Coco Reef Resort - Review Page 2
Accommodation
The hotel 138 rooms are available in a range of basic categories:
- Superior rooms with garden view
- Deluxe rooms with sea view
- Junior Garden View suites with garden view
- One Bedroom Suites with sea view
- Two Bedroom Villas in the gardens
There are also three VIP suites. These include the hugely expensive but stunning Sunset Villa. This small detached villa sits on a private promontory overlooking Store Bay. It is no surprise that the resort has attracted celebrities as diverse as Michael Caine, Sylvester Stallone, Luciano Pavarotti, Sting and Stevie Wonder.
During our previous (2006) visit, we enjoyed a Deluxe room. That room offered 40.4sq.m. (435sq.ft.) of accommodation, including the en suite bathroom and 10sq.m. balcony. Some on the Deluxe rooms on the upper floor of the south wing are marginally smaller, but compensate for this with the best sea views. Our room had a king size bed, some rooms have two large double beds.
Whilst the standard Deluxe rooms are spacious enough for normal purposes, the amount of camera and computer equipment we carry during our review trips made a One Bedroom Suite a more practical and comfortable choice for our 2011 stay.
The suite offered a total gross floor area of 62.4sq.m. (675sq.ft.), including bathrooms and balconies. The suites are essentially two standard rooms with an interconnecting door; one room furnished as a bedroom and the other as a sitting room. Given that our suite was located in the south wing, it was effectively one of the smaller Deluxe rooms mentioned above. Therefore, our description and illustrations of the bedroom should represent a truthful and honest guide to the vast majority of rooms in the hotel.
Peach is the Coco Reef Resort’s signature colour. Every internal and external wall is painted a gentle peachy-pink, highlighted by white balustrades, doors and other woodwork. The walls are relieved by attractive stencils. The limed wooden ceilings and doors blend beautifully with the highly polished terracotta floor tiles, cane furniture and colourful soft furnishing. It is so nice to visit a holiday resort where the décor has some local character. You know exactly where you are when you wake up at the Coco Reef Resort. How many hotels can claim that?
On arrival, the bedspread of our king-size bed had been turned down and colourful flower petals and palm leaf segments arranged to spell out a welcome message on the pristine white linen. Little touches like this – not to mention the fruit bowl and bottle of wine – are the things that make a stay at the Coco Reef Resort special.
The bed was flanked by attractive bedside tables with large lamps. Furnishing included a small circular glass-topped cane table with two padded chairs complimenting a large matching dresser. The dresser usually has a discretely concealed mini-bar. However, in our case, the refrigerated mini-bar was included in an identical dresser in the sitting-room and the bedroom unit housed a small Philips CD-player/tuner audio unit.Regrettably, the tuner had no aerial so couldn’t lock onto any radio channels and we had no CDs. It was a shame that an iPod/MP3 player dock wasn’t provided. It’s the thought that counts.
A 31-inch Sharp LCD television was mounted grandly on the bedroom dresser, providing access to some 24 regional and North American digital cable channels. So, lots of choice but little to watch! Thank heavens for the BBC World Service. The sitting room had a conventional CRT television.
The built-in wardrobe provided more than a metre of full-length hanging space, including a good supply of clothes hangers, and several storage shelves. One welcome change since our last visit is that digital safes have been installed in all rooms. The original deposit room facilities are still available to guests who need more room.
A direct-dial telephone system allows guests to keep in voice contact with the world. Internet access is a chargeable extra and currently only available in the reception areas and/or the rooms closest to reception.
Each half of our suite had its own bathroom. The bathrooms are half-tiled and reasonably spacious. It would be wrong to describe the bathroom fittings as pristine, but they were certainly as good as we’ve seen at any hotel on the island. The salt laden tropical air takes a terrible toll. Water pressure was excellent and we did not experience any shortages of hot water. We would have preferred a separate shower stall, rather than the shower-in-bathtub arrangement, but at least this latter arrangement gives guests a choice.
The bathroom vanity unit was attractively laid out with a basket of complimentary toiletries, face cloths and large box of soft tissues. However, it became somewhat cluttered by the time we had added our own bits and pieces. Thank heavens for two bathrooms! Shaver sockets and a hairdryer were provided, as were a pair of soft towelling bath robes. Naturally all linen is of the highest quality and changed as necessary. Beach towels are provided, as expected.
Both the bedroom and sitting room had independent remotely-controlled split-unit air-conditioners. Some suites also have ceiling fans. Each room had its own balcony, accessible through sliding glass doors. With the air-conditioning off and the balcony doors open, the suite remained light and breezy throughout the day. The balconies were each furnished with a pair of comfortable armchairs and a table. The bedroom balcony also had a sun lounger.
The sitting room consisted of a comfortable padded cane three-seat settee and pair of armchairs, positioned around a long low glass-topped table. A dresser unit supported the large television and refrigerated mini-bar. Coffee and tea making facilities are provided on request.
The view from the balconies was as good as it gets. Being located in the southern wing of the hotel, the view was directly north across the lagoon and beach and out towards Pigeon Point.
Over the years we’ve stayed in rooms in both wings of the hotel and have to say that we enjoyed the view from every room. Rooms on the upper floors have a better view across the beach and lagoon, but the gardens are so beautiful that personally I would never wish to express a preference. After a day on the beach, the view across the gardens must make a nice change.
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