Guest Report

[Ann Ball]

We have just returned from 2 weeks on Tobago, the middle 4 days were spent at Cuffie River Nature Retreat. We had an excellent time here and I recommend it to anyone who enjoys nature, bird watching and peace and quiet.

We stayed in the Executive Suite which features the largest king size bed I have ever seen. This room is worth the extra cost if you are a keen bird watcher. It has huge opening windows on 3 sides with tremendous views down over the trees. Chairs are provided so you can just sit with your binoculars at a chosen viewing spot and enjoy yourself. Red legged Honeycreepers were often at the top of one of the trees just outside one window and Gray Kingbirds were nesting in a tree on another side.

The other rooms are very generously sized each with two double beds, but only overlooking the front of the property. There are however many quiet shady spots in the rest of the retreat provided with chairs for you to enjoy the views on the other sides.

We explored one trail by ourselves one day, and managed to see very little,(our inexperience rather than absence of birds!) but the next day Desmond took us out and we saw a lot! He is very talented at spotting and knows all the calls so knows what he is looking for. He showed us the Common Potoo, which obligingly sits all day in the middle of local some bamboo, but you stand little chance finding it without Desmond to show you where it is! We would have liked to have gone out with him again but this was not possible as we had pre booked another tour out.

The food and sevice were excellent, the staff very friendly and cheerful which is not always the case on the island. Regina's evening meals tended to be a selection of dishes, which was lovely as you could easily miss out one if it was not to your taste. There was soup both lunch time and in the evening and I have never tasted such lovely ones.

The swimming pool is in a stunning location as is the table tennis table - I lost most of my games as I was constantly looking out over the view for birds!

We thought it would be useful for the Retreat to produce a rough trail map so you could go out on your own. and we have suggested this so hopefully one day this might happen - Regina did tell us a route which was very easy to follow as the paths tend to be old tracks and are quite wide, but a rough sketch map would have been a help.

We did not have a car and did not miss it for the 4 nights we were there as the location and food were so lovely we saw little point in leaving, and would have been happy to have been staying a little longer. We would love to return and happily recommned this small hotel.