InterContinental Dominica Cabrits Resort & Spa by IHG — Attraction in Dominica

This is not a five star hotel, let me start off by saying that. Is it the second nicest hotel on the island? Sure. But you dont just get to claim 5 stars without having the experience & service to match it. The hotel itself is pretty and the aesthetics are nice but there are major elements that are sub par. We came during low season so the rates we paid perhaps reflected that and the rest of the experience as well. ||First off, I paid for a suite with a private plunge pool. At check in, it was not communicated to me that my room was not available (for supposed construction which was nowhere in site once my friend and I walked around the entire property). I came back to the front desk after i settled into my room to find out what happened. They claimed there was construction around the room I had paid for and upgraded me to a better room. Except I would have not paid the price I paid for the room I was given, and would have much rather saved my money and gotten a regular room had I been told or even offered another option. I even said this to the front desk lady and was not heard. Ask me how many times I sat in the living room in the suite I was given? 0 times. You should not have a room on your website if it is not available. ||The mini bar in the room was and is completely empty. You get 2 waters in your room and that is it. There are some weird loose screws in my shower since I got here. And the pillows are the absolute worst. My friend told me she had to pile all 4 of her pillows on top of each other to be able to sleep. They literally flatten into absolutely nothing. And yes, the rooms are very cold and it is difficult to warm them up. ||The service at the pool is non existent. What “5 star hotel” does not have someone bring their guests some ice and water when they sit by the pool? We had to bring our own water down from our rooms every day. You set up your own towels on the chairs and on the second day, they ran out of towels and no one replenished them. And if you need to get out of the sun, you cannot possibly move the insanely heavy umbrellas and there is no one to help you. So you have to just be moving chairs throughout the day to have shade. ||The food was NOT good. Breakfast is manageable since you can have eggs made and get by with fresh fruit but the rest of the breakfast buffet is bizarre (hot tuna, stews, salad?). If you are a healthy eater be prepared - lunch menu is all fried food. It was ridiculous. You are on a Caribbean island known for fresh fish, put a fresh fish option the menu simply grilled. Also, Out of 4 nights we stayed here, tonight, the last night we dined, was the only night the food was finally good. Robert, I believe head chef, was in the kitchen, and what a difference that made. I actually enjoyed the minestrone soup, lamb chops from their pop up menu and so wish the rest of the days had been like this. Other restaurants on property closed due to low amount of visitors, even though they claim its because they are only open for special events like weddings (cmon lol). Last night, I ordered some steamed fish dish and the fish tasted like cardboard. You can tell that nothing is made fresh (except for tonight) and was just super disappointing. ||Some random maintenance man entered my room while I was in my robe in the afternoon on the second day. When I stopped the door from opening, he was extremely confused and said out loud that they didnt tell him the room was occupied. Glad I had a robe on!! ||But for the best part now… the last post complained about multiple cats bothering them - not the case for us. There was ONE young cat that lived at the hotel. Spoke with other guests and no one minded her at all. As an animal lover, she was a lovely addition to the stay. Yes, she would hang around the restaurant but would not touch anyone or be invasive at all. We discovered she had 2 four week old kittens hidden in the bush by the swim up bar. Then all of a sudden, NINE maintenance men come over with a cardboard box, and try to grab her and the babies. The cat, of course, freaks out, the men freak out, they toss the cat into the air and into the pool. The guy nose dives on top of the bar. I mean, it was insane. Who behaves like this? Who needs NINE men to grab a cat? And they were all laughing about it while we are all by the pool watching. It was horrible. If you want to remove a cat and her kittens from your property, do it the right way - the humane way. You may not care about an animal but some of your guests might actually be animal lovers. I’ve stayed at plenty 5 stars resorts where you see the animals actually taken care of and respected rather than this ridiculousness. Look at The Cove in Eleuthera for example. ||Also, when I went to tell the manager, Fernando (he knew about the kittens, etc) I ran into Samar, and expressed how unacceptable the entire fiasco was. She stated they were moving the cat and kittens to another resort. Yeah, right. There is no other resort near by, and let’s be real, you are on an island in the Caribbean. The only thing you’re doing with those poor creatures is tossing them out on the road and hoping for the best for them. Not the type of people or brand I would ever want to support. Needless to say, last time I ever stay at an IHG hotel. ||PS - we stayed at Secret Bay before coming here and if you want to experience true 5 stars, give it a whirl, even if it’s for...

This is not a five star hotel, let me start off by saying that. Is it the second nicest hotel on the island? Sure. But you dont just get to claim 5 stars without having the experience & service to match it. The hotel itself is pretty and the aesthetics are nice but there are major elements that are sub par.

First off, I paid for a suite with a private plunge pool. At check in, it was not communicated to me that my room was not available (for supposed construction which was nowhere in site once my friend and I walked around the entire property). I came back to the front desk after i settled into my room to find out what happened. They claimed there was construction around the room I had paid for and upgraded me to a better room. Except I would have not paid the price I paid for the room I was given, and would have much rather saved my money and gotten a regular room had I been told or even offered another option.

The mini bar in the room was and is completely empty. There are some weird loose screws in my shower since I got here. And the pillows are the absolute worst. They literally flatten into absolutely nothing.

The service at the pool is non existent. What “5 star hotel” does not have someone bring their guests some ice and water when they sit by the pool? We had to bring our own water down from our rooms every day. You set up your own towels on the chairs and on the second day, they ran out of towels and no one replenished them. And if you need to get out of the sun, you cannot possibly move the insanely heavy umbrellas and there is no one to help you. So you have to just be moving chairs throughout the day to have shade.

The food was NOT good. Breakfast is manageable since you can have eggs made and get by with fresh fruit but the rest of the breakfast buffet is bizarre (hot tuna, stews, salad?). If you are a healthy eater be prepared - lunch menu is all fried food. It was ridiculous. You are on a Caribbean island known for fresh fish, put a fresh fish option the menu simply grilled. Also, Out of 4 nights we stayed here, tonight, the last night we dined, was the only night the food was finally good. Robert, I believe head chef, was in the kitchen, and what a difference that made. Other restaurants on property closed due to low amount of visitors, even though they claim its because they are only open for special events like weddings (cmon lol).

Some random maintenance man entered my room while I was in my robe in the afternoon on the second day. When I stopped the door from opening, he was extremely confused and said out loud that they didnt tell him the room was occupied. Glad I had a robe on!!

But for the best part now… the last post complained about multiple cats bothering them - not the case for us. There was ONE young cat that lived at the hotel. As an animal lover, she was the best thing about the stay. Yes, she would hang around the restaurant but would not touch anyone or be invasive at all. We discovered she had 2 four week old kittens hidden in the bush by the swim up bar. Then all of a sudden, NINE maintenance men come over with a cardboard box, and try to grab her and the babies. The cat, of course, freaks out, the men freak out, they toss the cat into the air and into the pool. The guy nose dives on top of the bar. I mean, it was insane. Who behaves like this? Who needs NINE men to grab a cat? And they were all laughing about it while we are all by the pool watching. It was horrible. If you want to remove a cat and her kittens from your property, do it the right way - the humane way. You may not care about an animal but some of your guests might actually be animal lovers. I’ve stayed at plenty 5 stars resorts where you see the animals actually taken care of and respected rather than this ridiculousness. Look at The Cove in Eleuthera for example. The other guests I spoke to all said they had no problem with her at all.

Not the type of people or brand I would ever want to support. Needless to say, last time I ever stay at...

This was the absolute perfect vacation. The hotel is a 10/10. The rooms and resort grounds were all stunning - as nice as or better than any other Kimpton or Intercontinental Hotel I’ve stayed at. The staff are the best part of the hotel, everyone was super friendly; I was sad saying goodby our last day. You can tell they care about the hotel, the rooms and dinning areas are spotless.

The first night we drove in we were exhausted from the flights down and driving in from the airport. I rented a car and would highly recommend that if you plan to explore the island like we did. We had dinner at the restaurant on site and crashed.

Our first full day we spent the morning exploring the resort after breakfast. They have multiple pools, lounge decks, and swings/hammocks to take advantage of. The gym has everything you could need and all the equipment looked brand new. There is not a beach, but they do have a couple access points into the water. The resort has some of the best snorkeling we found on the entire island. I spent at least an hour everyday snorkeling the reef right off the resort. It was one of my favorite parts of the entire trip. We rented the snorkeling gear from the resort for free. I can’t say enough how much my wife and I loved snorkeling here on the island and how easy the hotel made it.

One of the reasons we chose Dominica were the hiking trails the island has to offer. We spent two days just hiking the various trails around the resort. There is a cold sulphur spring that you can hike to, it took us 2 hours each way and we climbed 1800 feet of elevation during it. I highly recommend it. The other hike was Cabrits National Park. There is a stunning view of the resort and the surrounding mountings and bays. We also had lunch at the restaurant serving up local Caribbean food inside the park. Even if you don’t hike up the viewpoints, they still have amazing views of Prince Rupert Bay around the old fort and battery.

We spent 4 nights eating dinner out at restaurants in Portsmouth. The hotel was very helpful with recommendations and setting up cabs since we were drinking. Everyone talks about Keepin It Reel, but that was our least favorite restaurant and was also the most difficult to get a reservation. The best place we ate in the 8 days we were there was the Bell Hall Beach Spot (the best shrimp I’ve ever had). It is only a 5 minute walk from the resort and never required a reservation, it was perfect for our random schedule. We also loved The Steak House and Infinity Restaurant Bar & Grill. Highly recommend trying these places.

The highlight of the trip was the whale watching tour we took. We booked the tour with the front desk for a day that worked in our schedule; we were picked up by a boat from the dock connected to the resort. Unbelievably convenient. We were lucky enough to see multiple sperm whales just a few feet away from our boats. A baby sperm whale swam under our boat.

Other things we did:

took a Caribbean cooking class visited multiple national parks on the island took a canyoning tour. Highly recommend bought a bottle of champagne and drank it with two couples from a cruise boat in a hot spring surrounded by mountains stopped off on the side of the road to snorkel at multiple locations - champagne reef and Scott’s Head Beach. hiked Scott’s Head for the amazing views visited the downtown...