St. James, Almond Beach Club & Spa Review

Overall Rating

Some staff are very helpful and willing to go out of their way and your expectations to help. The weather was lovely for our stay (end of April) and if you can get on Sandy Lane Beach, it is beautiful. You can eat at their sister hotel (the Village) which is excellent.

Public areas (including Sunset restaurant - the main one) not sufficiently clean). Finish in rooms very poor. Nowhere near enough shades for sunbathing. Bad value for money.

The setting of Barbados is beautiful. We were not allocated the type of room we had booked and wasted part of the first day as a result. Because of this for our stay we had experience of 4 rooms (including the hospitality suite).
You can eat a lot if you so choose. Food is generally repetitive (the dessert menu of 5 options was repeated for 5 days one week, 3 another and the buffet rarely changes). Expect canteen style quality food rather than good restaurant food. You won't go hungry but I don't think you have to be too picky to realise there is a lot better tasting food out there. Think Spain in the 70's for food standards. Pesto means parsley at this hotel, tomato sauce for pasta is remarkably like tinned Heinz soup, Black Forest Cake on the evening menu is chocolate cake with mock cream from lunch with a "cherry vanilla sauce" -I highly recommend that if you don't like the food to go to the Village for your meals where the restaurants are cooler, service good, relaxing and very good tasty food of which that hotel can be proud.
Expect smoking throughout the hotel. There are smoking and non-smoking areas of the restaurant - but the non-smoking area is downwind of the smoking side. Don't leave your food unattended as birds fly throughout the restaurant (due to the restaurant being open at one side) and you might well find a Minor bird or Finch helping themselves. Long trousers are listed as essential for evening wear for gents - only on one night did this appear to be enforced. Expect dress to be very casual.
The sand terrace is a rock base with sand sprinkled on -some areas are more generously sanded than others so be careful if walking with bare feet. There is access to Sandy Lane beach - but the tides make it inaccessible for at least part of the day. One access down is more available with the tides but there can be a longish drop down from a rough rock. If you have mobility problems you may find access very difficult to this beach. It is beautiful beach though and wandering along is fantastic. The "sellers" are not too pushy - all they do is ask if you want something and then leave you alone if you don't. If you have trouble getting down steps or need to sit down these hawkers are delighted to help you. Don't expect the sort of selling you get in India or Kenya - they are NOT a problem.
The sunloungers aren't that comfortable (but not too bad either). If you sunbathe in the gardens expect to have to lift them down from piles made by the staff nightly - not easy if you are a short woman like me or infirm. They are a bit old and you will see and smell mildew on quite a number and some long term staining from suncream. You are provided with one towel to cover it (which means about half of it can be covered unless you take your own as well). You can bathe around the pool or on the beach, but even the shades don't provide much relief from the sun as the shade moves through the day but there won't be room for you to move your lounger to that shade. The pool is cleaned daily and I think the water quality will be ok - but it is grimy at the edges. This was in April though so it might be an end of a season problem and there was once a half-hearted attempt to wipe it. Part of the hotel on the Spa side has only been partially repainted white - unfortunately by this I don't mean with one section finished but random patches in the middle of walls and part way across and up walls which make this fact unmissable.
The rooms were obviously once very well furnished - but the finish (especially of obvious repairs) is poor. All bathrooms I saw (4 of them) had slatted wood shutters in place of windows which you could adjust. Unfortunately these did not shut to provide an air-tight closure and a lot of mosquitoes came into the room at night. I recommend a plug-in mosquito killer as well as DEET cream. Some of the suites have very nice-looking decorative screens. Unfortunately these are open to the outside and you again have a mosquito problem and in only one of the four rooms I saw the air conditioning was rendered almost completely ineffective because of this. Expect baths to be chipped unless you are in a newly refurbished room, small leaks, damaged bathroom shutter windows and mirrored wardrobe doors that constantly have to be lifted back on the tracks (because the rail underneath was bent into a curve for two flat doors) - they are only minor faults but can be annoying if you stay two weeks. There wasn't any evidence of mildew that you can get in Carribean hotel rooms in those rooms I saw.
The drinks are usually excellent. If you want premium brands though you do have to specify that on ordering (and they are generously given). The bar areas (though not the bars themselves) aren't cleaned well enough. The tables are sticky and you will again be affected by smoking there due to the location and wind-flow. The gardens are tropical and some plants have labels.
There are various activities and the activities desk are generally good at arranging whatever you want or telling you how to get it. Reception staff are quite good too. Waitresses try to be friendly and are quite pleasant though a very small minority can be slow or surly as in most hotels really. If you like golf you can play at the Village, I think both have tennis courts and watersports are plentiful.
Security isn't that good at this hotel - there is a guard on the gate but there is open access from both sides from adjoining properties and no staff there to ensure the property isn't entered by authorised personnel. Good luck and honest people rather than good security made no incidents during my stay of which I am aware.
The Spa is lovely and the service excellent. The leaflet of treatments available combines both sister hotels and is confusing - please note that the full list is available at this hotel - such as a very good hairdresser etc. A few wedding parties stayed here - but they seemed to prefer to have the ceremony at the Village. I saw a wedding at each hotel but these were well arranged so that they did not interfere with the other functions of the hotel.
The shuttle bus runs on time and is very efficient taking approx 15 mins between sites. The morning driver is a bit grumpy but not unpleasant - the afternoon and evening one very friendly. Expect hotel staff and maybe friends of the driver to be picked up and dropped off on the way. It won't inconvenience you however. The driver also dropped off guests part-way when requested and agreed to pick them up on the next trip.
You can keep your room if available when you leave for a few hours - the cost is US $100 for an extra 2 hours and then a full day rate. You have to give in all your towels at 12 noon and there were no clean towels in the hospitality room (where previous occupants had been smoking, drinking and had been in the bed and made the bathroom floor very wet).Fortunately a maid walking past did have one clean towel for my partner and I to use.
In summary the natural setting and location are beautiful. The service can be excellent when you have a problem you wouldn't expect a hotel to solve for you, but then lets you down on things you do expect as standard. I would rate them 3 stars and don't think they are good value for money unless maybe if you usually spend an awful lot on food and drink. Although I've pointed out faults, you certainly won't have a holiday from hell here - but in my personal opinion it won't be as good as I would expect from the class and price. I think the Village is a far more pleasant place to stay and you can have the shuttle bus so that you can walk on Sandy Lane Beach everyday if you want - just make sure you know when the tide will be out first.