166dl wrote a review
March 2025
Potters Bar, Hertfordshire, England
Excellent Stay - Ignore All Reviews Pre-Dec 2024 as the place has been refurbished.
Overall, an excellent holiday. Well done to the team working at the hotel who have created a lovely relaxing environment.
The one Moan
We will start with our one major gripe. Many tour operators and the Marriott website boast about the multiple hotel dine-around programme (with sister Marriott hotels). When we were in Barbados (Feb/Mar 25), all but one other hotel was shut for renovation! So much for the 15 restaurant dine around option! We had the one at Treasure Beach and the pair at Waves.
As for websites, Virgin Holidays, TUI, Marriott, SHAME ON YOU for mis-leading customers. [Well done to SAGA holidays (who we didn’t use) who clearly pointed out the renovation programmes and what would be available.]
The Room
The room was newly renovated and comfortable with good aircon and comfortable beds. The turndown service was odd as it happened a couple of times only. Plenty of storage space and a good hot bath and shower. Would be nice if the bath had a shower attachment, so you could sit in the bath and wash your hair, rather than having to use the shower. But only a minor comment.
The Food
Breakfast is a buffet but is supplemented with a small but good a la carte menu. Typically, we ordered something off the menu and if we were peckish, grabbed something from the buffet.
Lunch was from the menu which had about 10 items to chose from, four items changed daily so plenty of choice.
Evening meal was five nights a la carte (changing options every night) and two nights buffet (Weds and Sat). Guests aware of this could then arrange which nights to dine elsewhere. The buffet was OK, a la carte more interesting. There were only three choices for the evening meal (Meat/Fish/Vegetarian) I would like to see a few more choices added which would give more variety, and stop that feeling of having to choose something because there is nothing else on offer.
However, overall we were very pleased with the food which was excellently cooked and presented. There were sometimes waits for food as it is prepared fresh in the kitchen. The serving team are attentive and fun, but some do rely on memorising your choices (and any variations e.g. “no cheese please”) which we found were occasionally forgotten.
The Clientelle
I guess it changes, but we had around 70% Brits, 15% USA, 15% Europe. Age demographic is definitely towards the retirement end! Its is, after all, an adults only hotel, so no families.
The Pool/Sea Wall
As mentioned by a few others, we had the problem of people getting up before dawn and reserving bed-chairs from the pool/on the sea front. And the nationality of these people was…..English! (So, time to stop blaming other nationalities!!). The pool itself was small but was cleaned every day and was a nice temperature. The sea front chairs do get the odd splash from the waves on the other side, so be aware!
The Bar and Evening Entertainment
The Bar was open pretty much all the time, with a good selection of cocktails. Beer was from a can (unlike Waves which was draught), standard wines served were Pino Grigio, Cabernet Sauvignon, Prosecco and a nice dry Rose. It’s a small hotel, so you never wait that long to be served. The Bar is a focal point and you often will meet and chat with folks over a drink before/after meals.
Most nights there was the typical entertainer format of an individual singing/playing along to backing tracks. Some were better than others, the young girl on the Wednesday (we didn’t catch her name) was outstanding.
Paynes Bay Beach
The beach can be challenging to get to at high tide – unfortunately some of the sand has been recently washed away and for an averagely able person, it’s a case of scrabbling up and down over a concrete wall and up over some large boulders. Less able bodied folks won’t be able to do this, but can wait for low tide. There were no hotel chairs on the beach. The sea area is sensibly broken up into dedicated swimming and boating areas. There are currents pulling you around so be sensible and you will be fine. We swam in the sea every day, sometimes more than once. There were a few things to see when snorkelling although the sea current does pull the sand around making it a bit murky on some days.