My wife and I plus our two year old twins had a wonderful stay in Carlisle Bay in Nov, 2007. The Carlisle Bay isn't cheap but it was a special occasion and we splashed out. I travel a lot with work and am used to a high level and standard of service and also not having to pay for it! Therefore having to fork out my own hard-earned cash on something as ephemeral as a hotel stay isn't easy for me. I was also anxious that I'd be disappointed after spending all of that money

That said, I'd easily spend it again and I can honestly say it's probably the best holiday I've ever had.

On arrival we were greeted by the staff and management and aperitifs. Lovely touch. We were escorted to our beach front room. The staff were friendly and not overbearing. Already we knew we would enjoy our stay.

The hotel catered wonderfully for children, especially young ones, with a great kids club. Overall, the staff were really friendly, right down from the management to the guy that sweeped the beach every morning: all engaged wonderfully with us and were really friendly. I honestly couldn't have expected a better level of service and attention to detail.

If you're travelling with young children, touch base with the hotel beforehand to arrange for babysiters in advance (typically hotel staff). But they'll do their best to help you out if you leave it until you arrive there. (The Kids Club manager visited us minutes after we arrived in our suite.)

If you don't have kids, don't panic. The hotel has families with young kids at one end and couples at the other. And kids aren't to be in the restaurants after 7.00pm. (There's a great dedicated kids' buffet at 5.00pm every evening.) I was amazed at how seamlessly the two categories of guests coexisted.

I'd also recommend taking the half board option. It works out very economical compared to just B&B since the menus and food are not cheap. And you can chop and change you main meal from lunch to dinner as you wish, although we found the wonderful breakfasts adjacent to the beach were enough to see us through lunch with just a little a fruit unitl afternoon tea (complimentary) was served after 3.00pm. The dinner restaurants were excellent: East was the best of the two, although both were excellent and offered good choice. Anything longer than a week though and the choice could get problematic.

Note that Carlisle Bay hotel is quite isolated. There's really no town or village worth talking about that you could walk to, so you're pretty much stuck on-property--not that that's a a bad thing.

There's a little 'shop'/roadside stall that we walked to from time to time to buy some fruit and beer and soft drinks. The prices worked out about 25% of what the hotel would charge for a beer, for example, but our main motiviation for doing so was to put some money into the locals' hands. (We were probably charged 2 to 4 times what locals were charged, but it was still much cheaper than the hotel prices and to be honest I think the locals really appreciated people making the effort.)

I thoroughly recommend the place. We'll definitely be back in 2008.

We had a very restful 10 day break at CB. Our upper floor Ocean Suite was spacious and comfortable and well tended to. Nice bath tub but shower is feeble. The beachside restaurant was very good for breakfast and dinner but the eastern restaurant had a strange atmosphere and local staff didn't seem to know anything about the food there. The Jetty dinner might seem corny but it was done brilliantly and is highly recommended. The only negative was the sheer number of small children even though it was not half-term time. We did not feel able to use the pool on a single day as it it seemed to be permanently colonised by mums and nannies with small children who were, unsurprisingly, very noisy. This was an issue with several adult couples we spoke to and the hotel needs to give this some thought. Spa was very good with excellent therapists but a very small locker room.

I really enjoyed the understated casual elegance of this hotel. The hotel is well laid out and our needs were well catered for. The location is beautiful and the beach perfect- I can't comment on the pool (although it looked nice) as I didn't visit during the day! My trip was relaxing and the staff helpfull and happy- we had an EXCELLENT Taxi Driver - BENJIE who offers both executive and regular taxi services. I would recommend him to take you EVERYWHERE! He is on cell# [-] or ask for him directly at the hotel.

The food was superb and didn't let us down once. I really recomend this hotel if you are looking to relax- on your own or with the family. I will be going back.

We booked to stay at Carlise Bay over Christmas and New Year. We arrived on 20th December with our two children aged 12 and 8 to find no one to meet us at the airport. Finally a taxi arrived which then stopped for fuel and to collect his Chinese en route! Not a great start.

The hotel entrance and reception rooms are lovely - very impressive. However the rooms are terrible. We had a 2 bed Beach suite for the four of us. Frankly it was not much improvement on a Travelodge. There was unfinished tiling in the bathroom so you lay in the bath and looked at a masonry wall under the basins, dirty grouting in the shower, poor paintwork and cheap looking upvc windows and doors and the lighting was poor. The two beds provided for the children were noisy and creaked every time they moved. Our bed was not comfortable and there was one small wardrobe for four of us and nowhere to put our luggage. We could hear the guests in the room next door to us (and they were not being noisy).

The internet did not work despite the IT guy spending 3 days trying to sort it out. You needed to ask for anything three times before it arrived. The staff were 40% friendly but the rest really did not want to be there (this is not a trait of the Caribbean as we usually stay in Barbados and they are wonderful).

The Cool Kids Club is NOT for up to 12 year olds as they state. It looks great for up to about 5years old but there is nothing for older children.

The pool was pretty cold and the water in the sea was very sandy and as a consequence was murky and not clear so not very nice to swim in.

There were no Christmas decorations up which the staff kept saying would be coming but when we finally asked the manager on 23rd Dec he said that the two small trees they finally put up would be it as they kept Christmas low key. Shame they did not say that when we booked with two children.

My husband had booked this holiday as a 40th birthday present for me. It was a huge disappointment and in the end we stayed just 3 nights of our 14 and arrived home on Christmas Eve! Not only did the hotel spoil our holiday but Christmas as well!!

Not a five star hotel experience for us I am afraid. However, I do believe that the rooms for couples are much better and probably if you went as a couple just to lay on the beach it would be OK if you don't mind sullen staff and poor service.