We returned from our trip to Spice Island thoroughly relaxed & ready to face the British Winter.
When we arrived after the long flight, touched down in Tobago for an hour,.hadn't known about that. We were greeted with a welcome fruit punch, non alcoholic, which, as we were already tired was most welcome.
We were shown to our Oceanview room, which was tastefully furnished & shown our bathroom, which was so big, you could have held a party there!
The food at all times was excellent & we became quite friendly with the English chef there, as I have lactose intolerance & he was most helpful in making substitutions, when a choice I made contained lactose. The food was International with a strong Grenadian influence, not too spicy! We bought his recipe book & I have enjoyed trying out some of them myself.
The hotel was handy for local shops & also the capital, St Georges, which still remains mainly untouched by tourism, although that may change in the future.
There were plenty of beach chairs & it was not necessary to 'reserve' chairs, which is a practise I deplore.
The only niggle we had, was that there was quite a large charge for using the Internet, but we have since received a letter to say that this is now FREE.
The staff were always there to serve your every need, but remained unobtrusive.
Hopefully we can return in the not too distant future.

We had a marvellous stay at Spice Island.
The hotel is very luxurious, the staff are delightful and the service excellent.
We stayed in a luxury Almond Pool Suite but, like other reviewers, found them a waste of money. We used the private pool only twice during our stay (water very cold!) and regretted not having a view of the sea. The Seagrape rooms which are on the beach and have a seaview, are much cheaper and by far better value.
If you are imagining a deserted Caribbean beach, the one which the hotel is on is not it! Whilst it is very attractive and large, with excellent swimming it is in quite a built up area, flanked by other hotels. However this did not detract at all from our enjoyment of the surroundings as the beach is huge and very long. Other reviewers have criticised being harrassed by beach hawkers. We found them very polite and if you nicely said no they were swiftly on their way!
There is a nice swimming pool only yards from the beach which was hardly used. There was no problem finding sun beds on the beach and there was very little reserving (a bete-noir of ours!). There was enough shade, as if you cannot find an umbrella you can always find somewhere under the shade of bushes and trees.
The standard of decoration and design of the hotel was excellent and it has obviously profited from the extensive renovation after the Hurricane.
The food was excellent and the dishes were comprised of a lot of local produce. The standard of cooking and the included wine in the 'all in' rate were very good.
The service in the dining room is slightly relaxed - but we were not in a hurry.
The hotel is extremely expensive, in our view, so the standard of our fellow guests was very high - 85% Brits. We heard a nice story attributed to the father of the current owner - he reputably said 'when there is a tee shirt seen at breakfast it is time to put up our prices'!!
Our fellow guests were mostly delightful and any children were well controlled and behaved.
Two gripes.
1) We thought the boutique, Gatsbys, extremely expensive. Much better to stroll down to the local shopping mall (about 7 mins walk) and get Tommy Hillfiger shirts at a quarter of the price!
2) We thought the hotel extremely expensive. There is no question that the 'experience' is really first class but the Caribbean, in our view, now offers much worse value than the far east and other luxury holiday areas.

What can I say except - You have to go to Grenada and you have to stay at Spice Island. I am saying this as one who is not easily impressed.

On arrival, although we didn't realise it at the time we were welcomed by the owners son, who made reference to my positive initial remarks when we met him properly later, at the cocktail party.

Grenada is a beautiful Island and benefits from not being exploited for the tourist - PLEASE keep it that way - its why I love it.

We stayed in the sea beach suites . I have stayed in similar accommodation on other islands but this room was superior in every way. The bed was sooooooooo comfy and the skylight over the bath was a super touch.

I cannot recognise the resort or the beach described by the lady with the small child. The beach was cleaned every day by a team of female beach cleaners in high vis jackets. In addition the hotel cleaned the beach as well. I HATE litter and rubbish and I was most impressed at the lengths this team went to to clean the beach - and it was clean. I recognised the efforts of the beach cleaner in my feedback sheet.

The management of this hotel are highly visible, without being intrusive and I liked this.

The food was great (althought I did return food twice in 14 days as it was cold) and if you wanted something off menu you only had to ask. We bumped into Mark the head chef at the bar one evening and next night we enjoyed a wonderful lobster dish - I am not sure any other hotel would accomodate such requests.

After two days we ventured into the local town and we were approached by a tall good looking man who asked us if we were staying in spice island - when we said we were he said he was a chef there and asked us if we enjoyed our dinner the night before - that we impressive.

The resport was full, but apart from lunch time appeared quite empty - which I loved.

The beach sellers were always polite and took no for an answer - we only ever saw one or two and we walked the beach most days.

Sir Hopkins is a charming man and he and his family regularly dined in the restaurant .

The SPA was wonderful and I enjoyed a number of excellent treatments there.

A trip on the eight seater plan to uion island followed by a trip around the grenadines on the scaramouch is a must. As an animal lover the dolphin and whale trip are a must. We saw loads and loads of dolphins and whales - the crew were as excited as us as they saw zero animals over the previous three days.

I always say there are too many places in the world to visit to revisit anywhere but I would go back to Spcie Island.

The staff were excellent and within a couple of days knew us by name and refered to us by name often.

The BA rep (Barbara) was wonderful. It was my partners 40th birthday while we were there and she arranged for us to have dinner on the beach that night. The local rep and the hotel sent my partner a card. When we got back Barbara called me to see how the trip went and sent me a lovely card and photo album. BA prestige will definetely get more business from us.

The local rep was also the best we have ever had.

We met some smashing people on this holiday (the clientelle is typically mature and retired) and we enjoyed some superb dinners with some smashing people.

Without doubt the best relaxing holiday in 20 years of foreign travel.

Spice Island Beach Resort was a well run hotel with good service and food.

It however was not a resort I will be visiting again for a number of reasons:

Although we had been reassured by our travel agent that the sea would be very calm and child friendly (we travelled with an 18 mth old) we were unable to swim in the sea as it was very rough. Locals confirmed that the beach is renowned for having rough water.

The beach was dirty, I found used condoms and their packets on the beach. My daughter thought they would be great to play with. I had other ideas!

While sitting on the beach with my daughter I was accosted by a man who tried to offer me group sex which he claimed other guests were willing to pay for on a regular basis. He was very graphic and obsene and I was very upset as it was in full earshot of my daughter. The hotel manager dealt with it and I did not see the perpertrator again, however I was unable to enjoy the beach as I felt the security was very much under par.
On the same note, we had a junky / hobo sitting outside our room on a number of occasions.

The childcare was terrible. We employed a babysitter to help during the day and sit for our daughter at night. She was not interested in her job at all and spent her time during the day when she should have been playing with my daughter reading my magazines without even asking me if I minded!

The kids club was a lovely facility but needed more toys and proper staff. The kids were just plonked in front of the TV or left to roam around without interaction. The staff did not play with them and all the other parents who were there at the same time as us had the same complaints.

I even found my daughter strapped into her buggy screaming hysterically when I went to check on her!

I have vast experience of babysitters on holiday and I was shocked at their lack of interest and enthusiasm.
If any of the parents went into the kids club and played with the kids the staff looked on in amazement. I can only presume that they are not used to playing with children.
Ordinarily I tip the sitter very generously at the end of a trip, but I was just pleased to see the back of this one.

It was a great shame that the hotel was let down by these points.