Guest Report

[Allison&Tony]

5 nights at Alibaba's was the perfect end to a great 3 week holiday for my family in Tobago and Trinidad. We stayed in the MotMot apartment - the one with the double bunk bed - and had everything we needed for comfort and relaxation. The apartment is not very big for 4, but the children loved the funny bed, and the place was very well arranged to accommodate all of our stuff. Cleanliness was fine, and we appreciated the 'mid-stay' clean and the beach towels. The view from the balcony is gorgeous - its a truly lovely place to sit and watch the bird and bat life. In about one minute you can be on the beach from the apartment - having an early morning snorkel before breakfast has to be one of the most thrilling ways to start the day ever.

Brian and Stephanie were as friendly and helpful as I can imagine any hosts being. They lent us books and snorkelling gear and gave us good advice whenever we had questions. Brian' s snorkelling tour was a highlight of our stay. The price of the tour and 2 airport transfers seemed incredibly good value.

Castara is such a great location (as long as you are not hotel people) - we liked walking to the waterfall, and buying our fish on the big beach. We loved how green and lush things seemed - it was looking a bit dryer further south in Tobago in April.

With many thanks and good wishes to Brian and Stephanie,

Allison, Tony, Tom and Matilda Ashford

[Glen O]

I was very happy to read your comments on Alibaba's. We have booked in to stay there in Feb. '09 and are really looking forward to it. I especially liked your comments about the close proximity to the beach and the early morning snorkeling as we plan to do lots of snorkeling while we are in Tobago. How was the reef at little bay? Were you able to see lots of life on the reef? Would appreciate your comments on this.
Thanks.
Glen

[Allison&Tony]

Hope that I'm posting this reply to Glen in the right place. Castara has a reef sighted just below Alibaba's on the right hand side of heavenly bay. Its not the most spectacular, and its not enormous, but I found it intriguing and never tired of another visit. We spotted french anglefish, trunk fish, dozens of parrotfish and blue tang, amongst many others. My husband and son swam with a friendly ray for ten minutes, and a turtle sometimes hung out there in the early morning. It was the perfect place to introduce my children (9, 11 years) to snorkelling. Visiblity was good when we were there, although the previous week it had been uncharacteristically choppy.

Stephanie or Brian will show you where to enter the sea to avoid walking on the reef and for just swimming - sadly the near-shore bit of reef is getting damaged by people touching it.

If you are a good swimmer and you've got your fins, on you can swim out and round to the next rocky bay on the right, where the reef is even better and bigger. Its not very demanding to get there, but was too much for us with the kids. Otherwise it forms part of Brian's snorkelling boat tour, which I have already recommended.

The place we loved best for snorkelling was Arnos Vale - its really gorgeous. Brian's tour went there, but we went back for a whole day because it was so good.

Hope this helps,

Allison

[Dianne K]

After two vacations in Castara since 2006 we have never tired of our daily snorkeling in Heavenly Bay. We did frequently make our way around the reef on the right side of the bay. It can get a bit choppy and there are many reefs that pop up so be careful. I don't recall seeing fire coral in that area but sea urchins are everywhere. Dianne

[Glen O]

Hi. Thanks for the replies and the tip on Arnos Vale. The four of us are pretty comfortable with snorkeling and will definitely checked out the expanded reef to the right. Good to know about the urchins as well. We'll take precautions and also check with Brian about the best place to enter the water so as to not do any further damage to the reef.
Thanks again.
Glen