I booked the Hilton for my (now) husband's belated birthday present - his birthday was in the January.

We travelled with Virgin Holidays whom I would highly recommend, especially their 'check in, chill out' service at the hotel on our last day. We went for a little luxury travelling upper class out and premium economy back - worth the extra money.

The hotel was very nice and we had booked a Jacuzzi suite which gave us a large bedroom with bath/shower and plenty of space, a sitting room with shower room and, again, plenty of space, and two terraces, one with our own private jacuzzi which we made use of every day!

We went on a room only basis and I have to confess food and drink at the hotel was very expensive. For the price of two drinks and a toasted sandwich at the beach bar, we could get a taxi down to the cafe near Pigeon Point, have lunch each including dessert and 3 or 4 bottles of beer each.

The annoyance was that if, like us, you like to 'pay as you go' for things you buy at the hotel, the bars never had any change first thing in the morning and would want you to sign for drinks and food. We refused to do this many times as we didn't want bills mounting up. However, we did end up having to do it a number of times and were shocked to get a message from front desk asking us to settle the TT$3000 that we had run up before we could have any more 'credit'!! I think this is a standard thing but not something we were used to - mostly any incidentals are settled when guests leave, not when they reach a certain limit.

We did eat in the hotel twice and really didn't find it impressive. We tried the two main restaurants but then decided to eat out and had a fabulous meal every night in a different location. We used the Cre Ole book that the hotel has in the lobby which is free and gives example menus from all the local restaurants. The Seahorse, Bonkers, etc were all excellent with good service and much higher quality food than the Hilton.

We were on the 'sandy' part of the beach which is left fairly rough looking as it's where the turtles nest which added to it's charm. We only went to the pool twice for a few hours as it was always pretty crowded and we preferred the quiet of the beach. I understand topless sunbathing is not encouraged in Tobago and it was really quite a horrible sight to see the biggest, most overweight women 'swinging' around by the pool - one view I certainly could have lived without.

We had a wonderful trip to the rain forest on a mini bus with a chap who was a former monk and was a wealth of information and fun. Swimming in the fresh water pool beneath a waterfall was excellent...and cold! :) We also visited the treehouse restaurant which was nice to see but dreadful food but it really is a 'coach stop' in it's catering style.

We had one or two minor grumbles about things in the hotel, ie. getting to the managers cocktail party about 40 minutes after it started to find all the food had gone but they were quick to listen and do something about it, including a free bottle of champagne and flowers to apologise. The following week there was plenty of food.

The people in Tobago are fantastic. It never ceased to amaze me the smiles and greetings we got. The fun was hailing your local taxi and jumping in with the driver and his family and the shopping and whizzing up to your hotel for 1/5th of the cost of the hotel taxis. If you can be bothered to walk to the hotel main entrance on the road, you will save a fortune in taxi fares.

Overall, we had a wonderful time. It rained every day for about 30-60 minutes but we just sat and had a drink or swam whilst that happened. It was hardly cold! :)

We loved Tobago and are going back this year (2008) but to try a different hotel.