Grafton Beach Resort - Review Page 1
Reviewed by Steve & Jill Wooler in February 2004 and March 2008
The 3* Grafton Beach Resort is one of Tobago’s most established medium-quality all-inclusive hotels.
Our first review of the Grafton Beach Resort was conducted in 2004, shortly after the hotel had re-opened after major refurbishment. Our latest re-review was scheduled to take place after further refurbishment during the summer of 2007.
We were keen to see what had changed…
Location
The beach-side Grafton Beach Resort is located in Stone Haven Bay on Tobago’s Caribbean coast. The hotel is just a short 15-20 minute drive from the airport.
The mile or two of coastline between Mount Irvine and Stone Haven Bay represents an excellent balance in location terms. The area is just a short hop from the shops, restaurants and facilities of the flat and unattractive built-up sprawl of Crown Point. However, as you move further up the Caribbean northern coast, so you start to experience the beauty of Tobago’s lush, hilly landscape.
The Crown Point beaches of Store Bay and Pigeon Point are attractive and popular, but have become over-commercialised and are often crowded. The beaches along the Caribbean coast are much quieter and more natural are largely free from any form of commercialisation.
The Shirvan Road, which runs along the lower part of the Caribbean north coast road from its intersection with the Crown Point-Scarborough highway, has become Tobago’s leading restaurant strip. More than half dozen of Tobago’s most popular restaurants are housed along, or close to, the first few miles of this coast road; all within a 5-10 minute drive of the many hotels, guesthouses, apartments and villas located in the area.
When one combines these factors, the Grafton Beach Resort has arguably one of the best locations on the island. It is within 15-20 minutes drive of every location in the Crown Point-Plymouth-Scarborough triangle. It is away from the busy Crown Point-Scarborough belt and is ideally located for visits to Tobago’s beautiful northern coastline and rain forest.
Architecture
The Grafton Beach Resort is located on a hillside, immediately adjacent to upscale sister-hotel, Le Grand Courlan. First impressions, from an architectural point of view, are not particularly favourable. As you approach the hotel, your first sight is of high security fences and massive satellite dishes. The buildings are seemingly jumbled one on top of the other and set at myriad angles. It is initially hard to tell where Le Grand Courlan ends and the Grafton starts, because of the similarity of the current exterior colours of faded dusky pink and peachy orange.
Once through the security barrier and into the front courtyard, the layout becomes clearer. You begin to appreciate that it is not simply a random jumble of buildings but a good utilisation of the hillside on which the hotels are set. A considerable number of rooms and facilities have been packed into a relatively small area without the slightest sense of being cramped – in fact the impression is one of spaciousness. From any point within the grounds you see only a small part of the total and the disparate shapes and angles of the buildings make the entity more interesting and less intimidating. It is quite surprising how a complex that appears relatively disappointing from the outside can be quite pleasing when viewed from within.
The architecture of the hotel may lack the architectural style and character of some of the more expensive hotels on the island, but that is not to say the buildings are unattractive. The style is simply functional and consists of painted concrete and tinted glass. The wide corridors and balconies, with contrasting balustrades, give the buildings some character. The overall look and feel is pleasant, if not inspiring.
The grounds are extensively and attractively terraced, but moving around the resort does mean negotiating numerous small flights of stairs. These will be of no consequence to the average guest but the elderly and infirm, or those with mobility difficulties, would have problems. There are no rooms specifically equipped for the disabled and the only accessibility ramps are in the main areas of the hotel. Disabled guests would have difficulty gaining access the beach. There are no lifts (elevators) at the hotel.
The guest rooms are housed within a mixture of single, two and three-storey accommodation blocks. The single storey blocks are closest to the sea and offer views of the beach, partially restricted by a security fence and trees that run along the beachfront. The multi-storey buildings are situated on higher ground and offer wonderful views across the bay.
Clientele
It is obvious that an all-inclusive hotel like the Grafton will appeal to a wide market. In our 2002 review, we commented that the resident guests were overwhelmingly British. There has been a marked change. This year the clientele was of more mixed nationality. Germans, East Europeans, Trinidadians and Americans were very much in evidence. I estimate that the British contingent were little more than 50%. This change possibly had more to do with British tour operators not featuring the hotels this year due to the current refurbishment program.
As a mid-market resort, the Grafton is clearly more affordable to the younger visitor. I would estimate that the average age of adult guests during our stay was 35-40. However, there were virtually no babies and toddlers and only a few children. I suspect that it would have been a different story if our visit had been during school holidays or half-term.
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