Photo Tour of Euphoria Villa, Leverick Bay, Virgin Gorda, BVI

One of things I knew I wanted to do while on this trip was take lots of photos of the villa where we stayed, in the hopes that it might be helpful to other people wanting to rent there in the future. There are tons of websites out there that feature Euphoria, and they all seem to have the same professional photos. We were lucky because the villa in person looked even lovelier than the pictures we'd seen, but that's not always the case when renting. I do want to mention two other websites, though, to give the most complete portrait of Euphoria: this one, which is the owner's video tour, and the one from VRBO, which gives the full run down in list form of every amenity on offer.

The owners of Euphoria recently refurbished the kitchen area and it's difficult to image a more comfortable place to make one's home-away-from-home. The kitchen is fully stocked with the usual items & appliances, such as a coffee maker, microwave, toaster, blender, etc, but it also had a toaster oven and an air popcorn popper. We ate breakfast in the villa each morning and dined in three nights for dinner; usually when we rent villas, we either make do with what's already stocked, or we try to find the missing item on the island to purchase and leave behind for the next guests.  But in Euphoria, there was nothing missing. We had pizza cutters, wine openers, two full sets of kitchen knives, saute pans, stock pots & colanders of all sizes. We were spoiled for culinary choice, really, and previous guests had even left behind various spices. My sole criticism is that the knives could have been sharper, as my DH had difficulty finding a knife that would cleanly slice our tomatoes and other veggies.

The cupboards came stocked with plates, dishes, three sizes of bowls, and drinkware in both glass and plastic incarnations. The main table could sit six people in maximum comfort and eight people with a little less comfort, I'd guess. Cloth napkins and placemats rounded out our dining experience. Out the door in the above photo is the gas grill and the path leading down to the separate guest suite below, with its own kitchen efficiency. We didn't use that space, but we peeked into it.

The bedroom DH and I shared was very comfortable (to say it was the best sleep of my adult life would not be an exaggeration), with a king-sized Tempurpedic bed, en suite bathroom, and a small walk-in closet. The bedroom had air conditioning, which we used most nights but one night we felt so comfortable with the breeze coming in through the screen doors and jalousied windows that we went without the a/c. I imagine that if we ever had the luxury of multi-week vacations that after the first few nights of acclimating to the island's temperatures and humidity that we'd go without the a/c altogether.

These are rocking chairs. No better place to read, ever!

We had sliding glass doors looking out to the pool area and another set leading to a small deck that was my favorite place to catch the early morning light over coffee, or to read in the shade in the afternoon.

I really loved our glassed-in garden shower in the bathroom, which was done in a terra cotta with island accents and tilework. Some villas go for such a clean, modern look that it's hard to imagine that those places are comfortable, but not Euphoria. Everywhere you look, there are island details, whether it's the tilework, the furnishings, or objets d'art scattered around the villa.

The other king bedded room

My mom was in the other king bedroom that looked out over the pool and which had jalousied windows on two sides of the room and sliding doors to the pool on a third side. Though there was a/c in the room, my mom never used it, preferring to take advantage of the breezes and to better hear the sounds of the Caribbean, both night and day.

View from my mom's room.

Melanie's room was the twin-bedded room off of the entry hallway, and while it had a garden view rather than a water view, it was also the room that could be made the darkest for sleeping since it was south facing. Once the jalousied windows were all shut up for the a/c to be on, the room turned into a crisp little cocoon. Mom and Melanie shared a bathroom in the hallway, and while I never could get a good angle to photograph it, they had a glassed-in shower similar to the one in our bedroom.

Melanie's bedroom and the shared bath are off this hallway.

The painting in the bathroom

I also liked the small, original painting hanging in their bathroom. The house was filled with little artistic touches, which I of course failed to photograph. My favorite piece in the house was a signed & numbered lithograph hanging in the living room of a boy standing in front of a light blue chattel-style home, with long shadows thrown across the image. There were also lots of handmade little touches, like metalwork switchplates for the light switches. It's so nice when the owners put that much thought into the visual aesthetics and place a priority on individual pieces of art rather than put up on their walls the same old, faded island posters that are found everywhere. Even outdoors there were nice touches, such as the bell at the entryway, which DH suspects might be the work of Tom Torrens:

By the front door, seen at night

The area between kitchen & sitting area, with library.

The living room is divided into two sitting areas: one with the flatscreen TV (with DVD and Blue Ray players) and one with some of the most comfortable chairs I've ever sat in.  Those two swiveling, rocking, padded and ultra-comfy chairs were pretty amazing.

The TV area, with screen doors to patio beyond.

The second sitting area

My favorite chair ever.

The second morning, I was sitting there with my coffee and a book and DH asked me why I was inside. I told him to try the chair opposite me and he would understand why, and after that it was rare that I had another chance to sit there, because he and my mom kinda took over.  They know a good thing when they see it  sit on it.

See what I mean? There they are, in my chairs. Behind to the left is the master bedroom, and the sliding door behind my mom leads to the pool and is the cause of all of the backlighting.

Pool, looking toward the master bedroom 

Looking toward mom's bedroom and the dining area

Now, for the outdoor spaces.  One of the best things about villa vacation is that typically you have as much outdoor space as indoor space to call your own, and Euphoria was no exception. No matter whether you wanted some space to yourself or space to be social, a place in the sun or a place in the shade, Euphoria has you covered. The owners had recently bought all new pool furniture in an Adirondack style with padded seat covers, all in a sturdy material that was something like a pressurized polycarbonate. Much better and more durable than the traditional wood for a seaside setting.

That's Prickly Pear in the background

There was another set of chaises longues off of our bedroom

The pool was bigger in person than it looks in any of the photographs I saw on line or made myself. It's not a huge pool--you're not going to swim laps in it or anything--but all four of us could be in there at once, floating around and treading water and not feel like we were going to run into each other.

Pool seen from the living room

Looking at pool from outdoor dining area

Outdoor dining area

There wasn't a bad view from anyplace outside.

My mom's little balcony area

DH posing with one of his books in our little private alcove

We could see Mosquito Island (where Branson's crews were at work), Prickly Pear, and much of the North Sound, including across the water to Bitter End Yacht Club and the just the top of the main dining pavilion at Biras Creek. With my husband's camera I could even get a decent shot of Saba Rock.

Saba Rock, seen from our patio

When standing up, you could see the rooftops of the villas that were lower than ours on the hillside, but when sitting or in the pool, it was nothing but that beautiful horizon. We didn't have a true sunset view, but we could see the play of light to the west in the evenings, but oh, what glorious sunrises we saw!

And here are a couple of shots I made of the villa from the road above Leverick Bay, looking down. It gives a good idea of how close to the water we were:

Euphoria with sailboat in background

Super-closeup shot of Euphoria

And until I get some shared photographs from my mom and Melanie, that concludes our tour of Euphoria Villa for today.  Thanks for coming along for the ride!

One of the many beautiful blooms in the surrounding gardens