Coral Reef Club

This was our first stay here for a total of eight nights in garden view king rooms. Having walked by the resort on many prior trips and reading the reviews etc we had high expectations. On our first night we dined at Sandpiper and had our worst dinner of our three weeks. The lobster was inedible and the staff there was indifferent. We dined once at Coral Reef and had a good experience along with good breakfasts and a few lunches. Shelly made the best crepes! The smoking tables are right beside the nice dining tables which is bothersome to us nonsmokers. Overall service at the beach, dining and with housekeeping is very good. Most of our calls to the front desk were never followed up on. As an American sports fan I was delighted that a TV could be brought to our room for the NFL playoffs. Matthew in particular made sure it had the right channels. Sadly though despite a few reminders on the 2nd part of our stay noone knew how to do this. Sigh. We learned most guests rebook every year and stay in the same rooms. There is much to like here but compared to some of our other resort stays it left us with a mixed opinion.

Although I have been visiting Barbados since January 1979 this has been my first ever stay at Coral Reef Club. It might not be a club in the true sense of the word however if one of the great traditional gentleman's clubs (ladies usually allowed these days) were to open a Caribbean outpost, this would be it. While certainly not shabby it is all very traditional and certainly reminds me very much of my own club in London which was founded early in the 19th century. I love tradition and also the fact that so many of the ladies and gentlemen of the hotel have worked here for so long...which speaks volumes. The co-founder, a lady now in her 90s deserves an OBE for her life's work. Not only is there no hotel anything like this in Barbados ( and I should know... Aesthetic quite a few before settling on Sandy Lane for 15 years), I would be hard pushed to think of anywhere remotely similar, elsewhere in the Caribbean. There are some great hotels around such as the Rosewood in Saint Barths (which I'm looking forward to visiting later in the year)... but if what is on offer at Coral Reef is something you might appreciate, I can almost guarantee you will become a returning guest. This is an oasis of calm with a high standard of guests... Looked after by warm, friendly, attentive and professional staff. My family and I spent around 15 years staying regularly at Sandy Lane ...because our children loved it. So many of their school friends used to go there. During this period, our friends, John and Rain Chandler (they used to own an operate Barbados's legendary Fisherpond Great House and now provide their world beating Sunday lunches at Lancaster Great House) recommended Coral Reef to my wife many years ago but we were committed to Sandy Lane in those days. What I like particularly about this hotel is that you are highly unlikely to encounter guests playing music out loud on their iPhones at breakfast with their feet up on the table and making a lot of noise to say nothing of their other habits. Fortunately premiership footballers prefer flashier hotels to see and be seen (as do the sort of Russians who walk into the sea in their y-fronts smoking a cigar from their suite) and I don't see it. I've seen it all elsewhere and I don't want to experience it again. There is absolutely no way anything remotely similar to this type of behaviour would ever at Coral Reef club. This hotel excels at hospitality. There is a unique feel created by considerate guests, caring staff and excellent owners. While I am writing this on my last day from their Warleigh suite, I have had a good look around and I'm in no doubt that all of the accommodation is delightful. This hotel offers extremely good value and provides one of the most relaxing atmospheres that I have encountered for quite some time. None of the other guests have been annoying, I feel quite at home and I'm writing this only a few hours before my departure. Excellent housekeeping and wonderful freshly made ca

The location is superb although the Coral reef is long gone. The hotel was 80% full of older guests who book year after year. All the best sunbeds are booked somehow as are the restaurant tables. Staff are amazing and even say never book this time of year. The returning guests always book the same rooms . We had a terribly dark, old and tired room, despite asking to be moved. It’s a shame because the hotel needs to move on from these old guests as that is not the future the philosophy of ‘it’s not broke don’t fix it’ can only last for so long.