New to forum - not to Tobago

[Bill B]

Hello,

My wife and I vacationed in Tobago in 2002. We stayed at the Sandy Point Beach Club thru an RCI exchange and feel in love with the island. Since then we have visited Antigua, St. Maarten twice and Puerta Vallarta. Even though we liked Tobago best we hesitated to come back because travel is so much more expensive and takes longer than to the other islands, and on a one week vacation it cuts your "limin" time way down. We had the chance to exchange again for January 2007 and decided that since we finally had some FF miles available that we would visit once more but for a longer time. We plan on staying 3 or 4 additional days either before or after and are leaning toward Castara; probably The Naturalist.

Last time we flew BWIA and arrived late at night and had to leave early and lost a full day of vacation. This time it will be via AA and since they only fly as far as POs we will be looking to stay one night near the airport and flying over the next AM on the express. Once our flight plans are set I'll be asking advise on places to stay and car rental.

Bill

[Steve Wooler]

Hi Bill

Welcome aboard and greeting to Illinois (I used to have a business in Carol Stream, Illinios, and a condo in Wheaton).

By the time you're ready to book your accommodation, we'll have another nine reviews on the site - four of them of Castara accommodation.

So, enjoy your vacation research. We're here to help!

[Bill B]

Steve,

How long ago did you live in Illinois? I was born and raised in the Chicago area and currently live in and own a small plastic distribution company in Bensenville. Out of curiosity what type of business did you have here?

I've always done a lot of research before our vacations and have looked at a number of sites similar to yours and by far I'm finding this one to be one of the best I've seen. Also the forum by and large seems to be frequented by people who want to be helpful and courteous. So many of the travel forums seem to degenerate into "Flame Wars" and name calling contests when there is the slightest bit of a difference of opinion.

Looking forward to being a part of this group

Bill

[Cornelia Montgomery]

Bill,
File this under: Small World.

My husband and I lived in Elk Grove Village for 10 years, and he worked in Bensenville. I worked in Itasca and Schaumburg. We've been in Boston for the past 16 years. From one cold place to another cold place ... thereby making Caribbean escapes delightful in February. I still have not become blase about stepping off the plane in winter and finding summer in Tobago.

[Cornelia Montgomery]

I meant to add that there are no good hotels near Piarco airport. We used to stay at a quite acceptable place close by, but it was purchased by oil companies, which helicopter their employees into this hotel every night from the offshore rigs.
Last year, we had enough Hilton points to get a room at the Trinidad Hilton. It's a relic from the 60s (but apparently it's partially owned by the T&T government) that needs refurbishing. However, the service and security are good. However, it's $US20 taxi drive from the airport. Other people recommend various guest houses near the airport. One thing I really like about the Trinidad Hilton is that the pool is about 8-feet-deep at its deepest point. So you can dive in. These days, hoteliers are worried about liability and give you wadiing pools. I used to be quite a good swimmer, so I enjoy the deeper pools. Anyway, the pool provided quite a refreshing morning dip.

[Bill B]

Cornelia,

You're definitely right about going to the Caribbean in the middle of winter. My wife won't even consider a vacation anyplace that you can't wear a bathing suit outside. As our plans become more definite (we can't book airline tickets before 330 days out) we'll be checking into hotels at PSO. Based on the schedule that AA currently shows they only fly in once a day and it arrives quite late so all we will be looking for is someplace close and halfway clean.

Bill

[Roger D.]

Trinidad Hilton FYI.

The Trinidad Hilton is currenty under going a multi million dollar renovation to bring it from "the 60's" into the 21st century.

[Bill B]

We've got our plans pretty well finalized. We're flying to Miami on 01/14 and then on to POS on the morning of 01/15 (at least as of now AA makes 2 flights to POS, a morning one and an evening one). We should be in Tobago by 4:00 PM

We spent a lot of time reading reviews and reports here and based on all the praises we heard booked 4 days at Seabreeze before our week at Sandy Point. It was a close choice between them and the Naturalist but we felt we would have a little more privacy on a balcony rather than on the beach level porch. We enjoy sitting out having our morning coffee, our afternoon cocktails and an evening nitecap.

We're looking forward to talking to others on the forum as we learn more about Tobago and refine our plans of things to do. Mary Lou and I are not ones to just sit on a beach all day every day, so we will be looking for things to keep us busy (of course not "busy" in the sense of working but "busy' in the sense of having fun ).

Bill