You have to climb down all these rocks to get to beach. Sand was awful, not soft at all. No facilities - bathrooms, food vendors. It is a nice quiet beach if your looking for that. Very narrow, not much room. Scenery was not worth it. Try another beach, coming from California I would compare our beaches much nicer and I love the caribbean beaches.

We had read a lot of great things about Crane Beach, so after checking out Bridgetown, we took a taxi out there. We had agreed on 15$ one way and when we took off, he asked again for the name and I said Crane. It was a long ride and when we arrived he wanted 35$. After a lot of discussing (he said 15$ was for the closest beach, but we wanted to go to Crane..), we paid him and were in a very bad mood.
When we first saw the beach, it was very very pretty, almost breathtaking. We walked to the left, where we were the ONLY people. There were Coconuts lying in the sand and palmtrees around. Which was nice. It was windy.

The swimming experience was not so nice though. The waves are so heavy that it is kind of difficult to go in. Once you`re in the water, it is very nice. I guess when you like the Atlantic style swimming, Crane is your thing.

I personally prefer the "Caribbean style", calm and clear water, maybe snorkeling. Of course we knew it would be wavy, but it was really heavy. We walked to the actual Beach at the hotel, where I didn`t like all the sun chairs. I realize that this is normal for a hotelside beach, but for me this is not what I want to see, when books talk about a beach as one of the world`s top one. I imagine just sand and palmtrees when I hear that.

When you enter the beach from the street and not the hotel, be ready to wear appropriate shoes, since it is slippery and not always easy to cross the rocks/steps to get to the beach.

It was our very first beach of our first Caribbean vacation. We were actually on a cruise and in the following 2 weeks we went to other beaches on other Islands that deserved the title (World`s best) much more.

I do admit that the whole experience with the "misunderstanding" with the cab driver reduced the great feeling. We found out too that a local bus went there. (we acted smarter on the other islands..). The beach is very, very nice. I would say it is above average and really pretty, but because of the waves and difficulties of getting in the water without losing the bikini and swallowing water - I would rate it 3-4 of 5, since I had nicer Caribbean feel at other places. It was very special though that we were alone on the beach to the left.

We have been visiting Crane beach as a beach destination for years and true, it was a little more special when the hotel was tiny and the beach was empty without vendors etc, but it is still an amazing place. The waves are extraordinary and the old staircase down to the beach is still as charming as ever and preferred by this visitor to the new elevator. This trip, we stayed at the hotel in a one bedroom suite. Overall The suite was visually amazing and VERY LARGE, with two bathrooms and a kitchen and ample room for a family of four. Our view was breathtaking and the balcony was the perfect location for breakfast.The main restaurant was quite good, the pool restaurant was not. The new pools are beautiful visually, but if laps are what you are after this is not the place. We could not help but wonder why they chose to put in a series of small pools that did not interconnect. What a wonderful location for a few small water slides or waterfalls. Our favorite pool was still the main pool with it's columns that has been photographed in so many magazines over the years. Our room was in need of some upscale comforts, not the least of which was an air conditioning system that worked! The air conditioning barely worked and even with the ceiling fans, the rooms were very hot, especially the bath room. The ceiling were just too high in our upstairs unit to have such a limited air vent system. Many of the drawers were warped from the humidity and unusable. The water pressure and the amount of hot water during our stay were questionable, mostly due to the construction. The pull out sofa had rusty hinges, yet the sofas were not that old. It was hard to figure out some of the contradictions between what was essentially a beautiful room, and a newer rental and the need for management to take a good look at how user friendly these rooms actually are. The hotel needs to trouble shoot, not only to make their beautiful and new accommodations user friendly, but to meet the needs of their guests. Staff were not very friendly or accommodating, which was odd since Barbados is one of the nicest islands with the friendliest people. Here are a few suggestions:

1. Revamp the air conditioning, because sweating for $600-700 a night is not a good thing.
2. Put in a shower by the elevator to the beach so that this is even an option for people returning from the beach.... the staircase shower is just too far from the elevators to make any sense...guests are already half way up the stairs.
3. Have towels and boogie boards available on the beach, during our stay we had to shlep the towels from the far pool and sign the boards out in the lobby.
4. Add a snack bar by the beach because you have sandy, dirty beach guests dining with businessmen in suits in your main restaurant.
5.Work on the water pressure and hot water.
6. When you sell a room with a plunge pool, make sure that the people staying there realize that the water temperature will be far below anything they would want to even think about plunging in.
7. Have someone fix the warped drawers in rooms, we called for help with this but nothing was done.

The Crane Beach will be a prime destination once the new shopping and restaurants surface, but with the influx of people and the upscale prices that will be charged, there are certain expectations. The hotel is experiencing some major growing pains during their expansion. Located on one of the best and most interesting beaches in the Caribbean ( for those of us who enjoy the Atlantic waves), let's hope that Crane management does not lose sight of what is important and what makes them and their location so special. We will be tracking their growth and hope to return once a little attention to detail is shown. Barbados is a great island with many diversions, great food, happy locals and good shopping. This hotel sits too far away from some of the best areas of the island to operate as if people will just come if they build it. Crane really needs to stand apart from the competition and in order to do so must pay a lot closer attention to maintaining their standards and remaining upscale.

my family and i go to the crane for two weeks every thanksgivign and we love it. the renovations to the pools are amazing and the views are the best.
we used to take cruises that stopped at barbados often and were told to visit the crane. we pd the $25 fee per person to access the beach, and just used the fee toward our lunch. i've read all the reviews and it seems this makes ppl very mad. i think most don't understand that while crane beach is public, the resort is not. i don't fault the hotel staff from wanting to maintain a private atmosphere for the guests. if the angry visitors calmed down, they would realize that their is a public entryway to the beach where there is no cost, about 1/2 mile past the crane hotel. a local bus (much cheaper than a taxi from bridgetown) can even drop you off there if you inquire.
anyway the crane is one of the most beautiful beaches and resorts i've ever been too, and would recommend it to anyone who loves barbados and enjoys some waves instead of a boring flat sea.