Guest Report

[Megan Bowser]

My boyfriend and I stayed at the Cocoreef for one glorious week in September of 2006. This was our first trip to the Caribbean and we cannot say enough about how much we enjoyed our stay. We have already booked our stay there for this year.

We arrived on the last Tobago Express flight a little after 10pm on a Thursday night, completely exhausted from our 4 flights (16 hours of traveling). We walked into the open air lobby with a look of awe on our face at the beautiful site that met our eyes. They were expecting us as we were the last patrons they had arriving that night. We were ushered to the front desk to check in. While this was taking place we were brought refreshingly cool rum punches which helped ease some of our travel weariness. We were then given a short tour of the resort and then taken to our first floor Deluxe Ocean View room where our luggage met us a few minutes later.

The room was your standard American hotel room with Caribbean flair. King sized bed, small table with chairs, television, bathroom, patio, and let's not forget the air conditioning which was keeping the room nice and chilled. We were impressed with the 'Welcome' that was spelled out on the bed with palm fronds and flower petals. It was a very nice touch.

We quickly changed out of our travel clothes and headed back to the lobby to enjoy the nightly entertainment and start our vacation off on the right foot with some ice cold drinks from the bar. We sat near the end of that lobby where we could overlook the beach.

Our daily routine stayed fairly constant throughout our stay.

We awoke in the morning and headed to the breakfast buffet. The food was delicious and there was such a variety to choose from that I doubt anyone could find fault with it. Breakfast easily became our favorite meal that week.

After our leisurely meal we would make our way down to the resort's white sand beach. The hotel was only at 50% capacity the week we were there so we never had any problems getting lounge chairs. In fact, most days we were one of the first few people to arrive on the beach. The beach was always immaculately clean. The man made rock wall that protects the beach has turned into a reef like setting which is great for snorkeling. It also keeps the water nice and calm. The resort also has many non-motorized water sport activities (snorkel gear, kayaks) that are free to use. We got a lot of use out of the snorkel gear. However, you are only able to 'borrow' the gear for two hours at a time as there are not enough sets of fins/masks to go around. There are times when we had to wait 2-4 hours until we could get a set that we would share between the two of us.

While on the beach, you cannot beat the service. There are 1-2 waiters who take drink orders and deliver them to your lounge chair. You will also find a fresh fruit tray making its way around the beach in the morning. Ice cold hand towels are brought around in the afternoon when the heat of the day is at its peak.

Every day, we ate lunch at the open air beach side restaurant. Fresh fish, chicken, pork chops, and hamburgers are all grilled to order right in front of you. Side dishes were available buffet style. On a scale of 1 to 10 I would rate lunch at a 6. The food was ok, nothing special. One of the restaurant’s redeeming qualities is that it is on the beach. Just a few short steps from our lounge chairs. We were able to eat lunch with a wonderful view of the ocean without having to change out of our swim wear. Just throw on a cover up and go enjoy lunch. Ice cream is available from the bar and you can get it in a plastic cup to take back to your lounge chair.

For Dinner you have the choice of eating at the same beach side restaurant where lunch is served or at the upscale restaurant off of the hotel lobby. We only ate at the upscale restaurant once. We seemed to be the odd ones out at the resort that week because we chose not to go with the all-inclusive meal plan. It seems we picked the wrong night to eat at the upscale restaurant. It was buffet night. The food was good. We had a bottle of wine to enjoy with our dinner. However, we weren't particularly impressed with the meal. Especially for the price. I'd rate the meal a 7. On a few other nights we ate at the beach side restaurant where you can order ala carte off of a limited menu. However, the atmosphere is much more casual there. Halfway through our stay we decided to leave the resort and try the Coco Cafe just a short walk away. We found this to be the place where we truly enjoyed our meals in every sense and went back every night after.

Halfway through our stay the air conditioner in our room decided to stop working. After informing the front desk, they were quick to respond. The unit could not be fixed that late in the day and we were promptly moved to another room for the night until it could be repaired. The staff were all very helpful. The following day we were informed that we could return to our room as the unit had been fixed.

All in all, we truly enjoyed our stay at the Cocoreef. It was exactly as we expected, thanks to the wonderful reviews we had read on this site. Special thanks to Trevor, the beach waiter.