Coldwell Banker Islands Blog

If Christmas is in your Aruba Home this year, there is no need to panic . You will find a couple of easy tips for you to follow to ensure your Christmas goes off well without a hitch. Being organized is paramount and to really make it memorable try doing something different to the traditional sit down lunch. As you live in a warmer climate you may even decide to have your Christmas lunch outdoors on the patio. Your Christmas party could be a pool party in which your guests can enjoy a cooling dip in the pool!

Plan your Menu

Ensure you know what you are going to be cooking and that you have organized a day to collect the meat or seafood you have ordered. You might like choose to serve a traditional Christmas feast indoors, or if you are going to enjoy the outdoors with a barbecue, seafood, meat, and salads are a good option. Of course whether it is formal or casual, deserts are always important for guests with a sweet tooth!

Formal or Casual?

Do you enjoy a classic formal Christmas with a fancy meal, making use of your best silverware or perhaps a Christmas outdoors round the barbecue more your scene? Either option is a terrific way to celebrate Christmas and also to spend some time with family and friends. For any formal Christmas decorate your table with candles, tinsel and other Christmas decorations. Set out your good tableware and serve your meal with all the trimmings.

Select the best wines you can buy, with a nice sparkling wine to accompany the start of the meal. If you decide on a casual Christmas lunch turn on the barbecue and prepare some prawns or bake a whole fish. You may even prepare meats on the barbecue. Pavlova is a superb dessert on a warm day, along with a fresh fruit salad, or you can even serve serve Christmas pudding cold.

Decorations

To get into the festive spirit make sure you decorate your home. As well as the Christmas tree decorate the table and hang up tinsel and baubles along with other decorations round the room or yard.

Presents

Know in advance whether your family and friends are giving presents. Some families go all out and purchase presents for every member of the family, others don’t bother at all. If you’re watching your spending possibly organize a secret Santa, where each member of the group buys one gift for just one other member of the family. It should be taken care of some time before Christmas to give each person enough time to purchase gifts.

If Christmas is in your St Kitts Home this year, there is no need to panic . You will find a couple of easy tips for you to follow to ensure your Christmas goes off well without a hitch. Being organized is paramount and to really make it memorable try doing something different to the traditional sit down lunch. As you live in a warmer climate you may even decide to have your Christmas lunch outdoors on the patio. Your Christmas party could be a pool party in which your guests can enjoy a cooling dip in the pool!

Plan your Menu

Ensure you know what you are going to be cooking and that you have organized a day to collect the meat or seafood you have ordered. You might like choose to serve a traditional Christmas feast indoors, or if you are going to enjoy the outdoors with a barbecue, seafood, meat, and salads are a good option. Of course whether it is formal or casual, deserts are always important for guests with a sweet tooth!

Formal or Casual?

Do you enjoy a classic formal Christmas with a fancy meal, making use of your best silverware or perhaps a Christmas outdoors round the barbecue more your scene? Either option is a terrific way to celebrate Christmas and also to spend some time with family and friends. For any formal Christmas decorate your table with candles, tinsel and other Christmas decorations. Set out your good tableware and serve your meal with all the trimmings.

Select the best wines you can buy, with a nice sparkling wine to accompany the start of the meal. If you decide on a casual Christmas lunch turn on the barbecue and prepare some prawns or bake a whole fish. You may even prepare meats on the barbecue. Pavlova is a superb dessert on a warm day, along with a fresh fruit salad, or you can even serve serve Christmas pudding cold.

Decorations

To get into the festive spirit make sure you decorate your home. As well as the Christmas tree decorate the table and hang up tinsel and baubles along with other decorations round the room or yard.

Presents

Know in advance whether your family and friends are giving presents. Some families go all out and purchase presents for every member of the family, others don’t bother at all. If you’re watching your spending possibly organize a secret Santa, where each member of the group buys one gift for just one other member of the family. It should be taken care of some time before Christmas to give each person enough time to purchase gifts.

If Christmas is in your British Virgin Islands Home this year, there is no need to panic . You will find a couple of easy tips for you to follow to ensure your Christmas goes off well without a hitch. Being organized is paramount and to really make it memorable try doing something different to the traditional sit down lunch. As you live in a warmer climate you may even decide to have your Christmas lunch outdoors on the patio. Your Christmas party could be a pool party in which your guests can enjoy a cooling dip in the pool!

Plan your Menu

Ensure you know what you are going to be cooking and that you have organized a day to collect the meat or seafood you have ordered. You might like choose to serve a traditional Christmas feast indoors, or if you are going to enjoy the outdoors with a barbecue, seafood, meat, and salads are a good option. Of course whether it is formal or casual, deserts are always important for guests with a sweet tooth!

Formal or Casual?

Do you enjoy a classic formal Christmas with a fancy meal, making use of your best silverware or perhaps a Christmas outdoors round the barbecue more your scene? Either option is a terrific way to celebrate Christmas and also to spend some time with family and friends. For any formal Christmas decorate your table with candles, tinsel and other Christmas decorations. Set out your good tableware and serve your meal with all the trimmings.

Select the best wines you can buy, with a nice sparkling wine to accompany the start of the meal. If you decide on a casual Christmas lunch turn on the barbecue and prepare some prawns or bake a whole fish. You may even prepare meats on the barbecue. Pavlova is a superb dessert on a warm day, along with a fresh fruit salad, or you can even serve serve Christmas pudding cold.

Decorations

To get into the festive spirit make sure you decorate your home. As well as the Christmas tree decorate the table and hang up tinsel and baubles along with other decorations round the room or yard.

Presents

Know in advance whether your family and friends are giving presents. Some families go all out and purchase presents for every member of the family, others don’t bother at all. If you’re watching your spending possibly organize a secret Santa, where each member of the group buys one gift for just one other member of the family. It should be taken care of some time before Christmas to give each person enough time to purchase gifts.

Digicel is spreading Christmas cheer throughout St. Kitts and Nevis with its “Grab $150,000 in Cash & Prizes” Christmas Promotion. Since the launch of Digicel’s Bigger and Better Christmas Promotion on November 18th 2011, islanders have been literally filling their pockets with lots of cash and walking away with fantastic prizes.
Every Friday since the launch, Digicel customers who have qualified in the Promotion have entered the inflatable Cash Vault for their chance to grab as much cash and prizes as they could in 10 seconds. Lucky customers have qualified by simply topping up their prepaid handsets with $15 or more and collected letters to spell ‘GRABCASH’, paid 50% or more of their Digicel postpaid bill, purchased a new BlackBerry handset with sim card, or activated any prepaid plan or signed up for a new postpaid account.
Digicel has also given customers on other networks the chance to grab up to $150,000 in cash and prizes. Last Friday, on the launch of the Digicel-endorsed “Red Devils” Jouvert Troupe, the Digicel Cash Vault was on location at Fat Tuesdays, where persons with any mobile phone who texted ‘GRABCASH’ to an assigned Digicel number, were randomly selected to enter the money chamber.
Customers have until December 30th to qualify in Digicel’s Christmas Promotion & win for themselves cash, airline tickets, flat screen TV’s, free credit, BlackBerry handsets, restaurant vouchers and other prizes.

Source:sknvibes.com

Telecoms Company, LIME opened its 4G experience center last Friday, at its Flemming Street store effectively bringing the world’s latest and best in mobile technology to the BVI.
Promising speeds much faster than any service available in the market at the moment, the company says customers can visit the store to touch, feel, play and interact with the latest devices in a 4G powered environment.
“4G is alive in BVI, and everybody is invited for a test drive. We are proud to bring the latest in mobile technology the BVI, with a leap that will result in our network being up to sixty times faster than we have ever had it,” said Sean Auguste, General Manager, LIME BVI.
“The center is just the start of the roll out of the network, which will take place over the next three months, until we deliver a full 4G network to the BVI at the end of March 2012,” he continued.
The 4G Experience Center is part of the US$80M investment the company is making to finance major improvements to its regional mobile networks, which will enable its customers to access blazing fast Internet and numerous sophisticated data services on their wireless devices.
Highlighting the benefits of the technology to the business sector, Auguste pointed out that organizations which operate in markets where 4G is available are enjoying improved productivity and new ways of working.

Source:bvinews.com

Aruba Bird life Conservation proposes that a National Conservation Master Plan be developed and implemented in an effort to save very important nature areas.
Aruba’s Arikok National Park, which covers some 17% of the island’s surface, is a true jewel, but it does not reflect the complete variety of micro habitats to be found in Aruba.
Aruba is internationally known for its 3 Important Bird Areas, none of which are part of our National Park. These are the reef islands at the San Nicolas Bay area, Spanish Lagoon and Bubali Plas. While our national park is among the most arid of places on the island and its northern border with the Caribbean Sea can be quite hostile, the important bird areas are characterized by their peaceful situations between land and water, which generates better opportunities for Aruba’s wildlife.
Aruba Bird life Conservation proposes that the following areas be added to our National Park, in order to conserve a more holistic representation of Aruba’s variety of micro habitats, which would then include a greater variety of our flora and fauna.
Of the 224 bird species registered in Aruba, less than 25% of the species can be found in our national park. Aruba Bird life Conservation started a campaign on February 4, 2011 to get our Shoco nominated as the National Bird of Aruba. Dr. Adrian Delnevo recently estimated that there are only approximately 200 pairs of Shoco’s left.
The nomination of our Shoco, the symbol of wisdom, as the National Bird of Aruba, could then be seen as the kick-off for the development and implementation of an ambitious National Conservation Master Plan.

Source:aruba.com

A sport fisherman’s dream, this waterfront townhouse is located on the idyllic island of Great Harbour Cay in the Berry Islands of the Bahamas.

What makes this home such a strike? Easy!

It’s surrounded by fertile fishing grounds and it’s only a skip away from South Florida. A deep water boat slip under the townhouse in one of the best hurricane protected harbours in the Bahamas makes this a unique real estate find.

The 2 bed townhouse has patios with fantastic sea views and a screened patio overlooking the marina.

This is an ideal set-up for the South Florida fishing enthusiast. Hop on over to the Bahamas for a few days of fun and sport. When you’re finished, just close up your home, hop into your boat and take off…until next time!

Can you think of a better Christmas gift to yourself?

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Remember the ancient curse, “May you live in interesting times”? While many Bahamas real estate owners are indeed cursing the current climate, many buyers see opportunities. In a “soft” market, the short-term options dwindle, but seasoned investors in for the long haul are positioned to take advantage.

In the words of billionaire J. Paul Getty, “Buy when everyone else is selling and hold until everyone else is buying.
Just like the stock market, more money is often made in a down cycle than in an up real estate market and the Bahamas is no exception.

Slower times encourage sellers to be more open to negotiation. Combine acceptance of lower prices with currently lower interest rates, and you’ve got the perfect recipe for Bahamas real estate bargains. Real estate is continually cycling, and it’s guaranteed that prices will rise again. The time to get in is now, before that begins to happen.

A “buy and hold” strategy works in this market if you have the funds and while your property appreciates. While you wait, if you have a building consider leasing it. The property can help to pay for itself with rent collected, and an investor who can pay off a small mortgage is in an excellent position indeed.

Now is the time to get going on the Bahamas real estate front. Some of you are looking to make your first purchase. There has probably never been a better time to buy. 2012 will soon be on us. Set your goals now. There are also many owner financing opportunities out there. Best of luck to everyone for next year. Buy well and you won’t regret it.

Remember the ancient curse, “May you live in interesting times”? While many Bahamas real estate owners are indeed cursing the current climate, many buyers see opportunities. In a “soft” market, the short-term options dwindle, but seasoned investors in for the long haul are positioned to take advantage.

In the words of billionaire J. Paul Getty, “Buy when everyone else is selling and hold until everyone else is buying.
Just like the stock market, more money is often made in a down cycle than in an up real estate market and the Bahamas is no exception.

Slower times encourage sellers to be more open to negotiation. Combine acceptance of lower prices with currently lower interest rates, and you’ve got the perfect recipe for Bahamas real estate bargains. Real estate is continually cycling, and it’s guaranteed that prices will rise again. The time to get in is now, before that begins to happen.

A “buy and hold” strategy works in this market if you have the funds and while your property appreciates. While you wait, if you have a building consider leasing it. The property can help to pay for itself with rent collected, and an investor who can pay off a small mortgage is in an excellent position indeed.

Now is the time to get going on the Bahamas real estate front. Some of you are looking to make your first purchase. There has probably never been a better time to buy. 2012 will soon be on us. Set your goals now. There are also many owner financing opportunities out there. Best of luck to everyone for next year. Buy well and you won’t regret it.

(Imagine watching the festival from this Paradise Island dream home)!

This weekend, we’re going to hit the waterfront to watch the Festival of Lights Christmas Boat Parade float down beautiful Nassau Harbour.

The boats leave the bay at Arawak Cay at 6.30pm, pass Junkanoo Beach and the British Colonial Hilton, and go under the Paradise Island bridges. The turnaround is at the Nassau Yacht Club immediately west of Montagu Park.
You can watch this wonderful event on the Nassau side.

Ocean Club Estate home owners on Paradise Island will be able to watch from the luxury of their magnificent homes

See Listing details for an amazing Ocean Club estate home that’s on the market.

Enjoy the show and don’t forget to pack an ice chest!