We have just come back from our first ever holiday in Tobago and the best holiday we've ever had. We stayed at one of the four Castara Retreats apartments overlooking Castara bay and we’ve booked again for next year. We can certainly recommend it as ideal for chilling out completely.
The village itself is unspoilt and people were really friendly and helpful. The accommodation overlooks the bay and village and is just above the nearest beach shaded by lovely trees. We could have hired a car but after the first few days and getting into Tobagan time in a big way we felt we had enough in Castara to keep us happy for the whole two weeks (in fact we have a list of things we haven’t yet done for next time!).
We were staying in the Pelican apartment with friends both in Rainforest and in Fisherman’s apartments so we had the opportunity to get a good look round all the accommodation and found them all places we would be very happy to stay in next time! Pelican was brilliant for us, with a stunning view straight out of a comfortable bed plus a well-equipped kitchen – not the normal holiday let mismatched crockery and plastic glasses. It was a studio room with a balcony big enough for a small impromptu party on our second night with locals and other guests! (local beer and rum punch highly recommended!). Above us was the Rainforest apartment which does cost more but Wow – it is magnificent – with a wonderful sense of space. You get a panoramic view from rainforest on one side to the village, beaches and bay out to sea. Our other friend was staying in Fisherman’s – which has only just been completed. This stands separate from the other apartments, with its own special atmosphere and views of rocky bays up the coast and has the kitchen separate and a choice of two seating areas – one of which takes a hammock!
We found out later that you can’t expect hot water, good saucepans, sharp knives or comfortable terrace furniture in Tobago – we found them all here!
So we could be ultra lazy and spend the best part of the day lounging on our balcony and find everything happened in front of us. We watched the strenuous net-fishing on the beach, observed fishermen wading ashore with their catches (a good time to go down and buy fish!) and got visited by regular bird visitors like the little Bananaquits that kept a close eye on us and a huge variety of other exotically coloured birds that live in and visit the carefully managed gardens surrounding the apartments. Then we could choose which beach to sit on – the small beach is fantastic for snorkelling and the larger beach fantastic for bobbing (just lying back in water that was both luxuriously warm and refreshing). We could either mix our own rum punches back on our balcony or buy one on the beach and sit and watch the sun go down. Food could be eaten in one of several restaurants, take-away or cooked (on arrival at the airport we raided a supermarket close by on the advice of Porridge who came to collect us, and local small shops supply a range of basics). Or Load – who manages the beautiful gardens – cooked for us – not only magnificent food but a great cookery demo as well!
One of us could only be lazy after a good run in the morning – often on some nearby rainforest tracks – and his greatest joy was arriving sweaty on the beach below the apartment and plunging into the sea to swim and lounge before fruit-juice and coffee and local-baked bread on the balcony.
We had a magnificent time and will be back. It makes a difference for us that Castara Retreats turns out to be managed to support local businesses in the community (Sherwin, who was in charge of building the place also runs a really good restaurant and take-away nearby, a neighbour, Duck, took us on an amazing boat trip and Porridge and Jeanell took care of collecting and looking after us and managing the apartments with warmth and great good humour.) In every respect a really stunning holiday.
