Tamarind

Beautiful location on beach with amazing sunsets Perfect for kids-as others have mentioned the staff at kids club are fantastic and my 4 yr old was happy to spend a few hours there. Also other guests made the experience even better by being so friendly and engaging Enjoyed the free ice creams Water sports are great value as included complimentary motorised sports (banana boat, water skiing etc) No seaweed issues Occasional tropical rainstorm but stopped quickly What was lacking was the customer service. There are Gems of staff (Ether and kids club. water sports team) but everyone else seemed too busy and overwhelmed. Recommendations: Room 104 opposite pool Rod d Man under D Hat- friendly guy on beach offering glass bottom boat trips to see turtles/wreck. We were the only family on the trip snorkeling and jumping off the top of the boat! Great for people with young families Tides excellent food Scarlet good next to hotel Reggae bus 3.50 barbados dollars per person Bring raincoat for rainstorms

This was our second trip to The Tamarind. We went back because of the location, the staff, the water-sports and Ether's omelettes / poached eggs. All those were still there and excellent. Despite a few shortcomings (below), we will probably go back again. Unlike the majority of other guests we met, we were on a B&B package as opposed to the All Inclusive deals which they are pushing. This seemed to mean that the systems could not cope when, for example, we had lunch to be added to our bill. We had to constantly check what we were signing off and discovered errors against us on 3 or 4 occasions. The staff were all very attentive and helpful when this happened though, it has to be said, not always on the same page. While we were there, it emerged that Marriot had bought out Elegant Hotels. I hope that they spruce the place up a bit (not too much) and sharpen up the systems. However, it would be a crying shame if they mess with it too deeply as people come back to it year after year, because it's just a fantastic place to be. One other note of caution, the fixed all inclusive deal discourages leaving the hotel to experience the nearby restaurants which are well worth it, from the simple Da Clay Oven pizzeria, through the thoroughly convivial Lone Star right through to the eye-popping (in terms of ambience and the bill) Cliff restaurant - all worth it. This place is still a gem, a little ungainly in places, but worth it.

Just spent 10 days at Tamarind. Hotel is nice, albeit a tad dated. Though this seems to be the case with most places on the island. Location is right on the beach and room had stunning sea views. We had the larger room with fold out beds for the kids. While the room was spacious, the foldout beds seem to be old and creaked a lot. This was problematic when one kid moved on the bed it sometimes woke up the other kid! Could do with updating these beds! The cleaning staff were great and, unlike some other resorts, never scrimped on towels and we were not forced to trudge around with the same beach towels everyday as we were provided with clean ones daily and there were more available at the pool/beach. All the staff were super-friendly and kids club staff were amazing. My kids don't normally like kids clubs (think we're palming them off) but in this case they opted to go. The whole team was very attentive to the kids and did really interesting activities. They paid attention to detail - paintings, pictures and crafts were not the slapdash affairs created at the usual kids clubs! You could see that the staff spent real time with the kids to help them create some create some great work. The boys did baking, sand art, halloween clay items and more. The kids loved going back and chatting with the staff there. All the staff were so friendly and energetic, you could see they genuinely loved playing with the kids. The kids club also arranged to take the kids to swim with the turtles in the sea and parents can join the trip so we all went together. Pamela was beyond unbelievable. She swam in the sea with both kids and looked after them really well. The wife and I are not confident swimmers so this was massively reassuring. Pam is like a fish and managed to tug my little one along while I tried to keep up! It was my son's 6th birthday while we were there and the staff made a real fuss over him, especially the kids club gang. He absolutely loved it. Thank you so much for the gift too. He loves turtles and will treasure it. My other son now wants to be there for his 9th birthday next year!! The food was ok, although lacked variety for vegetarian/vegan. We were also breakfast only, so every meal cost an absolute fortune. However I understand that the resort is planning to go all-inclusive exclusively soon so this decision may become moot.. In retrospect, maybe AI would have been better and cheaper, but then we quite liked going out to eat too. There was some great places nearby. Da Clay Oven pizzas across the road were amazing. We also spent a lot of time in Holetown exploring the food options, loved Spago (Italian). Definitely try out the local bus which takes you there with lively music too! Spa was not really a spa. The massage was great (even if a tad expensive) but there were no other facilities there. I got there a bit early expecting some area to wind down, but alas no. It has been raining so the seats outside by the adults pool were all wet too. I just had to wait by the door. Also no relaxation after the massage, not even a herbal tea! Given that the massage here is more expensive than most 5 star resorts, I would suggest that the management look into this as an area of improvement. All in all a great holiday at Tamarind and would definitely go back. A big thanks to all the gang there for making it a thoroughly enjoyable and memorable holiday.