Greenwood Beach Resort — Hotel in Cat Island

Are you looking for a magnificent large resort on hundreds of acres of impeccably manicured gardens? How about 5 swimming pools and a water park to boost? And, what about 30 odd restaurants so that you never need to eat in the same place twice? If this sounds like paradise… then don’t come to Greenwood, this is not the place for you!||But… if you’re the person who thrives on the small, intimate, personal resorts, well then, Greenwood IS the place for you! From the minute you land on Cat Island, you realize you’re in a special place. Joyann, is right there to pick you up in her taxi van. She then suggests a stop at one of the few grocery stores to pick up a bottle (or 2…or 3) of wine and maybe a few snacks. It’s a 45 minute drive along a bumpy road to get to Greenwood, but as soon as you arrive and meet Pauline, you realize you’ve found a hidden gem off the beaten path. ||Pauline and Antoine, are the owners, and run the resort and the dive centre. They are so kind and welcoming, and at once you feel like you are part of the Greenwood family. The place is very peaceful, relaxed, rustic, and very clean. Shaun, is the chef, and we felt so lucky to be able to enjoy his cuisine. There is a menu, but we simply preferred to ask Shaun to prepare us whatever he had available… and we certainly had no regrets! The bar is well stocked and runs on an honour system. The wine you picked up, on your way from the airport can be kept in the fridge for a simple $10 corkage fee. No one seems to abuse the system, and again, everything is just friendly, and relaxed. ||It was unfortunate for us in that we hit a spell of bad weather, and although we had planned on three days of diving, we weren’t able to get a single dive in. As unfortunate as it was, Pauline earned our respect in that she didn’t even try to go out; it was a flat NO. We were considering extending our stay to try and get diving in, and to her credit, given our itinerary, she discouraged us from doing that, realizing that if we stayed we could still be disappointed.||Although we couldn’t dive, we had a wonderful time, regardless. A passion of Antoine’s, besides diving and kite surfing, is magic! He loves surprising his guests with a touch of magic, just when you least expect it! So along with being entertained by Antoine’s tricks, we relaxed, caught up on reading, played games, swam in the sea, and enjoyed some great conversation with the other very interesting guests. The resort is very small, so you get to know the other guests, who are also there to be off the beaten path. ||We look forwards to our next visit. Thank you Pauline, Antoine and Shaun for a really...

We were only on the island for a short couple of days, but we are so happy we decided to stay at Greenwood Beach Resort for our weekend getaway. The location is beautiful, with endless pink sandy beaches, the perfectly located pool, and abundance of palm trees surrounding the property. There is internet in the common areas, but not the rooms themselves which was refreshing, it really allowed us to disconnect and enjoy being in the moment and appreciate where we were. Pauline was very organized and helpful with anything we wanted or needed to make our stay the best it could be. We did a kite surfing lesson with Antoine, and thanks to his patience and excitement to share his hobbies, both me and my husband were able to get up on the board and glide along on our own. He also put on a little magic show after dinner one night which was extremely entertaining and were still confused as to how he did any of the tricks! The food at Greenwood was some of the best we've had anywhere in a long time, and that is all thanks to Sean the chef. He is so creative with the dishes he made, personalizing each one to whatever the guest is looking for. He even went down to the beach one night to grab some fresh seaweed to make a homemade pesto that I had on pasta with steak, and it was so delicious. He really cares about what he does, and his energetic personality is an added bonus! We had dinner in a different location on the island one of our nights, and we found ourselves wishing we were back at Greenwood, because we knew we were missing out on some extra tasty food, live music, and good energy. The entire staff at Greenwood Beach Resort made our trip a unique and personalized experience, and for that we are so thankful and we absolutely will plan on visiting again!!...

We just got back from a week at Greenwood Beach Resort, had a wonderful time. This was just what we needed, a quintessential Out Island experience, very far off the beaten path. The hotel has 16 rooms, only three or four were occupied while we were there; it's a basic, comfortable, homey, very clean hotel, typical of the Out Islands; don't expect a Hyatt. Power and water were reliable, a/c was good. The owners/managers, Pauline and Antoine, were absolutely wonderful, genuine, accommodating; it was like staying with family. Food was good (remember that provisioning is difficult in a place so remote; the kitchen staff was plenty flexible). The beach is spectacular, powdery sand, completely deserted, about 8 or 10 miles long; we never saw another person nor a footprint. The skies are so dark at night, too, I've never seen so many stars, the Milky Way is very prominent and the Andromeda galaxy is easy to spot with the naked eye (can't do that back home). We had stayed here about 28 years ago; there are numerous patch reefs starting only 20 or 30 feet from shore and very easy to access; the only minor disappointment is that the reefs are pretty beaten up from hurricanes over the past few decades, but they're gradually coming back with some coral and abundant gorgonians, lots of juvenile reef fish; Pauline and Antoine are also working on re-seeding the reefs. They have a highly-rated scuba operation, but unfortunately the weather didn't cooperate for us and I never did any diving. Overall, this was exactly the vacation that we wanted. If you want to be in Paradise, far from the crowds, and if you're not expecting a corporate resort, this is your place. Feel free to email me if you have...