Vacation Haven

Jackie R. ()
Review submitted: June 1, 2012   Date of arrival: May 26, 2012

Just wanted to say how much my family and I enjoyed our stay in this beautiful ocean front retreat. We've rented homes in the Gulf area for the past 3-years and this one by far one of the loveliest we've stayed. The views were amazing, as was all the natural marsh lands surrounding the area. If you can imagine sitting on a screened in deck with your favorite book, a glass of wine, and the surround sound of waves rushing against the shores along the beach... this is your home-away from home! We will definitely keep this rental in our archive for future stays.

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Helpful votes: 5 / 5

Awesome Fishing and Scenery.

Georgia Fam (villa rica, ga)
Review submitted: June 11, 2011   Date of arrival: September 11, 2010

The best fishing I've ever experienced in my life. High tide brings the shrimp into shore and then it is a feeding frenzy for the trout. Your lure barely hits the water before you have a fish. This lasts for about 90 minutes straight each day. Only downside is that we discovered alligators taking an early morning swim down the gulf side of the peninsula. You can watch them swim back around the point and towards the canal opening. Never saw them again after the first morning but locals say they come into the gulf side to clean their skin off in the saltier water and then go back into the canal side. One guy I met was wading out in the water fishing and said he had a gator hanging out with him for like an hour. Anyhow, we took the kids to the public beach in downtown Ocean Springs to swim each day. Wife wasn't too keen on the alligator thing. But if you're looking for beautiful sunsets, great fishing, and peace and quietness .... I definitely recommend this place.

Recommended for: adventure seekers, romantic getaway

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Helpful votes: 9 / 9

Serenity at its best

James (Ohio)
Review submitted: April 11, 2011   Date of arrival: April 2, 2011

Our family of 12, immediate & extended, ages 2-68, all enjoyed ourselves very much. The weather was perfect. Kids & adults both loved exploring the beach & marsh. We wanted a relaxing, calm, peaceful getaway that was close enough to attractions if we chose to do them, but not so close that it disrupted our quiet. This location was PERFECT!! We felt instantly at home & the house was very neat & clean. It was stocked with all necessities. We made a trip to the grocery store for snacks of course. The house was very roomy, &the layout was perfect even with so many people. We never felt cramped or like we were in each others way. The only drawback we had was we couldn't use the elevator. Having a couple elderly persons with slight disabilities, they planned their day, so that they would only have to go up or down the steps once. All agreed it was the best vacation they have ever had, they would do it again given the chance. The Gulf Coast is an absolutely beautiful place & this house is in an unspoiled, natural location. I wouldn't change a thing. Thank you again kind Sir for sharing your home with us. We will cherish the memories forever.

Recommended for: adventure seekers, families with young children, families with teenagers, girls getaway, pet-friendly, sight seeing, romantic getaway

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Helpful votes: 9 / 9

Two Months of Enjoyment

bob s. (Bloomington, IL)
Review submitted: April 2, 2011   Date of arrival: January 2, 2011

We stayed here January and February 2011. The home is beautiful and everything it appears in the pictures. Mary and Sue were most helpful during the stay and it is obvious the owner takes reviews seriously, as we enjoyed the local TV channels, and good water while there (although local channels on all the TVs would have been preferred). Mary brought us a new frying pan and casserole dish that fit in the microwave while we were there. We spent most mornings sitting on the Master Bedroom balconny drinking coffee, reading, and enjoying the view and sun. Some days we even say dolphins. Birds were amazing! Only suggestions would be to have a fire extenguisher on site, a spice rack, and new deck chairs. I guess it also would have been nice to be able to use the elevator for a long stay like ours - took a lot of trips to get everything up all those steps! Very minor in comparison to all we enjoyed. Very quiet place with nice neighbors. Beautiful even though the distruction of Katrina is definitely evident. We walked the beach almost every day and our dog loved that! Played golf several times at several courses near by. Casinos were available in 20 minutes. Lots of restaurants with great seafood. Thanks for a great first retirement winter!

Recommended for: age 55+, pet-friendly, romantic getaway

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Helpful votes: 7 / 7

Family together!

Becky (Leavenworth, KS)
Review submitted: November 2, 2010   Date of arrival: October 25, 2010

Our family (there were 5 of us) came to MS to join up with our 22yo son for a 4 day pass from the army prior to his heading to Afghanistan. We wanted some place a bit remote and yet close enough to the city for shopping, touristing, dining and such. What a great find we had in this beach house!

It is all of what I envisioned and maybe even more. It is a beautiful, and well furnished home. We enjoyed the layout of the three bedrooms, each with its own tv...altho I am not sure we turned the tvs on, because there was so much else to do. The property is clean and well maintained, the management worked very hard to keep in contact with us about any concerns we might have, and they were right on top of issues no matter how minor.

We enjoyed having the beach just a stones throw away, we enjoyed walking up and down the beach, seeing a variety of crabs, birds and such, watching the tide come in and the beauty of the gulf and the horizon. We travelled into Ocean Springs, Biloxi and Gulfport with ease. We enjoyed a night time buffet and gambling in Biloxi, we wandered through the Edgewater Shopping Mall. We ate seafood multiple times! And even enjoyed going to a movie theatre. We travelled 2 hours to Dauphin Island, AL to wander on their gulf shores. And altho we did all of these things we were not rushed and had plenty of beach house time and family time.

We appreciated being in a home in which we could cook in, since our son would be gone for all of the major upcoming holidays, we celebrated Thanksgiving and Christams with a small turkey dinner! Most of the cooking utensils were there and what wasn't there we figured out a way to do without! It was awesome! I appreciated the dishwasher and the washer and dryer being available, as that added to the enjoyment of our stay.

I would highly recommend this beach house rental to family and friends and would consider returning again sometime.

It is a bit remote, so making sure to plan for the 20-30 minute drive into town is important. Also, we used a GPS and thought that made getting there a bit easier, we did come in after dark so felt the GPS was really helpful.

The house does have a small problem with sulfur smelling water, they do have a chlorinator working which I am sure does help and bottled drinking water is available for drinking. This to me was very minor.

Overall, it was a wonderful experience that we look forward to remembering for a long, long time! Thank you!

Recommended for: adventure seekers, age 55+, families with teenagers, girls getaway, sight seeing, romantic getaway

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Helpful votes: 10 / 10

Not recommended for people with bad knees!!

Unsatified (Macomb, MI)
Review submitted: September 15, 2010   Date of arrival: January 10, 2010

Twenty four steps up and down to get to this house. There is an elevator but it's not available to rentees. The water stinks and changes clothes from white to yellow and colored items to something awful. The beach is small and has many obstacles and walls put up by other owners. Be aware there is only one shower in the house and it is in a tub, no walk-in, but there is a soaking tub if you're the type of person who likes to sit in dirty water. The cooking utensils that were in this house at the time of our rental were unuseable, and I hope were replaced after my complaint letter sent to the owner. This house looks just like the pictures but is not user friendly. The location of this house is at the end of a penisula that has a very winding road that was scarry at night and the roads flood at times during rain. The satalite TV does not have the 3 major networks of ABC, NBC and CBS.

The good points were the view, Ocean Springs was delightful and when the weather is bad it is close to Biloxi.

Recommended for: sight seeing

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Helpful votes: 10 / 19

Peaceful escape

Carol & Bill (Atlanta, Georgia)
Review submitted: August 23, 2010   Date of arrival: August 17, 2010

My husband and I stayed at the Ocean Belle I and loved it. The home was situated near the end of the road and despite the destruction on the peninsula from Katrina, live oak trees surrounded the home. The beachhouse was clean with lots of windows/sliding doors facing the gulf. The frogs sang on the bayou side and ocean waves lulled us to sleep each night. We only had the A/C on once; the ocean breeze was heaven. Water was choppy and we didn't swim because of concerns from the oil spill, but daily walks on the beach held discoveries. Internet was out, but we found we didn't even care to use it during our stay. We especially enjoyed the observation tower and spent most of our time there. For entertainment, Biloxi is only 20 minutes away. This house is a wonderful place for some privacy and serenity.

Recommended for: age 55+, families with young children, families with teenagers, girls getaway, pet-friendly, sight seeing, romantic getaway

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Helpful votes: 3 / 3

awesome

Elaine C. (Riverview, MI)
Review submitted: August 16, 2010   Date of arrival: August 7, 2010

Our family of 6, husband, mother, sister, nieces and myself, just spent a week in this beautiful beach home and had a fantastic time! The view is awesome, as is the home. We loved the tower and had coffee up there in the mornings watching the pelicans and dolphins, then in the evening enjoying our wine up there watching the sunset...spectacular! The beach was very clean, no oil or tar balls at all. We also stumbled on this home and were very happy we did. The town of Ocean Springs was wonderful, very cute stores and great restaurants in the downtown area. Definitely plan on coming back and spending another week in this house! Thanks for a great vacation home!

Recommended for: age 55+, families with young children, families with teenagers, girls getaway

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Helpful votes: 1 / 1

Ocean Belle I Beach House review

Review submitted: July 21, 2010   Date of arrival: July 10, 2010

In planning my trip, I was totally unfamiliar with the area. I blindly stumbled across the Ocean Belle beach house by accident and felt that I was taken my chances in choosing to stay there. AFter staying there I believe there is no better place to stay in the area. It is perfect. It is quiet, secluded, the beach is natural and the sunsets are beautiful.

The house is amazing. It is spacious. Just enough room to get together and enough room to get away from each other. Satellite TV in each room. The screened porch is fabulous for breakfast with the ocean breeze and wildlife to watch. The tower is perfect for watching storms roll in.

To be fair - the negative - the water stinks. But that is the only negative thing I could think of. With such a beauiful house and incredible location, I can live with bottled water.

I couldn't have planned a better place to stay or an area to visit even if I had known what I was doing. I almost don't want you to post this review because I want the house all to myslf.

Thanks Susan and Homer

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Helpful votes: 2 / 2

Beach Vacation

Suzanne B. (Louisiana)
Review submitted: June 22, 2010   Date of arrival: June 18, 2010

We stayed at Ocean Belle I with our family. Being right on the beach is awesome! The home is beautiful and very comfortable. The sound of the waves is so relaxing. No oil on the beaches. . . . We had had a wonderful visit!

Recommended for: age 55+, families with young children, families with teenagers, pet-friendly, romantic getaway

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Helpful votes: 2 / 2

Respite from Wisconsin

Dick S. & Karen S. (Eau Claire, Wisconsin/U.S.A.)
Review submitted: April 15, 2009   Date of arrival: March 6, 2009

My husband and I thoroughly enjoyed our stay at Ocean Belle! The view of the ocean was out of this world - we watched the pelicans dive for fish and the dolphins playing right outside our veranda. The home is so cozy, we felt as though we were at home. It was so peaceful, listening to the waves as they washed up on the beautiful beach, watching the beautiful sunsets over Biloxi, and walking the white sandy beach. We didn't want to leave after our five week stay! This was truly a vacation of a lifetime!

Recommended for: adventure seekers, age 55+, families with young children, families with teenagers, girls getaway, pet-friendly, sight seeing, romantic getaway

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Helpful votes: 23 / 24