Our family spent our March Break at Hawksbill form Friday March 12 to Friday March 19th, 2010. My review is written from a family’s perspective. (children ages 15,12, 10) We chose this resort because it offered good value, potential snorkeling, and had a breathtaking setting away from crowds and noise.
It was definitely one of the most beautiful locations on the island, and we did rent a car for 2 days and drove around the island to explore and compare. If you love quietness, space, not a lot of people and a gorgeous setting, then this is the resort for you. We were often the only ones on the beach when we did our morning and early evening beach walks.
HOW TO OCCUPY YOURSELF
We found the guests to be mainly seniors at about 60% British, 20% Italian and 20 % American and Canadians . There were a few nights with some good entertainment such as a fantastic Steel Drum band called A.M.P Halcyon Steel Orchestra. The only slightly disappointing thing was that everything packed up by 11pm or earlier. After the kids went to bed, my husband and I wouldn’t have minded staying up a bit later. The most popular resort activity seemed to be reading a book on a lounge chair (of which there seemed to be 2 or 3 available for every person to lounge on)
I had to work hard keeping my children entertained as there were no other children at the resort their age, for most of the week, and no television in the rooms. We had planned to snorkel all week, but found the snorkeling not great. If you could manage to swim out to the Hawksbill rock, from Eden Beach, away from the sand, the snorkeling was not bad. It was quite the swim and the kids were ready to turn around and come back shortly after reaching the rock. If you manage to get out to the rock, it gets shallow and the water clarity improves significantly. I didn’t make any new sightings, as there was the usual blue tang and yellow snappers, but no large schools. There was also some okay snorkelling at the dock area, especially swimming along shore, by dock out towards the ocean. We did see a couple of stingrays.
There was a tennis court, so we played tennis once or twice a day when we were not out on excursions.
If you decide to rent a car from Richard at the resort, as we did, be sure to check the tires. We ended up getting a flat, but luckily on our way back to the hotel at the end of our 2nd day. We then noticed, on closer inspection, how worn down the tires were. We were amazed that we must have had 10 people stop to offer us help. We definitely felt the island to be very safe and friendly.
To keep the kids entertained, I felt a need to sign-up for some excursions. On a one car rental day we tried zip-lining, which offered 9 zip-lines. The kids enjoyed this activity. The same day we went snorkeling with the stingray at Stingray City. I loved this outing, as a small boat took us out to a gorgeous aqua, clear water where a guy threw in calamari that attracted dozens of wild stingray. The stingray were free to come and go, they were not caged in. The stingrays would brush up against you and even bump into you while the food was around. I found the snorkeling at this spot quite good with coral, a variety of fish and extremely clear water.
We also tried 2 boat tours; Eli’s Eco Tour (booked on-line) and Treasure Island Catamaran Cruise, (booked at the resort) Our family liked the Cat cruise better as it was a bigger boat with lots of shade, more snorkeling time and only 22 people on it. They took us to some snorkeling spots off Bird Island and had a beach barbeque. It was a lot of fun.
FOOD
I love seafood, so my favourite food all week was the fresh fish that was cooked while –you- wait on the barbeque at lunch and served with interesting pepper sauces. The fish at dinner wasn’t quite as fresh, and therefore not as good. The morning eggs to order were also good. We liked the homemade calypso/Cajun sauce served over poached eggs. My kids loved all the freshly made blender drinks such as banana crush, coconut crush and pina colodas (without alcohol) and so did I.
“WILDLIFE”
Besides the oceanlife, there were hundreds of different small birds around the resort everyday. They especially loved to hang out at the restaurant at breakfast time, waiting to steal food from people’s plates when they moved away. They would even eat right out of your hands. (even thought you were not supposed to do this) It was such a pleasant sound to wake up to all the singing of the birds every morning, along with the ocean wave sounds.
There were also goats running around different parts of the resort. At night and in the morning we heard roosters cooka- doodle –dooing. Apparently there is a farm next to the resort. There was also this rodent called a mongoose that came out at dusk and dawn. They looked like a large squirrel crossed with a groundhog. Apparently they were introduced to the island to control snakes.
There were tiny geckos in the beautiful gardens that we watched from our balconies. We had to get 2 rooms because of having 5 people in our family.
STAFF
If you made the effort to talk, the staff were very friendly and helpful. We had to adjust to the slower Caribbean pace. People seemed to love our children and take the time to have conversations with them.
We had a great time. If I were to come again with my family, I think I would try to book with another family, so the kids would have friends to play with. I wish more people would travel with their children.
Posted by Yanaks, from Napanee, Ontario, Canada on Apr 14, 2011
