just returned (nov04 )from a weeks stay in a deluxe suite. Size and style of suite excellent with 4 poster bed,antique furnishings and large balcony.Fantastic views of English Harbour with private boat shuttle to the centre.Restaurants and staff all excellent. THE place to chill out.
BUT - pool dirty for most of our stay, beach furniture poor, no aircon, too many mosquitos and flies and not enough effort to reduce them, shower pressure poor.
After a few days none of this seems to matter as the relaxed charm of the resort gets to you - We will certainly return

I stayed at the Inn (as part of a large group) in June and had a wonderful time. The hotel is in a lovely tranquil setting - with its own sandy beach, safe waters for swimming, and plenty of space to relax completely, on a sun lounger or hammock between the palms. Great pool right by the beach and pretty grounds - flowers, egrets, humming birds flitting about. The reception, restaurant and bar are at the top of the hill, while most of the suites and the beach bar are at the bottom facing the beach. The new suites were among the nicest rooms I had ever stayed in - large, well equipped and cooled by several ceiling fans, with a balcony and view of the bay. We had breakfast and lunch at the beach bar - good choice of food (great pina coladas) and very friendly staff. The water taxi boatman was always happy to take us to Nelson's Dockyard (more eating places here) or across the bay for snorkelling (you can borrow towels, snorkelling gear, kayaks, at the beach bar). Further to a previous review, the road up to the main restaurant was steep - it is still walkable (a few minutes at a calm pace before dinner) but there were two shuttle cars on standby to take guests up and down (this is mentioned in the guest information in each room). We never had to wait very long for a car.

We ate several times at the Inn's open air Terrace restaurant and I would recommend this - lots of choice, well cooked and presented, just right sized portions, especially good fish and desserts. Plus the gorgeous view and surroundings. As we were staying as part of a large group the final billing arrangements could have caused confusion but the Inn was very well organized both before and during our stay so no problems. They also helped us arrange excursions including a catamaran trip around the island.

What impressed me the very most was the genuine welcome and friendliness of the Inn staff (receptionists, restaurant/bar staff, management, room ladies, drivers,... without exception) - they really made our stay wonderful. The Inn is not a formal, starchy resort where people stand on ceremony - it's refined but unpretentious, and I enjoyed being well looked after by lovely people. I could not find a thing to fault during our stay, and would love to go back.

The accommodation was ok. The watersports were non-existent when it came to Sunfish and Windsurfing, equipment borken, no apology or alternative. No urgency to fix.

Nearby St. James' club has excellent watersports.

The new accommodation or old beach front accommodation is at the bottom of a very steep road leading back to the restaraunt/bar/reception. They have car/van shuttle, but really this should be made clear in their publicity.

Restaraunt over-priced and banking on the fact it is arduous to go anywhere else without transport.

We stayed there 5th – 14th April, in one of the Hilltop Cottage rooms. For us, the Inn at English Harbour was like the little girl with the curl. “When she was good she was very, very good. But when she was bad she was horrid!”

The good:

The pool, poolside area and the beach are delightful – lots of shade, lovely clean sands and real palm trees, pretty hammocks, hideaway gazebos, plenty of loungers and shade. Gardens lovely, visiting egrets, flowers, books to borrow from the hotel library – a real pleasure to let a day drift by down there.

The water-taxi arrangement is excellent and lots of people appeared to enjoy it. Dignified and courteous boatman. Free use of towels, kayaks, flippers, etc. all add to the feeling of good value in this area of the hotel.

Beach Bar – lunch here is excellent – very good food indeed, reasonable prices, good wine-list, fresh flowers, delightful service and setting. The only mystery is why it closes at 5 o’clock.

Breakfast – the continental “included” breakfast is good and good value. The ladies who work in the Beach Bar are simply delightful – pleasant, kind, courteous; the sort of staff any hotel should kill for!

The library and Stone Bar are pleasant and full of character. Appetisers which came with first rounds of drinks were welcome and very good too.

The not-so-good …

Cottage rooms are big and airy, delightfully cool after a hot day on the beach and, best of all, have truly magnificent views from their romantic, peaceful balconies. The furniture is perhaps a bit on the basic side but the little paths, the door-knockers, the garden flowers, the passing goats and the birdlife all added to the pleasure of staying there.

However, the bathroom – and, in particular, the shower – was a disgrace to any hotel which has pretensions towards international standards. This is a four-star hotel with four-star prices. Yet our shower simply didn’t work – the best that could be coaxed out of it was a very slight trickle. The drains blocked twice, resulting in dirty water around the ankles. They had to be unblocked, resulting in vile smells and dirt all over the floor, which was left until the following day. An army of ants crept up and down the walls and there was ingrained dirt lodged in all the corners. On asking for the shower to be fixed, we were told this wasn’t possible.

We often spent the day on the beach, returning to our room sticky, hot and sandy. Not to provide a reasonable washing facility is simply unacceptable. There’s a request in the hotel handbook for ladies to wear “smart, elegant evening dresses” in the restaurant – try doing that when you’ve still got sand stuck where it shouldn’t be and cannot wash your hair for a week!

The Terrace Restaurant has one of the nicest settings on the island – but the food is sadly not up to scratch. We dined there on our first night and felt the meal too poor to merit a second visit.

Wine list – reasonable – but why hide the house wines at the back of the list as if you were ashamed of them?

Restaurant provision generally was a bit of a puzzle to us. Even if the Terrace had been of good quality, nobody would wish to eat the same kind of food every night. Had the Beach Bar been available in the evenings (and it would be lovely down there, with cloths and candles and the sea lapping) – we should have eaten on the premises several more times than we did. Like many other guests, we went to English Harbour most nights for dinner. Room service appeared to comprise the same dinner menu with a surcharge slapped on.

Front desk – most of the ladies were perfectly pleasant; one was, frankly, rude. Unfortunately name tags were not used. One example – we came to request our key, which we had deposited earlier. She repeatedly denied that we had done so, although we politely said that we thought we remembered leaving it. Finally, her colleague pointed out that the key was there, under her desk papers. She picked it up, crashed it on to the counter wordlessly, and turned her back on us. Unacceptable standards.

These complaints sound rather bad but in fact we had a lovely holiday – if the Terrace restaurant and the cottage showers could be sorted out, we would have no hesitation in recommending the Inn to friends.