Almond Beach Village Barbados

[ckcahuna]

Has anyone been? We're looking to go to Barbados next April/May with our 2 girls who will be nearly 4 and 20 months - a big holiday before our younger girl turns 2 - we'd like somewhere with some childcare for them but also want a proper caribbean holiday....

Any help?

Have you seen this?

Trip Advisor

I havent stayed here though we do go to Barbados a lot as my folks have a villa there. I have only heard good things about this resort.

And friends that got married there five years ago said it was fabulous.

Can give you all sorts of good tips for the Island if you are planning a trip and put you in touch with people of cheap boat trips to see turtles etc.

Hi,

I got married there 3 years ago with our 2 yo ds. It was ace, don't believe the Tripadvisor bad write ups they are all by demanding loud irrational US travellers.

I also went to the AMB in St Lucia, the same year, (got a big bonus in work lol) I did prefer this as it was smaller and more intimate but loved the Almond concept on both islands.

My son had an excellent time, the childcare provision is excellent, we went island hopping and left one of the nannies with ds all day, she took him to meals, bathed him, etc for our return. He was so busy and rushed into the activity centre. There are generous with milk, kids menus are cool, room service free of charge. Adult only pool was great!

If you have specific questions just message me.

Forgot to add, we are still in touch with one of the nannies on facebook!

Thanks - am v reassured - will be in touch

we have just returned from Barbados and stayed very close to almond beach - it looked great and had fab facilities - we looked around briefly as we were thinking about using the facilities for the day - a day pass was approx £250 uk for two adults and a four year old but this included all inclusive meals/drinks for the day and use of all facilities. we didn't take the offer up as we had a pool and were self catering. I think I priced this up on the virgin site and it was roughly £2,400 for each adult and £1,500 for ds for two weeks so pretty pricey although that was the easter hols - may work out cheaper to rent your own villa with private pool and use the day passes every now and again!!

oh dear. this is a really tough one.
We went last January, and I cried I was so disappointed.
I think it was just my expectations were so high, and it was kinda our honeymoon, although DS was with us, and we had spent so much money.
Basically it was just really tired and in need of a makeover. The setting is lovely, the beach is lovely. Watersports are great.
DS went into the creche, which was a bit dark and dingy but the staff were lovely, and I was very comfortable leaving him there while we went off for a hour or two.
The food isn't that great in any of the restaurants, but trying to cater for that many people is always difficult.In the end we hired a car and ditched the resort for dinner and went out.Ended up very expensive, but had some of the best food of my life.They have a kids food area, the food was very basic, pizza and hotdogs, but i guess they decided that's mainly what the kids want.
The staff were all lovely and very friendly.
It just didn't quite hit the spot for the standard we had expected, so we were disappointed.
We did complain and the manager was a bit sheepish and said yes, they are due for a renovation.
I think we started off on the wrong foot, because our phone didn't work and you had to book the restaurants for dinner, and we missed dinner and they didn't have any other option, and they didn't have room service option either.and our fridge didn't work.
Tried to be fair about my criticisms, hth.
ask me anything you want.
Just read this through and it seems to be all about food!! DH and I are a bit foodies! So maybe it was just that.
We went to the Almond beach club and spa,for some treatments, which I would recommend. Although I couldn't have a massage,cos thought I was pg. Which I was, maybe that's why I was so emotional about it all!! No, my DH wasn't happy either, wasn't just me being hormonal!

startagain I would be surprised that they hadn't had some sort of a refit since it was 3 years since we left - it must be due one soon!

I wonder if it also depends on when you go - we made friends with a couple who had been back 5 years running and said at times it got v busy with American tourists - and I think the menu is catered towards these customers. Unfortunately not all kids are as adventurous in their tastes. We found the fish restaurant on the beach offered good kids meals ie not all chips and hotdogs.Did you not eat at Enid's? We found that to be really nice.

Have they stopped room service? We had meals delivered to the room on about 3 or 4 occassions as it was v rainy during our first week...

I didn't check out the creche as DS was 2 and went to the kids club across the way. I think they separate the kids under 2 if I remember.

ckcahuna - have you thought of trying the Casuarina resort, it's the one they built year before last? We wanted to go there originally but they hadn't completed it.

I did enjoy the Almond Morgan Bay in St Lucia, there is another Almond resort there too - however, again I know they are expanding the Morgan bay...

there was no room service menu, no directory and no phone anyway!!the first night we missed dinner, cos ds wouldnt go down, we couldn't phone anyone, DH had to go and find guest services and they had to ring round the restaurants to see who had food left. We eventually got 2 plates of sloppy chicken and rice. We didn't try Enid's, it was closed for 2 nights. Was that the best?And we didn't go to the Italian, cos adults only. The restaurant on the beach was a disappointment, cos it was a lovely setting. Wasn't really fish rest though, maybe it changed.
Yeah, think creche went up to 2 or 3 maybe.

Enids was Caribbean food and was really lovely, as authentic as restaurants we had tried out of the resort.

Very surprising to hear the difference since our visit, I know we were upgraded rooms for our wedding but i would have assumed a directory in all and a phone would be the norm. I remember a huge room service menu, by restaurant, with every dish on it, you called one guest service number who placed your order with that restaurant. It made such a difference with a 2 yo as there is nothing worse than coming out of the shower for dinner to find ds and dh zonked out on the bed!

We had a lovely meal at the Italian - we asked one of the nannies to babysit, I think they charged $5 an hour. The restaurant neat the kids pool on the beach (had fire torches outside?) used to be seafood, would be sad if that was no longer the case, we had the most amazing half lobster each on our wedding night...even looking at the photos makes my mouth water.

Either they are cutting costs or catering to a blander US market. I'm not making a sweeping statement against the US but we did experience the morbidly obese buffet beasts, piling pizza after pizza onto their plate with disregard for any child behind them in the queue, and generally tended to avoid that aspect of the catering.

Afternoon tea was quite sweet - tea and cakes on the terrace...don't tell me they've stopped that too?