I stayed at Michelle's place for a week when I was in town working in Manhattan and wanted to be able to get some time at the beach and in the ocean. The location is perfect for that -- it's half a block to the beach and just a 5 minute walk to the subway station. The morning commute in to Manhattan was about 50 minutes and pleasant for working, as I always got a seat.Coming back in the evenings was more of a haul, but only had one day where I came back late and the trains were running infrequently so it took an hour and half or so.

The room is simple, quiet and nice and that's what I was looking for. I really appreciated that the house was always quiet in the evenings. I'm a dog person, so enjoyed having the dogs around.

I didn't surf much (spoiled living in California) but it was nice to be near the beach and go for swims in the morning before work. Michelle was nice enough to help me locate a surfboard to use one day, but for those looking to surf regularly a heads up that it's a good idea to bring a board as surf shops in this neighborhood are unreasonably expensive and only open limited hours.

Michelle and her boyfriend Esteban seemed generally like nice people and I enjoyed my stay.