Hannah, one of our dedicated team members from Miss Ellie's Travel recently went on a educational trip with Virgin Holidays to Barbados, visitng seven of our properties. A detailed description of the trip and Hannah's thoughts were as follows:
The Trip commenced with of course Flights with Virgin Economy Class. The flight was pleasant with a fair amount of leg room, comfort packs, unlimited drinks including alcoholic beverages and a meal, snack and later on followed by a sandwich (may I add tasted like cardboard.)
Service onboard is excellent. Onboard entertainment included, Internet (I couldn’t get it working) plenty of films to choose from both adults and Children’s, Games. Documentaries and comedies such as Gavin and Stacey etc.
The Outbound flight With Virgin Atlantic had the following classes:
• Economy
• Premium Economy
• First Class- Included use of the onboard bar with unlimited drinks
• Upper First Class-Included use of the onboard bar with unlimited drinks
• Business Class on the Upper Part of the plane i.e. upstairs-Included use of the onboard bar with unlimited drinks
The Heathrow and Manchester aircraft is lay out slightly different than the Gatwick aircraft but services onboard remain the same.
After landing in Barbados getting threw the airport is quick and efficient as you would have already filled in your Tourist Cards on the plane. Bags were loaded off quickly we then started the Journey to the South Coast to the Turtle Beach-Home for the next 2 nights. Transfer time- 10 Minutes
Virgin offer a service called ‘Check in Chill out’ where two Local Virgin Rep’s come to your Hotel with your boarding cards and take your bags to the airport for you. This service is completely free and saves a lot of time. You then only have to go to the Airport an hour before and you go straight threw to security as your bags have already been checked in so there is no queuing what so ever. The only down side I found is you need to make sure you have everything you will require thorough out the rest of the day as there’s no going back once they have gone off with you case i.e. I had left my IPod in my case and was gutted as you don’t see your case until you get back to you land.
Overall it is a very good service and of course exclusive to Virgin Customers only! Check your Hotel does the service before you book though as not all the Hotels do it, you will find it just in the Brochure.
Turtle Beach Hotel 4* AI South Coast
The South Coast is the liveliest of Resorts mainly because it is home to "St. Lawrence Gap" the resort Centre if you like which at night is heaving with locals as well as tourist. Very Safe to go out at night and very fun. Our antics included dancing in the rain outside a tiny Rum Shack where a Bottle of Rum cost £3 and Rum & Coke at £1.50
Turtle Beach is one of the oldest Hotels on the Island with 170 rooms and therefore along with The Hotel Escape at the Gap, has the best beach spot on the Island Mainly because of the sheer amount of beach it actually has as a lot of other Hotels have had their tiny beaches reduced by the Sea Coming forward as they call it due to the bad weather they have had.
The Hotel Grounds are immaculate however slightly dated for a 4* standard
Hotel pools are lovely with big comfy sun beds and umbrellas
The Hotel allows you to eat in the a la Carte Restaurants as many times as you like as long as you book
at the time I thought the food was great but after staying and visiting the other Hotels around the Island I began to think the food at the Turtle beach was only average and more of a 3* standard purely because of the better standard of the other 4* Hotels such as Tamarind Cove, The Colony Club, Crystal Cove (soon to be mentioned)
Rooms at the minute are quite dated and basic however ALL of them are due to be fully refurbished to a good 4* standard and very contemporary feel by 1/12/10
The Service within the Hotel Ground and Restaurant is excellent and staff can not do enough for you. Soft drinks are self serve at the pool/beach bar.
I would certainly recommended the Hotel to all customers types purely because of its great service and location and when the Hotel is fully refurbished it will be a good 4*
Escape at The Gap 3* AI South Coast
Escape at the Gap again is a great location right on the door step of ST. Lawrence Gap (night life) it has THE VERY best Beach spot in Barbados. The rooms are very Basic but very very spacious and would accommodate a family of 4.
The Hotel is set on two sides- Pool and Beach side with the Hotel's reception, dinning and main pool on this side and pirates side with an a la Carte restaurant, alternative pool however this is across a small road.
The Hotel sells its rooms as pool/ocean side rooms. This description is very misleading as this only means the rooms will be on the Hotels pool/Ocean side, quite right you can SEE the pool and Ocean but they are most certainly not Ocean/Pool side rooms.
We didn’t eat at this Hotel but we did visit the restaurant the food looked quite nice good choice etc and wine on the All Inclusive option was served in really nice wine glasses (something I quite liked)
The Hotels pool was absolutely tiny! But the Hotel Beach certainly made up for it. It had the biggest beach we had seen out of all of the elegant hotels along with Turtle Beach Hotel.
The Hotel had Loft Ocean View rooms with had a living room down stairs and bedroom upstairs, both floors with a Balcony looking right onto the Beach, I really liked these and they would be great for two couples sharing or a family with teenagers maybe. The rooms are very clean and have lovely furniture but the thing that I didn’t like were the Curtains with the pictures of Parrots on:-/
This Hotel is defiantly no more than a 3* standard purely because of the Hotels Grounds, size of the pool, Plastic sun beds (the first time I had seen these on our visit) non matching, old, worn and damaged, having said this I would recommend it for a group that wanted a budget Hotel in a Fab location on All Inclusive, with a touch of paint, new chairs, tables and sun beds this Hotel could be a really good 3* property.
The Colony Club 4* Plus HB-FB West Coast
The Colony Club is a Beautiful Property with a lot of the rooms being right onto the pool some of which you can walk down steps from you terrace into the Pool.
The food was really good and the service was excellent.
The Beach at the Colony Club wasn’t great, quite small and sand looked like it had come from Tenerife not the Caribbean.
Hotel had all the Facilities you would expect from a 4* Plus such as Gym, beach bar and restaurant, water sports.
I would recommend this hotel for Couples- older and younger more than families as the Hotel had a really up Market Adult only feel however children are more than welcome and catered for.
I found the leading room types were not as nicely decorated as some on the other 4 stars we visited; bearing in mind The Colony Club is a 4 Plus.
Crystal Cove 4* AI West Coast
Another stunning property in the middle of a refurbishment.
the swimming pools here are really what gives the hotel its name as they are Rock Pool and look as if there in a Cove.
The swim up bar was great serving Cocktails, soft drinks etc.
Buffet food was really good and a lot to choose from.
The Hotel offers beach BBQ's certain nights of the week but again I didn’t think the beach was great it was extremely cramped with sun beds and water sport activities. It was very rocky and almost impossible to get in and out but the Hotels great pools made up for it.
They had a different themed restaurant buffet every night along with its a la Carte Restaurant that you have to make reservations for. The bars were all self serve for soft drinks.
The rooms were lovely and very spacious again with Loft suites available. Standard Ocean View rooms only sleep 2 Adults. 6 Interconnecting rooms available. Total of 88 Rooms
I would certainly recommend this Hotel for both couples and Families.
Waves Hotel 4* AI West Coast
(Formly Escape Hotel and Spa)
Again stunning Hotel inside with lovely restaurants and great service, but certainly not one of my favourites this is why...
The Hotel Only had about 10 meters of beach (egxaduration to how small the bit of sand was) as it had been washed up due to the previous bad weather along time ago it seems so there is almost like a tiny little bit of sand for the whole 70 rooms they have, if you was to put a towel down you would be washed away within seconds.
The Hotels pool on the main side was very small also and the view from the rooms (ocean view rooms) looked down onto a load of people that were forced to sunbathe on a wooden deck just outside of the main entrance. It look very much like a Boutique hotel this one which I presume its the look its going for seeing how small it is.
To get to the other side of the Hotel where there are rooms, Spa, gym and a lovely restaurant you had to cross a small main road another thing I didn’t like was the front of the Hotel looked like a Prison- Sorry to be so negative about this property but its honest and I could not make my self like it at all and neither id anyone in the group, the bus had to pull up at the side of the Road to let us off as there is no drive up entrance for the property.
The Photos in the Brochure make it look as though its got a good beach spot but it really hasn't. The lady showing us round reckoned that the sea would go back in a matter of time but until it does I would not recommended this Hotel for people that like a Beach only for couple that want a small personal Hotel.
The rooms however were tastefully decorated and very very spacious.
Sea Breeze Hotel 4* AI
This Hotel was by far my favourite with its beautiful hotel Grounds, lovely restaurants, Good food and stunning Beach spot with powder white sand- The first time I had seen the sand like this throughout the visits.
There are 2 pools one of which was adults only (heaven for me) and FREE Wi Fi which I fully made the most of!
The rooms I think could be a bit more nicely decorated compared to some of the other but I’m sure customers would find them ok as they were nice enough.
The Hotels room types vary in price a lot from standard pool view rooms to the Club Ocean View rooms where you get benefits such as someone going out in the morning and reserving you a spot on the beach (your Choice) and reserve it with a scarf that you will recognise.
Lunch was really good and the a la Carte restaurants looked very nice. Beach BBQ's were also held on some nights.
Tamarind Cove 4* HB west Coast
The first thing I will mention about this Great 4* Hotel is the amazing food from a la Carte to Lunch to the Buffet... the food was the best I had ate since being there, even better than the 5* House Daphne’s Restaurant.
The Rooms were decorated very nice with all rooms having a double sink. The leading rooms were a bit on the small side but we had junior suite so that didn’t matter lol.
Junior suite was very large and the balcony door leading threw onto the pool where we would go out during the day.
The pool has 110 rooms so quite a larger property but the Tamarind had a very long beach and 2 pool areas so it never felt busy at all.
I would defiantly recommend this Hotel for couples and families also families with teenagers are there is a good games room for them to go off and do their own thing with Internet access, Wii etc. (we made the most of it at Midnight)
All Water sports were included at this Hotel, (excluding Jet Ski’s I never found out of they were at the other Hotels but I imagine they were.
The only down side to the Hotel is the Bar...it was a loooooong wait for a drink a half an hour to 45 minute wait for a cocktail as it was happy hour until 6pm where all cocktails $10 other wise they are $12-$20.
The Hotel is in a good location just 5 minute drive from ST. Lawrence Gap.