Arnos Vale - on balance Great!

[Dave Wallace]

Great location, nice helpful people, but the hotel needs to pull its socks up in some areas to warrant the high food prices. The service is good and the staff work really hard to please.

I'd say it's the management therefore and/or their business plan at fault. Some rooms are plain shoddy and others merely a bit tatty due to lack of attention to detail and maintenance.

We changed rooms after complaining and the same 'standard' room was a big improvement, having a modern air-con unit and the items as advertised, (kettle, tea/coffe, mini-fridge). And being higher up we had a great view too.

In our 2 week stay Arnos had by far the best snorkelling, numbers of fish and undamaged coral. Can be tricky at times getting in and out for some people we saw, but there's a sandy entry point which makes it easy.

The RSPB would be shocked at the filthy hummingbird feeders and as a hotel that sells itself on this attraction it could easily do more to develop this area. Getting rid of the 3 cats on site would be a great start.

So, all in all, the setting, (quiet location, beach, gardens and snorkelling) vastly outweigh the hotels's short-comings, fortunately, and so we'd be very happy go back again.