Just come back from a week at this hotel having booked through Portland Holidays. Having read many Trip Advisor reviews regarding this hotel I was delighted to get (with a bit of bargaining over the phone!) a great rate. Then I started to see a few more negative reviews come through and started to worry. Well, I thought it was excellent value for money with good service and a stunning location. Yes it is quiet in the evenings, so if you want a lot of nightlife on holiday don't go here! Also, if you want posh food, again try elsewhere, but saying that we always found plenty to eat in the dinning room. Continuing on the food comments, you must remember this hotel caters for a mixture of continental customers with a large amount of German guests, so the food variety may appear not always geared towards the British tastes. There was not too much fresh fruit choise available compared to other holiday hotels I have stayed at and the food selection and presentation could at times do with a bit more thought, but my wife thought it was good and she's quite fussy! The pool snack bar was great and helped to put a few extra pounds of wieght on by the time we went home. Beer and wine (red, white and rosa) on tap in the dinning room was great and of course the all inclusive was well used and saved us a great deal compared with other holidays. Booking in at reception was slow, mainly because they wanted to explain everything to you when you arrived which is good but they could have done with more staff on duty to speed things up. About 3 weeks before we went I e-mailed the hotel reception to ask if it was possible to be allocated a double bedded room on the top floor (floor 11), although I never got a reply we got exactly what we asked for, excellent! The two main pool areas are good and clean and we found sunbeds available in most places during most of the day, although the ruling of no towels on sunbeds before 10.00am which is displayed widely is totally ignored. I noticed towels appearing before 7.00am! Good god, some people need to get a life! Another small bug I have is the notice on the Dinning room saying full length trousers are to be worn in the dinning room during the evening meal, which I do not have a problem with, but why does this only apply to males? Shorts and skirts no bigger than belts seem to be common place and accepted, sex discriminated!
Taurito itself is small but use the courtesy bus and the local buses which are clean, cheap and efficient (the bus stop is about a 1/4 mile flat walk away). You can get to most main places on the buses. Also, the Water Taxi from Puerto Mogan and Puerto Rico is good. Try the Whale/Dolphin water taxi trip from Puerto Rice (leaves about 10.30 - I think) to Puerto Mogan, takes about an hour but worth the ride.
We were told that the hotel was about 60% full and the Suite Princess opposite was only 20% full so it was quite quiet and this might not be so at more peak times. The room we were given was set back slightly an had a smaller balcony than some but had a larger room and clear glass on the balcony railing so you can see a lot more. We did experience a blocked loo twice during the stay but it was dealt with straight away, maybe a drainage problem on the top floor! Also the shower rail was hanging by only 3 of the 4 screws and one of the bathroom light bulbs went after 2 days and was not replaced. The room itself was spacious but was due for redecor soon, but clean. We never had any problems with the lifts (I've read passed Trip Advisor comments) and never had to wait very long for a lift to turn up. We had a really great relaxing holiday here and would recommend it to others who want the same at a reasonable price.