Cocolobo Condos & Lodging

An Architect’s Answer to the Caribbean Heat

Most island building is a matter of putting up walls and adding air conditioning afterwards. Cocolobo was drawn the other way round. A young British environmental architect designed the lodges around the prevailing breeze, using honey coloured Honduran pine for the structure and local hardwoods for the doors, the furniture and the trim, then cutting breezeways between the rooms so that moving air is channelled into the bedrooms. Seven buildings are spread around the point on the north side of Half Moon Bay, stepped above two pools and a garden that runs down to the water.

Why It Works

Two things set this apart from the rest of West End. The first is that it is a designed object rather than a collection of rooms, and you feel it in the timber, the cross ventilation and the way the buildings sit on the slope instead of flattening it. The second is self sufficiency: nearly every unit has a kitchen or a kitchenette, there is a barbecue, and the decks are shared in a way that makes a week feel like living somewhere rather than staying somewhere. A concierge handles the diving and the tours, which removes the only friction.

Why This Location

Being around the point rather than on the strip is the whole trick. Half Moon Bay and the main West End road, with the restaurants, bars and dive shops, are a few minutes on foot, while the noise of the strip does not carry around the headland and the neighbourhood stays residential. The water at the front is oceanfront rather than beach, which suits swimming and snorkelling more than lying on sand. West Bay is a short water taxi ride down the coast when sand is what you want.

Fast Facts

• Price: Premium

• Vibe: timber, breeze, residential calm, self catering

• Rooms: seven buildings holding ten studio condos with kitchenettes, two cottages with full kitchens and six lodges, plus two storey homes with two or three bedrooms

• Best For: longer stays, travellers who cook, divers who want quiet, small groups sharing a house

• Our Favorite Thing About the Hotel: the breezeways between the lodges, an old idea used properly, which do the work an air conditioner usually does badly

• Dining: breakfast included with the garden cottages and the oceanfront units, a fruit bowl and a hot plate that changes daily; kitchens and a barbecue grill for everything else, with West End’s restaurants minutes away

• Amenities: two pools overlooking the water, tropical garden, shared decks, barbecue grill, in unit safes, concierge for diving and tours, laundry service, overnight security on site, airport shuttle

• Attractions: Half Moon Bay and its snorkelling around the point; West End village and its dive shops minutes on foot; West Bay beach a water taxi ride away; the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef offshore

Condos, Cottages and Lodges: Which One and Why

The three formats answer three different trips. The studio condos are the compact option, with a kitchenette that covers breakfast and a late supper. The cottages are the ones to book for a proper stay, with full kitchens and breakfast included. The lodges are where the architecture shows most clearly, timber framed and cross ventilated, and they suit anyone who wants the building to be part of the holiday. Above them sit the two storey homes with two or three bedrooms, which work for a family or two couples who want their own bathrooms.

Two Pools, a Grill and a Kitchen of Your Own

Self catering is the pattern here, and the property is set up for it. The kitchens are real, the grill is shared, and the drinking water is unlimited, which on an island removes a daily errand. Breakfast, where it is included, pairs a fruit bowl with a hot plate that changes through the week. The two pools sit above the water and take the middle of the day, and the decks between the buildings are where guests end up in the evening.

Before You Book

Three notes. The front is oceanfront rather than sandy beach, so a stay here means swimming and snorkelling from the property and taking a water taxi when you want West Bay. Ask which units include breakfast, since it varies by category. And if the architecture is the reason you are coming, ask for one of the lodges rather than a condo, since the breezeways are the part worth experiencing.