Winging it over Christmas
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Guy Pemberton
Winging it over Christmas
Am I nuts or do people think that landing on the 21st December for 10 days with a rental vehicle and no firms plans for accommodation might work fine? Taking tent and mosquito net if all else fails and there is of course the car.... but seriously is the island so booked up at this time there are no options left at all? I'm not interested in being stuck at the south end of the island and look forward to being able to drive around and enjoy . I'm also prepared for "no vacancies" signs which might mean I have to drive a bit further; this is after all Tobago and I'm leaving my watch at home. My life at home is very organized so I'm hoping that no plans might mean more fun, meeting more people and lots of good memories. Comments please.
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Steve Wooler
- myTobago Editor & Chief Anorak
- Posts: 4842
- Joined: Sun Apr 21, 2002 11:00 pm
- Location: Suffolk, England
- Contact:
Hi Guy
Only nuts if you have very set ideas on what/where you want to stay. If you can be flexible, in terms of location, type/standard of accommodation and price, then you'll always find somewhere.
Tobago has got serious accommodation problems at the moment. Grenada is shut down as a result of the hurricane . The vast majority of visitors to the island were from the UK (like Tobago) and a lot of flights from the UK are shared Grenada/Tobago. The islands are very similar in many other ways, so it was logical for tour operators to switch customers from Grenada to Tobago. Trouble is, Tobago has a shortage of good quality beds and can't cope with the sudden overnight strain. The high season normally starts to build from this time and that's when the hotel's re-hire and train staff laid off for the summer. Now, all of a sudden and before they've had time to gear up, they're all fully booked.
I wish I knew how much of it was greed over common sense. Three hotels are very badly over-booked at the moment - one, I was told yesterday, to the tune of 60 beds over-booked. They will do themselves immense damage. I don't mind telling you that some of the reports about one of the hotels concerned show them to be under such strain that I'm considering pulling my review of the hotel off-line until they sort themselves out.
Now, from what you say, Guy, you don't want the AI hotels in the south of the island. Trouble is, what happened to all the independent Grenada travellers? Some will still go to Grenada. Some will have managed to cancel their flights, I guess. But, I imagine a lot will have changed their flights to Tobago - after all, if it's only the next stop/first stop on the flight schedule, then the seat would be empty anyway.
So, I don't know how to advise you. Any other year and I would say to you "No problem!", but this year it would certainly be wiser to book in advance.
Only nuts if you have very set ideas on what/where you want to stay. If you can be flexible, in terms of location, type/standard of accommodation and price, then you'll always find somewhere.
Tobago has got serious accommodation problems at the moment. Grenada is shut down as a result of the hurricane . The vast majority of visitors to the island were from the UK (like Tobago) and a lot of flights from the UK are shared Grenada/Tobago. The islands are very similar in many other ways, so it was logical for tour operators to switch customers from Grenada to Tobago. Trouble is, Tobago has a shortage of good quality beds and can't cope with the sudden overnight strain. The high season normally starts to build from this time and that's when the hotel's re-hire and train staff laid off for the summer. Now, all of a sudden and before they've had time to gear up, they're all fully booked.
I wish I knew how much of it was greed over common sense. Three hotels are very badly over-booked at the moment - one, I was told yesterday, to the tune of 60 beds over-booked. They will do themselves immense damage. I don't mind telling you that some of the reports about one of the hotels concerned show them to be under such strain that I'm considering pulling my review of the hotel off-line until they sort themselves out.
Now, from what you say, Guy, you don't want the AI hotels in the south of the island. Trouble is, what happened to all the independent Grenada travellers? Some will still go to Grenada. Some will have managed to cancel their flights, I guess. But, I imagine a lot will have changed their flights to Tobago - after all, if it's only the next stop/first stop on the flight schedule, then the seat would be empty anyway.
So, I don't know how to advise you. Any other year and I would say to you "No problem!", but this year it would certainly be wiser to book in advance.
Steve Wooler
myTobago.info - the definitive Visitor Guide to Tobago
myTobago.info - the definitive Visitor Guide to Tobago
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Andrew Prince
- Tobago Guru
- Posts: 26
- Joined: Thu Oct 30, 2003 3:39 pm
- Location: Frome , England
We booked with Holiday in Tobago. They have recently upgraded their web site so that you can do live online availability checks on the 30 or so properties they represent, which are dotted around Tobago. A quick check showed a number of them have room availability for your dates. The site address is http://www.holidayintobago.com .
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Guy Pemberton
Winging it in Tobago
Hi Steve,
As it turns out we never got around to booking anything for accommodation before went toTobago for three weeks over Christmas and New Year and had no trouble finding any number of places to stay. I was quite surprised not to see more tourists on the island in view of the problems in Granada after the hurricane etc. as you had thought might be the case. I believe only the resort hotels were anything like full. We stayed at Douglas Apartments, which was great, not expensive, squeaky clean and run by a delightful family. You provide a great service for would-be travellers to Tobago with the Forum - Keep up the good work. Thank you.
Guy
As it turns out we never got around to booking anything for accommodation before went toTobago for three weeks over Christmas and New Year and had no trouble finding any number of places to stay. I was quite surprised not to see more tourists on the island in view of the problems in Granada after the hurricane etc. as you had thought might be the case. I believe only the resort hotels were anything like full. We stayed at Douglas Apartments, which was great, not expensive, squeaky clean and run by a delightful family. You provide a great service for would-be travellers to Tobago with the Forum - Keep up the good work. Thank you.
Guy