Now, after 14 wonderful days at the Rex Turtle Beach Hotel, here my personal review:
We arrived at 30. May 2005 at Crown Point International and were picked up by a Taxi from Ted´s Sunshine which carried us to the Rex Turtle Beach Hotel.
In the Lobby, by the way it was after 8 pm., the receptionist gave us our Roomkey and a welcome drink (I´d better chosen a Fruitpunch than a RumPunch) and we went to our room.
The first impression about the room on the 1st floor: clean, nice furniture and as Steve told, a very silent AC. The only thing we heard at night was the kompressors of the other AC´s which were situated outside and the waves hammering at the beach (Of which I thought that this noise was a thunder, in fact sometimes that powerful that our Door to the Balcony shook up from the Soundwaves).
On the next day we asked at the reception to show us an other room, which was situated in the newer complex on the 3d floor. This room has been clean also, but we decided to stay in the room we fell in love with in because of the ceiling was a little bit higher (with wood) and the room had
an extra room (for a 3rd Person or child!) which got our dressing room.
All in all: The rooms at the Rex Turtle Beach were clean and cleaned every day. More or less, depending on which Person of the Staff had to do this. Sometimes the room was cleaned up before 12 am, the latest time was around 3-4 pm. Towels were changed every day.
There was a cabinet in the sleeping room and one in the second, smaller room (which was about 2x3 m) in a wonderful shining dark/red/brown color). The bed was built of 2 mattresses. one above the other, and was good to sleep in. The sight on the balcony was great. A little thing was the temp. on the balcony we had, which never fell under 35 deg. because it was stepped backwards and the wind couldn´t circulate.
We ran the AC only at daytime and turned it off for sleeping.
The hairdryer worked well, but people with very long hair will get hot hands when drying long.
The bathroom looked old but everything was functional (except the Shower, but we fixed the calc problem with a little vingar which we put on browse for 3 hours to ged the holes free).
The room, 100 m. away from the pool area, was silent and we heard no noise (except the people passing by and the guy working for the hotel at the watersports-hut. He sang like a drunken shakalaka-weazle crossing.
The big pool, and the small one for the kids, has been cleaned every morning, sometimes more or less. I never went into the pool.
The beach and the surroundings were cleaned by the gardener and looked nice. Some rest´s of cigarettes lying around which hasn´t really disturbed. PEOPLE ! USE ASHTRAYS, as we did!.
There were some guys at the beach, always looking for business.
OK, not horacing, but we had to say no thanks to some of them 3 Times a day. But after , they were very kind.
"I´m the original AloeVera doctor"... yes yes....
Friends of us had a likkle boy, 2,5 years old, which swom like a rat.
So he went into the sea at the beach and got spilled out by the waves.
After much rain the waves get the height of max. 1 til 1,5 m.
But which parents would let go their kiddy to play in the open sea?
Towels for the beach were provided and fresh every day.
Lounges for the beach were comfortable and stapled over night by the Guards/Security (I think there were 4 of them walking around to show that the people are secure). 3 or 4 craftsman/rastas sold their stuff at
the beach constantly and there were some passing by. On Saturday Big Mama came close to the Hotel at the beach and broght her selfmade crab ´n dumplin (DELICIOUS) and her strong (STRONGGGG) GingerBeer.
AND: we bought some HandMade Custom Sandals and a Belt from Henry. One of the kindest persons on the whole Island. Perfect Handcraft!
Breakfast has been served from 7.30 am til 10 am buffet style (like lunch and dinner) From fresh fruits, pancakes, potatoes, scrambled eggs, 2 sorts of toast, 3 sorts of jam, butter, and fried eggs, omelettes, boiled eggs, cheese, sausage, bacon everything tasted fine. 3 kinds of juices (likkle sweet) and milk. Only the coffee was not that good. It tasted like
Instant coffee cooked 5 times.
Lunch has been buffet style as dinner. The buffet changed every day
and the variation was great, even for veggies. The Presentation of the
buffet was (for a 2,5* Hotel) great. Sometimes outside beside the bar (also with barbecue) or inside. I tell you: I never had such great and tasty
Buffets like in the rex. Also the Roastbeef etc...
All in all: Dining in Rex Turtle was wonderful and great for us.
I would say the best Buffet served on Tobago... (and also so we were told by many guests). Also a la carte (Burgers, Sandwiches, Salads...)
Staff: I wondered myself the first couple of days about the Staff.
Some were kind and some less. Chatty? Not everyone. Some of them
were very chatty and friendly, but I never heard any bad things.
I think it is how you attract to them. We greeted everybody, and so they
did and we also got answered our questions. After 4 Days there must have something been going on in the management and the Staff were friendly and forestalling. Only the Bar - Personell could have been more
friendly and chatty to get some positive vibrations to the guests.
Our phone in our room wasn´t working, but only one hour later after talking to the receptionist, the problem has been fixed.
The Bar was nice and the drinks were mixed well.
For All Inclusive, there has been no possibility to take bottled drinks to the rooms. So we bought 2 Waterbottles which were filled up constantly without problems by the Staff under the eyes of the management.
So if you go there, don´t forget your bottles.
Here some cost-factors:
Room Service charges of TT$ 20.00
The wrist band (to wear in the Hotel) charges TT$ 50.00 if damaged.
Telephone Calls from the room were not expensive.
International Calls with a Companian Card are also cheap.
The safe is for free, and like discussed, absolutely secure.
Only if the key gets lost, you have to pay a charge, like Steve wrote.
As it was nesting time for the Leatherbackturtles, we were set on a list at the reception to call via phone when a turtle is sighted at the beach.
And we have seen many! So we decided to spend some money to the SOS Organisation, which teached us a lot about the turtles. SPECTACULAR!
PLEASE PEOPLE: don´t step closer to the turtles than 15 m.
What would you say if 40 People were watching you giving birth to a baby.
DONT USE FLASHLIGHTS! Once I got angry seeing people using flashlights
to show some nice pics at home for big pimpin´. It isn´t worth!
First we thought to rent a car to explore the island. But we didn´t.
This is what happened:
We booked on the 2nd day of stay a round trip over the island which came 80 US$ per person. For me, this was not that wonderful. It is like
you sit in a train which drives through a zoo. You don´t get in touch with
the people, which are very friendly and helpful. So we participated the
round A bout Tour. 1st Stop Fort James (you can walk there within 10 min. from the Rex) 2nd Stop Englishmans Bay (a must-see) 3d Stop after drive through the rainforest has been Speyside "lookout" and Speyside itself, 4th Stop Argyle Waterfalls and last Stop in Fort King George (great view over Scarborough) This tour was "nice" but notten more, and so was Jemma´s where we went for dinner. (It looked to me like a drive through restaurant)
But we found out, that there is a restaurant called birdwatchers, max. 500 m. away from Jemmas, where I had the very best Lobster in my life!
Absolutely delicious, and all for a reasonable price.
If you want to watch bird´s, forget Little Tobago, except you get a ride by boat before 6 am. After 10 pm you will see some birds, but not much.
We paid 20 US$ each to see the big BrainCoral via GlassBottomBoat and
to take a walk on little Tobago.
If you want to go to PigeonPoint to spent a day at the beach charging 3 US$, go before 9 am, and you can choose a place to put your lounge (charging TT$ 10).
On our 3d Day of stay we went to S-borough and into the Cafe Ciao (super-icecream). Then, wondering how to get home, a man named Myron Bernard hit us to give us a ride with his taxi back to plymouth.
He and his Nissan carried us from this moment on to every place on the island. I highly recomment to call him if you need a driver. And for us it was more reasonable than renting a car.
We also recommend The Oracle Tours, run by a very kind young Man (forgot his name). The prices and tours are really the best, and also different from the the others we planned to go with.
All in all: We spent the time with Myron and Lyrist and loved it.
Speaking for myself, the Lunch packages provided by the Rex helped me out
Diving is good between ´bago and Trini... saw some Hammersharks, Hummers, different Rays, Barracudas etc...
Buccoo reef is nice for snorkeling and for some nice shots (I recommend to buy a watercam before you get into the plane to paradise)
The wind at PigPoint wasn´t that strong to get my 12"Kite and me to fly
but if you gonna take a 14" or bigger it may work.
Sunday School is a must !!!
If you wan´t to burn your CD´s just call Myron and he will take you to
procomputers in S-borough. They also support Laptops and deal with
Computerstuff. You can do it on your own.
So, after 14 Days, we´re back to "normal".
We were lucky to be a part of it and thank Steve Wooler for this wonderful and informative page.
We love Tobago!
Our pictures (over 1000) must be sighted... more to come...
Here the Adresses we highly recommend:
Our taxi driver for prompt and efficient Service:
Myron Bernard:
Mobile Phone 756 4765
Mailto: [email protected]o.com
To Burn or Surf:
Pro Computers:
TLH Building Milford Road
Scarborough
Tel.: 868 639 1100
Tel.: 868 639 1300
Mailto: [email protected]
The Oracle Tours
Office: 660 7210
Mobile: 737 3373
Mailto: [email protected]
