The Bird's Nest

Apartment was nicely renovated and extremely well equipped and located. Privacy was good and we got Wi-Fi. Pete was very helpful. We travel extensively and I can say that Birds Nest exceeded our expectations for a studio accommodating 2 people. Particularly loved the day beds and the swimming hole opposite. Beach towels were provided & there is the opportunity to book a snorkelling trip with Pete on his Cocos Blue boats. As with all accommodation and car hire on Christmas and Cocos Islands, accommodation is often left unlocked and car keys in the ignition. That’s just the way it is in the IOT where theft/crime is 0.

Very nice.all we need is here, the host is very friendly and helpful. Would stay again.

This accommodation is actually a house divided into three quarters, one stayed by the owners, another stayed by a family, and the last is the Bird's Nest. Although each quarter had their own entrance, we felt there was not enough privacy. On top of that, we were not given keys to the accommodation. We were told that nobody locks their house and car on the island. The safe inside the accommodation was not working (the key pad even disappeared), so we had to trust that nothing bad will happen to our belongings while we were exploring other islands during the day.

Jill the manager greeted us at the airport and gave us a short tour around the Settlement. Jill was very friendly and helpful. She even drove back to the bus stop on the next day to offer us a lift to the ferry when she saw us still waiting for the bus after the scheduled bus time was long past. The bus eventually came (bus times are only approximate on the island).

The owners on the other hand were not friendly. During our three night stay, we only did washing once on the second night. On the third day after coming back from Direction Island, we were hanging our wet swimmers to dry when the male owner said "you are doing washing again. " We weren't sure what to make of his comment. Are we supposed to bring our wet swimmers all the way back to the mainland? If they are so concerned about people doing washing, maybe they should remove the washing machine from the accommodation.

The worst part of the stay was that the female owner never greeted us once during our stay but on the morning of our departure, she came to the accommodation at 8am insisting that we need to check out so she can prepare the place for the next arrivals. I told her our booking confirmation stated that the check out time was 10am (and I did check again after coming home that the booking confirmation does state the check out time is 10am) but she showed us the information booklet in the accommodation states check out is at 8am. We did not want to argue with her so we left and spent the next few hours idling outside the visitor information centre. The flight was delayed, which didn't help with the situation.

Great location, friendly hosts, clean and comfortable. Would definitely recommend.

Our ten day birding stay at the very comfortable Bird’s Nest was a lot of fun with Pam and Geof as our guides. With their knowledge and expertise we went to all the likely places and found many rare and interesting birds both local and vagrant. It was also great to get to know and see some of the historical and cultural aspects of the Cocos-Keeling Islands Highly recommended. Pam Smith, Paul Taylor. December 2018.