Just returned from Grafton Beach

[Diane O]

Hi - this is my first post on this site but have been reading it avidly for the last few months. Have just returned from our first trip to Tobago, so here is our report. Will be happy to answer any questions.

Travel
Flew out with Virgin from Gatwick, flight was delayed by 2 hours, but not really a problem. Had used the twilight check-in service the day before which works really well - only a couple of people in the queue at about 4:00 pm. Friendly staff on the plane, good choice of entertainment, time passes pretty quickly.
Immigration was straight forward and the luggage arrived reasonably quickly. Once outside headed for the Virgin rep who informed us that they had lost our welcome pack! She didn't seem overly concerned by this and told us to get on the mini-bus anyway. Only 15 minutes to the airport and the local driver kept us entertained along the way.

Grafton Beach Resort
Checking in was easy and we were met with a welcome fruit punch. Still not sure why we were asked for a credit card number though? Had to wait a while for the concierge to show us to our room and the suitcases were delivered shortly afterwards.
We had paid extra for an ocean view room and it was definitely worth it! Fabulous view from the balcony, although the constant sound of the sea takes some getting used to. The room had everything we might need including hairdryer, TV with some US cable stations and a fridge. The air conditioning started leaking water on the second day, but was fixed within the hour after reporting it.
The hotel looks as though it could do with a bit of a spruce-up. Everywhere is spotlessly clean, but the paintwork is peeling and some of the seats are ripped and the springs have gone. Nearly all of the staff are incredibly friendly (particularly Marsha in the restaurant and Elroy the guest relations manager).
Now - the food... Contrary to some other reports, ALL the meals are buffets. There is no waiter service or a la carte option (unless you use Neptune's restaurant) and the beach bar closes at 5:00 pm, serving only a limited range of meals at lunch time (burgers or burgers!).
Breakfast is absolutely fine - a wide choice available ranging from cereals, fresh fruit, bacon, sausages, eggs, pancakes, toast etc. Plus a chef makes omelettes to order.
Lunch has an international range of food - pizzas, chips, burgers plus more local dishes of chicken and fish. In some respects, this was usually better than the evening meal.
Dinner - there was only ever a choice of two appetizers - soup or salad, neither of which I particularly like. The main courses usually consisted of a carvery (beef or lamb), chicken, fish and a vegetarian option. Plus potatoes, rice and pasta. ALL of the dishes were covered in different sauces. This is assuming that the food was available! If you had an 8:00 pm sitting, a lot of stuff had gone and you had to wait up to 20 minutes for it to be replaced! The standard of the food deteriorated throughout the 2 weeks we were there. I actually got food poisining on the second week and was unable to eat for over 48 hours. Several of the dishes were completely inedible and the fish was often alarmingly undercooked.
We ate at Neptunes just once and this was really no better. We all picked something different from the menu, but each dish was presented in exactly the same way and bore no relation as to how it had been described.

Please be aware that this is very much a "family" hotel. During our stay there were a lot of young children there, some of them seemingly unsupervised. The pool area was extremely noisy. (The pool was actually closed for two days due to "faecal matter" being present!).

Check-in, chill-out - this is supposed to be a time-saving idea. Your suitcases have to be in the reception area at 10:30 with checking-in commencing at 10:50. The airport staff didn't arrive until nearly 11:30 and we were then queuing for nearly 2 hours! Also, because we missed the initial welcome meeting, we weren't aware that a form needs to be filled in at least 3 days prior to departure. Because of this, they didn't have our boarding cards at the hotel and we had to join yet another queue at the airport to get them.

I will stop writing here, as I am sure you have all fallen asleep reading this! I will post in a different forum regarding our trips and opinions of the island. Just to sum up so far - Tobago is absolutely fabulous, the people are wonderful but we wouldn't stay at the Grafton again.

[Cornelia Montgomery]

Are there no times anymore when it is less likely to encounter children at the hotels (not just the Grafton)? It used to be that except for school holidays, you could count on just a few children present. Are parents taking their children out of school?

I planned our February vacation to avoid the U.S. President's Week holiday, when school is closed for a week. Many parents and children take long trips during this week. Turns out I may have outsmarted myself. I read somewhere that British schools are closed for a holiday the week that I will be there. Because there are so many more Brits than Americans in Tobago, it's likely to be noisy. I won't be staying at the Grafton, but I imagine the situation exists everywhere except for Le Courlan.
Sigh. I like being able to use the pool for an afternoon swim. It's very hard to share the pool with rowdy children.

[Steve Fifield]

I think that if you decide to stay in a Hotel, it is a fairly safe bet that you will be surrounded by other people, some of which you will get on well with, and some that you you won't. The All Inclusive offers are particularly attractive to cost cutting families who don't want to self cater or eat out every night at a restaurant, so are bound to attact some children.

Our own little chap is 6 years old, and very quiet, but we wouldn't take him to stay in a hotel, as it would drive us all nuts having heard what many people have to say about hotels in the forum (plus, I'm a very light sleeper myself). Why not consider a villa or residence away from the hubub next time? I've seen plenty of places with private pools listed on this very site.

Steve

[John Bagby]

We went to the Grafton on 9th March and whilst there must have been some children about, I don't remember any, so you can avoid the little blighters!!

Seems a shame that you experienced the food not up to par. It was alternating a la carte and buffet when we went and the food was never anything but hot - but then we ate early rather than late.

The chill out check in business did work perfectly for us although I expect we had adjusted to Caribbean time by then...

[D Sait]

We were a party of six staying at the Grafton Beach Hotel during the 30 Oct - 9 Nov 2004. We found the hotel pretty much as Steve's Review. Also other guests comments.
Most of the staff were excellent, helpful and friendly. Though several staff members did seem very serious, some of the bar staff and chefs that served in the restaurant, this may have been shyness. We, on our part, tried very hard to be friendly, smiled and tried to engage them in friendly conversations but nothing seem to work at the end of the day. The Tobagian people we met outside the hotel are all so friendly and helpful.
The hotel still seems to have a problem with the hot water supply. We did report this to the hotel staff but they did not seem to be able to rectify it during our time there.
There was entertainment each evening which we enjoyed and took part in on one or two occasions. This we found added to the enjoyment of our holiday.