If you have children and are looking for a great vacation spot for little ones (babies and/or toddlers) DO NOT GO TO THE CALABASH! Though they say that they make arrangements for accomodating kids, they DO NOT. We had no highchair, no crib, a second-rate playpen, and no kids menu or eating arrangements to suit little ones. Staff is friendly, but unable or unwilling to cater to the needs of young families. This is a great couples-only resort, but a HORRIBLE choice for families. Staff and other guests make you feel guilty if a child so much as giggles loudly...this is a QUIET resort and is for only those seeking peace and relaxation...beware if you have kids...I would choose the many other options for carribean resorts that REALLY ARE set-up to meet the needs of young families expertly. This resort make only a pretense.

We stayed at the Calabash from 18/5 for 2 weeks. It was a very relaxing holiday. The staff were so friendly & helpful. Holidaymakers that we met there were great fun, the whole place had lovely atmosphere really. It made a change for it to be majority English people staying there.
We stayed on B&B basis as did not get any choice. The breakfast was great as everybody says, room very good, staff excellent, everything clean. Beach towels in abundance.
Would say the weeds in the sea were irritating but something you have to put up with.
Prices were quite expensive in our opinion particularly wine, you are a captive audience & if you want to eat elsewhere apart from 3 restaurants outside the hotel, you need to get a taxi & these are expensive so this increases the price of the evening. The Beach House & Aquarium restaurants are all worth a visit very nice food.
Weather was so so hot - phew -
Had a trip around the Island & saw all sites. Went on dolphins/whale trip, only saw dolphins which have been told is the norm. People who saw a whale must have been lucky!
Not very busy anywhere either which was good
Our ideal holiday - would definitely return

We stayed at the Calabash Hotel in a Pool Site from the 18th of April through to the 2nd of May and had a wonderful time.
The room itself was large with a lounge area, bedroom, large bathroom with a whirlpool bath. Outside we had a lovely front veranda overlooking the gardens and beach and at the back, a terrace area with generous plunge pool and sunbeds etc. Room facilities were excellent and the servicing was efficient and friendly all the time.
We stayed on a Bed Breakfast and Dinner basis. Breakfast was superb with a good choice including fresh fruit, sausages, bacon, omelette etc. Cooked in a seperate area and then served on your front patio it was a lovely way to start the day off. Lunch is available at the beach but we only sampled this once. Nothing to do with the quality which is very good but the fact that we could not then finish our evening meals off!! Afternoon tea is served from about 15:30 through till 17:00 and includes cake and sandwiches, all very nice. At around 18:00, H'orderves are delivered to your room, just enough to keep you going till dinner! Dinner itself was superb, the main menu did not change during our stay but the Chef's Specials made sure we did not have any problems with choice, these changed on a daily basis. Quality and quantity were very good for a Caribbean hotel. We'd paid for the dinners but the prices didn't seem to bad for a hotel and the drinks we thought reasonable although, as mentioned in another review, you are a captive audience. We had a bottle of Barcardi from the flight and bought some cans of coke in a supermarket and this caused no issues. Supermarkets and the Duty free at the airport were very good price wise on cigarettes and alchohol.

We found the beach o.k but have to say, we only really used it during the afternoon for a couple of hours before 'Carib Time' as our pool area had the sun through from breakfast till about 14:00. There were quantities of weed around but also areas close to the shore where there was none at all. All in all a good beach but not the best we've experienced. Had no problems with sand flies but maybe it was when we stayed that they were not in evidence. A few traders about but they took no offence to a polite 'no thanks you' and were not pushy at all. The gardens were well kept with some lovely flowers, the ones outside our front patio regularly attracting humming birds to feed. We did not have any experience of the dive centre (ScubaTech) so cannot comment on this for anyone I'm afraid. I understand though that they are a franchise and not connected to the Hotel despite being on the property. There was some noise from the airport but most of the planes are very quiet and gone withing a few seconds. There were probably no more than six large planes each week and the majority on different days and the noise also disappeared quickly with these as well. Never heard any night flights at all.

We did a few trips and would recommend St George on Saturday, market day. A local taxi probably being a better bet than an organised tour if it's just the town, fort etc. that you want to see. We also did the fly/cruise out to the Grenadines and this was fantastic. Fly from Grenada in a little 10 seater to Union Island and then a cruise on board a schooner visiting three other islands. Tobago Keys was the highlight allowing you a chance to swim with the turtles! Delicious lunch cooked on board ship. One of the other trips was the dolphin and whale watching experience, a half day on a powered catamaran. We were lucky enough not only to see scores of dolphins but also a mother whale with calf, fantastic and so memorable.

All in all, we can say this holiday gave us what we wanted with style. We just wanted two weeks with sunshine, good accomodation and service and no hassles, we got all of this and more. We have visited many Caribbean islands, most of them small like Grenada and it compares well. Caribbean hotels on these smaller islands are not of the same standard as some larger places but it stand out very well indeed. It's also small size wise at the moment and does seem to attract an older generation, mainly english. We're both middle to late forties and it suited what we wanted. No loud music, no drunken outbursts from anyone, no 'reserving' sunbeds and very very laid back.

If it stays this way we'd return without hesitation. If anyone would like any further information or clarification on anything at all then please feel free to drop us a line.

We stayed at the Calabash early April 06 for 1 week, primarily after reading the reviews on Trip Advisor. We stayed the following week at the Grenadian by Rex.

To summarise I would say that we were disappointed with the Calabash. It has pretentions of being an ultra luxurious service orientated resort, but it just didn't quite match up, especially for the amount of money they charge.

We stayed in a Whirlpool suite on a Room only basis.

PROS
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- In-room air-conditioning is excellent.
- The grounds are nicely presented with palm trees and flowers.
- The beds are quite comfortable.
- Staff are attentive and friendly
- Breakfast on your patio is a enjoyable way to start the day and the menu items are extensive.
- Tea & Biscuits/Cakes/Sandwiches at 3:30pm are complimentary and tasty.

CONS
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- The reception/entrance/drive area is underwhelming to say the least.
- Rooms are a little small and ours looked dated and tired.
- Drinks (soft and hard) are expensive. There are no on-site options other than to buy from the Calabash at over-inflated prices. TIP- there is a local shop that sells provisions at a fraction of the Calabash charges. This is next to the BoatYard restaurant.
- The beach is small and suffers from sand-flies.
- There is weed about 2 feet from the shore-line. Hardly any-one ever goes into the sea because of this.
- There is no house reef, so snorkelling is a waste of time.
- The hotel is on the airport flight-path so you occasionally get very loud planes passing overhead. Maybe 1 or 2 a day.
- There is some heavy construction occuring at the Boat Yard, and some noise as a result.
- The Rhodes restaurant is the only one on site for dinner. It is over-priced and overrated. I don't think Gary could possibly have any involvement with this restaurant anymore. There are far better restaurants for less money on the island e.g. The Beach House

- The dive centre, Scubatec, is awful. It is currently in the process of being sold and has caretakers looking after it. This has to be one of the worst dive centres we have encountered. The caretakers couldn't careless about providing a good service to the divers. We were never asked what we wanted to see, where we wanted to go. Every enquiry about which dive sites we would be visiting where answered with "we will see tomorrow". We overhead one female instructor speaking to some students about some other students - she referred to them as 'the idiot family'. Highly unprofessional. Speaking with some of the local staff it became apparent that things were not right at the dive centre and they were desperately hoping for new buyers. Tanks were under filled on numerous occasions and often not even ready, even though most of the staff had nothing to do all day. You had to carry/assemble/clean all your own kit including tanks and weights. The dive shop is tiny and doesn't have a proper classroom. The hike to the pool for students with full kit is a long way, but no assistance is offered.

On one dive we were ditched by the Dive leader as he had students to teach, he just said head in this direction and if you don't find the wreck head back. We got our briefing 5 minutes from the site - no maps, current check etc. The current was too strong and we had to abort the dive - the boat was well away from us having stayed with the students. We got no apology or offer of a refund even though the instructor didn't even bother checking the current before we went in. In short if you want to dive/learn to dive STAY AWAY! At least until the new owners get a chance to put things right.

-Mosquitos and sand flies are everywhere here. More-so than at the Rex. We suffered very few bites as we were ultra-careful having had a nasty experience in Yosemite one summer, but most other people we saw were covered in dozens of bites. Take plenty of strong DEET.
- There are very few local dining options that you can get to on foot, although the Red Crab is ok.

I would have probably given the Calabash a 3 rating if not for the dive centre and over-priced restaurant. I also think the resort is better catered for senior guests and they were in fact in the majority.