We enjoyed our yearly family vacation at this amazing beachfront home!!! The host takes excellent care of his property! He has thought of everything and keeps all the comforts of home readily available to make your stay as comfortable as possible. We will definitely rent from him again and extend our stay the next time around:)
Beautiful home with unbelievable views of the beach. Short walk down the walkway to a wonderful beach. Gary the owner was very responsive and so easy to work with from the time we booked the house until we left. We will be back.
Everything about the trip was perfect. Then I had the pleasure of accidentally meeting Gary the owner. The trip only got better meeting such a nice, interesting and good hearted person. 5 STARS ALL THE WAY !
5 adults, 2 dogs and a 16 month old baby-everyone had a great time! Really cool ice cubes made by the refrigerator and my grandson loved the hanging gong. The beach was less busy than closer to St Augustine so that made it so much easier with the dogs. The outsides hoses were also very helpful. Great family vacation!
The appeal for the property is the location on the beach, easy beach access, large useable deck, well equipped kitchen, barbecue for cooking in. House is spacious and pet friendly. Appreciated earlier check in, attention to detail in the house and great communication with the owner. Thank you, Gary!
Fascinating museum like home, with gorgeous views and on a sandy beach with water perfect for swimming, surfing, boogie boarding, or even SUPing. Multiple gate enclosures to keep dogs safe & humans relaxing. We treasured our stay!
We couldn't have asked for a more mystical, fantastic, slice of paradise...breathtaking views and a truly unique and fascinating home...we will be back...
We had a wonderful vacation at Ocean Retreat House. It was everything we hoped for. Beautiful, comfortable house, excellent beach access, beautiful beach. The back deck is spectacular. We did not spend much time in St Augustine because we were enjoying the house and beach so much. It is a very dog friendly house and beach.
This home is nice and spacious, and is situated in an area where the beachfront is pretty much your own! Our family loved staying here as it has everything you need for the perfect family vacation and is a short drive away from
downtown St Augustine and area attractions. Gary was a very responsive host and our stay here couldnât have been better!
Starting the day with immediate access to the sunrise and beach, made our stay most enjoyable. The home was warmly furnished, comfortable, and in a great location. Check in and check out was a breeze. We will definitely return. Thank you Gary and Vanessa.
This property is a fantastic location. You can walk down the boardwalk right to the beach. The master suite has views from the bathrooms of sunset, and views from the bed of sunrise. Well equipped and spacious. There is one bedroom (master suite) on the top floor, and two bedrooms on the main floor. A quick drive into downtown and convenient for the sites.
My family and I really enjoyed this property. Right on the beach and a beautiful house to stay in. Gary was very easy to deal with and made sure everything was working properly. We would consider staying again. Thanks Gary
This is a picturesque hide-away with amazing views of the ocean and the sunrises are inspirational. Gary is truly a 'superior host' who is available and responsive!
I wish the week didn't go so fast!
I would highly recommend without reservation to everyone!
My family loved this home and we are eager to return. It was so comfortable and ocean views from the living, dining and two bedrooms. It is obvious that the owner puts a lot of love and care into this home. You literally step out the door onto the private boardwalk onto the beach. The beach is huge. The kitchen had everything we needed for cooking meals in. It is actually better equipped than my kitchen at home. The owner was easy to work with. We look forward to our next trip.
What a great place to stay! House was beautifully decorated and loaded with everything needed to make you feel like youâre at home. Location was perfect! Close enough to restaurants and shopping to make it easy to go out, but separated from the multi-unit properties making it feel like we had our own private beach. Gary was great to work with, easy to communicate with, and very accommodating. My wife and I stayed with our two adult sons and one of their wives, and we all had our own private space, but there was more than enough common space for us to visit and eat together. We will definitely be back! Thanks for everything Gary!
The property is unique in many ways as others reviewed. The art work is awesome. The layout and view of the ocean from 2 story windows is the center piece of the house with 2 patios along with the private walk way over the dunes to the beach. Expect stairs, thats the main thing walking up to the house, if course second floor master suite, and down to the beach. Kitchen has everything you need, plenty of space, ability to wash clothes, and grill out all you want. Also a fresh seafood market less than 3 minutes down the road. Truly loved being able to stay here! Hope to again one day!
This was our quick yearly staycation getaway before school started. This house is definitely our favorite. The views from all the windows and balconies were completely breathtaking. The beach was never overly crowded and it was so convenient to have your own walkway to and from the beach. PP were accurate when saying, this house is fully equipped with all you could possibly need. It was very clean, incredibly interesting with all the unique decor and I met the host personally who was very nice. Our 5 year old pug loved the house as well. Beds were super comfortable as well. My kids enjoyed having their own bedrooms. We take yearly trips to the St. Augustine area and would love to stay in this beautiful home again.
What our family loved most of all was that there are no high rise resorts or condos near by! The beach felt like our very own private slice of heaven!
The house was exactly as pictured and is very clean (noting - I am a clean freak)! The host/owners were so accommodating and communicated with us via text/email (and even left us their phone numbers) which was nice when we had questions.
The yard between the garage and the house was beautifully filled with so many gorgeous plants that we felt like we were in a sanctuary for all the local wild life. We saw turtles, frogs, baby birds, bunny rabbits, possums, lizards (of course) and so many butterflies. On the beach there is a turtle egg nest being protected that was pretty awesome too!
Another amazing beach family vacation. Thank you Gary!
The owners are very easy to work with. There was a good amount of parking. The warning about the steps is something to consider with smaller children. There are a lot of steps to get into the house and down the boardwalk, but it was really nice that we had our own private entry way to the beach and there were two stations to wash off your feet and dogs. Fair warning to bring something to protect your dogs feet because the boardwalk can get pretty hot. The cleaning crew isnât the best. We found a fry next to the couch and a couple of roaches, but overall the place was really nice. Beautiful deck and scenery and in a very quiet neighborhood. The section of the beach wasnât too crowded either which was great. I also loved that we all had our own bathroom. The upstairs bed/bath combo is gorgeous and very spacious. I would recommend this place to larger families.
I am a Marine Engineer in the Merchant Marines. (I work on ships). My job has given me the opportunity to travel throughout the world as you will see from the art and furnishings in the house.
This area of Crescent Beach is nice and less crowds. This was a little 1000 sq ft ,2 bedroom 1 bath beach house with no A/C. In 1991-2 I remodeled and expanded the house to what it is today. Over the years additional improvements have been done.