Anyway, we stayed at the Coco Reef and we really couldn't fault it, the staff (particularly Carla!), service and cleanliness were second to none. Food was lovely, although after two weeks of eating far too much, it did eventually get repetitive. The only disappointment with regards to the food was the Saturday evening buffet, which was luke warm/cold. So the follwoing week we went to the Pelican, which is just across the road...delicious! The Coco Restaurant was okay, but the restaurant in the main hotel was far better. The room we stayed in was lovely, although you have to request to have tea/coffee facilities in your room. We had WELCOME written in petal leaves on the bed when we arrived, along with fruit and champagne. It was my husbands birthday whilst we were there and I had ordered a cake from the hotel (which was lovely), from this, when we returned to our room after it had been cleaned, a staff member had also made a HAPPY BIRTHDAY sign, again made from petals. We stayed All Inclusive...and it really was...our bill at the end of the fortnight was £2.90 for a phone call home!!! And we drank everything! Although, be aware the cocktails are very strong! One tip, don't get your laundry done at the hotel, there is a laundrette next to the hotel, who do a serice wash at a much more reasonable price!
We went on the island tour (with Louis...who was fab!). This took us on a whistle stop tour of the whole island. Louis would stop where ever we wanted, the tour included swimming at Englishmans Bay, a visit to the waterfall and lunch at Gemmas (again was okay, but not the fabulous food that we had been led to believe). Would recommend this tour, but be aware that some tours only cover 1/2 the island at a time. With Louis we set off at about 9am and returned back to the hotel at about 6pm so was a really full day. We also went on the Bucco reef/nylon pool/barbeque trip which unfortunately was not so good, the snorkelling around the hotel was of better quality and we found the state of the reef very disturbing. The barbeque was slightly worrying. One 'chef' disappeared into the bushes, came back fastening his trousers and then proceeded to cook...hence to say we didn't eat anything! The other trip that we went on was the visit to Little Tobago, which was much better for snorkelling and the guides were very knowledgable, fun and friendly. They joined us snorkelling showing us different coral and fish, yet ensuring that we did not damage the coral.
We had one bad experience with a local, who turned nasty because we wouldn't buy anything, but apparantly he is known to the police and they are on his case! Everybody else was very friendly! Oh yes and the weather was fab (don't believe the forecasts that you get on the internet, they relate more to Trinidad, we had one dull day and a couple of quick showers...other that that it was hot, hot, hot!
Anyway, I am sure that I have forgotten lots of things to tell you, we did so much, whatever we write here would not do the place justice, it is a beautiful island with beautiful people to match and I would recommend it to anybody..hence to say we will be returning...and it will be back to the Coco Reef (incidently there were two families who had booked the Hilton, didn't like it and changed to the Coco Reef!).
Oh one huge disappointment...we flew with Excel Air and would never fly with them again, although people who were in the first class thought it was okay, the plane was really old and it had to be grounded when we arrived in Tobago, the inflight entertainment and food msut have been the same age as the plane!
A big thank you to all the information that we were able to gain on this website!
Helen.
