My husband and I stayed at the Hitlon Tobago for twelve nights between 12/27 and 1/8. We were using points so our entire accomodation, including breakfast as my husband is a Hilton Diamond member, was free. Two things made our stay here enjoyable the fact that yes it was free and that we rented a car so we were able to leave the property and see all that Tobago has to offer.
It seems that many people who travel to Tobago, stay in the Lowlands or Crown Point area, participate in the all-inclusives offered at the hotels and never leave this area which is about 5 minutes from the airport. However, as we don't like to be where crowds are and like to meet and make friends with the locals we made sure to rent a car and get out. This was made a little easier as we stayed our first few nights in Tobago at Sandcastles in Castara on the recommendation of friends who came last year. We fell in in love with Castara and would vist that beach or nearby Englishman's bay pretty much everyday. We also did some excellent snorkeling in Speyside (we used Frank's) a few times.
While we found most of the staff perfectly nice and helpful most of the time , it seemed that if you weren't on their schedule and asked for anything "additional" they weren't as accomdating. By "additional" I mean things that are standard at most hotels such as replenishing wash cloths. We also had a minor incident, our first morning there. We returned to our room after breakfast and our key didn't work. Not a big deal, so we went to front desk and got new keys. They didn't work. So we went back twice more and finally on the fourth time insisted that there was something wrong with our door and asked that they send someone. They said they would and sent the bellman, Brian, back with me. Brian was lovely but as he was not the engineer there was really nothing he could do to rectify the situation. My husband and I stood outside our room for 2 1/2 hours before someone came to let us in.
We complained at the front desk and they compensated us with free internet for our stay which was fair.
From that day on we were up early and packed the car with our beach gear and left directly from breakfast so at least our day wouldn't be delayed by going back to the room.
We also recommend going to the breakfast at 7am when they open as we made the mistake of going after 9am one day and it was very crowded and they gave away our table while we were standing in line at the buffet.
We didn't eat too much at the hotel (except for breakfast which was fine) but the few times we did we found it to be overpriced for the quality and not very good. The room service prices were reasonable but the food wasn't very good. We also ate one meal at the Plantation room (buffet style). It was allright but we were shocked at the $87 US bill. We decided to eat at Coral Reef for New Year's eve has they had a special meal for $115 US per person. This seemed like a fair price at the time of booking. However, my husband was quite shocked to see the same breakfast potatoes that we ate every day on the breakfast buffet served with his main entree. Our food was not very good and certainly not worth the price. We ate off property at some wonderful places (Cuffie River Nature Retreat, Bamboo Mile on Milford Rd and Ru B Lou's on Shirvan Rd) to name a few.
While the front desk staff wasn't particulary helpful or friendly, all of the bar staff were great.
Bottom line- if we were paying the steep prices they charge we wouldn't have been happy. It's not worth it. However, it was a nice place to sleep (I did enjoy having NBC and our local NYC affiliate at that) and we were very happy with our trip to Tobago. The island is beautiful and the local people are friendly. If you like all inclusives the Hilton Tobago is the place for you.

Possibly the worst Hilton in the World (I've only been to 3 others but I can't imagine anywhere else could be worse.)

Checked in. Trekked back and forth trying to find a room up to basic scratch. Saw three separate rooms. Didn't happen.

No working a/c, fridge or phone. Had to make long-distance calls from my roaming cell-phone to ask for assistance. No towels, beach or basic. The rooms were dusty and smelt....hmmm...hard to describe without using profanity...but they smelt like how i imagine an (-) might.

Room service? Jokes!!! A couple sandwiches took an hour. Tried to order a bottle of wine only to be told no wine in stock. In the whole hotel. Then got a call-back about an hour later. Their mistake, everthing on the list is availabel. Made an order. Hour passed, no wine. Called room service - oh sorry, that wine is out of stock. Kept waiting for someone to say we were on MTV's Boiling Point.

Couldn't use the pool after dark because the pool-lights and all surrounding pathway lights were out. Couldn't risk leaving the door open just meters away from a public beach, so we lay awake sweating all night wondering if there was a better way to spend $250 US.

Oh but they gave us a refund....$33 US for our troubles. Fantastic. Didnt' quite cover the cost of the sandwiches.

We would have been more comfortable sleeping in the car.

Wrote a really angry letter to Hilton Corps...ah, sweet futility.

Don't want to waste time even talking more about this. But people need to be warned. Booked for one night at the Hilton. Arrived waited nearly 10 minutes for someone to move my luggage. Walked 5 minutes to the first room which was behind god's toenail. Aircondition not working. They offered us another room which was on the opposite side of the hotel, which we had to drive to because it was so far.

2nd room: aircondition not working, fridge not working , room smells like an armpit, no towels and when I went to use the phone to report it... the phone wasn't working ..suprise suprise.. Called the front desk from cell phone (overseas) and after 10 minutes on the phone someone arrived to take us upstairs to see a room and guess what.... the aircondition was not working and the fridge was frozen.

SOOO frustrated... went back downstairs and wanted to swim in the pool and .... wait for it ... no towels!! Called again and they said to go to our pool attendant .. who was non existant.. so my boyfriend walked nearly a half mile to get towels where he was informed that they "were not accustomed" to giving out towels after 5, he sent the lady to look for some and she never came back.

Ordered room service by cell phone which came 1 hour later and was cold and the next morning ... was still outside our door.
Ordered a bottle of wine and they said there was no red wine in the whole hotel. We called back thinking this was ludicrous and they said they had the wine. We ordered it and an hour later... no wine. I called back and they said "someone was meant to call you to say that wine is not in stock".
Went to sleep in a mosquito infested hot as hell room because we dare not open the door due to the dark surroundings and vacant side of hotel they stored us in.
the room was dank and horrlble and the floor was sticky .. dont think they cleaned that room in a year.
The room cost $250US a night. they refunded us $33US. for the inconvenience. I almost told them to shove it.
So that was my second and last experience at Hilton Tobago. Next time I will be at Old Grange ... despite the name .. it costs $50US a night and is definitly more of a "4star" hotel than Hilton Tobago claims to be.

just got back from the hilton tobago after a 7 day break for the new year and had a great time, seemed longer than a week (not because it dragged on, just different every day and so relaxing). firstly on the inbound flight, ensure you ask for visa card from flight attendants and complete on plane, or this will cause chaos at passport control and hold everything up. (as we found out). with correct paperwork we were through passport control in 20 minutes before collecting bags. this was the worst part of the trip, the conveyor belt was about the size as those at the checkout at your local supermarket and then all bags are stacked on top of each other in a haphazard way and you have to climb and move bags to locate your own. i would suggest put something bright on your cases to make them stand out as our 3 black cases looked the same as the other 400 cases!. as soon as we collected out bags which took approx 30 minutes to locate, we were out of airport within 2 minutes. if you book as a package as we did from the uk. a chap was waiting outside with a welcome pack and instructed us to wait for rest of guests before embarking on minibus. i would suggest just getting a taxi which cost aprrox £6.00/ $10.00 usd as otherwise you will wait in the heat for everone else to locate their bags. transfer is 10 - 15 minutes and if you get a taxi you will arrive before the rest of the guests and check in will be quicker. upon arrival all staff very helpful, check in was only 15 minutes even whilst waiting for other guests and plenty of porters to take bags and show you to your room. we had a ground floor room, good air con, good size clean and tidy with fridge large tv and internet access point as standard. baclony with sea views from all rooms. the rooms cleaned daily and fresh towels twice a day and more if required. meals at the buffet restaurant were never busy even at breakfast, plenty of choice and drinks served quickly, unless you want a bottle of wine which always seemed to take a bit longer. meals at the coral restaurant (the fine dining)were very nice but the service was appalling, allow 30 minutes to get a drink and an hour for your starter, which will be followed immediately by the main course, others will get served before you and the staff appear to be more interested in refilling your drinks than delivering meals, which can be ok unless you are hungry. you have to book in advance for some reason and even with an early 19.30 hours table and only 3 other tables occupied upon arrival, we did not eat until 20.30 hours although drinks were refilled throughout. i would suggest getting a taxi off site if you want a nicer meal in a different atmosphere. the pool side grills and bars were great, the swim up bar very quick and efficient and never busy, the grill bar, either a different buffet every day with plenty of choice or a good grill menu which was delivered quickly, hint, let a waitress serve you drinks as it is quicker than waiting at bar. overall there were always tables available at all restaurants and bars, even over new year when the hotel was at capacity, this also goes for sunbeds, more than enough, prime locations are taken quickly around main pool, but still plenty for late starters. the two smaller sattelite pools were often deserted and a number of times, my family of three would have the whole area to ourselves. the beaches are nice, yes there is litter from the strong atlantic current, but i did see staff in a tractor cleaning as best they could, very early mornings. the waves are very strong, great fun to play in but kids must be supervised and would suggest a small floating aid at all times, my nine year old had a great time in them and he is only just learning to swim. with regards to any entertainment this was normally over by 9pm and was not in your face, just pleasant in the background, all bars were very quiet and even new years eve was very low key. if you wish to leave site there is a free shuttle to local beaches and sites, but if the times don't suit taxis are very cheap and always available, even at key departure times to airport. on a final point ignore other comments about the state of the hotel with sand and salt blast from the ocean, yes the roof is a bit rusty, but why would you look up there anyway, the hotel is not as luxurious as a hilton in the uk and the service is always slower in the caribbean. the staff were all very hellpful and freindly, we kept our room until 4pm on day of departure for an extra $40 which gave us another full day poolside before we left. with regards to airport departure, fairly chaotic, at least you could queue in the shade, nothing to buy or sit on worth mentioning, i am sure our Virgin 747 was actually bigger than the departure building! overall a great holiday, nice cooling breezes and freindly locals and staff.