Colony Club, a Luxury Collection Resort, Barbados

Beautiful 80 room hotel on the Platinum Coast north of Bridgetown about an hour from the airport. The hotel is in a quiet location with the land to the north occupied by the Bamford Mansion and estate (JCB digger fame) and to the south by the Coral Beach Hotel with the overall site bounded by the road to the east and the beach to the west. The beach itself is exactly what you imagine a perfect Caribbean beach being and from cruising up the coast it looks to be possibly the nicest on Barbados, with the exception perhaps of the Sandy Lane beach. The pools are all lovely and a perfect temperature matching the ocean. There are four in total, the main lagoon pool near the beach, two serving the swim-up rooms and another at the rear. Rooms are always difficult to interpret from Hotel websites but here no rooms are likely to offer direct front views of the sea or beach as the hotel is angled in two wings both at 90 degrees to the beach. As a family of three we chose two adjacent swim-up rooms to stay in and I’m very happy we did so. There are ten such rooms clustered in two buildings each with its own lagoon pool shared between 5 rooms. This pool can only be accessed from the rooms via their large patios, although other guests could theoretically jump off a rock if they wanted to join in! The front 5 (we were in 136 and 137) have a nice view over the pool and onto the main colonial style hotel building with its lounge and the restaurant beyond with triple-height vaulted ceilings. The room’s patio was an excellent place for an early morning cup of tea or chilling at any time accompanied by occasional humming birds, thieving bananaquit birds and small lizards. The second group of 5 rooms are positioned a bit further back from the beach. Our Swim Up rooms where spotlessly clean and contained a large bathroom with walk in shower and twin sinks, a safe, a fridge, 4 bottles of water which where replenished daily, and a very welcome bottle of Prosecco and fruit basket in each room. The large 4 poster bed was very comfortable, the air-con was silent and no outside noise disturbed us at night apart from the tiny but noisy whistling frogs. The hotel provide insect repellent in the rooms but there didn’t appear to be too many mosquitoes around in March and we survived the holiday with only a couple of nips between us. The large patio leading to the pool contained a comfy settee/lounger plus a patio table and umbrella with curved bench and two chairs. Live music is played at the lounge every night until 10 pm except Sunday when a steel band accompanies their Sunday Buffet Lunch. (Popular with locals) There are also rooms located above the swim up rooms with a balcony and stair leading down into the pool. I think these are classed as Luxury Pool View? The ocean view categories seem like they might be slightly disingenuous as all appear to offer only sideways views. The ground floor option, while having nice patios also appear to look more onto the beach/pool bar decking and umbrellas than the ocean. They all look very nice though and appear larger and are in very close proximity to the beach, main lagoon pool and pool bar. The final group of rooms are set further back toward the tennis court and road but still only seconds from the beach and surround the fourth pool on the property, I presume these must be the pool and garden view category rooms. The beach was spotless and the beach beds clean and plentiful although it did get a bit busy at the weekend. There is regular beach service with complimentary treats on offer and the usual “piña colada” bar service and most people moved the five yards up onto the decked beach bar for lunch. This was also always a popular place to sit and watch the sun go down while enjoying the 2 for 1 cocktails during happy hour between 5 and 6 pm. The beach itself was all soft sand and ideal for safe swimming and a comprehensive array of complimentary water sports are on offer including snorkelling, kayaking, short speed boat rides up the coast, sailing dinghies and more… They are also able to help with arranging glass bottom boat trips and turtle viewing trips, jet skis, water skiing etc. and a taxi boat runs throughout the day to the hotel’s four sister properties down the coast. Breakfast at the hotel was excellent with the usual buffet and omelette chef to make your fresh omelettes, eggs or pancakes. All the waiting staff where very friendly and efficient. English tea with milk was the default serving although you did have to ask for white sugar if you don’t fancy brown in your tea. All the staff in the hotel, at front desk, in the restaurant, on the beach, at the bar and housekeeping were all very friendly, helpful and generally just good at their job. Evening meals had a different theme each night with the menu on show at breakfast. There was also a simple all day menu which was useful for lunch at the beach bar. The concierge Chanelle was very helpful with organising trips out and local restaurants. She can also help with car hire and currency exchange at BBD $2 to US $1. We had the hotel car (Range Rover, helpful on the pot holed roads!) with driver Tristan take us on a half day tour of the north of the island including a visit to the wild monkeys at the Barbados Wildlife Reserve. It costs BBD $140 (About £55) per hour but makes life very simple. They can also taxi you to local restaurants or even the infamous Oistins Fish Fry if required. Uber is also now available on the Island but is limited so you may have a long wait. We didn’t use it. Local restaurants we went to included Paul Owens, which was very good, friendly, nice atmosphere and original cooking. We also went to The Lone Star, similar price at about BBD $850 for 3 but we felt it a bit pretentious and targeting more the expat community (Shepherd’s Pie on the menu!) and celebrity clientele (Rihanna, Simon Cowell apparently?) Just outside the hotel entrance are a few venues including The SeaCat, local food and very good and at a good price and next door the Horny Ram Pub, similar but a bit more noisy with live music and bar.

We had a beautiful stay at The Colony Club. Having moved hotels after our previously booked Marriott hotel was not going to be renovated in time - we were able to be moved over to Colony Club. We were sceptical going to a newly renovated hotel that we hadn’t stayed at previously but they exceeded our expectations. Firstly the hotel rooms are stunning and we had two queen beds which were made everyday and bathroom was stocked and very clean. The outside garden area was lovely too. The ladies at turn down were so lovely aswell. The food throughout our stay was amazing especially the lunch options where there was so much choice between both the all day menu and the lunch menu that changed everyday. We also tried out the Sunday buffet lunch menu which was fab - so much choice. We loved the breakfast with the omelettes available. Although the breakfast seems small - it’s actually perfect for the amount you need. Also, one day we missed the end time of the lunch service when we wanted to order desserts and both our lovely waitress and the chef on the kitchen made two desserts especially even though we were too late which was so lovely. We enjoyed both the pool and beach areas. The sun beds around pool are super comfy - one note to improve would be to take the covers off everyday as they did get a lot of marks on them from the birds and the trees above - it would just make them feel more high end as the striped detail is a nice touch. They always stacked the beach sunbeds each day so would make sense to put the pool bed covers away too I would hope. We didn’t make use of the spa but it’s a shame this isn’t marketed very well and is in a slightly odd location which is the car park and staff area at the back of the hotel. If you are a frequent spa visitor, you would hope for it to be better marketed to guests and luxurious for the price of treatments and the property itself. Alongside this, the tennis and padel courts are nearby which are done really nicely, we really liked them - however they could provide better padel rackets as they were the right ones and gave tennis balls instead of padel balls. Just a tip to improve for fitness goers! We did the 8-9am classes with Jamal every morning which was so fun - mixture of dancercise, fitness, Pilates and water aerobics etc! A fab way to start the morning before breakfast. Some standout staff were as follows: Maradona at the pool bar! He was the loveliest and most attentive staff member and a real asset to The Colony Club. He made us laugh and always delivered drinks with a smile. We hope to see him again if we return. Tito at the pool bar & restaurant! We actually met Tito at The Tamarind hotel which we have stayed before and he remembered us. He is so lovely and chatty, providing fabulous service and drinks. Rafiq at the Hotel Reception! Most days we went to reception regarding dinner reservations or general enquiries and he was just fab! Even when we asked him to call about five different restaurants in a panic, he was so calm and helpful. Sydney at the pool bar! Providing delicious cocktails at happy hour and a smile always. Overall a wonderful stay at The Colony Club. If there was any other improvements to add - I would say that the fitness centre is quite small and was always quite busy so not easy to get in. They should advertise both the spa and classes better to get more people to sign up.

Having previously stayed at the Tamarind some 10 years’ ago this was our first trip to the Colony Club and it surpassed our expectations in every way. We travelled as two families with adult children. What we loved… excellent location, not requiring much travel to get to restaurants, towns etc; beautiful room and maintained daily to v high standards; all staff were excellent and incredibly attentive (this included front of house, cleaners, chefs, waiting staff, management- everyone!); water-sports facilities and staff also excellent. Loved the morning fitness activities which were different every day. The teacher was great as was the dance class guy, who we loved! Great fun. Think you could publicise this more as I’m sure there would be more people interested in the classes. That said we loved the small classes! Food was also exceptional- breakfast, lunch and dinner. The small negatives…. Lack of usable equipment for padel, tennis etc. We would have enjoyed using this more but there wasn’t the equipment to use. No padel balls, hence racquets were broken from using tennis balls; tennis racquets very old and not very usable. Spa was small and out of the way, and you couldn’t just go in. I found that a bit disappointing as I would have liked to go in to browse, talked to staff and then probably booked a treatment or two. All in all a wonderful stay and too many stand out members of staff to personally mention. Thank you to everyone!

We stayed at the Colony Club for 5 nights as the second half of a split stay, having come directly from the O2 Beach Club. After a disappointing first half, the Colony Club completely restored our faith in the holiday — and in Barbados itself. CHECK-IN Warm, efficient and welcoming. Welcome drinks on arrival and staff who actually made you feel like guests rather than an inconvenience. What a difference. ROOMS We stayed in a 1-bedroom sea view suite which was fantastic — recently refurbished, beautifully appointed, and in a great spot right by the pool and beach. Exactly what you'd hope for. FOOD Excellent throughout, and genuinely varied. The Sunday buffet was a highlight — high quality, plentiful, and clearly well regarded locally given the number of Bajans who come specifically for it as a day out. That speaks volumes. The dinner on the sunset deck is a lovely touch — great service, beautiful setting, and a real sense of occasion without being stuffy. SERVICE The standout. Every single member of staff said hello when they passed you. They learned our names quickly and used them. When something wasn't quite right on our first evening (slow dinner service), a member of staff proactively came to apologise the following morning unprompted. That's the mark of a well-run hotel. Particularly impressive was the attitude towards our 2-year-old. Staff were genuinely warm and helpful with him throughout — happy to provide food outside of normal service hours without any fuss, and a lovely touch was the concierge offering him fish food to feed the fish in the lobby fountain, which he absolutely loved and talked about for days. CONCIERGE Really helpful and knowledgeable. Booked a number of excursions for us including a food tour and glass bottom boat trip, all smoothly arranged. Nothing was too much trouble. LOCATION Excellent. Easy walk into Holetown for restaurants, bars and the Limegrove shopping centre. You can also walk along the beach in either direction. Felt connected to the island rather than isolated. THE ONE DOWNSIDE — MIDGES Worth flagging honestly — there are a lot of midges, particularly in the evenings. The hotel acknowledged this and said they would be misting the grounds to help, but it was enough to affect outdoor comfort at times. Bring a good insect repellent and you'll be fine, but don't say you weren't warned. OVERALL The Colony Club is listed as 4 stars, one below the O2 we had just come from. It wasn't close. The service, food, attitude towards families and general attention to detail put it in a completely different league. We left genuinely sad to go and would return without hesitation. Highly recommended — just pack the bug spray.

What a wonderful little gem this is! A real find! A relatively last minute booking as Middle East has issues! We were not disappointed. A charming resort with exceptional staff. Here with family for the first week and catering for the children was superb. Extremely clean, airy rooms with excellent air conditioning and facilities. Kids can’t wait to come back and catch more crabs in the rocks! Dining is of a very good standard - you won’t go hungry here! Room service very helpful. We have a few ongoing medical issues and everyone couldn’t have been more kind and attentive to our needs. There is ample opportunity to visit local bars and restaurants and taxis available through the hotel. The hotel provides singers/entertainment every evening and some are exceptional. A totally relaxed and happy environment. Beach furniture is of a good standard and very well staffed and spent most days just chilling by the beautiful Caribbean drinking cocktails! Not much more to say really we loved it and will be back!, You could say we arrived as strangers and left as friends!