what beach to choose?

[Gabbs]

My wife and I are planning a 3-4 day trip to Tobago by end of March.

We are looking for a small boutique-type of hotel, comfy, good food, not to expensive, with direct or very close access to a beach;
We would like a beautiful beach, crowded enough to be considered safe, but empty enough not to be considered "packed with tourist"; if snorkeling is available right there, fantastic.

We don't like crowds, but proximity to beach-bars or little restaurants would be nice. To have some early-nightlife.

An ideal day for us would be to have breakfast at hotel, then spend some hours at the beach snorkeling and chillin', then maybe grab a scooter and hang around the island or town, come back for sunset dinner, then maybe a drink or two around the area....(kind of our intinerary in Koh Samui, Thailand, a year ago

Any recommendation?

thanks for any help.

[Paul Tallet]

Coco Reef ? ... safe bet, good chill, excellent service, pampering options and a calm private beach with an option to snorkel further around the breakwater. The catch ... very expensive and maybe a few irritant people around.

Few other resorts have a beach offering good snorkelling, you could try Mount Irvine but the Hotel is not very close to the beach ... you could try Blue Waters in Speyside, beautiful beach but a bit of a swim to the reefs.

Or you could ditch the Hotels and try Castara where there are many guesthouses near or on the beach with good snorkelling, and the 'early' nightlife is good. The closest to the beach is the Naturalist (I am biased because I go there) but if you trawl through the accommodation section of this forum and look up Condos, there are plenty of reviews of Castara hosts waiting to give you the experience I think you are looking for.

I don't think a suite in Castara will disappoint you.

Regards

[Danno]

Don't overlook a place on Grafton Beach/Stonehaven Bay either, we loved that location!