Southern Palms Beach Club and Hotel

went here with wife, daughter and friends on may 22. we all thought this was a great, clean hotel with very friendly staff.( check out Fernando) the taxi driver there, he gave us mangos from his own garden and aloe vera. quite dissapointed with st. lawrence gap though, was ment to be the place to be in Barbados, it was very quiet.( i think we were there out of season. not as many cafe`s, bars etc as expected. food at hotel was great but expensive, but they do a special ticket where you can purchase 7breakfasts and 3 evening meals for L115 each, which was really good value. they have everything for breakfast in the buffet bar, full english, friut, toast, cereal, etc. the location was second to none, with its own part of the beach. the water was a bit choppy which was good for boogieboarding, but no good for snorkilling. the mini golf was great, and the free towels. There is a chinese takeaway across the road that we noticed the locals using a lot, so we gave it a go one night. for L3-L5 each you get a massive polystyrene tub filled up with lovely food. also for good food was "the ship inn", although every restaraunt out there sticks 10% on the bill, so don`t bother to tip. There is not a great choice of bars there but you still have happy hours there. Make sure you go to Oistins on a friday night, that was a great place to be, with all the locals and holiday makers mixing it up. so to sum it up the hotel is highly recomended, but not to sure about St Lawrence Gap. ( but maybe it`s a lot better in the high season. Close

This was our fourth time visting the southern palms and it was just as perfect as ever. As you entre the hotel you are greated by very friendly staff and you are then led to your rooms. the rooms are large and spacious but quite basic. over our visits we have stayed in seaview room and garedn rooms but to be honest you can see the ocean from anywhere! The hotel has an excellent restaurant with great fodd but i would also greatly recommend going out in the gap at night to some of the great restaurants there, there is always a great atmosphere! The hotel is on the beachfront and the beach is utterly breathtaking. the sand is white and fine and the sea is warm and beautiful. There are also turtles in the sea and when you are swimming they sometimes swim with you! You can also rely on the weather, it was sunny most days apart fro the odd downpour which is to be expected in the carribean. Every year we also take a ride on jet-ski which is very enjoyable, there are many people selling rides at not a bad price. there are also many hairbraiders along the beach. It is great for teenagers as i have 3 daughters (13,18,21) who absoloutely love it. the atmosphere at the hotel is lovely and we make new frends every year, we have even kept intouch with some of them, all of our friends love it so much they come back every year. To round up this hotel is an absolute gem and do not listen to any of the bad reviews! i would also say to go into bridgetown as there are quite a few nice stores, and i have bought many rings form there! there is a free shutte bus there everyday from the hotel. Hope you enjoy your stay! we're going back agian this summer! Close

My girlfriend and I stayed here for 2 weeks in May, and overall had a great, relaxing time, but there were a few things that could've been better. The hotel is a lovely little complex, in the style of a plantation house, which is situated towards the end of St. Lawrence Gap. It was approx' 5 minute walk into the lively part, where the bars and restaurants were, so close enough to go out, but far enough away not to be disturbed by any noise in the hotel. That said the busy season ends mid April so the Gap was fairly quiet anyway, except at weekends. The hotel is located on one of the island's best beaches, which was beautiful, and very uncrowded. The beach was very shallow out into the sea for about 20 metres, and although a little rocky in places under the water, nothing sharp or dangerous. It is also visited by a few sea turtles every day, that come to within 5 metres of the shore and are quite happy for you to swim along side them - if you can spot them! The beach is ideal for lounging around on every day, although expect the odd trader to approach you from time to time. The hotel has two pools, which are fine, and there were plenty of sun loungers around, although the place was far from full capacity, so you may struggle to get one by the pool during the peak season. But the atmosphere during the day was very nice and relaxed, no music blaring out all day! During the night was also very quiet, which was a bit of a shame. Some evenings saw hotel entertainment, like a Steel Band or a Salsa dancing evening, which were good, but more often than not there was nothing at all, which meant the place had no atmosphere. The bar would close by 11pm, and usually there would hardly be anyone in it by then anyway. However, there would always be somewhere in the Gap that was open late with some music. The room we had was excellent, supposedly only a garden view, but ours also had a great view of the main pool, and the ocean. It was spacious and airy, and had a huge balcony area. It was very clean when we arrived, but then not cleaned at all while we were there which was disappointing. Towels that were dirty from sand, etc were often left for a couple of days. However, they did make the bed, change the sheets and clean the bins daily. The staff at the reception and the porters were excellent - very friendly and helpful, which was the exact opposite of the bar and serving staff, who were usually very sullen and miserable. Still, although the food and drink in the hotel was in general quite good, there are numerous better, and cheaper options in the Gap. Josefs, Harlequins and Pisces are all excellent, although by no means cheap. Overall, it was a very decent hotel, that could perhaps do with a little make over, both cosmetically and also regarding evening entertainment and some staff attitudes, but charming none the less, and we would certainly consider staying there again. Close

We have just come back from the Southen Palms Resort. I will not post photo's because the ones already on here are accurate and suffice. I will be brutally honest about the good and the bad ok. We travelled with a wheelchair so this may be of some assistance to wheelchair users in the future. I will start with the bad which isn't much so don't panic. Our room was on the ground floor due to our needs and that was good but I have to say I was abit miffed to realise that I had paid for an upgrade for an ocean view room and virtually all the rooms have ocean view anyhow, so could have saved ourselves some money there, as the garden view rooms had a better view of the ocean than we did. The room was not as clean as I would have liked, we found a pink hair roller under the bed complete with hair in and we found hair in our bath, not ours we'd just arrived. The room was shabby and I agree with the three star rating, also our room was right at the back and we could hear the traffic constantly, it seemed to us that we'd been put in the shabby end of the hotel because further along the hotel looked like it had been refurbished and had no shabby paintwork whereas the wooden balcony railings our end were in dire need of some TLC. Now don't get me wrong I'm not a complainer just telling it like it is ok. There were many good things about this hotel too, more good than bad. The staff were all extremely helpful and friendly the linens on the bed are changed every third day due to the water shortage, which is perfectly fine, don't know about you but I don't change my linens on my bed every third day let alone every day so this didn't bother us in the least and seemed very sensible to me. You can drink the water we didn't get any upset stomachs. We had an under the counter fridge in an area that had a kitchen sink and somewhere to store food and plates, no hob, but a kettle and cups provided, bring your own coffee and tea., there is an ice bucket for you to collect ice from the bar. There is a plasma screen tv in the room with about 8/9 channels which is adequate who goes to Barbados to watch tv anyway? The wheelchair was able to access all areas of the hotel the only problem if you are not able to get out of the wheelchair is the front lobby area from the road, it is all steps so a ramp there would make it just perfect for all wheelchair users. We were able to access our particular room easily because we were at the back of the hotel, this is why we didn't complain about the traffic noise, it was no biggy in the grand scheme of things. Hey we were in Barbados! I strongly recommend the managers free rum punch party on a Monday, the rum is strong but please be aware that there will be some stalls for you to purchase trinkets too if you so desire. There is a laundry room that is clean housing a washing machine and tumble dryer, for those you will need to provide your own soap liquid/powder and will need to purchase tokens from the reception desk and a key for the room, so you can put your clothes in lock up the room and go swim until it's done. The tokens are 1 token each for the machines costing 10 BDS each. There is an air conditioned internet room with two computers for your free use available by the lobby. The hotel is situated on a gorgeous beach, nothing to gripe about there it is wonderful the photo's here don't lie. Pink beach towels are provided you won't need to bring your own. The food is good but you will pay for it, we had the Sunday pie buffet lunch and this is what I can remember on offer: Macaronie pie (macaronie cheese) chicken pot pie, steak and kidney pie, shepherds pie, these are the ones I can remember and I had some of each, the food was very very good I can assure you. We also had room service and have no complaints there either, the food was always good. But.. across the road from the hotel is a little parade of shops called The Chattel House Village, consisting of about 8 shops one of which is a cafe called Happy Days, say Hello to Mick the proprietor, I strongly recommend you breakfast here, it is far cheaper than eating at the hotel and the food is fabulous. He opens until 2.30pm so you can have lunch there too. I had the calves liver,bacon and onion special and it was delicious but I have to say his piece de resistance has to be his steak, it was literally melt in the mouth tender deliciousness, seriously you will not get steak anywhere like it in St Lawrence Gap and we had steak at other places there.... Micks was THE BEST. Happy Days... where good honest delicious food is cheaper, why pay more? I have been honest in this review and hope it helps any questions please feel free to pm me and I will try my best to help. Close

Our seventh visit to Southern Palms. Another splendid holiday. Plusses: Nice friendly staff Quiet beach and pool Clean hotel throughout Rooms are so close to the beach Plenty of free sun loungers Lots of umbrellas and palms trees to cool off under The hotel is so close to many restaurants and bars and there's such a variety The hotel is not crowded unlike many all-inclusives Cooling breeze on the beach Great weather, again! Free rum punch party Free tea and cake at 4pm TV in the bar area to watch the sport Close