We have recently returned from a fantastic 2 week stay at Turtle Beach with our 2 children of 9 & 7. We had chosen the Rex primarily for its location as we wanted the opportunity to see the leatherback turtles laying their eggs on the beach. We try to do a bit of research before we book our holiday & so were aware of the very mixed reports when we booked.
We arrived at the hotel after a very good Virgin flight to be greeted by very friendly & helpful staff & a very welcoming rum or fruit punch. Our room was ready for us & within an hour of arriving we were in the pool.
The superior room we had was a very good size for the 4 of us, it was always kept very clean with a neverending supply of fresh towels & several changes of clean bedlinen,although the room had obviously been decorated recently it was looking a little tired, the bathroom was in need of a refit but everything was working & it was again always kept clean. Regardless of the things I have mentioned we found our room very comfortable & completely adequate for the amount of time we spent in it, our fridge was stocked with soft drinks & beer when we arrived & restocked again for our 2nd week, this was free of charge.
There had been some complaints about the staff in the restaurant during our first few days & it was very noticeable that there waas always a manager present at every mealtime for the next few days, our own experience of the staff here was that they were very friendly & helpful & you felt that you got from them what you gave. The food was excellent with lots of local dishes & only a couple of dishes repeated during our 2 week stay & you couldn't help but think this was probably due to popular demand as the headchef was mingling in the restaurant at least once each day eager to hear the guests feedback. Our favourite buffet was probably the Tobagan night although the carvery on a sunday night was excellent. There is an a la carte menu for lunch & dinner which is most things on it are covered by the allowance you are given if on AI .
The beach is beautiful & never very busy, as previous reports suggest the rips make the sea unsuitable for young children to swim in, we went to Pigeon Point a few times & the sea was perfect for the kids .
We hired a car through Sheppeys car hire which was great, we visited Englishmans Bay which is just idyllic the small restaurant there was fantastic for local food. We had decided to go on the ISLAND GIRL catamarran trip which was absolutely fantastic, we saw wild dolphins, a leatherback turtle, a baby turtle & lots of beautiful fish whilst snorkelling. The Captain, Scott & his crew provide a great lunch & lots of liquid refreshment & generally make sure you have the trip of a lifetime!
A word of warning about the turtlewatch programme run by the hotel. You can register your room number with reception so that they phone you when there is a turtle on the beach although we did this & checked several times that our room was on the list we never got a call. The best way to hear about it was to swap room numbers with other guests & give each other a knock . We were lucky enough to see a turtle several times it was a truly amazing experience.
Having been to several islands in the caribbean. all of which we have loved & all of which we would happily return to, Tobago & its people certainly has something very special about it. If you decide to book for Turtle Beach don't expect a 5* hotel but a very good 3*. We will definitely be returning to Tobago & Turtle Beach.

OK...if you are reading this you are probably going and nothing i can say will persuade you not too. Here are my top bits of information that I didnt know before i went and which took most of my time there to find out.

1)The location of this hotel cannot be bettered; its wonderful to be so close to the sea. As you can probably tell from this website, the hotel has a huge and loyal following who regard all comments about its shortcomings an attack on them personally. Be prepared to suffer in silence...in fact go one better, invent a huge smile and up the ravings about its mavellousness.

2)If you weigh more than 9 stone be careful how you sit on the dining room chairs...some of them are a bit ropey, but it adds to the fun watching people land on their bums.

3)Its staff are overworked and often rather truculent and require patience and a willingness to accept the fact that they favour the clients who are willing to people-please. The rooms often dont get made up until 4/5pm.

4)Take your driving licence(you might want to get out) and a small kettle or thermos flask (if you like your tea and coffee)if you are not in a superior room. There is a permanently boiling tea urn round the corner from the bar so you can make your own'Liptons'tea there.

5)The food is 'healthy' if you are used to Big Mac and pizza feeding at home, and 'good' if you think it appropriate to be eating a roast dinner on Sunday night in the Caribbean.
If you are a devotee of Jamie Oliver, Elizabeth David the food is vile.It is certainly plentiful. It is possible to buy your food plan when there and it is also possible to upgrade to al-a-carte which is good.

6)You can have ice-cream for pudding instead of the pudding buffet but you must ask for it and the staff will helpfully get if for you from the ice cream safe.

7)The kids club is for over 4's only. 'Family room' means they put another bed in your room.

8)the big silver machines in the corridor are full of ice.

9)The drinks at the bar are very small, watered down and its quite hard work to get pissed there. The shop sells a few drinks, half the price.

10) The rooms are very basic and could do with some updating.If that sort of thing bothers you, take a few tools with you and give them a hand with the renovations.

Have a lovely time!

on arrival to turtle beach resort we found the rooms clean but basic adequate for our needs and served a purpose. bathrooms are in need of upgrading though!
hotel pool area is lovely and the beach is lovely where else can you see such wonderful turtles night after night!!?
hotel management are very obliging and will assist with any problems immediately.
but...beware there is a dress code and it states no shorts ! but what it actually means is only long trousers for men not 3/4 length trousers. No Jeans obviously and you should have collared shirts. ~I would advise that during lunch ladies ensure you have changed into shorts and t shirt and make sure nothing is see through or you will be turned away from the restaurant.This happened to many people who thought that a sarong dress over swim wear was going to be acceptable but no it was not!
there is a new manager who is trying very hard to put in changes to the hotel as apparently it has dropped standards considerably over the last few years. i believe he will succeed and you will see improvements in the next year or so. His main challenge however is with his staff especially restaurant and some older bar staff the attitudes of some leave a lot to be desired this is not so for all but many. This is a task the new manager is challenging with at the moment. if you are going to turtle beach soon look and see the signs behind the wall leading to the kitchen requesting the staff to smile!!
i think a lot of the problems are the fact that us english people are not as laid back as the togagans for example when we ask for a drink we like to drink it with our meal but in tobago you can wait anything up to 30 mins for your drinks order to arrive at you table they do not work quickly for anyone!this is also the case in restaurants around the island.
But on the whole we had a lovely holiday i would go back to tobago it is a lovely island and the local people are very friendly. look out for Keith he will visit the hotel and is a tour guide he will offer you trips all over the island he used to be " MR T & T " body builder he is lovely and will really look after you and your family. we had lovely trips out with him. his company is called 'A Team' nothing is impossible for this man to orgainise. there are many locals offering tours of the island but he seems to be the best (for us anyway)! Also go and see Jacky on Turtle Beach for a massage , reflexology, hair braiding she is great and reasonable rates! The hotel was very safe for children as long as they stay off the beach at night it gets very dark and it is a public beach. security is excellent around the hotel so there is always someone watching the beach and every area of the hotel to ensure safety!
the food in the restaurant was lovely not repetitive and was a bit of everything. the only change i would like to see is the a la carte seperate to the buffet restaurant and a snack bar at lunch time again seperate from the buffet as we did not realise we could use the a la carte and lunch snack menu until half way through our holiday and it does give you more flexibility with your meals so do not for get to ask!there is a kids lunch menu too!
at the pool bar ask for a mango smoothy they are lovely !
lastly you will have regular visits from the friendly beach dogs they can be a pain if you feed them and fuss them but if you ignore them they will slide under your sun bed and sleep all day! they did not show any sign of aggression to any guest whilst we were there and certainly did not seem to be a problem.

After reading peoples reviews i felt to write one aswell to put my point of view across. I visited tobago last october and couldn't of been more pleased with the island. Most of my family had been before, but as being only 14 they didn't think i would enjoy it. We went with 19 of us! We couldn't of been more pleased with the island, amazing! We only went for a week but enjoyed it alot.

The rooms were ok quite basic but its what we expected also the holiday isn't all about the rooms.
The food was traditional caribbean food, very nice, good selection to choose from. We did all inclusive which worked out cheaper than self-catering!
A nice long beautiful beach, nice and friendly staff, nice to talk to and be around. 1 special lady was named Jacki she does hair braiding absolutey lovely, hopeing to see her again!
Pool area was really nice and very clean, cleaned every night! Very safe as it wasn't that deep.
Last but not least 'Sunday School'. I enjoyed it so much!! Would recomend it to everyone of all ages!
People have written terrible reviews about this place but you can only judge until you get there and have the experience your self!! I am going back to tobago this october, cant wait!