http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6719827/

Secret hotels of the Caribbean
Finding your own affordable but fabulous tropical hideaway

February Edition, Budget Travel Magazine - Our criteria are simple. We insist on being right on the water. We’d rather not sleep in motel-style, side-by-side lodging. And we don’t want to pay more than $160 a night—even in high season.

Sitting alongside rocky shoals washed by the warm surf of Jamaica’s South Coast, Jake’s Easter egg–colored guest cottages are funky boutique versions of the Caribbean shack. The two dozen buildings overflow with odd, endearing details that are an exercise in culture-clash chic: Indian minaret–shaped windows, driftwood door frames, glass bottles embedded in plaster walls, Arabian-influenced domes, hammered-tin doors, Mayan-inspired weavings. The grounds are dotted with flowering bushes and desert greenery—cacti, yucca, gnarled little trees. What you get instead of a room with a TV, phone, and A/C is a welcoming, laid-back vibe. Don’t bother trying to find Jake, a parrot who’s not around anymore—it’s a long story.

The place was designed by Sally Henzell and is currently run by her son Jason, both of whom are particularly loved by the surrounding fishing village for starting a nonprofit that pays for medical rescue services, school computers, fishing tournaments, and even literary festivals where Shakespeare is performed in Jamaican patois. Hustlers are virtually nonexistent in the area, and Jake’s bar and pool serves as a gathering place for locals and guests alike. “We’ve felt like we’ve had the place to ourselves for the past week,” says John, a Toronto magazine publisher, as he watches his daughters play by the pool with a village girl in her school uniform. “Our own Jamaica.”