Sandcastles - Review Page 1
Reviewed by Steve & Jill Wooler in February 2006
The vast majority of visitor accommodation in Castara is in wooden framed and clad buildings constructed in traditional Caribbean style. The village is surrounded by rainforest, so wood is the obvious choice.
We were therefore intrigued when, in 2003, Adam Hanlon sent us a picture of Sandcastles, the property he was building just outside Castara village. The castellated balconies and terraces of the concrete building certainly caught the eye.
What particularly intrigued us about Sandcastles, however, was that guests were to be given the choice of room-only or catered accommodation. Adam was, by all repute, an excellent cook and his long term vision for the property include a small up-market restaurant serving high-quality international food.
With no other such establishment anywhere along Tobago’s northern Caribbean coastline, we felt it was about time that we visited Sandcastles, despite the fact that it is still very much work-in-progress.
Location
Sandcastles is located on a hillside, overlooking the Caribbean sea, less than half a mile south of Castara village centre. It’s an easy five minute downhill walk to Castara’s main beach (using a shortcut down a steep grass bank) or nine minutes if you walk the ‘long way’ into the village centre, shops and to the main beach facilities. The uphill return took this unfit old codger a couple of minutes longer.
The property is one of a small cluster of local properties and two other holiday apartment properties situated on the twisty road as it descends from Mason Hall and Scarborough. The main village can’t be seen until you round the bend 50m past Sandcastles, when the entire magnificent vista of Castara Bay suddenly opens up before you.
The steep driveway up to the property looks pretty scary, but the perspective is distorted by the descending main road. Fortunately the concrete drive is wide and easily negotiable, so should present no difficulties, even to drivers unfamiliar with their rental vehicle. Mind you, once parked at the top, it would be wise to leave the vehicle in gear and not to rely upon the handbrake. Given the dubious maintenance standards of so many Tobago car hire services, you don’t want to return and find your car or jeep at the bottom of the hill.
Architecture
The two-storey building is of block and cement structure – every load of which was hand-mixed by Adam and his trusty band of helpers over the five years that construction has been taking place. It is certainly an intriguing and unique building. I was fascinated to know the inspiration for the castellated design. The answer was far from expectation. The building originally had 
traditional wooden Caribbean balustrades. Seeing a toddler crawl through the open woodwork and narrowly miss falling a considerable distance, Adam and Ria decided that no such mishap was going to befall their family, or that of any guests, and the current castellated design was conceived.
The property is still very much a work in progress and, as such, it is only natural that there are some rough edges and incomplete features. Every cent earned from the accommodation and catering is being ploughed back into development of the project, but without a massive budget, progress is slow. At the time of our stay, the restaurant was unfinished. However, the construction work in no way impeded or affected our visit, so guests need have no fear that they might be staying on a building site. Although the steps, attractively inlaid with shells, up to the apartments are no more onerous than with any two-storey property, they would mean that this property is unsuitable to wheelchair users or those with mobility difficulties.
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