TripAdvisor Traveler Rating

We have just returned from a really enjoyable week at the Crystal Cove and from start to finish it’s been a great experience. The staff on arrival and throughout our stay were friendly, helpful and couldn’t do enough for you. The food was good and I particularly enjoyed the breakfasts with plenty of options. The beach was beautiful and had lots of water sports which my family enjoyed and the pool area was lovely with plenty of sunbeds. The rooms have recently been refurbished with a modern bright decor and the bathroom has been upgraded with modern fixtures and fittings. Our hotel room was cleaned spotlessly and our mini bar replenished every day. All in all another relaxing stay at the Crystal Cove.

Beautiful little resort staff very nice the real letdown was the food had to go and eat out because the food was the worst we have ever known at an all inclusive hotel after 7 days there we we moved to waves and they were 10 times better such a shame because we enjoyed the resort but could not take any more bad food everybody at the resort was complaining about the food if you have booked there change it you will be disappointed

Dead simple this one. THE BEST HOTEL AND RESORT I have stayed in in my 51 years of life. Paradise is often used to describe places. Crystal Cove on Barbados deserves that label. I just hope we can come back. Enjoy it if you are lucky enough to visit!

Crystal cove is a good all inclusive hotel… for the right people! Fussy eaters, don’t bother. The à la carte meals were always great and we had no issues with the meals taking a while to prepare. Buffet at lunch wasn’t great in my opinion. Buffet at high tide was burgers and hot dogs every time, with the salad area being shared with birds! I’d like to see those spinny things you see in some places to keep flies and birds away. When the buffet was at artisan it was limited again, with birds and pigeons getting in even with the netting. Which based on previous reviews this has recently been implemented. Let’s just say, you’re not putting on weight this all inclusive! The room was great, aircon and ceiling fan working perfectly. However, our tv stopped worked the first night we were there, with limited entertainment and the WiFi not working, the tv was a boredom breaker. It took 3 people to try and fix the tv before we were moved to a new room which we were grateful for. Having been in 2 different rooms, it’s evident that the tv seems to buffer every 20-30 seconds with the signal dropping out. The light in the bathroom mirror was a bit annoying as you couldn’t turn it off! The drinks menu is limited, but name a cocktail and the staff will make it you. My biggest pet peeve on an AI is the sun bed situation! I’m pleased to say there was none of this, we would go down to the pool at 9ish and there would be an array of beds to choose from. Overall this hotel is a good choice for the right people. There are tweaks that need to be made, the birds sharing the buffet, the tv buffering and the need to have more of a better food selection.

We were disappointed with our stay. We booked and paid in advance for a Junior Ocean View Suite with two queen beds. On arrival we were given one queen bed and a very hard, uncomfortable sofa bed and told this was an “upgrade” to an Ocean Front Junior Suite. We had been told before arrival that all Junior Suites are Ocean Front, so it was unclear what the supposed upgrade actually was. Had I not noticed the sofa bed and asked for this to be checked with management, I believe we would simply have been left in that room. We moved to the correct room the following day. The first room also had a broken air-conditioning control in one room so it was stuck at an extremely cold temperature all night, and the other room had an extremely noisy air conditioning unit, and a bathroom sink covered in tiny mites. Having to deal with these issues and move rooms after a long journey was not the start to our holiday we expected. The most concerning issue was the birds in the Artisan restaurant. Birds were freely flying around the restaurant and landing on tables, cutlery, plates, and food service areas. We repeatedly saw them standing on uncovered pastries, wraps and other food, and eating from open containers. We reported this to reception, and one obvious entry point was subsequently blocked, but there were still numerous gaps in the netting around the restaurant. Watching birds walking around ON the food was extremely unappetising and raised obvious hygiene concerns. The food itself was very inconsistent. The ‘chef signature crab cake’ was excellent during our first week but looked and tasted very different the following week - see photo. A tuna steak on our first night was so thin and overcooked it was like chewing a flip-flop, yet a later one was thick, juicy and perfectly pink. Quality seemed to depend entirely on the day and was such a shame when some of the meals were very flavourful. The staff were equally inconsistent. Some were genuinely lovely - attentive, friendly, welcoming and clearly committed to making guests feel looked after. Others seemed completely disinterested, irritated by our presence, and simply couldn’t be bothered beyond the bare minimum. To be fair, communal areas were kept very clean and tidy, most staff always said hello, and the resort itself is attractive and has plenty of potential. Management did apologise - after our departure - for the problems, and had approved our requested 2pm late check-out, which was appreciated. They sent a bottle of sparkling wine to our room, albeit by a very confused staff member who said it was for someone named Jeffrey (nobody in our party of that name or anything like it) and later returned with a plate of brownies and macarons saying it was because we were ‘returners’… this was our first (and last) stay. However, it was a very inexpensive bottle (around £3 in the UK), which was free as part of the all-inclusive package anyway - which all felt rather underwhelming given the problems we had experienced. This could be a really lovely resort, the location is so good, and we did enjoy aspects of our holiday, but for the price we paid we expected much better consistency, cleanliness and attention to detail. The bird issue in particular needs to be properly addressed rather than simply blocking individual gaps as they are noticed.