Just returned from another stay at Coral Reef. Working in the travel industry and mainly the luxury end of the market, offers me an opportunity to travel worldwide. For my personal family holiday we have stayed at Coral Reef quite a few times. I was most surprised to read the recent review of 26 July - these people must have stayed at a different hotel.! Coral Reef is certainly not dirty! It is an elegant hotel set in beautiful gardens., with spacious pretty rooms. The balconies are a great size for enjoying breakfast. Staff at this hotel are incredibly friendly and also very professional. My daughters of 19 and 15 adore this hotel and we meet many families returning each year. Food is excellent and the beach BBQ one of the best! On a professional level I have never experienced the negative remarks voiced in the review previously mentioned. I recommend this hotel with all confidence. Reviews are very useful on the whole but there are
times when I feel they can be quite misleading.

I can honestly say I've never been so disappointed with a hotel - ever. We walked in and immediately knew that it wouldn't be for us. Dirty, tired looking and what is going on with that pool?! We didn't want to stay there at all and immediately booked in to the Lone Star hotel which was absolutely fantastic. We disliked the Coral Reef so much that we were willing to pay for 2 nights that we didn't use and pay $400 per night at the Lone Star. I would recommend to anyone considering booking this hotel to seriously reconsider. If you like big, dirty, sprawling hotels full of kids, go for it.

This place is wonderful.
The resort is set in its own wondeful surroundings. The beach is long , maybe not the sand pasted type but whats found just outside of that beach is amazing. The variety of coral is fantastic. The staff were very informaive, telling us of fire coral and different fish , of which there are many. The resort do a variety of snorkling excersions, to real ship wrecks and provide you the opurtunity to swim with turtles, which was truly amazing. On my birthday they provided me with a ride on a small katamaran to sail half the length of the island in the areas of the seas which hold the flying fish , a truly amazing experience. What is always fun is the banna boat and Coral Reef Club will not let you down here.
The real highlight of this resort in my opinion is the food! If you are truley passionate about food then come here. Once a week , an extraordinary event happens, an all out, full blown , buffet full of local fish , meats, vegtables etc in whic you can indugle your senses. Othr nights they still excite your culinary expectations with as many courses of quality food you can imagine. The waiters are so freindly and inviting and that can be said of all the people of Barbados. Breakfast is wonderful too .
The island itself is wonderful. 4 days is all you really need to explore it and those will be 4 wonderful days. Some highlights include Harrisons Cove - full of intricate staligmites and staligtites , Bathsheba beach and surrounding bays - have great fun surfing the waves or simply testing your strength against the power of the sea , such great fun , and many miniture rainforests dotted around the island. Bridgetown is also a good excursion , not all that pritty , but its a good place to shop and to visit either the Malibu Factory(ps you get free cocktails)or Mount Gay Rum Factory.
Going back to the resort, there are other activites as well including wonderful tennis courts and two great swimming pools. One much quiter than the other though.
Enjoy this sip of paradise.

Referred by friends and our travel agent, we took a short 4 day stay at the Coral Reef. Our vacation was right before they close the property for several weeks in June, so it was not very full. The experience was outstanding from start to finish.

Friendly and accomodating staff, great water access, tiny but well manicured beach, nice pools, lush gardens, terrific spacious and clean rooms, and great food. Everybody we came in contact with was smiling and happy to serve. The owner quietly walked the grounds during the day and interacted with the guests. Our first Barbados experience was great.

The Coral Reef was tough to leave....we'll surely return.