi who ended up being the rental car guy who made us wait anyway! Use of the internet is $14 an hour at Esmerelda. Taxi cabs at the hotel are notoriously late and on "island time" as is the oh-so-convenient rental car guy. They appear to be nice but overall are not very helpful. The woman during the day there was constantly on the phone chatting with pals so if you call from your room and no one picks up the one line up front you know why. The staff at the front desk of Esmerelda were fairly unfriendly and unimpressive. We found that all of the restaurants were pricey and taxis are very expensive too. The nearby restaurants on Orient beach are convenient but expensive. There are also plenty of watersports nearby and there is a nudist beach on the far end past Pedro's. The beach has plenty of locals trying to sell their wares to you but they are friendly. The chairs and umbrella are free for guests, mind that you tip the employee there of course. The Coco Beach staff was fairly friendly but you cannot get a waiter to fill your water glass to save your life. The property itself is not lush and the plants were fairly dry and brown although there were some nice flower bushes here and there. There seemed to be stray cats roaming around everywhere too. We found a dead lizard in there along with plenty of dead bugs. The private pool outside the room is a nice touch but was very dirty and not worth swimming in. A box of cereal was $9! They do a great job of ripping off the tourists there. However, the nearby grocery store is ridiculously expensive. There were a whopping two glasses and two plates, although there was a toaster oven, dish rack and one dish towel. ![]() There is a much promised kitchenette but it was tiny tiny and not really a place to cook meals. We found a ton of mosquitos in the room too, but at least no lizards. The maids never replaced the soaps and probably never bothered to scrub the bathrooms. The room offers very little in the way of comfort so you can forget about luxury. I can say that our king bed (which was actually just 2 doubles pushed together) was pretty comfortable. I saw the maids do a poor job of actually cleaning the place in less than 20 minutes so don't expect anything to be disinfected. The room itself was very very bare bones with sand ingrained tile floors and stark white walls. There are barely any amenities to speak of, including the sad fact that there wasn't even a clock radio in the room. Esmerelda is located on a great part of the island and the beach was terrific. The private pool outside the room is a nice touch but was very dirty and not. ![]()
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