OUR STORY
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We’ve been making holidays feel
FANTASTIC FOR OVER 40 YEARS!
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We’re Jon and Anna, hailing from London in the UK...
Anna
Anna and her family have been providing award-winning holiday accommodations and adventurous holidays in the UK (and beyond) for over 40 years.
In fact one might say this inspired her career as a senior executive in a ‘mystery guest’ company, where she was responsible for designing and implementing secret visits to top-tier hotels and hospitality venues all over the world. She recruited armies of assessors to ensure guests consistently received the very best services and amenities. At one time she had 10,000 assessors globally, all secretly evaluating the top brand establishments that we all recognise.
Jon
Jon is a Chief Technical Officer who founded some start up Internet companies that have been pretty successful. He loves holidays and travel. So after exiting his latest venture, in October 2017 he decided to travel all around the world with his partner Anna for a year and a day!
HARD WORK & ADVENTURE
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We are both from humble backgrounds, and thanks to our teacher parents we were encouraged to apply ourselves in education and in general life, and to stay open to opportunity.
A lot of hard work later we found ourselves in a position of great privilege, and realised we could work from anywhere in the world and plan our own travel adventure. We used buses, trains, taxis, campervans, limousines, boats, automobiles, flights and even helicopters to truly see the world.
We felt what it feels like to travel in total isolated luxury as well as to get swept along with the crowds. Every step of our journey we tried to notice ways in which people delight other people. Even the little things that can create feelings of great joy.
Our world tour, for a year and a day:
Our
FAVOURITE LOCATION
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Throughout our trip we kept a keen eye out for our favourite locations, but also these little touches and ideas that truly represented the very best service and facilities available, and simply made us very happy.
The ultimate outcome was to find a place where we could go each year during the European winter months: a warm beautiful and special place overlooking the sea, that we could equip in a way that encompasses all those great things we discovered on our trip. It was just by luck that our final stop before returning to the UK via New York was the Caribbean island country of ‘Curacao’.
It had everything:
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Caribbean paradise
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Powder white sand beaches, crystal clear waters, beautiful fish and coral reefs
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Working infrastructure and services – power, roads, drinkable water and Internet
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Warm sunshine all year round
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Low numbers of bugs
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Unspoilt nature
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A dedication to eco values and sustainability (the country is 35% wind powered and has vast unspoilt areas)
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Stable and strong economy
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Not too touristy
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Almost no crime – somewhere safe for friends and families to visit
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No hurricanes
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4 national languages (including English)
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And best of all: really really great people!
It was
CURACAO,
THE PERFECT PLACE
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Curacao was the perfect place, and just by luck we stayed at ‘Coral Estate’, which had stunning views over the Caribbean sea (watching the sun hit the water is a daily event), with great onsite and nearby services and all delivered in a classy non-touristic way.
Buying the Villa
After returning to the UK in October 2018 we immediately set about finding the perfect villa on Coral Estate, and by March 2019 we were the proud owners of ‘Hummingbird Villa’. Since then we’ve made it our mission to embody those dream values we experienced on tour into our villa.
Renovations
We made the pool 10 metres long so that (unlike the other pools in the area) you can actually swim laps and play games. We created a sun shelf so you can lounge all day in the cool of the pool. We wanted a dream outdoor kitchen for cooking day and night, and a swim-up bar with cocktail station and outdoor TV that worked in bright sunshine. It had to have a separate ‘snug’ area with loungers and a daybed for sunning and lounging.
And then of course a full outdoor family-sized shady lounge area, equipped with sofas and chairs to witness that dream sunset every night, and waterproof outdoor fans for the heat of the day.
Adding those little touches
Inside the villa we updated every room with fine furniture and all those great little touches we enjoyed on our travels. All done in a minimalist / stylish and non-fussy way. Naturally Jon has also made sure the technology is enterprise grade with solid mesh-based WiFi and Audio-Visual services that would grace and surpass most top-tier hotels.
Sharing our perfect holiday
Hummingbird Villa is dream villa built by us, for us, and for our friends and family. We’re just delighted to be able to share it with you too, and hope you enjoy it as much as we do.