Beautiful Barbados
Within an hour of landing we were at the hotel and sipping our first cocktail. One of the many plus points of staying at the Almond Casuarina Hotel is that the transfer is 15mins from the airport.
Many people would worry that being so close to the airport you would be disturbed by aircraft noise. Don't be. Whilst the flightpath is over the sea in front of the hotel it doesn't pose a problem.
The hotel itself...Almond Casuarina Hotel is set in ten acres of tropical garden. Located on Dover beach and just a few minutes walk into St Lawerence Gap.
All 267 rooms are newly refurbished as the hotel opened early 2008. We had the choice of 4 room categories from a standard room to a one bedroom suite. We chose a Superior Deluxe Garden/Pool View, which was larger than the standard rooms and close to all amenities.
One thing that is important to me when I choose a hotel is that the pool and beach are next to each other. We were delighted that the pool was a nice size, with a pool bar and the beach was lovely ~ as you can see from one of my pictures.
There were plenty of beach activities to keep us busy, from kayaking, windsurfing, sailing and snorkelling. Casuarina also offered a fitness centre, tennis courts as well as a spa. All watersports, tennis courts and fitness centre were included within our all inclusive package. We only paid extra for the Spa and Jet Skis.
The hotel has two other pools within the garden area and were ideal for our children especially as they were a little more shaded by all the trees.
Almond operate a childrens club from 2-12 years as well as a nursery and teen centre for the older children. A great chance for us to relax and enjoy time together knowing the children were off having lots of fun under the careful supervision of the club staff.
We had a great choice of 3 dining restaurants (Waves, Enids & The Dover Grill) We never went hungry! I personally loved the Dover Grill as it was located on the beach and had a great seafood menu. Once a week there was a Caribbean buffet, and all other evenings were table service with a different menu in each restaurant every night. For children they offered a buffet if they were not keen on the menu.
As Almond have two sister properties on the island they operated a courtesy shuttle bus between the hotels, great for us as we were able to sample the dining options at Almond Beach Club & Spa (Adult Only) and Almond Village.
Out and About...to be honest as we were only there a week we didn't venture far. We did opt for the Sunset Cruise & Swimming with Turtles trip which left the hotel at 3pm and returned at 7:30pm. This is a MUST do trip. Swimming with the turtles was amazing and the sunset stunning! If you are not keen on the swimming with turtles, it's still worthwhile doing and just relaxing on the catarmaran and sipping on a cocktail as you watch the sunset is heaven.
We did wander into St Lawerence Gap. There are plenty of local bars and restaurants and offer a change to the hotel for an evening. We also saw the famous Pisces fish restaurant.
Shopping in Barbados was excellent! Worth a trip to Bridgetown as they have Duty Free outlet shops.
Finally...not forgetting my little friends the MOZZIES!!!! Yes they joined me again on this holiday as they did in St Lucia! So once again, go prepared as I did this time, loaded with repellent and after bite cream......
If you have any questions or would like to find out more about Barbados, please do get in touch.