 London, "Paradise for a Song" (Sept 4, 2005)
This place is a complete surprise, and not just because of its rather daft
name. Standing 50ft above the feisty Atlantic Ocean at Bathsheba, it is
different from any other holiday place on Barbados, being neither
platinum-coast posh nor south-coast mass-market concrete. It is a place to
escape to for days spent loafing in hammocks, meandering among the coconut
palms in the garden or idling through pulp novels on the patio, all the time
lulled by the pounding surf and the relentless whoosh of the trade winds.
Built on traditional
colonial lines, the guesthouse has just six rooms, all with sea views,
mahogany and rattan furniture, private bathroom and kitchenette (...). It’s not everyone’s cuppa. The east coast is wild, windy
and untamed by development, the sea a challenge for even competent surfers. If you
want pussycat lappings, you need to catch a (regular) bus right across the
island (it takes 45 minutes).
But there are natural pools
for dunking, and Andromeda Gardens, one of the best botanical displays in the
Caribbean, are just a walk away. Better still, you’ll find it much easier to
ease into local life on this side of the island than in the more touristy
places. David Wickers
Sea-U's video - now showing click here
Boston Globe, USA,
"Winter Getaways" (Janaury 2010)
Sea-U Guest House ... grab the winter special - seven nights in a studio for two with breakfast and car rental for $1,490 - and enjoy this tony island from a romantic East Coast perch. Travel + Leisure, USA, "Best Affordable Caribbean Hotels" (November 2009)
On the island’s rugged, windswept eastern coast, the Sea-U Guest House is a colonial-style inn with hammocks on the wide verandas and sweeping ocean panoramas. All seven whitewashed rooms are furnished with mahogany, bamboo, or teak beds, dark-wood floors, and large deck chairs for catching a glimpse of the scampering Barbadian green monkeys in the garden.
Conde Nast Traveler, USA, "Barbados: This Earth, This Realm, This Little England" (July 2009) Barefoot chic: High above Bathsheba, St. Joseph, the Sea-U Guest House has quiet and sea views.
“… it's not hard to see why the locals have always chosen to spend their days off on the island's breezy side. On my own half-day off … I can't resist a soak in nature's hot tub, the rock pool. Submerged up to my neck and - safe from wincing children - freely singing Joni Mitchell's "the wind is in from Africa . . .," I could sit here forever, watching the surfers skim the mesmerizing white ribbons of foam and admiring the massive, exquisitely eroded boulders that dot the shallows at Bathsheba like a stately sequence of public sculptures.”
Above Bathsheba in St. Joseph, where the coast is wild, dramatic, and much less touristed, the Sea-U Guest House is simple but appealing, with beautiful dark-wood floors and hammocks overlooking the sea.
Isabel Fonseca and Alison Humes
The New York Times, USA, "Surf's Up in Barbados" (March 2009)
The eastern coast of Barbados is a whole other world. Sequestered from the posh resorts by acres of sugar cane fields, thick, verdant forests, and trees full of wild monkeys, this is Barbados’s rougher side. ...
Bathsheba looks as if it was once the playground of mythical creatures - enormous limestone boulders are casually strewn in the shallows, as though giants were playing catch and paused for a break. The wind barrels in relentlessly off the Atlantic, sweeping the hillside and everything with it: the mountain face is hollowed by the warm blasts, palm trees arch backward, their seaside fronds thinned from the constant howl, waves endlessly roll in from the vast ocean. It’s a coastline carved by centuries of wind blowing from thousands of miles away, great gusts of salty air like tempests heaved by the gods.
Danielle Pergament
Travel + Leisure Magazine, USA, "The Rebirth of Barbados - Barbados" (December 2008)
The idiosyncratic little hotels around Bathsheba, on the windswept east coast, are considerably less expensive than the generic chain operations elsewhere on the island, and infinitely more compelling. At the sweet little Sea-U Guest House for instance, fresh coconuts are cut open every week for visitors.
Tom Austin
Daily Telegraph, London, "Caribbean hotels: 20 of the best affordable places to stay" (Nov 11, 2008)
Sea-U Guest House: The best accommodation on the island's exhilarating, wave-pummelled Atlantic-facing east coast (great for surfing, not swimming). The colonial-style wooden buildings have seven bedrooms with mahogany and rattan furniture and verandas; hammocks are strung up between palms in the tropical gardens. A short walk down the hill lies the crashing surf and natural rock pools of Bathsheba; head up the hill and you soon come to Andromeda Botanical Gardens, one of the island's loveliest spots. Fred Mawer
Arthur Frommer’s Budget
Travel Magazine,
"50 Totally Charming Hotels For Under $150" (Nov 2007)
Chic, stylish,
boutique -- blah, blah, blah. What we want in a hotel is that unique mix of
warmth and personality. In other words, we want it to be totally charming. Here's our
picks, from Argentina to Vietnam.
Sea-U Guest House:
After visiting Barbados for a writing assignment, German native Uschi Wetzels
bought land in Bathsheba and built a seven-room hotel.
Travel + Leisure Magazine, USA, Caribbean for Less (December 2005)
Never mind the silly
name. The Sea-U Guest House, on the island's east coast, is the ultimate hideaway. From the front, it
doesn't look like much, but out back is a two-story plantation-style hotel
with seven simple rooms cooled by island breezes. Opened by friendly former
travel writer Uschi Wetzels, this place isn't for everyone - there's no
air-conditioning or television, guests share a single phone, and mosquito
repellant can come in handy at sunset. But Sea-U's charms are what make it so
appealing: easygoing Americans and Europeans get to know each other over
family-style meals, and entertainment is provided by the wandering resident
cat and monkeys playing in the trees.
Sunday Times, London, "Luxury hotels: no need to splash out" (December 3, 2006)
Can’t afford the world’s ritziest resorts? Good - you’ll find fewer
flunkies but more fun just around the corner, says Stephen Bleach
... if you want
Premiership footballers, and chilled towels handed to you on the beach,
there’s no substitute for Sandy Lane. If, however, you’re after an idyllic
tropical holiday, in serious comfort but with a soupçon more real Bajan culture,
it’s waiting just eight miles away at the Sea-U Guest House, near Bathsheba. On the
more beautiful, less developed east coast, it offers seven rooms in a lovely
colonial-style building high above the Atlantic surf. Expect
hammocks on the veranda, an honesty bar (no white-gloved waiters here) and
tasty local dishes (barbecued lamb, marlin in rum butter sauce) instead of
fancy five-star fusion. In short, the place feels untouched, authentic and a
bit of a find - which you certainly can’t say about Sandy Lane ...
Travel + Leisure Magazine, USA, "50
Affordable Beach Resorts" (March
2004)
Sea-U Guest House: It's a travel writer's dream: to open a hotel on a Caribbean island. After
falling in love with Barbados while on assignment, Uschi Wetzels left her
native Germany and applied everything she had learned over the years about
the hospitality industry to create Sea-U
Guest House.
Footprint
Barbados, Travel Guide 2003
This is the nicest place
to stay on this side of the island, colonial-style wooden
house on top of cliffs, five spacious guesthouse rooms
with kitchenettes opening onto a veranda with glorious
sea views over the east coast through coconut palms and
casuarinas. Run by Uschi (German), family style evening
meals served two or three times a week, honour bar, lots
of hammocks for lounging on the veranda or in the garden, quiet, peaceful.
Harry Pariser, Author
of "Explore Barbados", USA (Sep 2000)
Operated by travel writer Uschi Wetzels, Sea-U! is a
remarkable guesthouse. Uschi first happened upon the location
while staying in Bathsheba and researching her travel guide for
the nation which is published by the Marco Polo series. Struck
by its beauty, she came up with the idea of a guesthouse. Although
newly constructed, it resembles a traditional Caribbean-style
home. The attractive rooms have fans, mahogany beds, and great
views from the porch.
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Sea-U Guest House Bathsheba
Mrs. Thompson - Taxi Driver
The giant coral stone rocks
are a landmark of Barbados
Fruits from a palm tree on
Sea-U Guest House's grounds
Vegies fresh from Gail's corner
shop in Bathsheba
View from Sea-U Guest House in
Bathsheba Barbaos
Nirvana in the hammock -
Sea-U Guest House
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