I have just returned from a fantastic weeks holiday at this great resort (4th to 11th November). I am having real difficulty in relating to the other recent negative reviews on this site. My experience couldn't have been better, especially considering the bargain prices that we paid for our week here. Having looked through some of the negative reviews I can only suggest that if you want 5 star luxury, service and food then book a five star hotel and pay double the price for your holiday, its not rocket science!

We were very impressed by the hotel in most respects, we had a wonderful air conditioned room overlooking the usually deserted honeymoon bay (the third beach), it was clean and well maintained with spectacular views (especially at sunset) and yes, there were bugs but this was the rainy season and this is a tropical island, we fully anticipated this and took with us appropriate knock down spray for the room and repellant for us. The huge walk in shower was great as was the in room fridge and coffee maker too! Our maid was Brenda who mothered us wonderfully for the whole week! The hotel details made it quite clear that only the beach front club rooms have air conditioning and thats why we paid the extra supplement for one and were well rewarded!

The vast majority of the staff were friendly, genuine and helpful and although service was slightly slow at times it was always courteous and with a smile.It really did feel as though nothing was too much trouble. Special mentions have to be made of 'Vanessa' (the wedding co-ordinator) who bent over backwards to meet all of our requests and made all the arrangements for our wedding. She was fantastic and her advice was invaluable. 'Vere' is a very lively young guy who seems to work every hour god sends and keeps smiling and laughing no matter what! A really nice bloke and very good at his job keeping the guests happy! The manager (unfortunately I have forgotten his name) spoke to us on several occassions and always wanted to know how things were going and if anything more could be done to make our stay even better, and genuinely there was not! He looks at this website regularly, which is a good sign and he takes a real hands on approach in the resort.

For anyone wishing to get married here, you should have no worries if Vanessa is there to look after you. We had everything we wanted and more. This is not a typical resort like Sandals where they charge through the nose and have up to seven weddings a day conveyor style, (this is really true, we met a load of them at the courthouse in St Johns when we went to get our marriage licence)this is a down to earth, friendly and wonderful setting for a personalised wedding in the sun. We were the only couple getting married during the week we were there and were made to feel special. Vanessa told us that she always works on the basis of one wedding per day and, if it can't be avoided an absolute maximum of 2 but this is very rare. Another point to mention is that Vanessa advised us to wear long trousers and blouse/shirt when we went to get our wedding licence (she came with us by the way, we weren't left to fend for ourselves), we took her advice and we were away from the courthouse with our licence in 30 minutes. The sandals coach party who arrived at the courthouse whilst we were there(there were loads of them) had no representation and were dressed in shorts, vests, miniskirts and some bikini tops, I found out later that they were kept waiting for 2 hours before being turned away empty handed by an offended registrar and told to come back another day when they had dressed properly!

There were 18 (including us 2) in the wedding party on the day, it went superbly and the evening gala dinner that was laid on for us (seperate from all the other guests) was exceptional. We had our own U shaped table outside laid out wonderfully with name cards, balloons and all the works the menu included truly huge lobsters and chateau briand, all cooked brilliantly by the executive chef (I forget his name now but I think it was Mr Jacobs or Mr Joseph)We were able to choose some great Australian wine to go with our meal. Now get this - a three course meal for 18 including 6 bottles of house champagne (2 were free)and 14 bottles of good quality Ozzie wine and a fabulous menu as mentioned above cost about ....US$930 which is about £540 now that to me is a bargain! There were a few MINOR hicups during the day but nothing that wasn't put right straight away.

The resort itself was great, four beaches and a resonable pool that was always clean (it was cleaned and scrubbed every morning as was the whole area around the pool)and safe and a very enjoyable place to be (yes its not massive but you are right on the beach after all!) The grounds were imacculate and we often saw gardeners tending the shrubs etc. I could go on and on but I won't I will finish by saying that over the years we have been to hotels (some of them much more expensive with higher star ratings) in Barbados, Tobago, St Lucia, Cuba and the Dominican Republic and I can definitely say that the Hawksbill is the only one we will return to.