going solo

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R Shah

going solo

Post by R Shah »

Just booked my el cheapo tickets out to Tobago for mid March. I'm coming on my own and need to sort out somewhere to stay.

Have been looking around the boards and the excellent website and I think I may have a few options, but was just wandering if the "regulars" here had any suggestions.

I'm looking for somewhere nice and chilled, close to a nice beach. Would like to meet other people, but not necessity, can spend the time on my own! I am planning on doing some diving as well.

In terms of budget, cheap as possible, but don't want to sacrifice quality of accomodation (i.e. decent room with bathroom will suffice).

It seems Castara is quite a popular choice. I have also had a look at reviews for Toucan Inn, Blue Water Inn and Crown Point Beach Hotel, which all seem pretty good.

One last thing, I'm a veggie, how much of an issue is that going to be in Tobago?

Thanks for any help offered.
David Watkins
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Post by David Watkins »

In Castara you can get accommodation for about 12-15GBP/night but that would be a 10 min walk from the beach-all the way downhill and then back up afterwards.As for being veggie-it should be no problem at all.To help you find low cost accommodation contact yestourism,thier email address is elsewhere in ths site.Regards fron Sunny Castara,
David :D 8)
R Shah

Post by R Shah »

Hi

Thanks for the info. Contacted Yes Tourism and they have a place called Youngs Place for US$55 a night.

I'm guessing this will be self catering. How are provisions for getting food and drink in Casatra?

Thanks
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Brian Taylor
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Post by Brian Taylor »

youngs house has a proper kitchen, so you can do some serious cooking if you feel for. you should get one big load of groceries at the supermarket on the way from the airport (especially things like bacon, cheese and that). after that you cen refill in the village in a couple of shops that sell everything from fruits & vegetable, over home made bread to toiletries.... fresh fish at the fishermans coop... what else you need? :wink:
youngs house is 25 yoards not only from the sea, but also from the boathouse restaurant. excellent food. go there ourselves if we don't feel like cooking...yummy
guess we'll meet in little bay in castara
ENJOY
Stephanie & Brian "Alibaba" Taylor
Alibaba-Tours - http://www.Alibaba-Tours.com
R Shah

Post by R Shah »

Thanks for the info!!

I'm veggie, so fish is out for me!! I was hoping to avoid cooking, I'm on holiday as it is! I'm guessing there are quite a few restaurants, etc around Casatra?
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Brian Taylor
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Post by Brian Taylor »

no problem, nice choice of restaurants and no problems to get vegetarian food.... then you don't need to buy the bacon as well :wink: good for you....
Stephanie & Brian "Alibaba" Taylor
Alibaba-Tours - http://www.Alibaba-Tours.com
R Shah

Post by R Shah »

Again, lots of thanks for all the info!! I can't wait to get out to Tobago now!!

OK now for sorting out accomodation. As said Young's place is avaiable at $55 a night.

Sandcastles is avaiable for $75 a night and Porridge's Place is avaiable for $40 a night.

Which one to go for?

Also Tobago Rentals seem to have some properties listed on this website, but I can't get through to them, is there any way of getting to through to them?

Thanks again.
Roland Siebenhorn
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Post by Roland Siebenhorn »

Hi R,

I like to lead your interest also to the Alibaba's Sea Breeze on
Castara's little beach. Have a look here:

http://www.alibaba-tours.com

I can imagine that this place could be nice for a solo traveller.

Greetings, Roland
Go to http://www.locki.net/tobago/bilder.php for my photos of Tobago
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Post by Steve Wooler »

Hi R

Sorry, who do you mean by "Tobago Rentals"? They are not a firm I recall having heard of, so I can't help with contact information.
Steve Wooler
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Post by Jo B »

Steve, I suspect that 'Tobago Rentals' is Tony Young's website covering his house and the other three properties in Castara. I just tried to get into it, but the site seems to be down at the moment.

R, if that is the site you are talking about, all the properties are included individually on this site, including Young's House that you have already looked at (it's called Lemon Tree on his site).

Regarding the properties you mention, we stayed in Young's House and found it pleasant and convenient, with plenty of space. It is just behind the small beach, convenient for restaurants and Codrington's, and we plan to return again later in the year. Adam and Ria will look after you really well at Sandcastles, their apartment is lovely with fantastic views, but it is high above the village. I haven't seen Porridge's place, but met Porridge and some of his guests who were happy and excellently looked after, but again you would be above the village away from the beach. Alibaba's apartments speak for themselves, they are in a lovely location.

Hope that helps!

Jo x
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Post by Steve Wooler »

Hi Jo

Yes, I think you're right - his website was on tobago-rentals.co.uk. Yes, that site does seem to be down at the moment

Tony Young uses his site to list the properties of three other private owners of property in Castara. When you say you "can't get through to them", R, do you mean the website - or have you tried using our email enquiry or the telephone numbers listed to contact them?
Steve Wooler
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Brian Taylor
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Post by Brian Taylor »

if the site is down, this is his direct email
[email protected]
there is not too much more describtion on the own site, you can find out most from the mytobago listing.
Stephanie & Brian "Alibaba" Taylor
Alibaba-Tours - http://www.Alibaba-Tours.com
R Shah

Post by R Shah »

Hi, sorry for not getting back, too much work on today!!

Re Tony Young, the phone number on the site does not work (tried calling it yesterday). Thanks for the email address, will drop him an email.

The email link on this website goes to the add a report page. I don't know if its a fault of my browser though.

I have contacted Sea Breeze, but unfortunatly they are fully booked.

The owners of Sandcastle and Porridge seem like very nice people from the emails I have sent them and the reviews here, but like what has been said, they are above the beach!!

Choices, choices...
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Post by Steve Wooler »

Hi R

No, its not a fault of your browser. I immediately thought the same as you then jumped through the roof when I tested it and found it happened to me. It wasn't just Young's House - the same happened with EVERY record. The new site has been running a month and I'm astonished that nobody spotted that and reported it before, particularly as we have some 20 emails a day being sent out by the enquiry system at the moment. I guess most people simply click on the Enquiries tab and do it that way.

As a matter of interest, let me explain why we do it this way rather than just supplying the email address as we used to....

There is only one Internet ISP on Tobago - the national telecom company, TSTT. They are the most inefficient, dozy bunch of so-and-so's in the world. They even make BT seem like a paragon of virtue, and thats saying something. Although their customers pay good money for their dial-up and broadband accounts, they have remarkably small email accounts - just 2Mb - and the systems are ALWAYS breaking down, eating email. I have experience of emails taking 6 days to get to me from Tobago - all that time being spent in the TSTT servers, as can be proven from the email headers.

Anyway, the point is that email is unreliable. Half the time, recipients on the island don't even know that email isn't getting to them. They just think its gone a bit quiet. The trouble is, that in the same way that nobody reported the faulty "email" link on our Accommodation pages, equally nobody EVERY reported back to me when an accommodation email address that we provided bounced back, had changed, or suffered problems of any type. The sytem we currently operate means that I am notified when there is a delivery problem - not the sender. It means that I can then investigate the matter and notify the property owner (and the reader) and update our own records if the mail address has changed. One Castara contributor to this very thread can confirm that - within the last few weeks I contacted them, asking them to notify another property owner in the village that their email was bouncing back. Naturally they did so and the matter was resolved within a few days. So, we all work together to try to overcome the problems of TSTT.

Other reasons for the system are to prevent spam robots from harvesting email addresses from our site. Although the enquiries go straight to the property and not to me, we also record the number of enquiries that each property receives - in just the same way that I record the number of readers who click on the website link and/or view the main property details page. In time this will provide me with very useful research information becuase it will show me the properties readers are most interested in and this in turn will help us to choose which properties to review.
Steve Wooler
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R Shah

Post by R Shah »

The email system was working fine previously, as I had used it before, however I tried over the weekend, and that's when the fault occured!

I know the feeling about monopoly operator, living where I do, we also only have one choice. While it seems Jersey Telecom is not as bad as TSTT, I do feel, like you think of TSTT, JT is run by some real dozy people!!

To my accomodation dilema's. I have decided its a straight toss up between Youngs and Porridges. I'm sure I will enjoy both properties.

The pros of Youngs is its by the beach and the room has AC.

The pros of Porridges is that the owners will be present (quite useful for me as I'll be a first timer) and they seem generally very helpful.

Help me!!
R Shah

Post by R Shah »

Just an update, decided to stay at Porridges. Now to sort out my diving...
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