Hmmm...where to start. My Husband and I have travelled to various "out" islands of the Bahamas several times; we love the gorgeous beaches, and the incredibly friendly Bahamians, but have never experienced anything like what occurred on this particular trip. The Green Turtle Club and Marina on Green Turtle Cay (a ferry ride away from Abaco) appeared from its website to be another winner to add to our list; sad to say, it wasn't. First off, something we weren't aware of is that you have an additional cost as soon as you step on the island of Abaco, in that you have to get a taxi to take you to the dock where the ferry will pick you up to take you across to Green Turtle Cay itself, plus of course, the cost of the ferry too - around $100.00 for the both, plus a wait for the ferry to arrive all in its own good time! It was unfortunate that Air Canada felt it necessary to lose my Husband's bag of expensive diving gear en route, but what was even more surprising was the hotel staff's lack of concern or desire to help us track it down. Bearing in mind the rooms at this hotel have no phones (or TV's!) we were reliant upon being able to use the hotel phone at the front desk, which appeared to be a huge problem for them, and my Husband had to become quite insistent. To cut a long story short, despite many promises, no bag appeared for the duration of our stay - my Husband was able to dive thanks to the helpfulness of Brendal Stevens (the dive outfit next door to the hotel who we would HIGHLY recommend to any divers) We finally got the bag back at home about 8 weeks later! Anyway, back to the hotel... there is a full service marina at this hotel, which it appeared was of greater concern to the staff than the guests actually staying in the hotel itself. Everything (drinks, food and supplies in the small on-site store) was incredibly expensive - the so-called welcome rum punch was a dribble in a plastic cup mostly filled with ice...not a great welcome!
The one thing I cannot complain about was our room; it was lovely, obviously one of the renovated ones from what I've seen other people write about the rooms, and the two ladies who looked after it were lovely and did a great job. The hotel is not on the beach, other than the little bay that you can see in the pictures on its website, which is right outside the breakfast room/conservatory. The actual beach is a 15 minute walk away. The hotel employs mostly young locals who have obviously received very little, or no, training, so their lack of good service wasn't their fault, but that of the hotel owner's for adopting the "that'll do" attitude. Meals at this hotel were my biggest gripe. For a start, we were required to select what we required for dinner that night by 9.00am in the morning - so it could be removed from the freezer and defrosted!! The only "sides" that appeared on every single plate were "rice and peas" (frozen of course!) and frozen sweet corn. To boot, the "Chef" deemed it appropriate to wander round the dining room in the evenings, fishing for compliments. We enquired at several local restaurants where we took to eating, albeit we'd paid for dinner each night of our vacation at GTC, if getting food supplies over to the island was a problem, and were told "Absolutely not...they could get anything we desired." We took to hiring a golf cart for 4 hours a day(more unplanned expense!), during which time, we drove to New Plymouth, the little 'town' on the island and ate very well in the local restaurants, with the local people. Upon enquiring as to why nothing was being cooked fresh at the hotel, we were simply told that no-one else had complained about it!! During our stay, I made note of quite a few "idiosyncracies" that I felt were out of line for this standard of hotel. For example, at breakfast time, the coffee was served from a large urn on a trolley in the conservatory for guests to help themselves to - no problem with that, other than it would have been nice to have it served at our table from a coffee pot...BUT, what did make me flinch was the fact that the spoons (all 3 of them) to stir my coffee with, were to be found in a glass of very murky-looking coffee/water on the coffee cart, as they were there to be used by everyone staying at the hotel. It appeared to be too much to expect a coffee spoon to be set at the tables, to stir my coffee with...the attitide appeared to be "Why dirty lots, when three will do!" We don't go to these small hotels on the out islands of the Bahamas expecting 5* luxury - it's not their way, but this was nothing short of a rip-off...high prices to be paid for exceptionally low standards.
Finally, adding insult to injury, our flight home was an early morning one, which required us to leave the island before any front desk staff were on duty. No mention was made to us beforehand, as to what to do with our room keys, so we did what we felt was the safest thing and took them with us, with the intention of mailing them back to the hotel. Before we could do so, we found they'd made a charge on our credit card because we'd taken the keys with us!
In closing, I have one good thing to say about our trip to Green Turtle Club and Marina, which is that following a very explicit letter of complaint I wrote to the Manager of the hotel, upon our return home, which I also copied to the Mayor on the Island, together with the Bahamas Minister for Tourism, they refunded our entire food and beverage bill to us!! I strongly suspect this was due to the interception of the Minister, but as I pointed out in my letter to him, the "out" islands rely on tourism to sustain their economy and can't afford to treat people like dirt. I guess he agreed with me!!
