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Arnos Vale Vacation Apartments - a myTobago guide to Tobago holiday accommodation
 

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Arnos Vale Vacation Apartments, Tobago

Arnos Vale Vacation Apartments

3 Self-Catering Apartments

The Arnos Vale Apartments are located on the outskirts of Plymouth, shortly before Arnos Vale. Passers-by are sure to comment on the immaculately painted... buildings and beautifully landscaped grounds. The property offers a choice of one and two-bedroom apartments, all kept in beautifully maintained and spotlessly clean condition by the helpful resident owners.

We have stayed at this property several times. See our review for full details.
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from US $60

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Arnos Vale Vacation Apartments

3 Self-Catering Apartments

The Arnos Vale Apartments are located on the outskirts of Plymouth, shortly before Arnos Vale. Passers-by are sure to comment on the immaculately painted buildings and beautifully landscaped grounds. The property offers a choice of one and two-bedroom apartments, all kept in beautifully maintained and spotlessly clean condition by the helpful resident owners.

We have stayed at this property several times. See our review for full details.

click/tap the photo to view a gallery of 23 photos

Property Description

Provided by the property, or taken from their website

Winner of the Tobago House of Assembly, Tourism Department Annual Award for the year 2005, for service of excellence in the hospitality industry for the category Bed and Breakfast Accommodation.

Arnos Vale apartments are a uniquely and naturally embellished home-away-from home vacation palace located in the historically rich village of Plymouth, nestled on the north western (leeward) side of the serene but exhilarating island of Tobago.

The apartments situated in a lush and verdant orchard, are continuously serenaded by a wide variety, of colourful tropical birds so domesticated that guests are able to interact with them.

The popularity of Arnos Vale Apartments in the hospitality industry is due not only to the extra care and comfort provided to its guests, but also to its proximity to unspoilt snorkeling reefs of Arnos Vale Bay, only a 15-minute walk away.

Facilities Include:

  • Cable T.V
  • Radio
  • Microwave oven in all apartments
  • Furniture specially crafted from local wood
  • Privacy and Serenity of apartment
  • Paradise for bird watchers
  • Iron and Ironing Board in all apartments
  • Hair Dryer available
  • Clothes Washer available (small fee)
  • Books available for readers
  • CD's on request
  • Seasonal fruits-fresh organic produce from the garden free on request
  • Car rental at competitive rates

A vacation at Arnos Vale Apartments is an oppurtunity to discover Tobago and rediscover yourself. Arnos vacation apartment comfortably accommodates 13 adults. The apartments are like a complete home, with all the necessary equipment you need in a home.

  • Spacious Living & Dining Room
  • Air Conditioned/Fans
  • Kitchen complete with all accessories
  • Hot and Cold Water
  • Apartment 1 can sleep up to six persons comfortably
  • Apartment 2 can sleep up to five persons comfortably
  • Apartment 3 can sleep two persons comfortably

Wedding Arrangements (contact us for necessary information)

Even the most demanding guest will feel at home.

myTobago Review

Arnos Vale Vacation Apartments, Plymouth, Tobago

The following review was produced during a 7-night stay at Arnos Vale Vacation Apartments in February 2015.

Introduction

Arnos Vale is one of the most beautiful places in Tobago. Once a sugar and cocoa plantation, it offers an unrivalled habitat for birds and some of the best snorkelling on the island. It has been my favourite place in Tobago for more than 55 years.

So, it will come as no surprise to our reader to learn that I know the road to Arnos Vale well. I can claim intimacy with every pothole along its length. There is, however, one section between Plymouth and Arnos Vale where my attention wanders from the potholes. This is where the road passes the Arnos Vale Vacation Apartments. Passers-by are sure to notice and appreciate this lovely property, with its beautifully maintained gardens, pristine white statues and immaculate white and green paintwork. Long before I knew that it was a guest house, I always wondered who the house belonged to and regretted the English reserve that prevented me from stopping and asking.

The property is the pride and joy of a local retired couple: fire officer Victor Forde and his schoolteacher wife, Ursline. In addition to their home on the upper floor, the property offers three self-contained holiday accommodation apartments – two with two bedrooms and one with a single bedroom. Furnished and equipped in traditional West Indian style, these very affordable apartments offer visitors the opportunity to experience genuine Tobagonian hospitality and comfortable accommodation in a peaceful and inviting village-outskirt setting.

Location

Arnos Vale is an attractive 25-30 minute drive from the airport. It defines the northern boundary of Tobago's most populated area; what we refer to on this site as the Crown Point–Plymouth–Scarborough triangle. The downside to the location is that it is further from the main shopping and restaurant areas. The upside is that it is in one of the most beautiful areas of Tobago. This is where the 'real' Tobago starts.

Although Victor can provide transfer to and from the airport, a self-drive rental vehicle is strongly recommended. Local shopping facilities are limited and there are no facilities within easy walking distance of the apartments. Taxis are available, but given the distance to the main shopping/restaurant areas, this option is likely to prove more expensive and considerably less convenient. Very few Tobago holiday accommodation properties are within reasonable walking distance of multiple beaches, shops, restaurants and other facilities. In this regard, the Arnos Vale Vacation Apartments fare no worse than most. At least Victor makes things easier for his guests as he has vehicles available for rental to guests.

Having said all that, I confess that I was surprised by how the small local supermarket had come on since I last used it, about five years ago. It is a 10-15 minute walk from the apartments, but if your catering is likely to be restricted to local/Caribbean cuisine, you could well find it perfectly adequate for all your needs. Nowadays it tends to be mainly dairy, frozen and imported goods that necessitate a trip to the large supermarkets.

Accommodation

The accommodation at the Arnos Vale Vacation Apartments consists of a one-bedroom apartment (Apartment 3) on the first (upper) level of the building, and two two-bedroom apartments on the ground floor. Between them, the apartments can accommodate a total of up to 13 adults.

Due to the amount of luggage and equipment needed for our 8-week review tour, we opted for the smaller of the 2-bedroom apartments on the basis that we could use the second bedroom to store the equipment flight cases, rather than falling over them. It had been over two years since we had inspected the Arnos Vale Vacation Apartments and I had forgotten how spacious all the apartments were. Having stayed there, I can truthfully stay that we could, and gladly would, have stayed in any of the three. However, as we chose Apartment 2, we will start the description with details of that apartment:

Apartment 1 (2-Bedroom)

Located on the ground floor of the property and offering a substantial 1025ft2/95m2 of accommodation floor space, one can only describe this lovely self-contained apartment as extremely spacious. Comfortably accommodating up to six adults, it would undoubtedly make an excellent home-from-home for a small group or family.

With the exception of the bedrooms and bathroom, the apartment is open-plan and the main living area is some 12m long and 8m wide. The main entrance is to the rear of the apartment and leads into the kitchen area. A dining area occupies the middle of the room and a spacious and comfortable seating area the frontage. Wide glass doors then lead through to an attractive, but narrow (1.5m-wide), covered patio with decorative arched pillar frontage. The patio is furnished with a small circular table and four chairs. 

The kitchen is equipped with a four-ring gas oven with grill, microwave, toaster, coffee maker and a large and very efficient fridge-freezer. Kitchen cabinets separate the kitchen from the dining area and provide under-counter storage. A wide but disparate range of cooking utensils and implements is provided. The amount of crockery, cutlery and glassware could prove a little challenging to larger parties. Still, knowing Victor and Ursline, all you need to do is ask for anything extra that you need. As with all other aspects of this lovely property, everything was in good working order and immaculately clean.  

Located next to the kitchen, and ideally separated from it by the kitchen units, is a large dining table. This would comfortably seat six adults should the apartment be fully occupied.

The living area comprises of two four-seater sofa beds, plus an armchair, arranged around a 32-inch flat-screen cable TV. Immediately adjacent are wide glass doors leading onto the front terrace. The main Arnos Vale road passes just a few metres away, but surprisingly little traffic passes and traffic noise is never more than a momentary annoyance.

Wide glass-louvered windows with discrete metal security bars fill the exterior wall on one side of the living room. The two bedrooms and the bathroom are on the other side. The living area is not air-conditioned, but with all the doors and windows open, the apartment keeps remarkably cool. If that is not enough, there is a large ceiling fan above the dining table and an electric tower fan is provided. Cool ceramic floor tiles throughout the apartment help to enhance the cool feel.  

The master bedroom is reasonably spacious (3.3x4.4m) and furnished with a queen-size bed plus a standard double bed. The bed was firm but comfortable and the linen clean and of good quality. A small bedside table with lamp and alarm/radio is mounted against one wall, but the room would benefit from bedside tables/nightstands on each side of the master bed. A double wardrobe offers a metre of full-length hanging space, but there is limited shelf storage. Mosquito nets are not fitted as standard, but are available on request. We had no trouble with mosquitoes during our stay.

Both bedrooms are fitted with small air-conditioning units. The one in the master bedroom is quite old and Victor informs me that it is scheduled for renewal. Compared to the best modern units, it was noisy. We prefer to avoid air-conditioning wherever possible and achieved a perfect temperature with minimum noise using the excellent tower fan from the living room on low fan setting. The air-conditioner in the second bedroom is a quiet and efficient modern split-unit.

The second bedroom is smaller, but still spacious. It is furnished with a double bed, dressing table, a small armchair and 1.5m of open hanging space for clothing. There is shelf-space above, but this is too high to be ideal.

The centrally-located bathroom is, again, spacious. It is simply, but adequately equipped. A large washbasin is set into a wide vanity unit and provides lots of storage space, both on top and beneath. As to be expected, the bathroom also has a pedestal toilet and a large walk-in tiled shower. Hot and cold water is available in all basins, sinks and showers. The bathroom is also equipped with a large concrete sink plumbed for cold-water; ideal for hand-washing garments and small articles when returning from the beach.

All the apartments are naturally fully serviced before guest arrival. Towels and bed linen are changed every three days and the apartments given a basic servicing at that time.

Apartment 2 (2-Bedroom)

Apartment Two offers an adequate 475ft2/44m2 of living area, excluding the garden terrace. It is situated on the ground floor, at the rear of the house. With a shallow ramp up to the door, it is the only one of the three apartments accessible by wheelchair – although no other disability aids are installed.

One of the strongest features of this apartment is the spacious terracotta-tiled terrace located beside the beautiful gardens and accessible from the apartment via wide glazed double doors. Furnished with a large circular table and four wooden chairs, this area is bound to become every guest's preferred dining and relaxing spot. Victor puts out food for the birds every day, so it is no surprise that the garden benefits from their constant song. Hummingbirds and mot mots are regular visitors. Arnos Vale is a bird watchers paradise. The Adventure Farm, with its wonderful hummingbird gallery, is just a 2-3 minute walk from the Arnos Vale Vacation Apartments.

Apartment Two's living area is dominated by a long sofa bed that, when opened up, provides sleeping accommodation for at least one extra adult. A 32-inch flat-screen cable TV provides entertainment for those who tire of the birds. The breakfast bar has a fascinating front face of polished shells and pebbles from local beaches. It neatly divides the kitchen and dining areas; the latter being furnished with a more wooden dining table and four padded dining chairs.

The kitchen is equipped with a large fridge-freezer, four-ring bottled gas stove, microwave oven and electric toaster. There is adequate cupboard storage for groceries and a reasonable, but disparate, collection of cutlery, crockery, glassware and kitchen utensils. I'm sure that anything extra would be rapidly arranged by Victor or Ursline. As with the other apartments, the provided equipment may have been past their prime, but everything was immaculately clean and in good working condition.

The two bedrooms are nearly identical in size. The master bedroom is furnished with a double bed, a small armchair, a single nightstand with reading lamp and a wide 7-drawer dressing table with a mirror. An open rail provides hanging for clothes, whilst a small ironing board and iron are stored above. There are windows behind the bed and a door leading to the rear of the property and gardens on the opposite aspect, allowing the room to benefit from cooling through-breezes during the day.

The second bedroom is furnished with a double bed, plus a single. Clothes can hung on a 1.5m rail mounted beneath a high storage shelf. There is small amount of space for garments in the wide bedside cabinet located between the two beds.

In our previous review, we commented that the double bed in this room was firm but comfortable and the linen clean and of good quality.

The room has wide windows overlooking the garden. Security rails are mounted across all windows, so it would be perfectly safe to sleep with the glass louvers open, the curtains tied back and to thereby enjoy the cooling breezes from the garden.

The long and narrow bathroom is very simply equipped with a small wash basin, low-level flush toilet and a fully tiled walk-in shower, all with hot and cold water obviously. We revisited the property a few weeks later and were impressed to see that a new hot-and-cold pedestal washbasin had been installed and the shower retiled. It was all looking very nice.

Both bedrooms are equipped with quiet and efficient split-unit air-conditioners. A single floor-standing electric fan provides cooling to the living room area. Opening both the main door and the balcony door ensures a lovely through-breeze that often makes the fan surplus to requirements. The highly polished – even gleaming – ceramic floor tiles and cool terracotta tiles of the terrace all added to a feeling of coolness and during our previous review, we commented that we had found the apartment perfectly equitable even on the very hottest days. We certainly never had cause to retreat to air-conditioned bedrooms!

Apartment 3 (1-Bedroom)

In many ways, the single bedroom apartment on the upper floor is my favourite. Despite having only one bedroom, it offers a spacious 540ft2/50m2 of floor area, not counting the lovely 3.25x1.8m covered balcony with its views over the beautifully kept gardens.

This apartment is furnished in more modern style than the other two and has a brighter, lighter look and feel. It consists of two large rooms – the living room and kitchen, plus a large and beautifully furnished bedroom with queen-size bed and recessed bathroom facilities. 

The general descriptions of Apartments One and Apartment Two also largely apply to Apartment Three. It seems pointless to repeat everything here in detail. I would simply reaffirm that all three apartments have everything needed to offer visitors a truly wonderful 'home from home' in Tobago with the added advantage of a tranquil location and genuinely helpful hosts.

Gardens

Victor and Ursline lavish pride on their lovely home and garden. Despite being adjacent to the Arnos Vale Road, the garden is an oasis of peace and quiet. With the preponderance of birdlife around Arnos Vale, it is not surprising that the gardens attract so many birds, particularly during the early mornings when Victor fills the feeders with tasty morsels.

In addition to two padded recliners, there are several ornamental benches plus a garden table and seating where guests can sit in privacy and enjoy the serene environment. The garden is filled with ornamental fruit trees, providing shade, colour and interest. We particularly loved the grapefruit; the fruit may not look as pristine as the supermarket offerings we get at home, but they were as sweet as any I've tasted. 

Hidden away in a shaded spot is a covered tank with a collection of koi carp. As a former keeper of these delightful fish, I wish the water in my ponds had been as clear as Victor's

Conclusion

The Arnos Vale Vacation Apartments could be a wonderful choice of holiday accommodation for those seeking self-catering apartments in a peaceful environment. Arnos Vale is the perfect balance between the beauty of the 'real' Tobago and the convenience and facilities of the more urban end of Tobago. With a self-drive rental car or jeep, you are ideally placed to tour every part of this beautiful island, whilst still being within easy reach of all the shops, restaurants and other facilities of the more populated south-western end of Tobago.

These comfortable apartments offer affordable holiday accommodation in a tranquil and peaceful environment. Moreover, the apartments have true Caribbean flavour rather than the somewhat antiseptic feel of many rental apartments. Best of all though is the hospitality that visitors can expect from Victor and Ursline: this is what Tobago is really all about!

Reader Reports

This property has a weighted Reader Satisfaction Rating of 100%   . Click below to read the 43 reader reports that this is rating is based on.

Dawn Little from Canada visited in January 2020 and awarded   

It was so great going back to Victor and Ursline’s, back with old friends. It had been a number of years since we had stayed there. The Fords have upgraded the units and, of course, the grounds were as immaculate as ever. Having breakfast out on the back patio with the birds every morning was such a pleasure. This was two weeks in paradise. Of course, the island of Tobago is certainly worth the visit.

Brenda Moore from Trinidad visited in July 2019 and awarded   

My family and I stayed for one night at this property in July 2019 and were extremely pleased. This property is beautiful ( as shown in the photos) extremely clean, comfortable and well maintained. The hosts were very warm and accommodating. I certainly will stay here again and highly recommend Arnos Vale Apartments.

Location Map

To view a detailed interactive map showing the location of this property relative to restaurants, shops and sightseeing features, click this link  

Studio Apartment:US$60
2-bedroom Apartment:US$90
Minimum Nights:1 night + 1
Property Type:Self-Catering Apartments
Apartments:3
Bedrooms:3
Maximum Guests:13
Air-Conditioning:Bedrooms only
Children:Children welcome
Hair Dryers:Available
Telephone:No
Internet Access:Yes
Television:Yes
Safety Deposit:No
Wheelchair Access:Yes
Swimming Pool:None
Catering Options:

Housekeeping:Twice per week
Baby-Sitting:No
Personal Laundry:Yes
Personal Cooking:No information
Location:Plymouth
Region:Lower Caribbean
Location Type:Low Density Urban
Airport:25 minutes
Beach:6-10 minute Walk