Coconut Bay Resort & Spa, Vieux Fort

...the drive with the coconut palm trees gives you the clues that you've well and truely arrived.

All in:
The hotel is fully-inclusive so all the food (even in the 2 specialist food restaurants) is all in, as are MOST drinks. If you want a bottle of 'champers' with a meal, this is extra.

Reception:
The reception staff are helpful and friendly but with any complaints, if you should have any, ask to speak to ...
...cope with quite a few people, staff permitting.

Bars: There is a bar near to the reception but, when its busy, there naturally can be slight delays. This is noticeable in the evenings when entertainment is on. Remember to also use the pool bar.

Food:
The hotel has a main eating area, which gets quite busy at breakfast and evening meal time, though it seats a good 100 people. The breakfast has many items such ... more

Flight Out:
I used Virgin Atlantic who fly out here. The flying time is 8 hours but, because of the time difference, it was the equivilent to a 4 hour flight (great). Of course this means the opposite coming back. Its 8 hours flying but you have to add 4 hours onto the time. Not so good

Landed:
The resort is within a 10 minute drive of the airport. Once there, the drive with the coconut palm trees gives you the clues that you've well and truely arrived.

All in:
The hotel is fully-inclusive so all the food (even in the 2 specialist food restaurants) is all in, as are MOST drinks. If you want a bottle of 'champers' with a meal, this is extra.

Reception:
The reception staff are helpful and friendly but with any complaints, if you should have any, ask to speak to the manager. The counter is a long one and can cope with quite a few people, staff permitting.

Bars: There is a bar near to the reception but, when its busy, there naturally can be slight delays. This is noticeable in the evenings when entertainment is on. Remember to also use the pool bar.

Food:
The hotel has a main eating area, which gets quite busy at breakfast and evening meal time, though it seats a good 100 people. The breakfast has many items such as cooked things (sausages, bacon, eggs), many types of cereals, pancakes, maple surrup, small sticky type cakes, fresh fruit and pots of tea/coffee, just as a starter.

They also have 2 specialist restaurants which can only be booked the day before but are well worth going to. One is Thai with assorted Thai food and the other is Italian. Both have a choice of 2-3 courses on the menu's. As everyone is 'all-inclusive' its all Free!

Shop:
Within the hotel is a small shop that sells all the 'typical' holiday things you'd expect. Tea, tea-towels, sun lotion, food stuffs, alcohol, post cards & stamps. They also have a seperate jewellery shop.

Currency:
The hotel accepts credit cards should you need to buy anything but otherwise, out and about they use EITHER USA dollars or Eastern Caribean Dollars (about 5 of these make up 1 USA dollar). Some small shops in towns or markets will ONLY accept Eastern Caribean!

The snack bar:
This is by the pool, is open for long hours, from about 11am until 1am and your snack is cooked to order. The children will love the fact they can serve themselves with soft drinks! and get their own food, like burger and chips, steak and chips, fish and chips, indeed about a dozen items. As the resort is all-inclusive the orders cost nothing.

Pools:
There are a few pools dotted about the place. Most are smallish ones with one 'main' pool. This main pool has a swim up area to the poolside bar which also has some sun umbrellas around it so you can relax in the water whilst drinking in the shade.
There is also a water slide (great fun) close by that takes you into a small pool. Circleing this is a 'flowing' pool with Large rubber rings that are available to sit on and float around in. Just sit back and float around.
Towels are available to borrow, for free, by the pool for the day.

Beach:
This is within a 3 minute walk of the main area. There are some shades available but limited. However its easy to walk from the hotel onto the sandy beach. A tractor travels olong the beach about twice a day to gather up the mounds of sea-weed that is washed up, and believe me, there is plenty of sea-weed to gather.

Sea:
Its wet! Ok, its warm and some smallish waves. There is some shingle as well as sand. Fish come in close to the shore and love red things, so if you have RED nail-varnish on, expect them to nip you. (Boy did my partner scream when this happened). They seem ok with purple though!!"

Rooms:
The rooms are quite large and pleasant. There are 2 blocks for all the accomodation with lifts to the upper floors. Rooms have spacious wardrobes within them, a TV, tea & coffee making equipment, a settee and a balcony. The ground floor rooms open out onto the pool area so great for getting out if you have kids & buggys.

Spa:
The spa area is seperate within the grounds with reasonable prices. This is a self contained building where various 'spa' type services are offered. Many people get an automatic credit to use there. So if you want a massage or your nails done, or one of the many other spa items, its the place to go.

Out and about:
Any travel out of the hotel will have to be by car. Nothing else is particularily close. Walk round the back of the hotel in the evening to see the 'many' toads having a night time hop about (one in the photo's). The hotel can arrange car hire and there is usually a 'rep' on site much of the time.

Places to see:
The volcanic bit. This smells like rotten eggs & it costs a measly few dollars to see, well worth while to experience the smell and see bubbleing mud. You'll need transport and its about a 45 minute drive by car. 

...less