Port St Charles

Port St Charles has been an amazing getaway for me over the years. I have made many happy memories there and always look forward to returning. The resort is impeccably maintained and has breathtaking views. There is a complimentary water taxi to ferry you around and you can access the beautiful Heymans Beach directly from the resort. Staying at Port St Charles means you’re treated to comfy sun loungers and a beach umbrella courtesy of the wonderful beach team. The reception and security guys are friendly & professional and ensure everyone feels right at home. There is free resort WiFi which is pretty good, but most rental apartments have their own high speed WiFi. Up until my most recent stay, I would have easily given Port St Charles five stars and recommended it without hesitation. Yes, it’s pricey, but worth it. Unfortunately that's no longer the case. They have opened a fast food cafe beside the swimming pool in the centre of the resort. It is a small change but has a big impact. The persistent smell of stale fries now hangs over the pool and deck all day and permeates the neighbouring apartments. Where we previously enjoyed the Caribbean breeze, we ended up keeping our apartment closed up and were only able to enjoy the beautiful terrace early in the morning until the fryers started up. If you’re happy to stay by a burger bar, there is plenty of more budget-friendly accommodation available nearby. Barbados boasts many other upscale resorts and I intend to explore one of them next time. I will miss the glorious view, the sound of the ocean and the friendly staff but not the smell.

Pier one. Very nice lunch. Decent brasserie style food. Service was efficient and friendly. Very good fries, nice burger and a lovely beef sandwich. The music was quite loud so it was difficult to have a conversation. You can use the pool if you wish - Sun loungers are fairly limited in number.

The good: Port St Charles is picturesque and peaceful, and the rooms (apartments) are well maintained and in good decorative condition. The resort felt very safe. The garden areas look lovely and the gardening crew do not use noisy leaf blowers, so the peaceful environment is not disturbed. All the staff we met (security, beach, water taxi, housekeeping, gardeners) were friendly, welcoming and helpful, so 10/10 for the PSC team. The beach is stunning and quite possibly the best beach on the West Coast because there is still plenty of sand. We explored other beaches but many were almost non existent. We were told this was due to hurricane Beryl a few months ago. The snorkelling on the small reef just off the beach was great. Just be aware there is no protected swimming zone at Port St Charles, so you need to be alert to boats. The sunsets from the beach were amazing. Sitting on the beach watching the sun set, whilst sipping on Mike's Rum Punch and listening to the sound of the waves and the start of the nightly tree frog chorus, was one of the most special moments of our holiday. The location of Port St Charles is good. You can walk into Speightstown during the day and, if you haven’t hired a car, there is a bus stop right outside. The water taxi is fun to use and efficient. The privately owned boats moored within the lagoon didn't move much, but when they did they were interesting to watch and caused no disturbance at all. We observed this and a resident informed us that people are not allowed to hang around on their boats on the docks, so as not to disturb the other residents and rental guests. The bad: Port St Charles has an odd food and beverage set up. There are no facilities on the beach, not even anywhere to buy a bottle of cold water, can of Banks or soft drink. Instead, there are two outlets, both with swimming pools, serving drinks and food throughout the day. There isn’t anywhere on site to enjoy an evening meal from Sunday through to Wednesday, meaning you are forced to drive or take a taxi, rather than simply stroll to dinner. Obviously you can take your own drinks to the beach in a cooler (the afore mentioned rum punch) but in reality you don't really want to regularly carry drinks around when you are on holiday. You want the option to purchase in situ. The ugly: Unfortunately they were power washing numerous roofs during our stay, as well as dismantling wooden docks, both of which were disturbing. It seemed strange to do this maintenance work during the high season, rather than in the quieter months. We sat by the middle pool on a few occasions, simply because we couldn't be bothered to carry drinks to the beach every day. However, the cooking smell from cafe was strong on some occasions and we even noticed it when on the water taxi, which made us realise that some apartments must also be affected and are best avoided. The odour wasn’t there all of the time but appears there may be no extractor/filter for the cafe, making the close proximity of the deck area surrounding the pool unpleasant at times. Lastly, whilst 90% of the guests were simply enjoying a relaxing holiday, the arrival of some partying guests towards the end of our stay, who chose to sit on the dock drinking and singing, echoed around the lagoon and the surrounding apartments. That is probably the major drawback with the layout at Port St Charles - noise travels over the water and bounces off the blocks. Security never asked the noisy guests to quieten down, even thought the sound could be heard at the front gate, so that caused us to believe that this noise level was considered acceptable within the resort, which was at odds with what we experienced for the majority of our stay. So would we return? Definitely. We hope that we were unlucky regarding the timing of the maintenance work and also unlucky to experience the super noisy guests! A resident told us that December and January tend to be the more boisterous months, but at other times of year the resort is very tranquil. However, we probably wouldn't return until Port St Charles sort out their F&B facilities. Most resorts offer variety and unfortunately this was lacking. A small bar and maybe a grill on the beach would make the resort top class.

We have just returned from a glorious two week stay at PSC. We stayed in a one bedroom lagoon front apartment which was stylish and very comfortable. The apartment had a super king bed, comfy sofas, a well equipped kitchen, a deck and a washer/dryer. They provide a welcome pack with enough for brekfast and some banks beers! All staff were very helpful from reception to our daily staff who cleaned the apartment. The complex is immaculately maintained with well tended shrubs and trees. There is a small pool and restaurant at Pier 1 and another larger Sunset Pool and bar. There are also two beaches. All facilities are accessible on foot or by water taxi which comes to your apartment! Needless to say we will return!

Stayed here for 10 nights from 30 th October Really lovely 1 bed apartment booked through BA Holidays at a great price Highly recommended They have a complimentary water taxi service and on site concierge to book reservations at local restaurants