ArcaMax

The butler was serving Myrna Schneiderman and her daughters their morning coffee poolside at their Jamaican villa. Their cook had prepared breakfast. The housekeeper would be tidying their rooms while they got some sun.

"You can't have breakfast in your PJs at a hotel, or relax without a lot of other people around," observed Schneiderman's daughter, Alyssa Ramos.

But, actually, you likely would pay more at a luxury hotel for less privacy and service, not to mention food and drinks. Schneiderman's daughters had booked the villa vacation in Jamaica to celebrate their mom's 75th birthday and it proved to be "the best vacation ever," Schneiderman said. "We left one night for dinner and then we wondered why we did," Ramos added.

I knew how she felt. I was staying with three old friends at a neighboring villa that is also managed by Villas by Linda Smith. Smith, an American, has been in this business for more than 30 years and oversees 100 staffed villas in Jamaica, training the cooks, helping with the decoration and even sleeping in every one. No wonder so many guests return year after year. (Nonstop flights from New York on JetBlue made the travel easy.)

When we wake up at Serenity on the Beach, just outside Montego Bay, Gladstone Beckford, our butler, has coffee ready. We're served breakfast on a patio overlooking the ocean. Our biggest decision is whether to sit at the pool, or the beach. (There's a big basket of pool toys for when kids are in the house.) We tell our cook, Maud Langmon, what we would like for dinner (maybe red snapper or lobster?) and it's served that evening under the twinkling stars. The staff has worked here for years. Should we want to wander anywhere, Beckford can arrange snorkeling or diving excursions, fishing, a trip to a farmer's market, golf, a spa, Negril's famous seven-mile beach or the waterfalls, a beach barbecue with a steel band or a nanny. Did I mention we also have a laundress and a housekeeper?

"We have a lot of people who come back every year and they say it is because of us," Beckford says proudly.

It's easy to see why these vacations are so popular with multigenerational families. No one is doing all the chores that typically come with a house rental. "The idea is that for one week, this is your vacation home," explained Nicky Farquharson, the chief concierge for the company.

"The babies can nap and we can still be outside enjoying ourselves," said Peggy Cowan, who is from New Jersey and, along with her husband, owns the seven-bedroom villa next door where her children and grandchildren gather every spring break. "No one is stuck in a hotel room while the baby sleeps."

Kids race from pool to beach to kitchen all day long, and the cook can feed them an early dinner, so the adults can relax over a leisurely dinner. "Thank you so much for so many good meals," one young guest named Juliet wrote Chef Danny, who hung her note on his fridge. He has chef hats and aprons for when the kids join him in the kitchen.

I hope you are getting the idea how different this is than renting a vacation condo someplace -- though that's certainly lots of fun, too. And I know you are thinking it's way out of your price point, but not necessarily. Consider a three-bedroom villa low season (April 16 to Dec. 14) would average $3,900, plus tip and food -- an average of $229 per bedroom per night. During high season, the price is a $1,000 more. Consider that one hotel room can cost over $750 a night and resort restaurants certainly will cost more than the meals prepared by your chef. (figure $55 a day per adult, $25 for kids).

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