Personal Review of the Rex Turtle Beach

[Caron Pople]

Hi Everyone,

I have just read Steve’s review of the Rex Turtle Beach and agree with everything he says. Our family of 4 including 15 year old son and 12 year old daughter stayed at the Rex on an ‘AI’ basis from 31st January to 14th February of this year and had an absolutely fantastic time. We had read a few reviews on other sites before we went (we really only discovered ‘My Tobago’ on our return) and were a little apprehensive but, as with all our holidays, we were determined to enjoy ourselves. We need not have worried, the holiday surpassed all our expectations.

We arrived to be greeted with rum or fruit punch and were soon checked into our rooms. We had adjacent rooms on the third floor and the view was wonderful – palms trees, the sea, the sand. The rooms were both spacious and simply furnished. They were cleaned every day and fresh towels were provided daily. The air conditioning was noisy, but worked very well. It certainly didn’t keep us awake – perhaps too much rum punch. The location of the hotel is fantastic and the pool area is superb. The pool is cleaned every morning and certainly sparkled during our stay. It did seem a fair walk to the reception and dining areas of the hotel from our rooms but we took to walking through the gardens alongside the beach, which somehow ‘reduced’ the walk. Anyway we were on holiday and certainly in no rush.

As said before we stayed on ‘AI’ basis and, for the 4 of us, we found this to be very good value. The breakfasts were outstanding and filled us up for the day. We rarely ate at lunchtime, as we were either too full or not around. (Packed lunches are provided if you want to go out for the day, but we never felt the need.) Sometimes we had afternoon tea, but mainly we just returned for the evening meal. We had the buffet menu every night and found it to be extremely good and varied with different theme evenings. There was always more than enough choice for us.

We found being ‘AI’ didn’t tie us to the hotel. We had a car for two days and drove all round the island, went out with Stumpy ‘the Tuna Man’ on his boat for two trips (he looked after us very well), went to Scarborough twice for carnival events (brilliant atmosphere) and twice on Saturday mornings for the market and ‘limited’ shopping. We also went to Sunday School (not to be missed) and used taxis often, as we felt they were a reasonably cheap way for the 4 of us to get around. One trip included a visit to Rainbow Falls – a short walk in the rain forest and then a swim in the wonderfully refreshing, fall – just the 4 of us – truly amazing.

The hotel staff were very, very friendly, they really couldn’t do enough for us. They made our stay so memorable. They all seemed very relaxed and we loved the way the waitresses danced to the music whilst serving the tables. The bar staff, as well, never seemed to be still, dancing away to soca music. We also enjoyed the weekly guests versus staff cricket match. The manager supplied drinks for everyone, locals supplied the music – maracas and conch shell horn, the score was recorded and believe it or not – the guests won each week we were there!

We chatted to the locals on the beach and found they were not pushy at all. When we first arrived we were interested to hear of the tours available and there was certainly no problem in saying “no thank you”. All of the beach vendors were friendly and called “good morning” or “hello” every time we went past. They are all so talented being able to carve wood intricately, make beautiful jewellery, braid hair and even paint delicate patterns on finger and toenails. My husband also enjoyed his 2 back massages. We were often chatting to the locals well after sunset and our children became friendly with some of the local teenagers who tried to teach them how to perform multiple back flips/somersaults into the sea!

In summary, the hotel is more than adequate, very clean and extremely good value. The staff and locals made our holiday fantastic and, although this was our first time in the Caribbean, we certainly found something magical about Tobago. We had such a good time that we’ve booked again for next year, again at the Rex and can hardly wait to see everyone again. Armed with the brilliant information provided on this site, I know we will get even more out of our stay next time.

Thank you Steve for your superb site – I’m addicted, as it fuels my insatiable appetite for all things Tobago!

Kind regards.