Carlisle Bay

Rooms spotless, staff always helpful and friendly. The beach with its palm trees and comfy beach chairs, endless supply of Wadadli (beer), any cocktail you may want, afternoon tea makes it sooooo relaxing. We stayed for a week and I felt 10 years younger. You’ll find the best music at the Jetty Grill. Shame they insist on playing elevator music in the other restaurants at the resort. I’m in the Caribbean and expect the local music. It would make all the difference. Tried all the restaurants during our stay; enjoyed the food although towards the end I was just concentrating on lobsters. Nice small size with firm flesh. Could eat them all/every day. I would like to praise the staff that made this stay really perfect. I was told that they spray for sand-flies, mosquitoes and other bugs and must say I was hardly bitten (usually I’m feasted on). I think that dawn and dusk is the time you should be careful with these little buggers. Otherwise, I can only highly recommend this establishment.

So this would have been a perfect stay and 5 star rating except for one issue which was patently absurd and put a bad taste in our mouth about management. I'll get to that in a second. First, THE GOOD. The service we got was outstanding, very attentive staff, and very nice amenities, especially at the beach where we got a cooler of water every day. The beach was gorgeous and well-maintained. The rooms were very well maintained, modern, and the bed was very comfy contrary to some reviews I have seen. We stayed in the oceanfront rooms and they were excellent. Breakfast was top notch and included in our room price, lunch was excellent, and most dinners were 5 star. Yes, they could get pricey but its the tropics. Expect to pay about 25-35 US per entree. The Jetty Dinner was worth the price. I'd like to call out two very specific employees, Michel, one of the assistant managers was welcoming, kind, and made our stay so pleasant. My wife loved speaking to him in French and he was amazing. The other employee was Dwight, he was spectacular, always making our stay that much better. It seemed that he was everywhere at once, taking care of all of the things that guests needed so they would not have to lift a finger. I took to calling him the swiss army knife because he could do anything. Both employees deserve a hearty raise. THE BAD (and very annoying) - I booked my trip through Expedia, so I knew I would need a hotel transfer from the airport. I called the hotel directly and the woman who took my transfer booking told me that the hotel would take care of it. When I arrived, they were great, and had someone there to greet us. Knowing that sometimes there are miscommunications on what "taking care of it" means in the Caribbean, I specifically asked the woman when I was there if I should pay the taxi. The woman at the airport confirmed that the transfer was complimentary, which I thought was a nice touch. So I went about my way. On the last day, when I got my hotel bill, they had charged me $58 each way for the transfer to and from the airport. I had to go to the desk on three separate occasions and they basically told me I must have been mistaken and would not remove the charge. Finally, after my third complaint, they removed the single $58 for the first transfer. However, they then tacked it on to another transfer I had taken to Jolly Harbor hoping I wouldn't notice. How do i know this? Jolly Harbor is about 12 minutes from the hotel. The airport is 40 minutes away. They charged me $80 for a one way transfer to Jolly Harbor. My return trip from Jolly Harbor with a local taxi, provided by the excursion I was on, was $22 with tip. This was so sneaky and nasty, I was appalled. However, I had to catch my car to the airport so I did not have the time or the patience to fight this and did not want to ruin my vacation or raise my blood pressure fighting with the manager who did not even have the decency to come out and speak with me. A top hotel would have just comped me the two rides and called it a day knowing that they had likely earned a repeat customer and especially considering I had spent a significant amount on the trip and not to toot my own horn but I regularly tipped over 25% because the service we got was so good and the staff was tremendous. I spent thousands of dollars on a 6 day stay during their very low season and they nickel-and-dimed me for less than $100. It was ridiculous. It may be the only thing that keeps me from coming back to Carlisle Bay for my next stay as there are many other fine hotels on the island. I'll have to think about it because save for this incident, I really did enjoy my stay.

I cannot speak highly enough of this amazing hotel. The staff were all incredible and the facilities, food and activities were superb. We cannot wait to return. Caters very well for families with a great range of things to do. Also has a good range of restaurants, all with excellent food and wine.

Very friendly staff, excellent food especially breakfast. We were very well looked after. Beautiful location, right on the beach. Rooms were well appointed and cool, very clean. Every member of staff was friendly and polite

Recently returned from a 1 week stay at Carlisle Bay where we had our wedding. I highly recommend if you are looking for a more personalized beach wedding. We chose Carlisle Bay after checking out a few resorts on the island. Cannot go wrong with the location. Decor came out exactly as we envisioned in spite of having to make all arrangements long distance. Everyone was extremely helpful and pleasant. The food and beverage manager, Navin oversaw everything once we arrived and ensured that everything went over smoothly. FOOD WAS AMAZING. Hotel is not all inclusive (there is an option to purchase an all inclusive package). The all inclusive package to purchase was not affordable to us but we did not miss having an all inclusive package. Overall a dream vacation and dream wedding. So glad we chose Carlisle Bay for our important day.

Have just returned from ten, very relaxing, days at Carlisle Bay. Travelling as a family with 17 and 19 year old sons this was a return visit and it certainly did not disappoint any of us. We stayed in Ocean Suites which are lovely, large and well equipped rooms . The beach location is wonderful and the pool is also a great area to sit and relax. The hotel was very quiet during the second half of our stay and the evenings in particular were quiet and so the choice of restaurants was a little restricted. However we very much enjoyed the evening meals in Indigo and East and also enjoyed lunches in Ottimo and Indigo . The Roti and the Mahi Mahi were definite favorites. As ever the staff were all great, attentive and friendly. Service can be relaxed but I did not see this as negative. I would have liked to have remembered more staff names to thank but in particular Michael, Chris, Jason and Mryena deserve a mention! Management were also visible and stopped to chat throughout the stay to check all was going well. Overall a fantastically relaxing holiday!

This is my second and last visit. The bay is beautiful, the rooms are still nice albeit the property is looking worn. Staff have been great and always helpful. The kids club for ages 4-6 is open daily, the staff seem nice; there is a structured activity programme. The Crew Blue programme for older kids isn’t as good. Whilst it has activities planned though-out the day, Mon-Fri you need to be on hand to collect the kids as they are fairly short sessions. My biggest issue is the food. It is repetitive, boring and bland and I don’t understand why despite numerous comments to the same effect there have been no efforts to improve this, particularly given the prices charged. Note, you can order off the menu, the staff are accommodating but it doesn’t change the quality/taste of the food. It is for this reason, we will sadly not be returning to Carlisle Bay.

Just returned 2 weeks ago from the fabulous Carlisle Bay. From the moment we arrived the staff could not have been more helpful. We had a beautiful Ocean view suite which had a lovely comfortable bed with a fabulous view of the Beach. We completely chilled out as the hotel was a little quiet. We ate at all of the restaurants and found them all to be very good. Would not hesitate to return as we loved it.

Hotel was quiet which suited us and it added to the chilled atmosphere, not sure we'd have enjoyed it as much if the hotel was full but that's a personal view. Downside was not all the restaurants open each night, they rotate the openings. We had dinner half the evenings during our stay and ate out the other evenings. Hotel food was good although we felt the evening menu at Indigo's wasn't very inspiring but what they served was tasty. Breakfast menu offered plenty of choice. Many of the island restaurants close in the low season, but we found enough places to go. English and Falmouth Harbour had enough choice of places to eat but again some of them only open a few nights a week, something to bear in mind if you book on BB basis. Return taxi from hotel was about $40. The hotel has the best setting on the island, we hired a car and drove round the island and didn't see any hotel where we thought we'd prefer to be. Our garden suite rooms were spacious,very well presented and clean. My son cerainly took advantage of the complimentary snacks in the mini bar and the coffe machine was well used too! All staff were lovely, always helpful and smiling. We loved the sunrise and sunset Pilates and Yoga on the jetty, perfect start or end to the day, first time for my husband but he thoroughly enjoyed it. Well equipped gym. Tip, worth putting your name on snorkelling trip list before arrival, especially in high season. A flyer sent round each week to let you know what complimentary activities are planned, sounds a bit holiday camp but it is definitely far from it. It lets you know what day the snorkelling trip is, times of Pilates, guided hike into the forest and more. Suggested they added beach volley ball to the info. A net was up near the water sports at the beginning of stay but never used, if on the flyer it may corral enough people to make up teams. All watersport equipment was to a high standard. Definitely the place to stay for peace and quiet.