We have given this hotel 5 stars, as we had a fantastic two week holiday here, with teens. The main plus points of this hotel is the stunning location and the fantastic beach. We snorkelled right off the beach to see sea turtles and star fish just a few metres from the shore. The waters are calm in the bay, the sand soft and we didn’t use the pool once, with such a fantastic beach on the doorstep.
There are several restaurants to choose from on the half board option, which meant a good variety over the fortnight. (We also ate at a couple of restaurants locally, which were not nearly as good as the hotel.) It was good to have several options for dinner over the fortnight, with special mention to the fabulous East and the buffet on the beach at the Jetty Bar. Also, a special mention to the wonderful staff, in particular the beach staff, J and Hilma, and Shanita and Georgier in the restaurant, who were incredibly friendly, welcoming, and offering great hospitality. The staff are attentive and can’t do enough for you. The setting of Indigo on the beach for breakfast and dinner is just stunning!
There is a small gym and a good library room, if like me, you need to borrow some extra beach reading! We found the beach service to be attentive, with staff constantly checking if you need anything and arranging lunch or drinks to us on the beach loungers. The fast track airport service, bypassing long queues, was also greatly appreciated and is a big positive to the hotel experience here. We also found the concierge to be very helpful and we booked day trips to Stingray City and Nelson’s Dockyard with ease.
The only things that I’d mention are that although the setting is outstanding, it is a little tired with some of the decor and landscaping in parts. It is a laid back luxury hotel, but don’t expect the level of polish that you find in Indian Ocean hotels, for example, in all parts of the resort. This is also true for the little touches, such as the beach towels not being topped up on the loungers throughout the day, so you’d have to find someone to ask for towels if you arrived in the afternoon. Our mini bar in the room was not restocked each day as promised and the room service was hit and miss. Some days the turn down service would arrive early whilst we were all getting ready for dinner around 6.30pm/7pm, so would simply hand over some water bottles, rather than come back later, as is the usual practice in high end hotels. These are the little touches that you would expect to be perfect in a hotel of this calibre and price point.
It is also worth mentioning that although the hotel is described as having a spa, it is really more of a hotel with treatment rooms. The staff and treatments themselves are excellent, however the relaxation area, which is the same before and after your treatment, is really just an area of the long corridor, reception area, rather than an actual room. It is at the bottom of the staircase for the treatment rooms and the gym, with several beds against the back wall, separated by a sheer curtain. There is a small sauna and plunge pool, however these are in a small corner of the changing room, next to the lockers, so not an area that you could relax in, with no loungers, before and after treatments. As I say, the treatments themselves are good, but I would normally expect to spend a couple of hours at a spa of a five star resort, with separate, private relaxation areas before and after treatments. This is why I say that the spa here is more like a hotel with treatment rooms, rather than a spa facility. So, if spending half a day at the hotel spa, using its facilities is something that you look for in a stay, it might be worth adjusting expectations here.
Overall this hotel is fantastic and we would definitely return again, for the beautiful setting, the beach, the spacious beach front suites, excellent food and friendly staff, who cannot do enough for you. A truly wonderful stay, thank you to all at Carlisle Bay.
