Tamarind

First trip to the Caribbean/Barbados and the resort left nothing out. We picked Tamarind for their all inclusive water sports/buffet breakfast. Everyone employed were friendly and extremely helpful. Very clean and lots of places to relax and enjoy yourself. The breakfast had a ton of options, including fresh cooked eggs by Ether. She will teach you how to make the best omelet!! Thank you Tamarind for providing us with a wonderful experience; we cannot wait to comeback some day.

The Excellent Everyone said The Tamarind is a bit shabby, in need of renovation etc etc. Yes to all. We emailed and asked for quiet sea view room. When we got there the room was by the pool so we didn’t unpack and they moved us to a room which was very quiet with the most beautiful sunsets. The beach is stunning. The sunbeds – Patrick and a younger man keep the beach tip top. Always good to give Patrick a little something as they work hard to make sure there are beds out by 7am and always clean towels etc. The guests staying at the hotel were all friendly and lovely. Mostly Brits with a few US a/ Canadians. The watersports – free all week. Great touch. The water taxi. Again free. And breaks up your time. Breakfast is a fun affair. Yes the egg lady is Amazing and everyone is friendly like rays of happy sunshine. Bright and friendly. If you are lucky only one or two birds will join you inside. Think the opening scene from The Birds… The beach is stunning – nip just beyond the Treasure beach at 10am every day . the boats come into the beach and feed the turtles and you can just swim out and swim with the turtles for an hour every day . Great fun. The manager’s cocktail party on a Wednesday. Very nice . free cocktails and snacks and a chance to see people in clothes . The little gift shop sells some lovely items. Worth a look. Transport Yellow Reggie Buses which are £1.50 each way – super friendly and will drop you anywhere. We were even walked across the road to a restaurant by one of the drivers to ensure we got across. Amazing – don’t bother with taxi’s unless you have to or it’s after 9.30 ish. Taxi $60 BBD from the airport – The hotel tried to charge us $100 BBD back so we phoned one of the drivers who brought us home late $60 BBD back to the airport. The hotel then charged another couple at the same time $120 to the airport… The SERIOUSLY expensive Everything in Barbados is stupidly expensive. – Everything – from a glass of coke to a meal – stupidly expensive… Fizzy water $10 – $20 BBD – Pizza - 60 BBD + service + tax … Behave. Even the supermarkets are expensive. Really off putting – The hotel restaurant and bar food was a 4/5/ out of 10 and for the price – just not good enough. The BAD Room service – you need to demand your room gets cleaned in the morning – otherwise it’s 5pm. The hotel has internet from circa 1975… it’s like dial – up with Parkinson’s … SHOCKING! We asked for a note as they told us it wasn’t working and they were getting engineers in. The manager then refused to write that down for us as I guess it is like that all the time. A disgrace. We hit the bar for a snack and a drink on the first evening. It was like a really BAD Irish funeral where the person who died everyone disliked. No atmosphere at all. We quickly scurried to our “in need of renovation” room and put it down to timing, jet lag etc etc. The next night – it was the same. After that we went out. The absolutely Dangerous Stone fish – nope me neither. One of the guests stood on a stone fish at the shore line at about 6pm. Just by her sunbed. Her foot went GREEN. Was taken to hospital and put on a drip etc. She was fine – eventually - but there are LOADS of these in the rocks. The most dangerous fish in the world. Not one notice anywhere about these in the hotel etc. Luckily she met Patrick ( The sun bed man) who said – go to the hospital… We were quite nervous after that – even with shoes on. Why would you risk it? The trees with red circles on them – meaning the fruit especially when it rains can be poisonous. There are two of them on the beach. Which is worrying. Restaurants – Whatever you do – Go to the CLIFF – even if it’s for a drink . Stunning. All the restaurants are nice but all offer food that is average and for the price the food is awful. Daphines was the best evening meal we had… from the fixed price Summer menu $98bbd for two courses and a cocktail thrown in… Food was London standard. Would we return? We couldn’t as they don’t have any workable internet. If I want time out – I head the Maldives but even that has super-fast broadband … The issue I have is now there are so many great hotels on beautiful beaches that are keen to see us arrive …