Guest Report

[Sue Smith]

My Husband was taking a diving course off of their beach so I went to watch and wait I was told very rudely bu a woman guard I was not welcome this was a private beach for residents only. DO NOT GO TO THIS BEACH YOU ARE NOT WELCOME we go to Tobago every year for the Winter and everyone else on the Island seems very friendly except at this Hotel Beware,,,,,,

[Ronald]

As far I know, there are VERY few real private beaches in Tobago, but sometimes hotels does see "their" beach as private. If things has not changed during the past few years, Arnos Vales Beach are NOT the hotels private beach at all.

But some hotels and/or guards does like to see their part of a beach like their private beach, ignore that as they doesn´t have legal right to act like this, tell them to show legal documents if thy insist.

I were on the beach last summer, bought some soft drinks at their beachbar, and there were NO problems at that time.
Ronald

[Steve Wooler]

Hi Ronald

Thanks. By law, all beaches are public on T&T. There are a couple of caveats however. Take for example the beach at Coco Reef Resort which is entirely man-made, so therefore exempt from this law. The main caveat, however, is that you cannot cross private land to reach a beach without the owner's permission. So, this effectively makes some beaches, like the one at Canoe Bay, private. Of course you could always pay a fisherman to take you in by sea, drop you off and then collect you later.

The beach at Arnos Vale has been something of a problem for some years. It is NOT a private beach. However, the hotel has every right to prevent you parking in their car park and then wandering through the hotel grounds to get to the beach. They have been doing this on a sparodic basis for the last few years. When staying a few hundred metres away earlier this year, I often saw the main gates shut and the guard refusing access to all but registered guests. However, on other days the gate could be wide open and anybody could wander through to the beach. I know because I did so twice and was never hassled. However, I have had LOTS of reports from visitors who say that hotel staff were very rude and aggressive towards them - even when they had gone to the beach via the old trail from Plymouth or the footpath from the Arnos Vale Road. The hotel are not exactly doing themselves any favours; they should be welcoming people and encouraging them to use their facilities. Better a few dollars from beach visitors than nothing; particularly when you can almost count the number of guests they've had in the last year on one hand.

As mentioned, there is a public footpath immediately to the left of the fencing that surrounds the grounds of the Arnos Vale Hotel that will take you down to the beach. Access is directly off the Arnos Vale Road, just before the culvert and track (Mot Mot Trail) that leads down to the hotel entrance.

[Ronald]

Hi all

Yesterday I had one of my long-walking days, from Bon Accord via the main road at the caribbeans side up up Arnos Vale and back home again.
I used the track wich follow the fence for Arnos Vale, the fence start at the main road maybe 100m before the road down to Arnos Vale hotel area.
The track is OK, it is only a small part of it where you have to look where you put your feets, landslide has taken a part of the track and even moved the fence a little. The beach look the same, but there were only a local family there, on the left side of the beach.

The hotel area were totally empty, the beachbar were closed, the shop wich use to have dive equipment were closed, no one at all around. The beachbar area with tables had a good amount of dead leaves on the ground, no cleaning for at least 2-3 days, also leaves in the pool. As far I could see, all rooms around down there seems to be empty. But the grass between that area and the stairs up to the hotels did look good, so the place seems to have some staff.

When talking about peoples wich doesn't stay at Artnos Vale, there's a sign on the graas between the pool and the beach. That stand say that beach chairs are free for guests at the hotel but others can rent a chair for 40TT per day. That means that the hotels beach area are NOT totally closed for others, if they are allowed to rent a chair they also should be alloew do buy something at the beach bar. I have done that myself some years ago, I did even use the outside shower to take away sand before leavning the beach.

On may way back, I walked the road instead just to see where it start by the main road. There are NO street names anywhere. If one come by car on the main road, the road down take off to the left in front of a high green area, a school area I believe. Than you turn right in front of a concrete wall wich split the road into two, after som 75m you choose left and next right again. It is difficult to explain as there are no street name, but there's peoples around beside the road. The road is OK all the way and it end with a small parking area beside the fense just 25m from the beach.

The beach is a nice place if you want to have a quiet day at the beach, but you need to bring everything with you, water, soft drinks a.s.o.
Ronald

[John H Fox]

We parked the car in the Hotel car park and was told we had to pay 20tt each to go though the hotel grounds to the beach. We were advised for our money we could use the swimming pool,toilets and showers so, fair enough we thought and paid up. Well, the swimming pool water looked totally dangerous - it was that green and cloudy you literally could not see the bottom of the pool. My grandson used the toilet and felt it was more hygenic NOT to wash his hands afterwards !! And the beach was a disgrace with litter bottles and even used nappies around. If this is how the hotel look after the grounds I dread to think what the inside is like! I certainly would not visit this hotel for even a cup of tea!!

A couple of days later we found the public trail alongside the hotel and went for the snorkelling and left straight afterwards. The snorkelling really is worth the visit but I would advise anyone against staying at the hotel.