While we had a great time in St. Croix – great people, warm weather, good food, awesome beaches – the accommodations at Beachy Keen left a lot to be desired. To start off, I’m pretty sure the pictures of the listing are from the marketing brochure when the condo was originally built, which based on my guess, was sometime in the 80s – and hasn’t been updated since, other than a new coffee maker and maybe the washer/dryer. If you’re expecting to walk into something warm and bright, then move along. This place is dirty and dingy – actually think the photographer or whoever is editing the pictures went a little overboard with the color saturation or something. I’m not talking just your typically wear and tear – the place was downright filthy – we had to use shower shoes and put sheets down on the furniture just to sit. The place needs a HEAVY duty cleaning and dusting, followed by some spackling, a few coats of paint, some new cushions for the furniture and fresh linens. (FYI – white shows the dirt more). While we were aware of the ‘pest’ issues from earlier in the summer based on other reviews, we thought surely that would be under control, if not rectified by the time of our stay, right??? NOPE!! We weren’t there even 10 minutes before we encountered our first ‘Mahogany Beetle’ and sent it to the great beyond via a flush. Honestly, that would have been somewhat ok, if we hadn’t come across a roach motel in every nook and cranny of the kitchen, among other places. That’s about when we abandoned the $400+ worth of groceries we bought and decided we would not be chancing it by cooking and/or eating onsite. Fortunately, we had made a friend at the grocery store and I believe my man Curtis ate like a king for a week – silver lining!!!
Other things to note:
· One is not necessarily rewarded with walking directly out the back gate of the patio (as depicted), but rather has to walk down a path a bit that eventually brings you to Sugar Beach
· The restaurant within walking distance, Breezez – PERMANATELY closed.
· The tennis courts – look like they got hit by a drone strike (no net, concrete cracking)
I’m not all doom and gloom though – it is centrally located (for going any other place that was NOT Beachy Keen) and the pool and clubhouse were nice (probably the nicest part of the complex), and even with no AC, which we were aware, the breeze off the water kept us cool enough.