We spent the final week of our 3 week Dominican holiday at Caribbean Sea View Apartments, week 1 in Calibishie, week 2 Roseau Valley.
We were in Sea Breeze Apartment. Its huge - comfortable,spotlessly clean, well equiped, amazing view from the massive balcony of sunsets over the caribbean. Great for relaxing breakfasts and chill out evenings. No air-con but to be honest that wasnt a problem for sleeping as bedooms have standing fans & that with fly screened windows open made things perfectly comfortable.
Garden and area around was suffering from serious drought, in fact the whole of the west coast from below Portsmouth to Roseau was and a huge contrast to the rest of the island. In fact in many ways quite Med. looking.
We bought in a some food supplies, mainly for breakfasts, but there are not many stores around. For evening meals we tended to book in to Connies Beach Bar on the Mero Beach just below the apartments. You need to do that in the morning so that they can cater for you and chose between chicken or fish meal. You dont get choice beyond that and its not a fancy restaurant but its good well cooked local food and the atmosphere when the locals are there, particularly at end of week/weekends is a great experience. Its also great value with 2 meals plus drinks and a couple of excellent rum punches after - less than £15 UK total.
So for people on a tight budget a mixture of apartment coupled with Connies for food is ideal.
We hired a car, initialy for 10 days (Courtesy Car Hire were very good) having had most of week 1 in Calibishie using buses and thoroughly enjoying that experience. But to see more of this wonderful island, a car is essential. When considering taxi fares between accomodation and then at the end to airport, actualy the car hire price was good value. Although Mero is on the main bus route from Portsmouth to Roseau is is quite a treck to either and then very difficult to get anywhere inland from that mainroad. Our car should have been returned a few days into our Mero week but we realised as we drove past it on route to Roseau from Portsmouth that transport wasnt going to be easy, so we extended the car rental until the end of our trip and returned it to the airport. We were pleased that we did. having a car also means that you can more easily stock up on supplies in Portsmouth or Roseau markets.
Ellie the owner is a lovely host. Doesnt hassle you at all but is available for help and advice if you need her. Just how we like it.
We had an amazing 3 weeks, all very different and enjoyed every minute of it. Our thanks to Ellie for playing her part in that special experience.

We stayed here for 3 nights in April, 2010. I will agree that Ellie is very nice and the grounds are beautiful but Mero is not very conveniently located. It is a 20 and 25 minute drive to Portsmouth and Roseau respectively and it is definitely not a nice drive to do at night. It does feel very isolated at night as there is not much in the area.

The apartments are big and relatively clean but our apartment didn't have screens on the windows which allowed bugs into the room at night. We closed the windows and found it very hot. Screens would solve this problem.

We stayed in the Royal Palm room. It definitely has it's positive sides but it needs some work. The shower door was a bit rickety and it didn't feel super clean. Maybe for Dominica it is a luxury apartment but I thought it fell a little short of that.

We stayed here for our honeymoon and it couldn't have been better. It was a great location because it wasn't too far from any part of the island and we could walk to a black sand beach. The owner is extremely helpful. She set us up with everything we needed to get around on the island, since we didn't want to have to hire a guide whenever we went somewhere. The rooms were great. You get your own apartment with a big balcony that looks over the ocean. If you stay here definitely go to the beach cafe down the hill in Mero. It is amazing! If you want to do the island on your own and for a good price, this is the place to go!

We stayed for a week at Sea View and were very pleased with our apartment which was cool, light and spacious and very well equipped. If we went back though, we'd pay the extra and have one of the apartments with a balcony as, although we did have outdoor seating, it was a bit cramped and without a view. And the view from the rest of the place is gorgeous, down the hill across Mero to the sea, so well worth paying for!

Ellie is a lovely host, not intrusive at all but happy to help with any queries or requests. The gardens are pretty and the whole place is well-maintained and clean. Sea View is up a steep hill from the main road (not noisy) and the beach, so if you don't have a car it's a bit of a hike and I wouldn't recommend it to anyone who has any mobility issues. Once you get up the hill though, it's all on the flat, so if you've a car it's not a problem.

The beach at Mero is nice, with good places to hang out and to eat. Connie's beach bar is the most popular but we tried the other beach bars too and they were good. Nato's shop does good snacks and Nato and her family are lovely! The Sweet Treats store is probably the best stocked, but you can buy basics from two or three places without any problem. And even if you don't have a car you can get around easily as the buses are very regular. We went to Roseau, Soufriere and Scott's Head on the bus with no problems, and you can also easily get up to the north by bus.

Altogether, a great place to stay and we'd definitely go back! Thank you Ellie!