Colony Club is a leading Barbados beach hotel set on a nice section of sand on the island’s famous West Coast. It has a distinct flavour of traditional Barbados – you arrive via a marble courtyard dressed in coral render and trimmed with sandy pink - but it also has a modern, beachfront character too, with rooms angled to look over the meandering pool (with its swim-up bar) to the sea. Some of the 96 rooms and suites, which are stylish and very comfortable, have steps straight down into the pool from their patios. For all the air of long-established Bajan refinement (it is quite a social place and also makes a fine setting for a Barbados wedding), the hotel is actually quite informal and leisurely. There is good activity on property - entertainment and watersports are right there - and of course it is right at the heart of the action of the West Coast with all its bars and restaurants. Colony Club is a Barbados classic hotel and a trusty Caribbean beach retreat.
KEY FEATURES
Barbados classic hotel with 7 acres of tropical landscaped gardens, 2 restaurants and 2 bars (including swim-up) with dine-around programme amongst sister properties. 4 linked freshwater swimming lagoons. Jacuzzi. Two floodlit tennis courts. Air-conditioned fitness centre with Technogym equipment. Waves beauty with spa services. 2 meeting rooms to seat 30 and 75 theatre style. Non-motorized watersports. Daytime water taxi between sister properties (West Coast only. WiFi in public areas. Library with board games and computer with internet access. Shops including Gatsby boutique. Wedding co-ordinator. Preferred tee times at Royal Westmoreland Golf & Country Club
STYLE
A combination of classic, grand Barbados (in the rounded columns, flattened arches and coral stone render) with sleek contemporary rooms and modern resort features including a lagoon pool with a swim-up bar. Sociable atmosphere
CLIENT PROFILE
A range of ages, strong British contingent
Your first impression as you arrive at Colony Club is the grandeur of old Barbados. You draw up under a portico set with golden palms and their sprays of pretty green fronds. And then you step into a cloister-like courtyard where covered marble walkways and pillars encircle a central lily pond open to the sky. There are Bajan touches to the classical design in the pickled beams and gingerbread pointing, which is dressed in coral pink. And then more modern touches – the urns and armchairs that stand station around the walls give a slightly minimal feel. Reception is over to your right.
Momentarily Colony Club seems very traditional, but it is certainly not the relic of the old colonial days that you might expect from the name. Now, instead of the hushed and fusty atmosphere of a private club you can expect the measured but upbeat air of a modern hotel. As Barbados has changed, so the hotel has moved with the times.
There are two routes beyond the reception area to the hotel grounds. The first takes you past the shops into the gardens around which all the rooms are set. The second passes into the Planter’s Lounge, which does actually hark back to the colonial era slightly. It is furnished as a formal drawing room, with cane armchairs and sofas and a piano set on one side. This is played in the evenings when guests come down for a drink before dinner. Opposite the bar itself is a library with some shelves of books, internet access and a TV on which the major sport games are played. The walls of the lounge are decorated with grand old posters including an advertisement for BOAC, the fore-runner of British Airways, which used to fly in to the island.
The lounge gives into the main dining room, Laguna, which is double height and consequently light and airy. Around the walls stands a double row of arches with trellises and cascading greenery. The pink marble-top tables, some set inside, others out on the veranda, have cane-backed bench seats and attractive pineapple-backed armchairs. All three meals are served here. Upstairs close by you will find their other dining room, the Orchid Room. This is more formal and more elegant than Laguna. And close to that is the Regency Room, which is normally used for functions such as weddings. This also has quite a formal feel.
Back down below, Laguna gives out into the central area of the hotel. Immediately before you is the swimming pool, which meanders towards the beach. Paths make their way among the rock edges of the pool and the greenery and over a series small bridges that lead across to islands with parasols and loungers for sunbathing. On the other side of the pool, close to the beach, you come to the bar, which has a swim-up section, so you can get a drink while sitting in the pool itself.
Beyond the pool, the bar also serves the beach area, where there is a deck and on the shoreline a nice strip of sand backed by palms and casuarina pines. The area is set with off-white loungers and staff, known as ‘Beach Ambassadors’, will bring you a drink when you would like one. The deck is set up for open air dining under parasols. Light meals are served there from the mid afternoon into evening and the tables look particularly nice with candles at dinner. The water on this side of Barbados is generally calm and so there is just a gentle wash of small waves as a background. The setting is magical. The watersports area is over on the right as you look out to sea. There are windsurfers, small sailboats and kayaks for you to use.
Looking back inland, the gardens stretch quite a long way to the rear, winding in among some impressively tall trees - mangoes, mahoganies, fan-shaped travellers’ palms and a vast ficus tree. Rooms enclose the grounds on both sides, set in two-storey coral-render buildings trimmed with pink. On the left are Luxury Ocean View Suites and on the right are the Luxury Ocean View Rooms (from which you can step straight into the pool from your veranda). Further to the rear, where the resort is slightly quieter, there are Junior Suites and Poolside Rooms around a second pool.
There are just fewer than a hundred rooms in all and they all have outside space, generally a large balcony, on which you will find loungers. Inside, the rooms are extremely comfortable and they have a contemporary style. On a light base there are striking and bold colours in the cushions, upholstery and paintings. Bathrooms are marble and all rooms have a large patio at the front.
Right at the rear of the property you will find two tennis courts and a gym. There is also a branch of Waves Beauty Salon and Spa here, so you can get beauty treatment or a massage on property if you wish.
Colony Club is one of five hotels that make up the Elegant Hotels of Barbados, four of which are on the West Coast. Weather permitting, a motorboat will run you free of charge between the resorts, so that you can enjoy another section of the West Coast as well. Tamarind Cove are about ten minutes south and Crystal Cove is about ten minutes beyond that. However, you may not feel the need. There is a lot on offer at Colony Club itself. There is plenty of activity by day, on the beach and around the hotel and entertainment to go with dinner in the evenings. It is a complete resort, and it has a very social feel – in fact not that dissimilar after all to a (modern) club as the name implies.
Beach & Swimming Colony Club is set on a nice section of sand on Barbados’s Caribbean coast. It is backed by palms and tall casuarinas pines which hiss quietly in the breeze. ‘Ambassadors’ offer service to the beach from the bar that is right there. The water on this coast is generally calm and so the swimming is reliably good.
There is a large ‘meandering’ pool at the heart of the hotel, just behind the beach. It is separated into four sections by islands (on which there are loungers where you can sunbathe) and by bridges and walkways. It is surrounded by tropical greenery, which gives it a very pretty setting. Some of the rooms have steps straight down into the pool from their terraces. A second pool is set farther back in the gardens.
Sports & Recreation A watersports hut offers a variety of waterborne activities, which are included for guests of the resort. These include snorkelling, kayaks, windsurfers and small sailing craft and water-skiing in the bay.
On land it is possible to have a massage in your room or at the beauty salon, Waves. There are also two hard surface tennis courts and there is a small gym.
Inside, opposite the main bar, the Planter’s Lounge, there is a library where you will find board games and computers on which you can access the internet.
The Barbados golf courses are some of the leading courses in the Caribbean. The closest is at Royal Westmoreland (where guests at Colony Club have preferred tee times), just inland of the hotel. There are two other golf courses available to visitors at Sandy Lane, whose club house is about fifteen minutes drive south on the inland main road. Horse riding is also available. You can expect to ride along the beaches as well as in the interior and east of the island.
The Rooms The rooms at Colony Club are set in meandering two-storey blocks that enclose a central garden with the bar, pool and several large trees. Most are angled for a view over the sea. They all have some outside space and a few select rooms have steps that lead straight from their terrace directly down into the swimming pool. There are several categories of bedroom, ranging from regular pool and garden view rooms through to ocean view rooms and one junior and one-bedroom suites. All the rooms are air-conditioned and have cable TV, IPod docking stations and a safe.
Inside they have a contemporary style. The base colour scheme is light, with either cream coral render or plaster walls and light tiles. On this there is an array of striking colours - purple, lilac, blues and greens and gold - in the cushions, upholstery and paintings. The bathrooms are made from marble and have a separate bath and shower.
Dining There are two dining rooms at Colony Club. The principal one is called Laguna, which is located at the heart of the resort. It has an elegant tropical setting in the armchairs and marble-topped tables and a light feel because the room is double height and it is open to the air. A veranda section looks out onto the pool and the garden outside. The food is continental in style with a speciality in fish and seafood and there are occasional themed dinners in season. Breakfast is served as a buffet with optional extras. Other meals are served a la carte, but there is also a nightly changing set menu if you choose certain packages.
The second main dining room, upstairs from Laguna, is the Orchid Room. This takes traditional Barbadian style – a tray ceiling and white louvres held out on pegs - and gives it sleeker feel by decorating it with atmospheric photos of old Barbados. Reservations are required. The menu is a la carte and there is an extensive wine list.
Next door to the Orchid Room is another dining and function room, the Regency Room, which has a more traditional feel, with chandeliers and gold rimmed mirrors and ruched curtains, wall tapestries and prints of cherubs. Both these rooms are used for events, often for weddings and private parties but also for meetings.
Down by the beach you will find the Deck, where lighter meals are available from mid afternoon into evening. Here tables are set on a wooden deck just above the sand, under parasols for shade by day and then the tables are candle-lit in the evenings, when the inky black of the Caribbean Sea at night makes a magnificent backdrop.
Room service is available almost around the clock. There are different menus at the different times of day, including an all night menu.
Colony Club has three sister-hotels further down the West Coast of Barbados and they offer a dine-around programme. If you go out to Tamarind Cove, Crystal Cove or Turtle Beach on the south coast, then you can sign your bill to your room.
Weddings If you might be interested in a Barbados wedding, then Colony Club is happy to stage one for you. They have all the facilities and rooms in which you can hold a reception and there are some attractive areas around the resort as well as other locations off property in which the marriage ceremony itself can be held. The hotel has a team of event planners who will liaise with you and help to plan your day. They will make sure all the arrangements are in place, the legal requirements to get the licence, the pastor to perform the ceremony, and then they will ensure that everything goes off well on the day. They can arrange flowers, transport, the cake, food for the reception, music, photographers.
Conferences Colony Club is well set up to hold a conference and they have dedicated organisers who will organise it all for you. There are several meeting rooms at the hotel and they have all the facilities that you need to hold a meeting, ideally of up to 40 participants. They can also arrange off-site activities for non-participants or for those attending during the down time around the main programme.
The two main meeting rooms are the Orchid Room and the Regency Room, which can hold 30 and 75 respectively in theatre style. It is possible to hold meetings in the main dining room Laguna and on the pool deck, where there is a maximum of 125 participants.
Rates From US$281 per room, per night on a BP basis during summer 2009. Includes service charge and government tax. BP (breakfast plan) = room and breakfast. Complimentary watersports, tennis, fitness centre and day time water taxi to sister hotels on the West Coast. Please see the hotel’s website for availability including current promotional offers for your requested dates.
How to book If you wish to make further enquiries or a reservation, please use the WEB LINK or DIRECT EMAIL ENQUIRIES facility at the top of this page to make contact with Colony Club in Barbados, or if you wish to telephone them, please click on TELEPHONE CONTACT to reveal the number.
Locality Colony Club is situated in Porters, St James, which was a large sugar estate in the mid 17th century. Porters Mansion, the old estate’s listed Great House and the ruins of the Porters Sugar Factory are just a few minutes across the road. Next door to the hotel on the north side is Heron Bay, a grand coral stone house set in 20 acres of park-like gardens. About five minutes drive south, past one or two local shops and rum shops, is Holetown, the main shopping area nearby. There are two shopping centres, the smaller Cave Shepherd Plaza which further south and then the larger West Coast Mall in Holetown itself. You will also find a large supermarket, a bank, photo centre, duty free shops, video rental, and various shops and boutiques, as well as a large gas station (as petrol stations are known locally) with a mini mart and fast food outlet. Also close by is the Chattel House Village, a series of traditional looking Caribbean cabins selling souvenirs, the 24 hour Sandy Crest Medical Centre, and a market stall where you can buy fresh fruit and vegetables. At the centre of Holetown, which was where the English first landed in 1625 and came back in 1627 to settle, are most things you would expect to find in a small community - Police Station, Post Office, Parish Church, bank, pharmacy, clinic, fitness centre, school and so on.
There is a host of good restaurants within a 10 minute drive of Colony Club heading in either direction on the main West Coast road (Highway 1). They range from the famous Cliff Restaurant, which will take about 10 minutes to reach, to pizza parlours, cafés, beach bars and fast food outlets. Other restaurants worth trying out to the south are Calabaza and The Tides, Scarlet and Daphne’s, which is sandwiched between Colony Club’s sister hotels Tamarind Cove and The House (all, including Daphne’s are part of the Elegant Hotels Group portfolio, which also includes Crystal Cove and Turtle Beach). Heading north, is the celebrity favourite the Lone Star, Mango’s By the Sea, La Mer and the Fish Pot. There are several good restaurants in Holetown itself, including The Mews, Café Indigo and Olive’s. The nightlife is good in Holetown too, with lively weekend gatherings in 1st and 2nd Street where the restaurants and bars stand shoulder to shoulder, with some providing live music. Drinkers tend to spill out into the street to mingle, creating an easy-going ‘street party’ type of atmosphere. The current ‘hot spots’ are The Mews, The Elbow Room, Spago and Lexy’s.
Meet & Greet If you are travelling independently, taxis are usually available at the airport and will cost around US$22 each way. The ride from the airport is around 40 minutes, depending on the traffic. Alternatively, if you would prefer to be taken care of from the minute you arrive at the airport, with a range of services that can include limousine transfers, a Concierge Service is offered by St James Travel & Tours.
If book directly with the hotel, they can arrange for a taxi to collect you at the airport on your arrival in Barbados.
If you are booking through a travel organiser, it is likely that their representative will be at the airport to meet you. This service and your return airport transfers should be included in the cost of your holiday. Please check at the time of booking.
Getting Around Hiring a car to explore the island or to visit different beaches for the day is easily arranged. Book via your tour operator or direct with Stoutes Car Rentals. Ask for them to deliver your vehicle to the property, where they can also issue your local driving licence. Be aware that at the height of the winter season there is often a shortage of cars, so you are advised to book yours in advance. If you want a car for a week or more the rates can also be better. Vehicles can be returned at the airport or be collected from the property at a pre-arranged time on your departure day. Taxis are readily available through reception. It is also easy and quite fun to take buses along the West Coast main road.
We appreciate your feedback on our service. I found this page useful I would like to make a comment All the information on this site comes to you free of charge and we do not receive commission for your reservations so it is always good to hear if you think we are doing a good job, or if you have any constructive suggestions. Please also remember to mention DefinitiveCaribbean to your friends so that we may be helpful to more people looking for an enjoyable Caribbean hotel experience.
Print
page
www.colonyclubhotel.com
