We went to this resort for a week before going on a cruise for the second week. The resort is ideally placed as it is right on the most fantastic beach. The accommodation is blocks of rooms and there are about 40 rooms to a block. We had a great room as we upgraded, and it was a suite, lounge with TV, bedroom with TV and a nice bathroom. The thing to be aware of is that only one of these blocks has a lift, and that is block 1. We were on the 4th floor (top floor) of block 4, and as my wife had hurt her leg before we went it was a bit of a struggle. We were unable to change rooms as the resort was full. There are 3 resturants, one that does Caribbean cusine, one that does mainly fish, and one that is the normal everyday restaurant and the one that does breakfast. All in all its quite a nice place, and as I said earlier a fantastic beach.

My husband and I have just returned from a week at the Almond Casuarina. Yes the hotel is a bit of diamond in the rough, and, yes, as others have said, in need of little TLC but we found that the efforts and friendliness of the staff, the grounds and the location go a long way in making up for that. There are some definite issues with their check in procedures which does not help with first impressions but I would like to give a shout out to Joanne at reception who handled the situation with real professionalism and grace.
The restaurants were very good, all a la carte, with beautiful beach and pool views,( The Dover was our favourite.) A lot of effort is put into service and presentation by the restaurant staff. Breakfast was buffet style, fresh and plentiful with something for everyone. The gardens are lush and immaculatley kept. The beach is gorgeous with lots of palm trees for shade and the pool areas are lovely and well maintained. We had a great one bedroom suite in Block 4 with a lush tropical garden view. The room was nicely tiled, the furniture was fairly new, the king sized bed was really comfortable and it was spotlessly clean.
It was a quiet holiday, but that's exactly what we were looking for. If you want a little more action St. Lawrence Gap is a ten minute walk where you'll find nice restaurants shops and entertainment. Oistins is a short cab ride away, lots of fun, local style, on Fri & Sat. nights.
And don't miss the Rum and History tour it was a great day, Roger and Shari were terrific guides. This was our first time in Barbados and it will definitely not be our last. I don't think I've come across more friendly people than the Barbadians, it just seems to be their nature.

We stayed here for two weeks in January and found this hotel to be a real mix of highs and lows. The hotel has real potential but somehow they're not quite getting it right.

When we arrived, we were given a room on the ground floor in Block 5. At the time they were still building a pool and landscaping the gardens near to that block, which means that it's currently a vast expanse of mud and so we complained and asked to be moved. After a less than productive conversation with the unenthusiastic duty manager Alison, we were moved to Block 4 (still near the mud!) for two nights and then to Block 2 for the rest of our stay. Block 2 was much nicer but we weren't overly impressed at having to wait two days before we could unpack. Alison insisted the hotel had told our travel agent about the construction - this turned out to be a lie, as they were told it was due to finish a month earlier. The best block to stay in is Block 1, which is the only one with a lift, but I appreciate these are ocean view rooms that cost extra. We'd booked a room that was supposed to have a view of tropical gardens, but there's not a lot tropical about a view of men with wheelbarrows planting things in the mud!! The rooms themselves are ok, a little dated but perfectly acceptable.

The staff were a real mix too - some people were very friendly but a lot seemed to have an attitude problem and gave the impression that they couldn't be bothered. I don't know whether this is due to the impending change of hotel ownership, but it's not entirely pleasant!

The only other main negative was the entertainment, but it was so bad it was actually amusing to watch...the dancers hadn't quite grasped the idea of moving in time with eachother or the music! :) It finished at about 11pm each night, so if you're in Block 1, don't plan to sleep anytime before then!

The food was brilliant, couldn't fault it! There was a massive selection at breakfast, lunch was either a beach BBQ or a-la-carte in the Dover Grill (amazing!), and then at dinner you had the choice of Enid's, Dover Grill or Waves. Having to book in advance was a bit of a pain as it's not something you really want to do on holiday, but it avoids waiting I guess! There's also room service at lunch and dinner if you want it, and a little café open most of the day doing snack food like ice cream and pizza.

The drinks were amazing too, all branded alcohol in plentiful supply! We didn't think the drinks seemed watered down at all, and the bar men were all very attentive and great fun!

The pools are nice, beach is nice, location is good if you want to walk into the gap! Overall, we had a great time but this was largely due to the people we met who were also on holiday there! I doubt we'd go back to this hotel unless the construction was finished, gardens completed and the staff given a lesson in how to smile!!

My husband and I stayed at the Almond Casuarina Resort in Barbados for one week in January 2013. We were slightly reserved, due to the negative reviews we read before we went. Fortunately we were very pleasantly surprised, overall. Not the best first impression when we got there, however, as some major organizational skills are required with the Reservations Desk. We felt as though it was a surprise that our bus showed up, as apparently none of the rooms were ready. It took about 2 hours before we got our room, which was slightly irritating, but no big deal. We had a lovely room overlooking the new pool and the gardens, which was fantastic. The food was great throughout the week, even though we have always preferred buffets, it was extremely good. The beach is very nice as well, great for walking. For the most part, the staff was courteous, the only thing we didn't have that we would have really liked, was a fridge in our room. We asked if that could be remedied, but knew by their response that it was not happening, haha. No big deal at all. The drinks were great, they made a huge variety of drinks, which was nice. We went to Oistins on Friday night, and it was so much fun. The only major thing we thought the resort lacked was entertainment in the evening, and music at night and/or during the day. When we go on holidays to the caribbean, we enjoy entertainment after dinner, and it was so minimal that we couldn't call it entertainment, quite disappointing. However, food, drinks, beach, room, and weather were all excellent, and we definitely plan on returning. Glad to hear about the Couples Resorts buying it, I'm sure that will clear up any minor issues that other people have.