Name: Dolphin Hearthouse
Address: Lagun A 16, 00000 Lagun, Curaçao, Lagun, Lagun, Lagun, 00000, Curacao
Rating: 8

Air conditioning

Garden

Terrace

General

Family room

Rooms

Free Wi-Fi

Internet

Airport transportation

Car rental

Transfer

German

English

Languages Spoken

Barbecue grill(s)

Sun Deck

Recreation

Free parking

Parking

Family/Kid Friendly

Kids

Pets Not Allowed

Pets

Location

At the hotel

Lagun Beach

Curacao International Airport

Dolphin Hearthouse

Lagun

child-bed

child-bed-fee

external-private-bathroom

private-bathroom

shared-bathroom

10-beds

11-beds

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18-beds

19-beds

2-beds

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king-bed

queen-bed

limited-time

lounge

treatment

no-window

bay-view

bosphorus-view

canal-view

city-view

courtyard-view

garden-view

golf-view

harbour-view

inland-view

lake-view

land-view

mountain-view

ocean-front

ocean-view

oceanside

panoramic-view

park-view

partial-ocean-view

partial-sea-view

partial-view

pool-view

river-view

sea-front

sea-view

street-view

sunrise-view

sunset-view

water-view

with-view

annex

basement

main-building

1-bedroom

2-bedrooms

3-bedrooms

4-bedrooms

5-bedrooms

6-bedrooms

not-guaranteed

wired-internet-access

smoking

sauna

duplex

safe

mini-bar

breakfast-for-1

breakfast-for-2

pets-allowed

wi-fi

park access

My girlfriend and I stayed in one of the 2 Studio apartments for one week. It's perfect for a couple, I'd say much less so for a family with children. This is a quiet area, where generally older folks relax and generally lead healthy, quiet, relaxing lifestyles. 
The view is stunning and undoubtedly the best asset of this place. Right in front of the front door to the Studio was a large terrace with table/chairs, a BBQ set, a hammock, sunbeds and its all literally on the water, facing exactly West which means there are some breathtaking sunsets. You have to walk about 1 minute down a path and stairwell to reach the ladder that lowers you into the water, which is located roughly 10-12 meters below the terrace. The sea is a great place to take an early morning or late afternoon swim/snorkel, but honestly on an island with so many beautiful beaches and coasts you probably arent going to spend too much time swimming here. Still, waking up to this view, having breakfast and dinner on this terrace is worth the money. Hope you can stand iguanas tho, as they WILL walk along the terrace :) Theyre harmless and honestly dont bother anyone, theyre just hoping to receive food but DO NOT feed them! In all honesty I must also add that twice we witnessed a rat running across, which is unfortunate, but then again theres only so much you can expect from ANY of Curacao's accomodations as this is a very wild island, blame cant be placed on the owners here. Fortunately the apartment is modern, with no holes in the wall, and even insect screens on windows so you will never risk finding one indoors, no worries.

The Studio apartment in itself is rather basic, but sufficient if luxury accomodation isnt your primary concern. The bed was comfortable, cookware basic but the kitchen is still fully equipped with stove, small oven, toaster, pots and pans and water boiler/coffeemaker. The place is clean, although the bathroom has no windows or ventilation system, which makes for a damp, somewhat smelly situation but its manageable if your expectations arent too high. Just remember - if you stay here, it's because you want the Sea, as well as a great starting spot to move around and visit the parks, beaches, flamingo sanctuary, and all the little small villages scattered around the island. Not good if youre looking to party a little bit, if you want to go out to dinner and have a couple of drinks, and in general if youre not looking to have a calm relaxing holiday. This place and Lagun in general, is far from the city life of Willemstad, both physically and metaphorically. This is why you MUST have a car. (Theoretically there is a bus system but dont rely on it, it will ruin your holiday). Wifi connected with 2/3 out of 4 bars in the Studio, so its fine for writing emails or listening to music, makes it a bit hard for streaming any series or movie, but generally OK. 

We never felt unsafe here, and the Safe provided in the room gives added security. The gate is chained shut. The apartment is about a 10min walk or 1min drive from Playa Lagun, whereas in the other direction you reach Playa Grandi (sea turtles!), the lovely Kenepa beach and up to Westpunt (amazing diving/snorkeling and eating) very easily and quickly. Willemstad feels and is kind of far (40min drive), but the drive down is very scenic (especially if you drive thru St Willibrordus and check out the sites on the way down - oh and stop at one of the many local places for Batidos.
Owners werent on site but they have a trusted person who lives on the island, Martin, who takes care of matters when they are away. He was very friendly and will answer any of your concerns. Be careful of your A/C consumption, and make sure you ask about any expenses beforehand - we had a small issue with unexpected additional expenses but thankfully i had written proof of the exact breakdown of all charges we agreed on before arriving. It felt like an honest mistake, im not casting the owners in a poor light, but these things can happen so make sure you ask beforehand. Of course they honored our prior agreement without hesitation and apologized. All in all this is a fantastic place to stay considering the quality-to-price ratio. I will be recommending this place and possibly visiting again in the future.

Great waterfront property - with a catch or two

Let’s start with the obvious, the view is spectacular. The terrasse is certainly the place where we spend most of our time and it was great. The furniture is beautiful, especially the dinner table,  and we have the best light at night (neighbour terrasses have horrible neon light). The kitchen is well furnished which makes cooking easy. Teresa the person in charge of the place is fantastic and went out of her way to help us. The ladder to go down in the sea seems extreme but do it once, easier than it looks, and there is not much current so easy to swim. Not for small children but many beaches surrounds the house with easy access. The indoor steps are steep so difficult for very small children or old person.

For the few critiques. It is true, the neighbour’s dogs barks all night and then the roosters start so, bring earplugs. The wifi signal is not great, especially on the terrasse which you are most of the time. You do have to buy toilet paper and trash bags (which is weird to us) so if you can, bring biodegradable plastic bags from home, that could help the country with plastic issues. A small mop would be appreciated. They do a great cleaning but a mop help if you need to clean up some things. An iron for long stay would also be appreciated. Note that their is no washing machine, for long stay, it is not so practical. 

West point is a great area but not so many great restaurant and stores, buy everything ahead. You will find regular fast food around. The towels are ok but not great. Finally the beds: the master bed room would benefits from an upgrade to a great bed. They are ok but you can start to feel the spring so, an investment on that front would be more than welcome. 

So overall, a great place, love the terrasse (table, hamacs, long chairs) and would recomand  easily with a few improvement and awareness of the noise around the house (dog and roosters).

Good house with a spectacular view

We arrived and were warmly greeted by Martin who helped us to settle in and gave us advice about the island. The room itself was not luxurious but provided the perfect atmosphere for a romantic, secluded week in Curacao.  The terrace and the the direct access to the ocean is second to none.  We hired a rental car and were able to visit all the beautiful beaches of the island.  I highly recommend  staying at DHH if you are looking for a quiet, low key place to dive, snorkel and enjoy paradise!

Dolphin Heart House paradise

We were 7 adults staying in the main house for 13 nights. Overall, we had a fantastic stay and didn't run into many problems. We were, however, a little misled by the website. First of all, there are close neighbors on either side of the house - it does not stand alone like the photos on the website. Also, the living room does not have a double pullout couch. In fact, it had no couch at all. It had two wicker chairs and one wooden chair, all with cushions. This proved to be a bit of an issue as we were three couples and our matriarch. We were banking on a couple being able to sleep in the living room. We made it work however, with all of us having at least one sleepless night. Outside of that we were surprised at the level of service. Now perhaps it is standard in a European setting, but I was expecting more. We had to buy our own toilet paper when we ran out, we had to buy our own paper towel, garbage bags, and cleaning supplies. With the constant wind (which was usually welcomed) there was a lot of dust and dirt around. And when half of the house is actually outside on the huge balcony, things can get pretty dirty (especially floors). There was one broom that was kept outside and shared with the three units, but no mop. We would have gladly kept the floors clean ourselves had we had the supplies to do so. But instead the floors became increasingly dirty. We all had to wash our feet in the shower before we got into bed each night because the soles were black! We were each provided with 4 or 5 towels which were changed half way through our stay. Each person got a different colour so we always knew what towel belonged to whom, which was great. The towels were small though - the size of a regular hand towel. Lots of skittering to our rooms after a shower clutching two tiny towels to our bodies! When it was time for our villa to be cleaned, I was the only one home. The others were on a day trip and I was sick. The caretaker came by to let me know to expect the cleaning lady. He also asked me to pick everything up off the floor so she could mop - fair enough I suppose. Then he asked me to pile all the towels together - at about 25 towels I thought that was a bit much but ok. Then he asked me to pile all the sheets and linens together - hold on. I'm paying to stay here, paying a cleaning fee on top of that, I'm sick, and you want me to strip six beds? I did, but I wasn't happy about it. I wonder what would have happened if I had gone on the day trip too and nobody was home to do half the work for them? Anyways, minor inconvenience, and like I said, maybe that's standard there. The caretaker was friendly, and prompt with the airport transfer. The owners were away so I think maybe he was being extra cautious about the property. He dropped in a few times to check on us but it felt more like he was making sure we weren't doing anything we weren't supposed to. There was a lot of 'you can't', 'you shouldn't', 'please don't'. When we arrived the ladder into the ocean had a few bolts loose and we were told not to use it. This feature was a huge draw to the house so we were quite disappointed. A few of our party checked it out and there was no safety risk as the majority of the bolts were still sound. We enjoyed the water in secret because the caretaker was very disappointed that we had used the ladder the first day (it was fixed a few days into our stay). Other minor annoyances included no oven, and no way to regulate the temperature of the shower (very hot!). Also, the yard was gated with a chain and padlock that had to be locked at all times. This meant that every time someone wanted to leave, either in a vehicle or on foot, they had to unlock the lock, push the very heavy gate open, then lock it behind them. No big deal for most, but anyone with any joint issues (like our mom) wouldn't be able to open or close the heavy gate. Also, we were given only one gate key between 7 adults - juggling that was fun.
However, after all that complaining, we had a wonderful time and really enjoyed our stay. The pros outweighed the cons in the end. This was not meant to be a bad review, only a heads-up to any potential guests about what you may run into. I would stay there again, and that says a lot considering everything I just complained about!

Beautiful but be prepared

Pros:
Friendly and prompt replies from the owners
Reasonable price
The view from the terrace is absolutely beautiful and there is lots of seating available on the terrace
Beautiful "out-of-the way" location
Very close to many wonderful beaches that are fantastic for snorkelling, swimming, sunbathing, enjoying the shade and jumping off cliffs into the water 
Fun to watch the iguanas that surround the house
Large fridge/freezer that includes an ice maker
Lots of room to hang up towels and bathing suits outside
Close to bus access
Lovely outdoor shower
Close to a basic market and some restaurants

Cons:
VERY self-serve (be prepared to buy your own toilet paper, garbage bags, cleaning supplies etc.)
Cleaning service is very basic (e.g. we were asked to gather up the towels, strip our own beds, take out the garbage)
One broom shared between 3 rental areas and no mop or cleaning supplies available if you want to clean yourself
Only 2/5 burners on the stove worked
Sharing one bathroom between six people can be cumbersome at times
Information binder located in the house was out of date
The caretaker of the house appeared to be "checking up" on us rather than "checking in" on us (e.g. stopping by every few days at unannounced times)

Other information:
The house is situated very close to the water and has a ladder into the sea. Unfortunately, the ladder was broken upon our arrival and took a few days to fix. We were disappointed by this. Fortunately, we were staying for two weeks, so we got to enjoy it after it was fixed.
Although obviously not under the owner's control, we did not see any dolphins in the two weeks that we stayed at the house. From the website (and name of the house) we expected that dolphins were a given.
Our stay could have been improved if expectations were more clear (e.g. we had a chaotic departure as we didn't know that we had to wash all of the dishes, empty the garbage and generally clean up as we under the impression that the 120 Naf that we paid covered this).
Generally a good place to stay but there is room for improvement.

Pros and cons (main house)

This property is not fit to rent at present. The terrace is great with fabulous views but you cannot use it. There is a building site about 3 metres from the house. We were woken just after 7 am on our first morning by drilling, hammering and general building site noise. You could not hear yourself speak. The house is also misrepresented on the website. There is no sitting room inside the house. The house is shabby and uncomfortable. The only bedroom furniture is a tiny wardrobe with 4 wire hangers. If we had stayed we would have had to store most of our stuff in our suitcases. The shower room smells terrible.The light fittings hanging off the ceiling. Very dangerous stairs  going up to the terrace  with a open area which was for storage. We left as soon as we could the next day, wasting a whole day of our holiday but the owner still charged us for one night and the shopping we had ordered but had to leave behind as we would not be able to get into the property we had quickly booked until 6pm and it would have ruined in the heat.

Appalling

This is not what is described on the booking forum, the pictures are misleading, the property was completely different when we arrived. The picture show a Villa a pool etc, what you get is an apartment in poor. After 22hrs of flying and an hour of trying to find the villa we arrived it was dark, dogs barking everywhere, the map showed us outside what was described as hearthouse however it was 100 yds away at another property it seemed. 

You enter into kitchen and so called lounge 

Amenities large fridge and cooker hob, no oven except a small portable electric unit that could do two pieces of toast 

The bathroom was dirty and needed upgrading, the bedrooms were dingy and our sheets stained, no where to hang anything as no hangers. We did not hang anything as decided we needed to look elsewhere.

Towels were hand towels no bath towels at 6ft 4” they were pathetic, the stairs to sun deck were dangerous and you could easily fall. 

The whole place was shabby, had not been decorated or looked after 

Electrics were dangerous wires hanging out of sockets on sun deck. 

Final straw and what was not explained the building site next door, it was like a scene from “carry on abroad”. At 07.35 they started work with hammering, power tools shouting and so noisy the dust that was caused made us start coughing. 

The whole place is a disaster zone, the owner never stated it was next to a building site so it was misinterpretation of pictures and of the description.

Luckily we had the funds to book out next morning and move to another villa that is like a Palace compared to this, 

Positive the view of the sea was good as we were packing 

The owner did give most the funds back but charged us a nights rent and food that we left at property at €70 

Do not stay unless you like a building site I would imagine this will go on all this year and it was only at basic construction stage 

Owner refused to return all money even though we spent the first day of our holiday looking and moving to another site 

Just be aware

Dolphin Hearthouse

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