Tropical Villa of your dreams! Peaceful, private, stylish. In a gated community above surf village of Samara. Enjoy the scenery and wildlife from the NEW 360 viewing deck, completed in May! Bedrooms each w/ AC & bath, blackout shades, and sliding doors to exterior. 5-min walk to coffee, bakery, restaurants, and shopping. 10-min walk to beach- safe & swimmable for all ages with beautiful tidal pools to explore & snorkel. Expansive, level outdoor space. Wifi. Ample free private parking. The space Villa del Cielo (Sky Villa) is a one-level (no stairs) elegant, modern-style home built in 2016. It is open and airy, well-stocked, and has views from every room. There is expansive outdoor space to enjoy. VIEWING DECK: A 360 Viewing Deck was completed in May offering incredible opportunities for wildlife viewing, especially over morning coffee or afternoon cocktails. Views in all directions of jungle, mountains, the ocean (more so during dry season), and an expansive dark sky. Both the sunrise and sunset can be enjoyed! There are extensive wildlife viewing opportunities (see below description and photos under "garden"). HOME LAYOUT- The Villa has three bedrooms (1K, 2Q), each with an en-suite bathroom, AC, blackout blinds, and sliding glass doors to the exterior. Open kitchen, living, and dining room floor plan with sliding glass doors throughout for ease of outdoor access. Recently updated, including new sofa set. Outdoor covered seating area for six alongside lap pool. The kitchen is fully accessorized. TV is in the air-conditioned living room (bedrooms do not have TVs). The Master bedroom is located at the opposite end of the villa from the guests' rooms for additional privacy. The surrounding property is all flat. The home is level without steps. There is ample room for kids to kick a ball. LOCATION/ACCESS: The property is located on a hilltop above the small surf village of Samara, hense the incredible views!. The paved driveway is very steep at the start. The walk up the drive takes 2-3 minutes. It is a great motivator to jump in the pool when you reach the top! That said, walking up this driveway is not recommended for individuals with physical challenges while pulling luggage or while pushing a baby stroller. We recommended securing a car or golf car for individuals with these circumstances. RENTALS: Car, ATV, Golf cart, E-bike, and bicycle rentals are available daily in Samara. Some companies deliver. Surfboards and Boogie boards can be rented at any one of the 5 or 6 surf schools located on Samara Beach. MAINTENANCE: Felix, the Gardener, attends to the pool and garden daily (except Sundays). He quietly arrives first thing in the morning to have the pool ready for your morning swim! Gardening occurs late morning intermittently throughout the weekdays. The lawn is mowed once a week. These services are essential to maintaining the quality and enjoyment of the pool and property. While they cannot be opted out, the timing may be adjusted with advanced notice. WILDLIFE: There is a variety of resident wildlife (i.e., birds, iguanas, geckos, pisotes/Coatis, ducks, lizards, squirrels, ) and passing-through wildlife (i.e., howler monkeys, fruit bats, etc.). As the monkeys are not full-time residents, there is no guarantee they will visit, but they pass by the property most mornings or evenings, grazing the treetops surrounding the villa. Keep a careful ear (to hear the trees rustling) and an eye on the surrounding trees, including the largest tree across from the entrance (also where the sun sets). The most reliable time to see the monkeys is at cocktail hour from the Viewing Deck, just before dusk. The bird watching is excellent- parrots, parakeets, motmot, falcons, hawks, etc. THIS IS A BIRDERS PARADISE! The fruit bats used to arrive nightly as they were attracted to insects on the pool water illuminated by the pool lights. While fascinating to watch, they limited some guests' outdoor evening enjoyment of the property. As such, we have disabled the pool lights that attracted the bats. The ambient outdoor lighting makes the back patio and yard very enjoyable for cocktails, dinner, cards, or an evening swim. PESKY WILDLIFE: Please note that pesty wildlife is common in Costa Rica, and the Villa is no exception. The Villa is fumigated quarterly, but this doesn't always help with weather or barometric pressure-related guests. For example, sometimes there are short-lived flying insect hatches (gnats, mosquitos, flies, flying ants). During the rainy season, tiny ants can be a problem. They can get into the house and may be attracted to food left on the counters. Spiders appear intermittently. Also, there are resident geckos in the Villa that stay near the ceiling and do not cause any problems. Frogs sometimes visit the windows, and an occasional snake may pass through the property. small Halloween crabs have appeared in the showers. We recently had our first appearance of horses grazing the grass by the pool. Scorpions show up every now and then. We can only hope that guests visiting Costa Rica are tolerant of these wildlife occurrences and don't let their appearance influence our rating, as we do not have control over these situations. Guest access LOCATION: The property is located in a gated community of 4 homes on a hilltop above the small surf village of Samara, hense the incredible views! Guests can access all sides of the property. The home is private and quiet. PROPERTY & HOME ACCESS: Guest are typically greeted by the property management company located just minutes away, especially if arriving at night. Or, self-access by key code can be granted upon request. Guests are given a code to a key storage box by the front door. The property is secured by a front gate. Guests are given a key code and a key fob for the gate. The gate also can be manually opened and closed when the power goes out. The paved driveway is very steep at the start. The walk up the drive takes 2-3 minutes. It is a great motivator to jump in the pool when you reach the top! That said, walking up this driveway is not recommended for individuals with physical challenges while pulling luggage or while pushing a baby stroller. We recommended securing a car or golf car for individuals with these circumstances. Other things to note SLIDING GLASS DOORS AUTOMATICALLY LOCK! The sliding glass doors are self-locking. Please be careful when you go outside to leave the front door unlocked or a slider slightly open so you can come back in. Or leave the house key in the locked storage box all the time, then you will always have access to it. There is a back-up lockbox by the pool bodega (back side of pool), as well. There are also screen/mosquito nets for the doorways that are recommended to remain closed to keep insects out. The property is located in the Costa Rican jungle. It is fumigated quarterly. Housekeeping checks for insects during every cleaning. That said, insects can get inside, especially if the doors or screens/mosquito nets are left open. For a cleaning fee, we can schedule touch-up cleanings during your stay with advance notice. AC- Please be respectful of the Costa Rica environment and energy costs. When possible, please only have the AC on in the rooms you are using. For example, when only using the living room, the bedroom AC unites could be off with the doors closed. When you leave during the day for more than an hour or so, please turn the AC units lower or off. Please don't run AC units when exterior doors are open. The AC units cool down the rooms very quickly! KEEP DOOR SCREENS CLOSED: Make sure all screens are closed at night to keep insects out as they are attracted to the indoor lights. FREQUENT POWER OUTAGES: As with most places in Central America, the Samara City water and power (and thus lights, AC, and wifi) somewhat frequently go out. Please expect the power to flicker daily and go out for a few minutes several times a week. Longer outages are less frequent. The front gate can be manually operated when the power goes out. Once the power is returned, it will take the AC units 10 or so minutes to reset. Please be patient. Reach out to Property Management for longer outages. We have provided a "Power Outage Supply Basket" in the kitchen with supplies for when the electricity goes out, including lanterns, flashlights, battery-operated candles, and water. BEACH & POOL SUPPLIES: Beach towels, beach/camp chairs, a variety of sizes of coolers from very large to small, an umbrella, children's sand and pool toys, pool noodles, yoga mats, 1 lrg and 1 med pair of swim fins, and boogies boards are provided. We do not provide masks and snorkels as they are very expensive and tend not to be returned. They are available for purchase in most of the beach supply shops in downtown Samara, as is sunscreen, flipflops, bathing suits, and beach hats. Surfboards and boogie boards can be cheaply rented at one of the many surf schools (i.e., $5 a day for a boogie board). Please understand the quality and number of the aforementioned items change and are not guaranteed due to wear and tear by guests. We inventory and restock during our personal visits. If you want to know for sure the number of items currently stocked, please reach out to us. CALCIUM DEPOSITS IN SHOWERS: Additionally, please understand that local water is very hard, so calcification deposits build up in the bathrooms that are very difficult to remove from the shower tile. We do our best to keep up with the calcium deposits, but they are tricky! We have tried many locally available products to remove the deposits. Please know the showers are thoroughly cleaned between each stay, but there are visible calcium deposits that appear as soap stains. PESKY WILDLIFE: Please note that pesty wildlife is common in Costa Rica, and the Villa is no exception. The Villa is fumigated quarterly, but this doesn't always help with weather or barometric pressure-related guests. For example, sometimes there are short-lived flying insect hatches (gnats, mosquitos, flies, flying ants). During the rainy season, tiny ants can be a problem. They can get into the house and may be attracted to food left on the counters. Spiders appear intermittently. Also, there are resident geckos in the Villa that stay near the ceiling and do not cause any problems. Frogs sometimes visit the windows, and an occasional snake may pass through the property. small Halloween crabs have appeared in the showers. We recently had our first appearance of horses grazing the grass by the pool. Scorpions show up every now and then. We can only hope that guests visiting Costa Rica are tolerant of these wildlife occurrences and don't let their appearance influence our rating, as we do not have control over these situations.