Savannah Beach Club Hotel

We needed a hotel for a couple of nights pre cruise and this hotel was suggested by the staff in the Virgin Holiday shop. We arrived later than expected due to Virgin Atlantic not putting our luggage on the plane (we weren’t alone in this there were over 100 people without luggage on our flight) All the food options had finished so we just had a couple of drinks by the beach. The following morning we went to breakfast. I was rather rudely told I shouldn’t have entered the way I did and pointed to the correct place. All the staff, with the exception of the lady who cooked the omelettes, we encountered at breakfast were rude. Service was poor. At least the food was edible though. We only ate 1 evening meal which was I think supposed to be a Caribbean buffet. There was a very limited choice and it was poor quality. Drinks were just OK. A few brands but also a lot of stuff I had never heard of. Room was spacious, bathroom in need of a refurb. The bed is so high to get in and out of. We had to go down a miserable corridor to get to our room and it was near where all the empty bottles are stored so was continually noisy. There were many maintenance issues. Broken tiles etc. The lift was pathetically slow and one had a badly broken mirror in it. It all just looked unloved and definitely not worth the money they charge. I was only glad that we chose the O2 Beach Club in St Lawrence post cruise. More expensive but far superior to Savannah. 2 nights in Savannah was more than enough for us. Read less

If you've ever visited the Caribbean you will know that the pace of life is slower and everyone is very chilled. This review is written making full allowance for those facts! Firstly be aware that the sea here is not really for swimming. Once off the beach the seabed is rocky and the waves are good for surfing so whilst you can sit in the shallows its not an easy swim. However all Bajan beaches are pubic so you can walk along the coast a few hundred yards in either direction and find better bathing. Fortunately the hotel pool is ideal for a quick dip although only about 1 metre deep. The overall design of the resort, pool area, beach bar and gardens is excellent. As is often the case for this sort fof all inclusive resort the rooms are in need of a refresh and some of the public ares really need some maintenance - broken mirrors and buttons in the one working lift (of two in total). The hotel are good at maintaining the external ares with frequent re-painting etc but internal areas need more work. The beach area is large with plenty of trees to cast the shade and we had no problem in getting sunbeds and space (shade or sun) whatever time of day we arrived. Its a short walk to the beach bar from there to get a drink and iced fresh water is on tap as are clean beach towels. The room was spacious with plenty of storage, electric points and aircon. Double doors open directly onto a small balcony from where it is a few steps straight into the pool! My chief complaint is based on the restaurants and food. Although nominally there are three restaurants, usually at least one is shut on any given meal and sometimes there is only one restaurant. Usually at lest one of these will be serving a buffet, which - again as is pretty standard for all AI resorts - will mean mostly the type of dish that will keep hot for a few hours - it all gets a bit 'samey' and repetitive by the fifth or sixth day. What doesn't help is that the staff are often slow to replenish the things that have run-out, and often once its gone its gone, which restricts the choices for those choosing (or compelled by available time slots) to eat later. It's frustrating at breakfast, similarly, to find plenty of fresh orange juice but all glasses have gone and nobody in a hurry to replenish them - they really should have a staff member tasked to keep an eye on the supply who can instigate replenishment before an item has run out! Alcohol on the AI package is mostly generic local brands although a G&T was made with Gordons gin much to my surprise! Wine choice is red, white or sparkling. Waiting times for self service at bar were never more than two or three minutes, often less. As always in this part of the world 'tea' is (not very) hot water and dip your own (weak) tea-bag; Brits - take your own tea bags! The hotel offers an 'awayday' to a local 'sister resort'. In fact this is just a small restaurant and bar with hundreds of closely spaced sun loungers on a public beach in Bridgetown. You get a $20BBD voucher to spend there but with a small bottle of beer being $8 BBD that doesn't go far. Really the ONLY thing that 'resort' offers is the chance to swim in a calmer sea (no big waves) and the opportunity to be hassled by beach vendors trying to get you to go on a jet ski or a turtle watching boat ride or booze cruise. I recommend you dont bother! Overall I think the Savannah was a lovely place to stay, but suffers from most of the same issues as do all similar hotels other than the very very expensive top flight ones. Read less

The Savannah Beach Club was a fantastic escape. The staff, from Nikisha, Wren, Reggie, and Kerri to the friendly activities director and so many more I can't remember everyone's name, were incredibly welcoming and made our stay enjoyable. We were particularly impressed by the fire-dancer performances, and the music brought back fond memories as most were from the 80s, 90s, and early 2000s. The food, considering it's an all-inclusive resort, was surprisingly delicious. The variety and quality exceeded our expectations. We found the live fire at the military base a bit unsettling, but it didn't detract from the overall experience. The rocky beach might not be ideal for wading in the water, but warm water and the hot sun made up for it. Here are my watch-outs: there were many rules on dining and extending your stay, so be sure to attend the welcome meeting. We missed it and suffered from not understanding the expectations. Knowledge is power! Also, give it one day to settle in to see how the island works and how the people receive you, and get to know the resort's culture before passing judgment. It's definitely better on day 2. Overall, the Savannah Beach Club offers a great balance of relaxation and entertainment. The friendly staff, good food, always-on cocktails, clean rooms, strong wifi, and reasonable price make it a top choice for a tropical vacation. I would go back. Read less

Would we return to this very tired, still beautiful, midge infested, mega stony beach property, no emphatically. Barbados takes much from you, outrageously overcharge for everything (Iceland is cheaper) giving little in return, unlike Iceland, aside from nature’s free gifts: oppressive heat, sea and sun. When a deal is only one way it only ends one way. Big money is here. International money, taking big money out from the graft of the poor. We paid their rich politicians £31 to be here four nights. The hotel got £304 nightly so we get well ripped-off at pay up end with the working poor, including snarky junior management who run it incompetently, mostly low paid get ripped off at wage pay out end. These poor folk will have to keep running faster to stay still. It didn’t start well. We were all inclusive arriving of a cruise ship just after 11am passing shanty town corrugated shacks to be told we couldn’t eat/drink until 3pm unless we paid an extortionate sum but I’m not that daft. The only time we heard this previously was in dirt poor Egypt by a bloke on a Nile cruiser with dirty fingernails earning two USA dollars a day and their similar repetitive bony food offerings were also dire. This hotel isn’t terrible, it’s very poor. It isn’t the place for great food, unless you delight in skin on, bony, lukewarm food (chicken, pork & lamb) WIFI is unreliable. If you’ve mobility issues don’t go. Having paid £304 nightly alleged all inclusive seemingly means ‘subject to availability’. Say in a Bajan accent emphasising T. Beers ran out, tomato juice for Bloody Mary ran out. At breakfast the restaurant manager rudely stopped me taking a teabag from a dish at a nearby empty table. It was ‘against the rules’. Our dish had none. She said she’d send someone with one but it took 10 minutes to get a tea bag after breakfast was consumed. I found that salt & pepper pots both contained salt. She didn’t believe me so she checked, taking a while to find a pepper pot with pepper. She wasn’t pleased - maybe she broke a hotel rule. Similarly one morning I wanted another poor-tasting, cheap coffee, having waited an inordinate time for a first pour so I went cup in hand to a lady at a hatch at the coffee machine; here again it was easy and quick to simply take seconds to pour a coffee but once more no, someone would be sent. The server appeared five minutes later but at the wrong table so I’d to call her. Here too there’s a notable undercurrent we sensed that staff, and there’s lots of them, feel put out as if guests are an inconvenience. Inefficiency has no charm on an island that’s made it an art form. Over five mornings at breakfast (the only consistent near good, fresh food you’ll get here) I queued for omelette. I’m fussy about cooking omelette must be in butter without constant stirring. I politely asked the lady to cook in butter. I gave her the butter. Head chef (Ronald I think) stood beside her doing nothing (if he worked for me he’d be helping out instead of slouching as it was busy) but as I’d said how I wanted my food cooked he quipped to her that he hadn’t been told he had a new member of staff. I let it pass (despite customers making paydays) pointless challenging sociopaths. I asked for mushrooms, jalapeño and onions in my omelette but only onions were available. Ronald said they weren’t available today as everything was subject ‘to a vail abil iT’. I said they hadn’t been available for days. He didn’t take it well but at £304 nightly I got no discount for non availabiliT. I mean no mushroom or a tad of chilli heat. They could easily grow both, but self drive and motivated effort like efficiency are widely lacking. They could grow vanilla, saffron, coffee, cocoa, tea: real money making commodities but no-one seems to want to make any hard effort. Senior management intentionally offer rarely changing, very cheap bony food, served lukewarm. Despite claims on TA they won’t strive to improve their product they just say duly noted just to grasp wads of cash for the rich and pay least out. Lunch/dinner -carbohydrate nightmares- offer bony meat including ‘stews’ in 32c; leftovers at one meal time return in another guise in the next. They made a seafood paella once with tough calamari and a few shrimp (prawns) lengthways sliced to give the impression of more. We found something to eat most days: soup and sponge desserts. Think old folks home food on a mean budget; I suspect the food is made for the staff. There’s enough comments on TA about grim food here. I confirm while duly noted owners haven’t made a jot of improvement, I’ll cause none nor will the next reviewer but we won’t return; Spain and Portugal will do nicely thanks ever so much. Although we couldn’t have food/drinks (except water) until 3pm the repetitive lunch buffet ended at 3pm with a lot leftover. This isn’t hospitality its hostility but having observed the head chef - a spiv - it didn’t surprise us. We were told our first food on all inclusive was 4pm afternoon tea then, pre-noon, they offered and we took a complimentary cocktail (in their rules) just the ticket on empty tummies in 32c heat. The prices quoted for food were off the scale outrageous for essentially old folks home budget food made cheaply on a bad day by folk unable to cook with finesse. Similarly ‘cocktails’ are bottom shelf, poorly made, with no finesse but they go overboard with an orange slice and a red cherry from a jar. I saw bar staff read the cocktails list; even they didn’t know how to fix them; it showed. They stubbornly refuse to refrigerate Coca Cola, instead opt to serve warm with an to much ice into warm glasses. It’s nigh on impossible to get an ice cold glass for lukewarm beers in 32c. They use plastic glasses and straws right by the living sea. I’ll pass on severe criticism of awful ‘afternoon tea’ with the kindness of silence; let me say if it wasn’t available under ‘subject to availabiliT’ every day it’ll be good. I’d make Ronald join guests at 4pm daily to taste and explain how he created grim fare - he’s not about at this time. The live musical entertainment is good with a fabulous, talented saxophonist. The entertainments officer is a good sort; Roger was a hard worker but please the singing chef should spend his time cooking; it may just provide tastier better food. After a few tunes depriving us of real talent Ronald a non cooking cook offered to sing for us at weddings/parties in our home countries so let’s give him the dignity of silence. I’d rather hire the crickets and whistling frogs that chirp all night here. Our room air con worked well. Our room was large, had a working fridge and kept clean. The bed is ridiculously high off the ground. If you go here please refuse to use plastic cups/straws by the sea and if at the oddest all inclusive I’ve experienced in 50 years insist on proper supplies of cold beers, ice cold glasses and Coke as you’ve already paid handsomely; oh don’t fall from the comfy bed it’s a long way down. Honestly, we were glad to just leave so pleased there’ll be no next time, fleeced from arrival to departure. Read less

Disappointed really.. Pros..our room was lovley best air con we've ever had I would recommend a pool access room if you can..cleaned every day and fresh towels SOME of the bar staff namely Tiffany were helpful and seemed happy to be there..some on the day of our check out were very rude SOME of the food was enjoyable breakfast was the the best..still find it strange you have to book times for your evening meal ..first time I've had to do that on AI You could only get one drink on check out day after 12 o'clock and was told very rudely when I asked The beach is ok but you cannot swim it's way to rocky obviously not the hotels fault We would not recommend this hotel and won't be returning..I wish I'd listened to other reviews Read less