Southern Palms Beach Club

First of all we didn’t actually stay here. But bought a day pass as we had come from a cruise ship at 10am and our flight home wasn’t until late afternoon. The hotel is located on a great beach and and although it’s showing its age I liked the look of the buildings and grounds. The pool is a bit small for the size of the hotel and they could do with some shade or umbrellas on the beach area but no complaints otherwise. We enjoyed a nice lunch in the restaurant. I had Mahi Mahi blackened which was the catch of the day. It was delicious. Staff were pretty friendly especially the people on reception where they kept our luggage.

We booked this hotel nearly 12 months in advance upgrading to an Ocean view room as we love to have an evening drink on the balcony enjoying the sounds of the waves. When we arrived we were taken to our room and our hearts sunk, we walked out on to the balcony and were greeted by not only the roof of the restaurant and bar area but to the direct right the massive air conditioning units which were unbearably noisy, you could not hear the beautiful waves at all. I was so upset I could have cried, this was not the paradise room I was expecting. I returned to reception straight away and told them how upset I was and they told me they may have a room available the next day, this ruined our first 24hrs and we were only on holiday for a week due to personal commitments (we were moved the next day down a couple of blocks - not perfect but much improved). After calming my husband down ( I chose the hotel) we went to the beach and hubby popped to the bar to get 2 rum punches, after 40mins he returned (I kid you not) the service is very very slow. His mood had not improved as you can imagine, we hardly used the bar after that as the service is so bad and didn’t even attempt to use the restaurant. Another thing to note is there isn’t sufficient shade on the beach and only a few palm trees which frustratingly and annoyingly guests like to reserve super early and not use till the afternoon. A few positives, the location of the hotel is amazing and the beach is just perfect, turtles bobbing their little heads up along the shore. The hotel is dated but we expected that. The staff are all lovely and friendly and St Lawrence gap is great with all the fantastic restaurants to choose from.

The positives are its location as it’s on a beautiful white sandy beach, st Lawrence gap is a few minutes away with lots of restaurants and bars. The staff are lovely, friendly and helpful, always willing to assist you. Our room was in one of the newer buildings and was light and airy, it had a sea view over a roof, however, there was a large air conditioning unit outside which was very noisy, which made sitting on the balcony uncomfortable, (room 209). The breakfast Buffett was great, delicious, fresh choices. The negatives, the slow service in the a la carte resturant and the bar, usually only one bar person making the drinks, it usually took half an hour to get 4 drinks, lunch normally took 2hrs - I just think they were disorganised!! The Buffett was rather repetitive, in the evening, although the new year Buffett was excellent. There was also a large group of Canadians/Americans who dominated the new year celebrations making us feel like we were imposing on a private party. I’m not sure if we’d return - the beach was stunning and being able to swim with the turtles was wonderful, however I think the hotel staff need further training and more bar staff.