Guest Report

22 room hotel located at Speyside
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Rob Blackburn

Guest Report

Post by Rob Blackburn »

My word

Manta Lodge certianly invokes some reaction from people. I have read every review here, and in the Trip Adviser site - all 32. I have stayed at Manta Lodge many times, the first time I was booked into the Blue Waters round the corner but drifted to Manta Lodge.

So many times writers have noted that when "the owners" show up they and their friends get special treatment. Has no one wondered where these 'friends' came from?

The first time I visited back in 1997 Sean Robinson and his father Clyde were there, we had the best holiday of ourlives. I had never met the man before but it was clear that he liked to talk and share a beer with his guests and dive.

I have ecompleted over 300 dives of which some 200 have been with Tobago Dive Experience, I have known Sean ever since that first meeting and he, his family and his staff befriended not only me but everyone in the hotel at the time ... that is, those that wanted to be befriended. This is not the insincere friendship that Westerners are used to. Sean came to my wedding in 2000 and taught my wife to dive, no small feat as she had an aversion to water and could barely swim. No doubt when I roll in I am also observed as one of those 'friends' but I was and am a guest.

Tobago is a place where you get out what you put in, it is the holiday destination most equivalent to a mirror. If you want to be upset you will be upset, if you want a great holiday you will have one, be miserable and you will receive misery. This is not a place of platitudes and false smiles but real, very real, sincere welcome and friendship.

If you choose to visit this paradise let the Tobagonian spirit lead the way, do not expect to start teaching them how to do things. The english failed, the dutch failed the french failed and portugese failed, this is their land and when in tobago do as tobagoninas do. The rewards are great.
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