Cuffie River Nature Retreat - Review Page 3
Accommodation
The Cuffie River offers three general categories of accommodation. Except where stated, all categories share the same general features and facilities.
Executive Rooms
The two Executive Suites are located at the end of the main building. They have massive opening windows on three sides; in fact, including the balcony door opening, these rooms have nine metres of window opening offering fantastic panoramic views of the valley and surrounding mountains. Needless to say, the windows also capture the wonderful cooling breezes that blow across the valley.
All the rooms at Cuffie River are spacious, but the Executive Suites are exceptionally so, measuring 8.5 x 5.5 metres (47sq.m.). Our Honeymoon Suite, on the upper floor, seemed particularly spacious as it had a vaulted wooden ceiling rising to more than 8 metres. I believe it is the largest rooms we have enjoyed on Tobago.
The Honeymoon Suite has a massive 2.8m (9´) double bed. We almost needed a map to find our way around it. A discrete wooden panel above the bed provided reading lights and radio speakers tuned into a local channel. The room featured a very attractive banquette seating area, a small table with two chairs and, most unusually, two very comfortable beanbags. The satellite television jarred, somewhat, but I didn’t want to seem petty by asking for it to be removed, so we simply pretended it wasn't there. It came as no surprise to find that there was no telephone in the rooms.
Hair dryers are not provided as standard, but are available on request. The hotel offers a laundry service and we were very pleasantly surprised to find the bag of clothing we handed in after breakfast back in our room by teatime. The rooms would have benefitted from a small refrigerator, but a kettle and tea and coffee making supplies are provided, together with a flask of iced water.
Wardrobe space consists of a large wooden four-door cupboard offering a substantial 2.3m of hanging and shelf space. Because we are on the island for eight weeks and staying in some pretty formal hotels, we had a lot of luggage. Despite that, and having totally emptied our cases, we only managed to half-fill the wardrobe.
Measuring 2.2x2 metres, the bathroom is spacious and attractively finished in pink with a half-tiled vanity unit housing the wash basin and, for once, enough space to lay out the entire contents of our wash bags. A range of toiletries are provided, together with a box of tissue and 110v two-pin flat electric shaver socket. The tiled corner shower with wrap-around shower curtain was a total joy, with good pressure and lots of hot water. In fact, it was almost like a stand-up bath.
As mentioned, air-conditioning is superfluous so no a/c units are fitted in any rooms. Our room had a single large ceiling fan, but we only switched it on to check that it worked. Temperatures were perfect, day, evening and night, and we slept like logs with just the single light sheet for cover. Security isn’t an issue, so you can leave your windows and balcony doors open and fall asleep to the sound of the river and rainforest, with the cooling breezes fanning your body. Visitors often don’t realise that it can get surprisingly cold at night in Tobago, particularly in the high hills of the Cuffie River, so Regina had thoughtfully provided blankets to counter the chill of the colder nights.
Being located close to a river and following the heavy rain preceding our visit, it was hardly surprising that mosquitoes were present. However, they weren't the usual Tobago variety; they were so laid back and relaxed that they never bothered us. We didn’t use our normal electric BugMat mosquito deterrent and left our balcony doors and windows open at night, but suffered no bites.
All the rooms, regardless of category, feature a small balcony/terrace, around 3.5 x 1 metres in size, with a reclining lounger and a chair.
The décor varies a little from room to room, but all are attractive and furnished to the same high standards. The terracotta floor tiles are cool to the touch and any starkness, particularly as the room was so large, relieved by rattan floor mats. The rendered walls were finished in magnolia, which acted as a nice foil to the bold grey and gold curtains and furnishings of our room. The overall impression is of space, lightness and comfort. Everything was in excellent order and we couldn’t have been happier with the room.
The Executive Suite on the ground floor is also known as the Family Room because it is furnished with three double beds. Despite the space occupied by the additional beds and the fact that the ground-floor room didn't have the high ceiling of our room, it still appeared enormously spacious.
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