We vacationed at Carlisle bay from 3/5 for 5 nights and had a wonderful time. We were concerned after reading the reviews but could not have had a better vacation and definitely look forward to returning.

Service - Both Andrew Hedley, the general manager and Stephane Zaharia, the resort manager were fantastic. They are very visible and are always asking vacationers their opinions and seeing how they can help.
The rest of the staff was also very friendly and helpful. Much better than the other resorts of similiar calibre in the Carribean. We only had one lunch where the waitress was slow and had an attitude.

Facility - Unbelievable! The resort is beautiful. A private cove - lots of beach, clear water that at times looks jade green, mountains surrounding the resort - Breathtaking. The pool is delightful. We had a beach front suite which was perfect for us, our nanny and children. It was cleaned well every morning while we were at breakfast.

Very relaxing vacation - great tennis, spa, and other water sports. Very helpful staff.

Food - Very good. Breakfast was fantastic - fresh juices, fruit salads, eggs benedict - anything and included. Lunch - I loved the gazpacho and the ceasar salad with grilled shrimp. Dinner - you can dine at East (Asian) or outside which is varied cuisine. Both had very good food - my favorite at East was the pan fried beef and the lamb chops at the other restaurant.

The bugs - a pain but there are usually bugs where there is water and lush foilage. They were a bit of a nuisance. Having said that - we were prepared and I only returned with one bite (I usually get eaten alive). They provide Family off.

Have just returned from Carlisle Bay and feel like I am recovering from a bad case of chicken pox!!! Spent 7 days at the resort and it rained every day for at least 2 or 3 hours - sometimes all day. Apparently this is not uncommon!! Because of the proximity to the swamp and the rainy weather the sand flies were out in force and were remorseless in their biting. Even though I wore loads of protective creams and sprays I was covered in bites and suffered several sleepless nights because of irritation.

This completely spoilt what would otherwise be quite a nice resort. We had an ocean suite which is gorgeous but the beach suites(those with a separate sitting room) were very disappointing and although the same price they were of a far inferior quality. The Indigo restaurant is good quality food but boring after a few days. The main restaurant East, is no better than our local Chinese! All the public areas are too large and with no atmosphere. The spa treatments were OK, with particular mention of Tricia who gave excellent massages. Staff throughout were very friendly and helpful but everything was overshadowed by weather and insects. Cannot recommend this hotel to anyone until they sort the problem out.

My husband and I stayed here for 9 days at the beginning of February. My main complaint about the hotel is the very average service - you are often left to wait over 10 mins to even get a menu in the Indigo restaurant and service is slow. We also found a lot of the dishes in Indigo very dry, however the tenderloin was delicious. The manager did acknowledge there was a problem with service at Indigo and was tackling it (especially after the Valentine's Day fiasco where they ran out of food options and charged $120 pp).

Our mini-bar was not re-stocked at all and we had to call up several times for them to do this. I don't have a problem with them not replacing the toiletries every day but ours ran out and were not replaced the same day which is poor.

Service at the beach was hit or miss, sometimes we had to ask 3 or 4 times for water etc. so they could do with being a lot more attentive.

On the plus side, the yoga was excellent and I had a very good facial at the Spa. We did not get one bite - I did see another guest covered in bites so I guess that just depends.

I would not recommend this hotel to friends - I'm imagining that for the same money you could go somewhere else with excellent service and fewer niggles. Even though some reviews mention that this is the Carribean and people need to chill out I think one can expect a certain level of service when paying this much.

If you do go, it is definitely worth going to Harmony Hall restaurant - delicious food and excellent service.

We have just returned from the most relaxing vacation ever. After reading some of the reviews, we were a little apprehensive as what to expect, but these apprehensions soon dissapeared. The resort is larger than we expected, with beautiful trees and gardens well maintained, the beach runs the whole length of the resort, the rooms, we had an Ocean View, are wonderful, well apointed, spacious, the day bed on the balcony is a terrific touch. Why one would want the toiletries change every day beats me, lovely products in larger than normal containers. Sheets are soft and silky and towels like cotton wool.
East restaurant has top marks for both food and service, while Indigo service is a bit confused at times, we never got a wrong order and the food was excellant. Staff in both restaurants are very friendly.
Although the resort was full , it was so quiet, even the few children were well behaved. No fighting for space on the beach or table in the restaurants.
As far as the "bug" problem, we didnt have any problems,a few around in the evening, but this is the Caribean..one must expect a few.
We couldnt have been made more welcome...cant wait to return...