Guest Report

[Jason Newton]

We chose to stay in Castara on the basis that we wanted to stay somewhere quite in the northern half of the island, but somewhere close to facilities. We chose the Seabreeze mainly on the basis of The MyTobago review and reports from readers.
Probably its main attraction for people is its advertised view over Castara bay. The pictures on the web don't do it justice. Brian a.k.a. Alibaba picked us up from the airport in the evening, which was ideal, as we had a good long chat about Castara, where to visit in Tobago. He also stopped us at the Penny Savers supermarket to do some shopping before we got to Castara. The first time we saw the view therefore, was at sunrise the following day - what a scene to wake up to! Fantastic. After 2 weeks we still marvelled at its beauty.
Brian and Stephanie have added an apartment for themselves on the upper floor, which is almost finished - this means that advice is now closer to hand.
We mainly went to Tobago for the wildlife, and even here the Seabreeze didn't disappoint: bananaquits and tanagers regularly coming to the feeders on the balcony (Brian tells me he is installing hummingbird feeders shortly), hummingbirds in the shrubbery below, woodpeckers/creepers in the tree, bats in the trees at night, various lizards etc.
We rented a car which we picked up the next day, but we spent 3 full days in Castara without it, and regularly came back early enough to do some snorkelling on the reef in Little Bay – lots of fish, a few turtles etc. It takes approximately 1 minute to walk to the sea from the apartment (just watch out for falling mangoes!). It is a ten minute walk into the centre of Castara, mainly because of the steep hill which separates the two bays; although steep there is a short cut which joins Depot road to the Naturalist - it is still possibly a shorter journey to swim from one bay to the other.
There are a couple of parking spaces about 6 metres from the apartment block. The apartment itself was very clean, and the rooms are serviced every three days. The bed was very comfy and supplied with a mosquito net - although most of the mozzies which came visit were in my imagination, and the apartment is high enough above sea level to exclude sandflies. There is no aircon, but the sea breeze, two overhead fans and a plug-in one, which are ample.
The bathroom contains toilet, shower and sink, with lots of storage space under the sink. There's a shaver point and a hairdryer (not that I needed it!). The shower was good with hot water- gravity fed but not one of those "drips" that you sometimes get in rural areas. Kitchen equipment was excellent - I hate it when the knives are all blunt - we had a good carving set and steak knives. There's a propane gas stove (top tip - matches will not light with the overhead fan on!), a fridge with an icebox.
There is no noise from the other apartments apart from the odd chair being moved on the balcony, and in any case the sound of the sea masks everything. Despite the fact Brian was working on the uppper floor intermittently, we never heard a thing. Brian and Stephanie have accumulated a large book collection in the corridor outside the apartments which we made good use of, and it's also possible to borrow beach towels and snorkels.
On our last day we were taken to the airport by Brian (we were staying for 2 weeks so pick-up/drop-off free). While we chatted, Brian heared we hadn't bought enough souvenirs kindly stopped us at Stores bay for a quick shop before taking us onto the airport. So, you can understand that one of the main reasons we loved the place was Brian and Stephanie, who were always on hand if we needed any help with the facilities, any advice about Castara in particular and Tobago in general.

[Bill B]

Jason,

Thanks for your nice report. We are planning on staying there in Jan for four days before going to Sandy Point. Each time I read a glowing post about Seabreeze I feel even better about our decision to make them part of our vacation. The days just don't go by fast enough (101 & counting) until we arrive.

Bill

[David Watkins]

I'll have the Carib chilled foryou Bill!
David----53 days to go

[Bill B]

David,

Bless you

Bill