Sherwood Park Apartments - Review Page 2
Accommodation
Sherwood Park’s ten self-contained studio apartments consist of two suites and eight standard apartments. Each apartment is named after a different species of bird.
The two suites are located adjacent to each other, on the upper (first) floor, above the central ground floor office and reception area. The suites are identical to the standard apartments, but marginally larger, with a gross size of 5½x7½ metres at the widest and 5½x4½ metres at their narrowest. This compares to around 6½x4½ metres for the standard rooms.
The four ground floor apartments are identical to the upper floor units, but are air-conditioned. It is seldom that air-conditioning is really necessary. To be honest, the owner of many properties on Tobago install air-conditioning primarily as a marketing measure. Many first-time visitors find it hard to believe that it is not essential. However, once here, most guests soon switch off the A/C and enjoy the early morning birdsong. We discussed the subject with a retired Canadian couple who were enjoying their first Caribbean vacation. They confirmed that they had believed an air-conditioned apartment essential, but had dispensed with it by the second night. They confirmed that the unit in their room worked well and was very quiet. I ran the air conditioner in another room, as a test, and experienced a similar complaint to the Canadian couple - the remote conditioner batteries were almost flat. The fact that nobody had reported this to management, strongly suggests how little use these units receive.
Being an upper floor suite, our room was not air conditioned. The upper rooms catch the cooling breezes a little better than the ground floor apartments. All rooms, whether air conditioned or not, feature large overhead ceiling fans (highly effective when left running at medium/slow speed), plus an additional portable oscillating floor fan. Although we left the ceiling fan on permanently as a matter of routine, we never used the floor fan, despite the fact that I worked in the room all day, every day, even during the very hottest afternoon hours.
The six standard rooms, on both floors, feature connecting doors to the adjacent apartment. They are therefore ideal for families, particularly as an additional bed can be added to any apartment for marginal extra cost.
All ten apartments are furnished with attractive Caribbean-style wickerwork tables and chairs. Each has either a double or two single beds with firm, but comfortable, high quality box spring mattresses and mosquito net. Although the genuine article, the mosquito nets are actually for decorative effect and ambience. They are certainly not necessary, or desirable, in our experience. It is far, far better to open the louvered windows a little and position the floor fan so that it blows gently across your upper body while you sleep. Mosquitoes are very light and cannot handle much breeze, so the fan will effectively blow any away. A mosquito net, on the other hand, prevents both mosquitoes and breeze getting to you, so your sleep will be nowhere near as comfortable. If you have any fears, simply buy one of the cheap electric BugMat burners at any local store. We have always found these to be highly effective and now carry one as a matter of course.
Each apartment is furnished with an attractive high-quality wickerwork table with two chairs, a side table and two bedside tables. Additional furnishings include a reasonably-sized wardrobe and sideboard, plus a small concealed security safe for wallets, passports and other valuables.
Whilst the general quality of furnishing in the Sherwood Park Apartments is high, the plumbing and bathroom fittings slightly let the side down. The rooms would be considerably enhanced if these were upgraded. The bathrooms are of adequate size (particularly in the suites) and everything worked as intended, but the wash basins are only plumbed for cold water and the shower heads and drains somewhat corroded. The large walk-in showers provide both hot and cold water, but this is the only source of hot water in the apartments. This was a little surprising initially, but in practise proved only a minor inconvenience and was not a negative in terms of our perception of the establishment.
Each room features wide French doors opening onto a narrow balcony (0.9 metres wide) which runs the full width of the room. Each balcony is furnished with an attractive marble-effect table and two wickerwork chairs. The ground floor apartments also provide direct access from the balcony/veranda into the garden and down to the main terrace and pool. A washing line is fitted on each balcony.
All rooms are fully serviced each day, including a full change of all towels. Management do request that the supplied towels are not taken to the beach, although it is fine to use them at the pool. The bed linen is of high quality, immaculately clean and changed every three days.
Kitchenettes
The ten apartments each feature a fully-equipped kitchen with refrigerator, two-ring electric hob, electric toaster/mini-oven and filter coffee maker. New microwave ovens were installed in each apartment just a few weeks after our visit. There is a reasonable selection of pots, pans, cooking utensils, crockery and cutlery and all items were of high quality and clean. They could be more generous with crockery and cutlery, however.
Prior to our arrival, the fridge had been stocked with a welcome pack of basic essential supplies – bread, margarine, eggs, water, milk, orange juice and water. This is a nice touch because most flights arrive in the late afternoon and few visitors will relish the thought of shopping for groceries immediately on arrival.
As anyone who has been to the tropics before will know, there are problems connected with food preparation and storage that self-caterers should be aware of. If you leave food open on work surfaces, cupboards or shelves, particularly sweet foods such as biscuits and sugar, etc., it could be crawling with tiny ants within the hour. The ants smell the food from the garden and will be with you in no time at all. This is not an indication of dirt, or even a serious lack of hygiene, and the ants are perfectly harmless clean creatures which should not concern you. However, it is important to wipe your kitchen work surfaces and ensure that there is no food residue or crumbs, and to ensure that all opened packets and tins of food are safely stowed in the refrigerator, or in sealed plastic containers. This is not a problem associated with Sherwood Park Apartments - it applies wherever you stay in the tropics.
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