Waves Barbados

I could exhaust my vocabulary of superlatives describing our stay here over New Year. Ocean side 2 storey room with balcony was ideal. Balcony was on the upper floor next to sofa bed so adults uses it less. The view from both floors of the turquoise sea and melting sunsets was memorable. The friendliest staff where nothing was too much trouble. Cheryl on the omelette station, Panel a waiting drinks on the beach, Jackie, Jennifer, Margaret, Coral, Kim et al. The chefs produced a wide range of delectable food in both restaurants, Fusion being my favourite. The spa, great treatments but not that organised. Organised tips worth doing. If you can get on the catamaran Cat & The Fiddle for a sunset cruise, you on regret it. Always enough sun loungers. Can't wait to return.

We stayed 5 nights at Waves in a room towards the back of the hotel in the spa annex. The room was a little plain/basic and dark but offered plenty of space and was comfortable enough. The common areas of the hotel were nicely designed/decorated and well maintained. It was appreciated that the main pool was designated as being adults only so there was always somewhere calm to retreat to if the bustle of the beach and the excitement of the various water sports got too much! For all inclusive, we found the quality of the food and drinks at the hotel generally to be high, enjoying most of the meals we had. Whilst the main restaurant was lovely we did prefer the ambience at the Asian restaurant in the spa complex. We also loved the coffee shop (with its wonderful air conditioning!) for light lunches and coffees. Service was generally excellent, efficient, and friendly, and we particularly enjoyed the attentiveness on the beach and by the pool, where cold drinks and icy treats were always welcome.  The hotel arranges various entertainment and activities and we joined in for the adult colouring class one day. Unfortunately this was a little disappointing. Thankfully the yoga class was of much better quality and we generally enjoyed the evening entertainment, which created a good atmosphere for enjoying a drink in the main lobby bar area.  The main aspect of our stay which didn't live up to expectations was the spa. We had understood from research prior to booking our stay that some spa treatments would be included. It appears that this was wrong - when we enquired, we were told that for guests from the US, spa treatments are included for stays of 5 nights or more. But for guests coming from further afield (e.g. the UK) spa treatments are only included for stays of 7 nights or more. This distinction really isn't clear from the hotel's website and we thought the policy seemed a little unfair. Whilst this was surprising/disappointing, it wasn't the end of the world as we thought we'd still be able to book and pay for the spa treatments we wanted during our stay. Wrong again - because the spa was so busy servicing the guests with included spa treatments, they could only fit us in for one appointment during our entire stay. Thankfully the hotel we went to after Waves was much more accommodating so we were happy to spend our "spa budget" there instead!