Coyaba Beach Resort

We spent a week at the Coyaba Beach resort in November. I've summarized the pros and cons of this resort below. I'll start with the positives.

Pros:

1. Location is excellent. From the beautiful beach to the proximity of restaurants and shops right across the street. Had I known it was so walkable, I may have not done the all inclusive. There's an IGA across the street where you can pick up beer and wine too. In that same plaza is a wine store and fast food. There are also sit down restaurants that are walkable. We tried the chicken roti from one of those restaurants and it was excellent.

2. Room was clean although the bathroom needed love. Air condition system worked very well. So well that we need to sleep in a sweat shirt. Our room was cleaned every day well before lunch which was nice. We didn't have any trouble with noise from other guests. Bed was comfy and they provided tons of pillows.

3. Most of the staff were very friendly and helpful. Front desk was amazing...very responsive. Vanburn from the restaurant was amazing...friendly, always checking if everything was ok and we had what we needed. The security staff by the beach always offered help to move the lounges from their property to the beach area. The bar staff was always quick to provide a drink.

4. The resort offered 2 types of beer and quite an option of wines. We found the wines to be better than most other resorts that we have been to. We only drank the wines that were included in the all inclusive plan.

5. We are from Canada so we needed an electricity adaptor to charge our electronics. Ordered one from amazon and it worked great. There were only 2 outlets in our room. One under the table and one for the kettle. We found the one for the kettle was the easiest to use.

6. The grounds are beautiful. I was a pleasure to walk through them.

Cons:

1. The food was eatable but not great. We never went hungry but the meat and fish were always way over cooked except the one instance we ordered a burger and it was raw. Breakfast was probably the most consistent option but it was basically the same every day. The guy/lady who cooked the eggs to order was great. It was low season so we rarely had to wait for our eggs. We were hoping to have more local food options on the menu but, unfortunately, that was not the case. The best options we had at lunch time were mainly the buffet where we could pick a bit of different things to try instead of ordering one thing from the menu.

2. The main restaurant staff at dinner on the Sunday of our arrival was terrible. We had just arrived and had some questions about the menu eg what was included in our all inclusive plan and what wasn't. When we waved a waitress over she gave us "the hand". Message was I am busy, but not in words, just a rude gesture. It was worrisome because that was our first experience and we thought that that was the type of service we would get all week. In fact, anything we asked for - our order, drinks etc was like it was an intrusion on them that first night. Maybe it was because we didn't have a reservation but we just arrived and was told we wouldn't need a reservation on our first day. Happily, I can say that the service in the restaurant improved significantly as the week went on. We found that if we asked for service from some of the younger staff, it was better.

3. Our room was on the second level. On our arrival, it was raining heavily and dark. There were no lights on the 2nd floor or stairs going down. It was dangerous. We mentioned it to the front desk and they said there was a temporary power failure but for 3 days, there were no lights. On the Wed, it was the manager's cocktail party and I mentioned it to one of the managers. I can't remember her name but the next night, it was fixed.

4. The pool needs some love like the bathrooms. I understand that it's an expensive refurb but there's a reason why hardly anyone goes to the pool. I don't even think they changed the pool water the entire week we were there. We spent almost all our time on the beach but usually like to stop by the pool before calling it a day. Not very welcoming. It's very small and old.

5. The beaches in Grenada are public and up until the Friday we never had issues but on the Friday afternoon, there was a group of local young people doing crack on the beach right by our section of the beach. Most of the guests got up and walked back to the resort.

6. There is a lack of entertainment in the evenings. In the week we were there, we had a band one night (they were great) and a steel drum bank another night. Other than that, there was little to do after dinner other than drink.

One last comment was that we noticed no one tipped but us. It's the first all inclusive resort that this was the case for us. Most of the guest are from the UK so perhaps tipping is uncommon in the UK?

This wasn’t a hotel we would normally have gone for but the hotel we always stayed at The Rex granadian on magazine beach was sold off and became the royalton which definitely isn’t a hotel we would stay at. I am so glad we did decide to stay here. What a stunning beach it sits on, not amazing snorkelling by the hotel but there is a lovely reef up the far left with an abundance of marine life. Hotel grounds are looked after very well and so are the buildings. Food is ok but when you are here for 14 nights it gets a bit boring so we tend to eat out sometimes to break it up a bit with some variety. Swim up bar was a hit with my family, I am an ocean front type of person so loved winding down the hours on the sun lounger or making use of the kayaks and paddle boards. Rooms where lovely and well looked after, staff where great and very accommodating, we where celebrating my lovely wife’s 50th birthday and the kitchen made us a cake which we shared with the kitchen staff that looked after us that night. There is a mall and supermarket just across the road from the resort to top up on anything you may need and St. George’s town is a mad mini bus ride down the road. It’s nice to use a family run hotel where the owners actually spend time everyday at the hotel which is why it is in such good condition. Unfortunately the hotel wasn’t available for our holiday in November 2023 so we had to go to a terrible resort in antigua. We are looking forward to a return visit in April 2024.