We have just returned from a 2 week all inclusive at The Beach Club. What a lovely friendly place.

We stayed in a ground floor room 3 steps down from the beach. The kids loved it as it meant they could venture onto the beach whenever they wanted. The rooms are very generous and cleaned daily to a high standard.

The beach outside our room had constant breezes which made sunbathing easy. It was cleaned every day and there were always plenty of sunbeds and umbrellas free. The beach on Mamora Bay was much hotter but also a joy to be on. The watersports are here and are good fun. There is also a Beach Grill on this side and for all inclusive guests the food is free. If you're feeling too lazy to get off your sunbed a beach buggy comes round regularly serving drinks.

The swimming pools are all kept very clean and the same as when getting into the sea it's just like getting into a warm bath.

The food was lovely. We mostly ate at Cocos, there was always a good choice of food at every meal time and the menu didn't seem to repeat itself. The staff were very friendly and were always there to top up your glass. Marlon is particularly friendly so if you get a chance to sit at one of his tables tell him his friends from England say "Hi" (the ones who thought he looked like Will Smith) that will put a smile on his face. We also ate at Dockside and Rainbows over in St James, we found the food here to be equally as good.

While we were here we got married. There was a choice of places to pick from either on the beach or in a gazebo at the end of a jetty. We chose on the beach in a horseshoe shape of palm trees with a decorated arch. It was lovely. Tammy the wedding co-ordinator was extremely helpful and made sure we got everything we wanted.

We would just like to end by saying if you read any bad reviews about the Beach Club don't believe them as we have a really brilliant time, we couldn't fault anything. It was just like being in paradise and hopefully we are going to return.

We have just returned from 2 weeks at the Beach Club. Had a lovely time. We had interconnecting rooms on the ground floor ,lovely balcony and steps down straight on to the beach .The rooms were lovely huge double bed in our room and a double and sofa bed in the childrens room.WE left the patio doors open,fly screen closed and spent time on the beach nipping back to the loo and to get drinks from the fridge - although the beach drink cart came along every couple of hours.
The beach wasn't the best, bit seaweedy but this was cleared up regularly.
Cocos restaurant is lovely. the staff were lovely and friendly kept the drinks topped up, mostly buffets with lovely salads,rice, fresh fish etc,kids menu with burgers, nuggets, pizzas.We also went to the Rainbow and Docksider restaurants but Cocos was our favourite.The hotel is very well run with excellent facilities very clean and well maintained grounds.
The excursions were quite pricey and the rep seemed happy to sell the Virgin exclusives but not so keen on the others.we did the Virgin Ahoy round the island by catamaran(bit too much sea and not enough beach for me.Off road Jeep safari was good with a visit to stingray city,beautiful scenery very off road, the stingrays were fab.
On the whole a very lovely holiday would go back like a shot.
Top tip on our last day as we were waiting to go home,some new arrivals who had obviously been before appeared in Cocosbar ordered drinks went off to the loos came back in swim suits and took off to the pool. brillaint idea as we had to wait 45 mins for our rooms far too long for a travel weary11 year old boy and 8 yearold girl, mum and dad.One last thing the rooms on the ground floor can be a bit noisey if there is someone in the room above, but being able to walk directly on to the beach is worth it.
Happy Holiday

My wife and I had a great time here in late May/early June 2006.

Beach club has large well equipped rooms :

only a few yards from the sea, with a great atlantic sea breeze to cool you down, that never seems to stop - great ! The ground floor rooms would seem especially good for families with small children, as they only have 2-3 steps down to the sand and the beach.

seaweed is blown in regularly, but is taken away each morning by staff. However, it is not like UK seaweed that can be long and convoluted - it seems to be made up of short grass like lengths which do not impede your swimming or enjoyment at all . While we were there small jelly fish were coming in as well. The hotel advised caution in bathing then, and of course there is a hotel pool only a few yards away that was popular with families and of course there a choice of Mamora bay as well.

You can obtain snorkelling equipment from Watersports and easily snorkel by the rocks and see such a good variety of fish , only a few yards from the shoreline.

Mamora Bay : where you can visit within 2 minutes walk !! :

What a beautiful curving bay with white sand !! .... and like the Beach Club sea,with a gently shelving shore making it safe for all to swim in. The water is a little murkey in parts - I think due to sea weed, but you need not be put off by this - I saw many guests swimming there and enjoying themselves.

The bay is also in effect a harbour with access to the atlantic side via a " harbour entrance " with some fine yachts coming in from time to time to moor there. And from the jetties you can look down at wide variety of coloured fish.

Weddings - it is also a fabulous setting for weddings with a gezebo, decorated with flowers, at at the end of one of the jetties.

Watersports - first class :

Out of some 20 visits to the caribbean, I found this to be one of the few resorts I have been to where you could have sailing tution in such a safe bay. Sean was great here - ask for him and you will be in safe, friendly hands. The other guys were great as well, and readily spotted an error of mine when setting off on my own, in not having one of the ropes ( main sheet for main and only sail ) attached correctly. The sailing boats were Catamaran Hobie Waves, which are so easy to handle - and in this bay such a
joy to sail !

There were also Kayaks to take out, which others seemed to enjoy - I kept to the Hobie Cats !

Lawrence was also most welcoming and took me and other guests on a gentle boat ride on the atlantic side.

Cocos Restaurant :

serves overall very good food, with a choice of 3-4 meat/fish dishes every lunch time and dinner with a vegetarian choice as well. If you want fine dining then you pay about £23 pounds ( $35) extra at an Italian restaurant - we did not dine there but heard very good comments about it from other guests.

My only constructive advice re Cocos food would be :

a) they need to provide a wider choice of fresh fruit at breakfast. Most days we had just melon,water melon and bananas, and

b) They need to cover the milk jugs or use jugs with lids as on two separate occasions, reported immediately to staff, I saw birds drinking out of the milk. The staff changed the milk jugs straightaway, but what about the jugs they may have missed !!

The number of birds around the tables is a lot less than I have seen in other resorts during the day,( they are not a problem at night as they must be asleep !) . ( in other island caribbean resorts they can be a real nuisance, and some hotels have resorted to putting netting up to discourage them flying onto dining tables during the day )

Dockside Restaurant :

A lovely, romantic setting by the water in Mamora Bay. Though at night, despite the tables have lit candles, you might need a torch to read the menus ! On the two occasions we dined there I was ok with the fish I ate, but my wife found the meat dishes tough and tasteless. But two occasions are not good grounds for a proper evaluation of the food there.

Rainbow Restaurant : Looks great for breakfast and lunch, but we avoided dining there one night when Cocos was closed as we found it noisey/ busy and not easy to relax in.

Staff :

Very friendly and helpful : when we needed a kettle or an iron and ironing board staff provided them straight away. One of the gardening staff, Everton, working hard in the mid day sun, happily brought a ripe coconut for my wife. All of the staff at Cocos were very friendly - nothing was too much trouble. I used to tease Velva that she would be in trouble if we had any rain. She came up with the goods as we had little or no rain at all !

Front desk staff : Many thanks for your help Lionel, Collete J and Carolyn at Guest Services - like your other colleagues we have met , you are true ambassadors for your company.

We would very happy to return to this resort.

If you would like me to answer any questions please e mail me at :

AshleyShanahan@aol.com

Well after reading a few of the previous reviews on here, I must admit I was a little concerned before flying out. However, I think a 4 star rating of above average pretty much covers it.

We have been back a week, and like most people who've been, would much prefer to be back at the St. James Club!

We were all inclusive for a week, and stayed in a Standard Room, and I think the description is spot on. It was spacious but standard. A couple of parts could do with some touching up, but overall the room was up to expectations. The room was on the ground floor with a beautiful sea view.

The food, in my opinion was very good. Of course you will get repetition, but the standard was excellent. You also have a choice of restaurants although the Piccolo Mondo comes with a surcharge. However, the only time I decided to use Room Service, nobody answered and in the end I had to put my order in via Guest Services!

There are 2 very different beaches. The Atlantic side is breezy with plenty of seaweed, although this gets raked up every day. We found the constant breeze just perfect as it can get very very hot. The secluded beach does not suffer from seaweed but has virtually no breeze, if you can stand it! The drinks cart also came along at regular intervals and was much appreciated.

The gardens and surroundings were lovely although there was some buildiing work going on when we were there. The staff were friendly overall, although I would suggest you bear in mind the difference in attitude in the Caribbean before labelling their responses as rude. However, in my experience SOME staff did come across as sullen, but nobody was rude. Most, as I say, were very polite and helpful.

This isn't a place to visit if you want lots of activities and events. It's a quiet resort, although there are options to visit certain sights. Shirley Heights is definitely worth a visit and the view is sensational! Worth it to see the beautiful sunset too. You've also got a casino to throw your money at!

Overall, a very enjoyable holiday at a great resort. Don't believe the 1 star ratings as they are certainly not a true reflection of St.James Club! Four stars for me!