Image of Turtle Beach Resort by Elegant Hotels

Turtle Beach Resort by Elegant Hotels

1 of 5 hotels in St Lawrence Gap

5 out of 5 from 6 reviews
3 stars
Dover, Barbados

6 Reviews

Traveller Rating

  • Excellent
    3
  • Very Good
    3
  • Good
    0
  • Average
    0
  • Poor
    0

Review Overview

  • Cleanliness
  • Entertainment
  • Food
  • Service
  • Location
Julie Mizen
16 years 10 months ago
This is a fantastic hotel.

The staff are very friendly and helpful.

My six year old daughter loved the kids club. She did pictures and jewellery making in a nice air conditioned room with lovely people.

The food was out of this world. We didn't hear one complaint our whole holiday.

The hotel was kept clean and tidy at all times.

The only thing I would say against this hotel is the entertainment could have been a little more up beat.

We will defininetly be going back.
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Travel operator: virgin

Recommended
Emma
17 years 6 months ago
This hotel is one of the best we have ever stayed in and we have been to lots of hotels within the Caribbean. As we were getting married we got a room upgrade and the view from our balcony was amazing.

The room was clean and the maid service was very good our beds and towels were changed every other day. The food was great, something you would expect at a 5*, there were 12 adults in our party and not one complaint about the food!

The staff will go out of their way to help with your requirements, we had children in our party and if nothing took their fancy on the menu they will make something extra eg. pizza, chicken nuggets, chips.

The entertainment was good, most nights they have a singer or violinist (very romantic) a few nights they have a themed night dancers, fire eaters that was great!

The beach is picture post card our first morning my sister & husband got to release some baby turtles that had hatched out, what an experience!

We would recommend this hotel to anyone it was fantastic and I hope we will get to go back some day.
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Travel operator: Thomas Cook

Recommended
Lynn
17 years 6 months ago
Travelled to Turtle Beach with Emma to become the new Mother-in-Law.

What can I say about this hotel it was fantastic one of the best my husband and I have stayed at and we have stayed in many.

Food fantastic 3 resturants to chose from and not a bad meal was had in any.

Rooms excellent we had one on the ground floor overlooking the pool, couldn't have been better, roll out of bed into the water most mornings at 7am.

We hired a catamaran for our party of 17 what a day we had, snorkelling then swimming with turtles, Hi to Chad and the crew who made us most welcome.

The wedding of our son Andrew and Emma was the most romantic time we could have ever wished for, married on a pure white sandy beach at sunset, you should see the phots they are unreal.

If you are considering booking this hotel dont think twice, would go back tomorrow if I could. Thumbs up to Turtle Beach and all the staff in front of house and behind.
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Travel operator: Thomas Cook

Recommended
Lisa Miller
19 years 9 months ago
Fab, that what this hotel was, I haven't stayed in another hotel like it, the rooms were clean and well kept, nicely furnished, the hotel staff couldn't have been more helpful, other reports I have read said that some of the staff could come across and being rude but I noticed that if you were nice to them then they would go out of their way for you.
The entertainment wasn't great and most nights you were left to do your own thing but at least you didn't feel under pressure to join in tacky games with overbearing reps.
My party (13 in total) came over for my wedding, the wedding co-ordinators really were a god send, they would sort anything out you wanted and made us feel very specail on our big day, and I know that the rest of my family didn't feel leftout when it came to the day. I would go back tomorrow if I could but my new husband has said that I will have to wait till our 5 year anniversary.
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Travel operator: Virgin

Recommended
19 years 10 months ago
We stayed at the Turtle Beach in May 04

The hotel is near local bars and shops and we felt very safe walking around day or night. You will find a small supermarket just around the corner for toiletries and baby requirements. Newspapers were cheaper here than the hotel.

The turtle beach is part of the 'elegant' group which means you can use facilities at all it's hotels. The ai package is available at Crystal Cove and we went twice for lunch whilst out and about in our hire car. The Taraminda and Colony Club take a credit note towards food only. All the other hotels are on the west coast and the sea is calm here, a boat runs between them all and timestables are available at the hotel receptions. This service does not include the Turtle Beach as it is on the south coast. If you had to pay for a taxi to these hotels it will be expensive but if you hire a car it is worth calling in.

The Turtle Beach hotel has received some bad reviews on tripadvisor.com and we went expecting a bad holiday. Nothing could have been further from the truth. I appreciate everyone has an opinion but ours is one of praise.

The disappointment was the entertainment or lack of it. Daytime some watersports and evening a lady sang until 10.30pm. Only provided 1 hour show of dancing and limbo on a Wednesday. Saturday you could eat at the BBQ and Sunday lunchtime a man played the steel drum. I know shows can be tacky but it does pass time away. The food was very good and mostly a la carte. We never had the same menu twice in the main restaurant although the beach restaurant only changed weekly. I can not comment on the italian as we could not eat there as our child was under 12 yrs old (a bit unfair we thought). The wine was a good merlot, we do not drink white so I can not comment on that. Lunch was a bit similar and the most boring. The usual burgers/hot dogs but little pasta or pizza. Buffet was fish/chicken rice salad etc. The lasagne was very good but only appeared once! All in all the food especially evening was the best AI we have had. 4 courses did take upto 2 hours and lots of guests moaned about this. The hotel did not rush as there was little else to do. We sat and enjoyed the singer and our only concern was our child needed to eat quickly. The hotel suggested each evening we ordered his meal with the kids club and then on arriving in the dinning room his meal was served immediately. Kids can order anything! You do not have to stick to the child menu and within reason chef will prepare what they want. They did however prefer to know around 6pm if anything off the menu was required. One night our little boy wanted just beans on toast as he had sandwiches and cakes at the 4pm-5pm buffet. The staff were friendly and we never experienced anyone been rude as some suggest. Our little boy never uses kids clubs but it seemed well catered for and opens 9am-9pm, never busy as we passed. The same team of 3 arrange the babysitting so I was told. Our room 425 was large and it was the basic pool view. The hotel has 3 pools (1 kids) and it was never busy. Always beds on either beach or poolside. Staff sometimes walked round with ice cold face towels, fruit in cups or drinks. No drinks service as such you had to get your own. The beach had a hut that had beer and pop/juice. The beach towels were available and you could have as many as you like. The sea here is rough and you must take care. It swept my husband clean off his feet. The sea is warm and a lovely blue colour even though it is rough, I would have expected it to churn the sand. Our 6 yr old loved it just near the edge and although he is a good swimmer for his age we made him wear a body float that we take for the sea.

All in all a nice hotel, not the most stunning I have stayed or the best entertainment (this makes it quieter if that is what you like) but it is clean with good food and what we expected of Barbados. It has no chains such as Riu or Iberostar and some other hotels looked tired we thought we made a good choice.

Lots of trips a must is to swim with the turtles and car hire is cheap (
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Travel operator: Virgin Holidays

Recommended
Helen
19 years 10 months ago
We visited Turtle beach for two weeks for our honeymoon and had an absolutely fabulous holiday.

To ensure a nice room, we upgraded to a sea view room, and I can say it was definitely worth the extra money. The room was spacious/relaxing and had an excellent view overlooking the beach and sea. It was also situated at the quiter end of the hotel.

Unfortunately the first week of our stay at this hotel was the UK's school holiday period, so it was particularly busy around the pool area with children and families during the day. This was not an issue for us really, because we prefer to spend more time on the beach anyway, and as the sea most days was quite rough, it was not possible for children to swim in these waters. However, it was great for adults wanting to boogie board, which we took advantage of several times. The only downfall of going on the beach though was having to put up with the locals selling Aloe Vera, jewellery etc, but a quick no thank usually got rid of most of them.

The food was also extremely good. A vast selection was available at breakfast time, although the fresh fruit was a bit disappointing. At lunchtime again the buffet was quite impressive, offering something for everybody, and the menu changed every day. For our evening meal we had the choice of three restaurants - Chelonia, Waterfront and Asiagos, but Asiagos, the Italian Restaurant, was definitely the best option and the food was as good as at home. It also only allowed children over the age of 12, which was an added bonus for us, especially with it being our honeymoon. This meant that we were able to dine in a relaxing and peaceful environment where the service was much better than in the alternative restaurants. We felt that the reservation system was well organised, but in order to get an early time slot at any of the restaurants or any chance of a table in Asiagos, you had to book as early as possibly at breakfast the day before. Fortunately, we were early risers, so we didn't have a problem getting a table at the Italian most nights.

As previously recorded by others, the supermarket and local nightlife are close by and well worth a visit, especially the Ship Inn and the Oistin's Fish Fry (this takes place every Friday and is a short taxi away). Get to the fish fry early though, around 6.30/7.00 pm, because any later and you will have to join a big queue.

I had read reports on the Internet prior to our holiday about the staff at Turtle Beach being extremely rude and unhelpful. However, the majority of staff at the hotel were very friendly and really made our stay worthwhile, especially Hyacinth on Reception. There was just the odd member of restaurant staff who would have benefited from some customer service training!

With regard to excursions, we opted to do the ones we were interested in by hiring a car. This was much better because we were able to travel around most of the island in one day. The only other trip we decided to go on was a Catamaran trip. The trip was with Heat Wave and was booked through the hotel's activity desk rather than through the Virgin Rep, as this worked out slightly cheaper. We also decided to go with Heat Wave because they limit their trips to a maximum of 30 persons, whereas Virgin apparently try to cram as many people as they can onto each Catamaran. The trip was five hours long and included swimming with Turtles, snorkelling over an old wreck and then lunch before sailing back to the harbour - a very memorable experience.

We also spent a day visiting two of the other Elegant Hotels. This involved taking a taxi from our hotel firstly to Crystal Cove (the other all-inclusive hotel) where we took at advantage of the calm waters (although a little rocky) for snorkelling and Kayaking and then had lunch (very nice) before catching the complimentary waterbus to the Colony Club (room only hotel). The Colony Club was extremely impressive - a lovely, quiet hotel, with a beautiful beach and crystal clear water. The sunbeds also had luxurious covers on them, whereas at Turtle Beach the sunbeds on the beach had none!

All in all, our stay at Turtle Beach was excellent and we would definitely recommend it to anyone thinking of staying at this hotel. There is no doubt that we would like to visit the island again some time in the near future.


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Travel operator: Virgin

Recommended

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