Right in the middle of the world-famous Seven Mile Beach is the wonderful, spacious and relaxing Villas Of The Galleon. We wanted to learn more about this 
extraordinary property, so we caught up with Lisa Ebanks, Manager of Villas Of The Galleon, who with her unique staff provides some of the most warm and caring customer service on the island.
PP: Lisa, we’ve come to love your property! You’re right in between the Ritz Carlton and the Westin, and yet Villas Of The Galleon has such a calm, relaxing almost pastoral feel.
LE: Thanks! One of the reason for that feeling, is that our property is spread out, there’s plenty of space here. You’re not crammed in. We have 74 villas in 11 stand-alone buildings, including one, two and three bedroom units, and one four bedroom unit. The maximum height is only three floors. All of the villas include beautifully appointed kitchens, washer-dryers, free hi-speed wi-fi, central AC, non smoking, and are completed with views of the most beautiful turquoise Caribbean Sea imaginable.
PP: The villas really are beautiful. It’s interesting how the construction of the villa buildings were strategically placed at a diagonal so almost everyone one has a view of the beach and the water.
LE: Yes, the angled placement has afforded great ocean views of our villas. We have Ocean Front, Ocean View and Courtyard views. All the villas have been remodeled. We have over 450 feet of beach, anchored with Casuarina trees which help hold 
beach, and provide great shade. With this much beach, and the limited number of villas, our beach is never over crowded. It affords wonderful privacy and intimacy. There is great snorkelling right off our beach with no rocky shoreline, just perfect fine sand. We’ve had sightings of Stingrays, turtles, conch and even lobster. So you mentioned relaxing, and if it’s R & R you want, our beach is perfect. We provide loungers and upright chairs, tables, beach umbrellas and a beach shower too.
PP: We do love your beach. In fact we saw a stingray while swimming here. Tell us, how many of the 74 villas are available to rent?
LE: 64 of our villas in the short-term rental pool. It’s the largest daily condo rental pool on Seven Mile Beach.
PP: Wow! You know, another aspect that contributes to the peaceful feeling here are the gardens between each of the buildings. Tell us about them.
LE: We do have significant gardens and landscaping. Initially we had a Landscaping board that helped us plan the gardens. We have Almond trees and the Parrots love them. We also have beautiful Key lime trees, Frangipani trees, Ackee trees and Breadfruit trees. Breadfruit is delicious. You can fry it, boil it and bake it. We also have several varieties of stunning orchids growing in our gardens, including the banana orchid, Cayman’s national plant.
PP: Villas of the Galleon is such an interesting name for this property. Tell us about the origin of the name.
LE: Next door, on the property of what now is the Westin hotel, originally was the Galleon Beach Hotel. The same 
developers of the Galleon Beach Hotel, later developed our property, so we were named Villas Of The Galleon.
PP: Oh, now that makes sense.
LE: Much later, after our Villas Of The Galleon property was developed, Westin purchased the Galleon Beach Hotel property, demoed the building and built the current Westin, but we still kept the name Villas Of The Galleon.
PP: Was there a building on this site before Villas was built?
LE: No, this was just bush and trees, it was virgin land. When our property was developed initially, the buildings were beige with brown shingle roofs.
PP: This history is so interesting. When did you join the staff at Villas?
LE: I arrived here in 1982, and started as the secretary. In 1989 I became the manager, a role I have held and loved for the last 30 years now.
PP: Wow! So you’ve see a lot, haven’t you?
LE: I have. On the south side of us was the Holiday Inn property. Later that was purchased, demoed and become the Ritz. So I’ve been here during the construction of both the Westin and the Ritz.
PP: Then you were here during Hurricane Ivan.
LE: Oh yes. As all of us who were on island then, we will never forget it. Hurricane Ivan wasn’t supposed to hit here. It was supposed to hit Jamaica, but instead hit us from the south. It was a Saturday. Shingles from the Sunshine Suites roof blew off and came through our bedroom window. The wind got so bad that night. It sounded like you’re under a jet plane engine. Cars in the parking lot floated away. It was a debris mess everywhere. We didn’t loose any of our structures, but we did have significant roof damage. So we replaced all of our roofs. The original roofs were rustic shingles. We replaced them with the blue metal standing seam roofs you see today, all with hurricane straps.
PP: We can’t imagine how challenging that time must have been. It’s impressive that your buildings were so well built that all you had to replace were the roofs, when many of the other structures on island were destroyed beyond repair.
LE: It was quite challenging. Because of the roof damage, water got into the interiors, and every unit needed work to get back into shape. It took two years to get everything done. We had to rebuild our business.
PP: We noticed there is an informal evening tradition with some of your guests and residents to gather on the beach at sundown to enjoy that day’s spectacular sunset.
LE: They do. They like to come out with their drinks before dinner. It’s just wonderful. Every sunset is unique, and many friendships have formed.
While doing this interview with Lisa, one of the resident owners stopped into Lisa’s office to catch up. Such impromptu pop-ins are quite common for Lisa as she has developed close friendships with her residents and guests. While reminiscing on falling in love with Cayman and Villas Of The Galleon, this owner said, “Lisa, You’re the only reason we bought here!”
That sums it up well. So if you haven’t yet, check out Villas Of The Galleon for your next stay in Cayman and meet Lisa. She is a joy to work with.
Villas Of The Galleon
1158A West Bay Road
(844) 904-3556
www.hello.ky
vacation@hello.ky