I visited this amazing hotel twice in the last two years... Once with my mother for my bday and once alone for my bday.... Making plans to possibly go again this year. Everything was a amazing!!! From them whisking me away on to a golf cart from the time a foot stepped into their country, to my first visit onto premises...The same courteousness extended to end my trip. In the vip lounge I even had the opportunity to have a long conversation with the owner's assistant/vp about his family, different resorts and traveling. I extended an offer for him to even have dinner at my restaurant if he ever came to Philly (I doubt it will happen). I wish I still had his business car :-(

I loved the spa, the horse back riding and zip lining (although those things were off premises). The food was great!!!!! We went to dinner and they sang to us while eating, what a treat :-). The exclusivity of this place was magnificent! The ONLY thing I wished for while being there, is that there was more of a night life.... it was so exclusive that I often felt as if I was the only one there. Meeting people from different places is my forte. I would have loved for it to be people there that I could talk to....

But if you want a neat, clean, pleasant exclusive experience.... This is def the place to go!

Thanks to the staff, I am thinking about buying property here!!!!

Kudos to you guys, I appreciate the luxury of your place.. Other places could learn a lot from you :-)

My husband and I stayed at Tortuga Bay for 4 nights in mid-January. I agree with another guest who said that guest services was a strong feature. We found very comfortable appointments in our second floor beachfront apartment, including the bed, which was firm . In addition, the food quality at the restaurant was very good, compared to other Carribean resorts we have stayed at.You need to know that this place is very low-keyed and quiet. We would arise early in the AM, have a beautiful buffet breakfast, play 18 holes of golf, and return to the beach for a good book read on comfortable lounge chairs. We went to the fitness center in the early evening, which is small but I never had problems getting on a treadmill or eliptical machine. After dinner, we would finish off the night at the pool table, chatting with the bartender, who couldn't be nicer. If you want a gentle, quiet and rejuvenating trip, this is the place.Definitely get the Signature massage at the Spa. It was fantastic! I would have given the resort a 5-star rating but we didn't get our wake up calls on 2 consecutive mornings. I also would have preferred to know what the tipping protocol was beforehand. It seems like some guests who were tipping everywhere they went, received more attention. We would have preferred to tip staff at the end of our stay.

The arrival and departure service is unbelievable but be sure to arrange it ahead of time. As soon as I landed there was a golf cart waiting for me on the tarmac. The escort whisked me through immigration and customs. (There is a $10 pp visa fee so you need cash.) I was in the minivan moments after stepping off the plane for the 10 min drive to the hotel. (Only once during my stay did I hear the planes.) The departure service was also flawless. I am not sure how we could enter through doors that were marked employees only but we did. This type of service to me, was unprecedented.

But the problem with the hotel is that the service is uneven. The service is either excellent or non-existent service. I arrived at the hotel at 1 ready to hit the beach but I could not get into my room until 3. After eating lunch for a hr, I was frustrated that my room still wasn't ready. Yes, I was upgraded to a 2 BR villa but I didn't need it. I would have been happier having a room ready when I arrived since I was only there for a long weekend.

The hotel provides personal golf carts which is a convenient way to get around the property which is sprawling. I would recommend a few more signs. Each guest is given a cell phone to reach the Villa's butler by pressing and holding the #2 button. This works quite nicely, when I went in the village and needed to be picked up or wanted to arrange a spa treatment from the beach. But sometimes it felt as if it allowed the hotel to have less staff.

The room was beautiful and large. There was a huge fruit basket with wonderful tropical fruit waiting for me but the housekeeper did not replace the plate each day and the knife barely cut the fruit. I only learned from another guest that the hotel would happily, slice the pineapple for me. (I couldn't imagine how I was supposed to eat it with no knife.) Each night there was a cute little bag with two french macarons which was a very nice touch. I am not sure why other reviewers criticized the bed. I thought it was incredibly comfortable.

The bathroom was huge and spacious. It did not have a private toilet which seemed odd for such a huge room The bath products are Molton Brown and the towels are Frette. But this did not make up for the recurring ant problem in the bathroom.

The beach was right outside my room which was fantastic. There were only 1-2 beach attendants for all 30 rooms. When I arrived at the beach at 3ish, there was no one to be found and I had forgotten my red cell phone. Again, it felt like the cell phone allowed the hotel to have less staff.

The chairs were strewn with dirty towels and empty glasses. The chairs weren't cleaned or straightened after people left so it looked disgusting. There are also too many lounge chairs and they are too close to each other. I felt like I was staying at a giant resort despite there only being 30 rooms. The beach attendant did not set-up the towels on the lounge chairs. He merely, gave them to me. He never offered me a menu nor was the beach umbrella ever adjusted as the sun shifted. Once I was set-up, I never saw the man again until the end of the day when he came around looking for tips. There was no little snack or sorbet that so many top hotels offer on the beach mid-morning or afternoon. The beach service was abysmal.

There are also too many lounge chairs despite only having 30 rooms. The beach felt crowded even though there was hardly anyone on the beach.

The resort is a high end resort in a larger not so high end resort which is odd. At dinner, unless you always eat at Bamboo which is on the Tortuga property, the difference in clientele at the restaurants is quite noticeable.

Bamboo has a wonderful Dominican buffet on Friday nights for $45 pp. This is quite reasonable and the food is good. It includes items such as langoustine (mini-lobsters), shrimp ceviche and roasted pig. The other nights the entrees begin at $35 with many at the $55 range. It is pricey for what it was. That said, the langoustines at $55 are delicious even though they are expensive.

La Yola which is at the Mariner is really pretty. The shrimp gumbo was delicious. The restaurant is more reasonably priced with entrees generally, around $25. They have a charming band playing and the atmosphere is lovely. It seemed odd that people sauntered into the hotel without shoes for a restaurant that is not in the sand.

The Six Senses Spa has wonderful treatments. The masseuses are from Asia and incredible. I am not sure why hotels do not hire local masseuses but I have noticed this at other hotels as well. The prices are fair since you aren't paying for saunas and steam rooms but the taxes on the treatments were around 18%.

Overall, I thought the hotel had huge potential but they need to fix their beach service. I would not recommend the property until they do. I disliked sitting next to beach chairs with dirty glasses and towels. It was irritating not be able to find someone to help me. A cell phone is not a solution. High end hotels are able to get high prices based on excellent service and there are too many properties that offer it.

We just returned from a 5 night stay - this was a huge treat for us to stay at a hotel like this. Everything single thing (aside from the bed) exceeded our expectations. From the minute we landed and were met at the stairs of the plane by a representative of Tortuga Bay and fast tracked past all the other tourists through immigration to a waiting car to take us to the hotel, right until our departure where, arriving at the airport we drove past a line of 100's of tourists waiting in line to clear security and were again fast tracked past the entire line through immigration and security and taken into a quiet and private lounge to await our flight. The property is spectacular. We had an ocean front suite so woke up to heavenly views every day. The beach is private and was rarely occupied so we had it to ourselves most of the time. The staff go over and above exceptional service - nothing is too much to ask and everyone is polite, friendly and will go the extra mile to make sure you are having a good time. My husband played golf at both La Cana and Corales and loved both. I used the Spa and it was lovely. We tried a few different restaurants on the property - La Yola was nice and right on the water in a nice setting; oh and breakfast was complimentary each day and was amazing with a huge selection of everything you could ask for. We were also given our own private golf cart to use during our stay to get around the property; totally fun. We will definitely return and highly recommend this hotel mostly for couples looking for a quiet and peaceful getaway. Not really appropriate for kids (in our opinion) - it seems to be the place to go for peace and quiet and to recharge your batteries. There were kids there our first night and they were noisy and up late playing on the beach.
Our only one complaint, which I saw another reviewer said too, was that the bed was SO hard and uncomfortable. Our villa manager was amazing though and had 2 duvets placed between the mattress and the fitted sheet and this definitely helped. Otherwise everything was pretty darn perfect. Highly highly recommend Tortuga Bay and we hope to return again one day........