Cuffie River Nature Retreat - Reader Reports & Opinion
These reports are a combination of questions and comment posted in our Cuffie River Nature Retreat forum and visitor reports added via the 'Add Report' tab above. The votes awarded are weighted by volume and date to give a truer representation of reader satisfaction [more details].
Reader Satisfaction Ranking: 
Weighted ranking based on 24 votes = 4.2 (max 5)
Guest Report
Dean Crawford from U.S.A. visited in December 2011 and awarded 
What's extraordinary about Cuffie River is how different it is from the tourist world -- not only because of its immersion in nature, its amazing diversity of bird and plant life, and its beautifully prepared local food, but also because of the loving care that Regina provides. Cuffie River is removed, 2.5 miles down a bouncy driveway and 30 minutes from Scarborough; so unless you're content to wander the area on foot or be guided by the very genial and knowledgeable Desmond, you'd better rent a car. But the inconvenience of location is well worth it since what this nature retreat offers is genuine as well as delightful. We stayed for 7 happy days, during which time we helped at least a dozen confused hummingbirds out of our room. We got quite good at it, and the hummingbirds seemed appreciative.
Guest Report
Mike Bow from U.K. visited in August 2011 and awarded
My wife and I stayed for one night in the off season and as it turned out were the only guests apart from Regina's (the owners) grand daughters who were on holiday from Trinidad and had been stranded on Tobago after the imposition of a State of Emergency on the islands.
We were made very welcome and shown to our spacious and naturally cooled room before being left to our own devices to explore the hotel. The swimming pool is lovely with an outstanding view of the river and rainforest, we spotted a large variety of birds we do not normally see on Tobago within the first hour of our stay. This was an advantage of staying inland rather than at the usual coastal hotels.
The food is all freshly prepared local cuisine and absolutely delicious and every meal was wonderful.
In the morning we had the pleasure of a guided walk with the fascinating Desmond, as there were just the three of us on the walk our conversation ranged from the fascinating flora and fauna, the birdlife, the global recession and the political situation. We had left England at the time of the riots in London and this was far more of a talking point then what was happening locally.
On our return we had another sumptuous meal before heading off to Lowlands. All in all a delightful stay and a place we will visit again
Guest Report
John Irving from Canada visited in March 2011 and awarded
Well, my partner, Don and I were looking for a quiet, relaxing March break this year and found it at Cuffie River. Our suite was very comfortable with views on three sides of jungle, bamboo, birds, especially the humming birds.
Regina and her staff are great. The small resort (10 rooms) was not full, if fact we were the only guests for 2 days and the only noise we heard was the sound of birds.
When we felt like it, Desmond took us on a couple very relaxing and interesting walks. Desmond is on staff and knows a lot of stuff about Tobago. Both Yvonne and Carolyn served up some wonderful food. There was nothing we didn't like.
A totally satisfying week at Cuffie River
Guest Report
Bill Murphy from U.S.A. visited in November 2009 and awarded
I have been using Cuffie River exclusively for my birdwatching groups since first visiting it about five years ago. The designer/builder/owner/manager Regina is the perfect hostess, leaving nothing to chance and making everyone feel at home. We 'birders' are a finicky clan at times, requiring pre-dawn departures with packed lunches and late returns and dinners. Regina does not flinch but handles such itineraries with alacrity and professionalism. Among the many perks of staying at Cuffie are 1) a truly expert resident naturalist, Desmond Wright; 2) many of the Main Ridge birds, even the rare White-tailed Sabrewing hummingbird, can be found without leaving the immediate vicinity; and 3) no worries about security because of the remote location - it is the only place on earth where I leave my door wide open at night, letting the pleasant breeze cool me. Participants often email me after T&T trips that Cuffie was their favorite place on either island.
Guest Report
Simone Kist from Canada visited in January 2009 and awarded
My new husband and I decided to get married in Tobago. Everthing we had researches suggested that Tobago might be the island paradise we imagined to be the perfect setting for our big day. With its lush rainforest and picturesque sandy bays, it did not disappoint, indeed it was more beautiful than we expected, with lovely people to give it the right vibe too.
We didn't actually stay at the Cuffie River but having decided to get married right on the beach, I had picked out Cuffie River Retreat for our reception dinner. After checking their website and seeing that they host and arrange weddings, I decided to have Regina, the lovely owner and host, take care of all the planning of our wedding. It turned out to be a great decision and the result was a wonderful day that ran smoothly and without a hitch.
A few days after arriving in Tobago, Regina arranged for one of her drivers/staff, Hethzell (I hope I'm spelling it correctly!) to pick us up from our hotel in the south of the island and take us around to do all the formalities. We went to the registrar's to get our licence and then over to meet the wedding officiant. I should mention that we had our two friends and all of our luggage with us too, as Hethzell was dropping us off in Castara after we had done our running around. She was absolutley great to do this, even stopping in Scarborough to pick up some groceries to take to Castara.
The day of our wedding was truly dreamy, my bouquet arrived with the minister, it was perfect with anthirium flowers, sea shells and ribbons to match my dress. Although Regina had never met me or even seen my dress, she had somehow picked the perfect arrangement for the bouquet--many compliments to the flower arranger too!
The service was lovely, the minister was very nice and we stood in a circle on Heavenly Bay beach just before sunset.
After the sunset we emabrked on the comfortable bus that Regina had arranged to go for the dinner at the Retreat, about 30 minutes away from Castara. The bus driver was very nice and my mother enjoyed some good conversation with him.
Arriving at Cuffie River we really felt like we were in the middle of forest, though the sun had gone down you could hear all the wonderfully strange noises of the forest all around.
We had the dinner in the main restaurant area. There were 15 in our group and we all sat at one table.The food was fabulous, I had requested seafood so we had shrimp, salmon and a really large variety of tasty vegetarian dishes (also my request), including eggplant parmesian, callalou soup, cheese stuffed potatoes and many more... The wedding cake was a rich rum cake which was decorated with sea shell motifs. We had opted to include drinks for our guests and a 'help yourself' bar had been set up and generously stocked beside the dinner table.
After dinner we were bused back to Castara where we continued the party on our own into the wee hours of the next morning.
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