Magdalena Grand Beach & Golf Resort — Hotel in Tobago

Avoid this place at all costs||Short review:|It’s unusual to absolutely loathe a hotel in the first few seconds after arrival, but the Magdalena Beach achieved this remarkable feat and then went on disappointing with meticulous regularity. In short, if you’re due to stay here you MUST check the situation regarding the oil slick, including: the state of the beach, whether the JCBs and trucks are still operating all day on the beach, whether there is any beach access at all, and whether the chemicals are still being applied to the rocks by fully hazmat clothed workers just a few feet from the pool deck. Get a clear response from the hotel and make sure every line of their reply is correct when you arrive. If not, get a refund!||Actually, thinking about it save yourself the trouble and go somewhere else.||Long review:|As you drive onto the estate you pass a sign shouting ‘Welcome to Paradise’. It’s a bold claim to make and from a marketing point-of-view is genius or pure stupidity - you’ll soon find out which.||We pulled up to the front steps of the hotel and, of course, had the expectation that someone would greet us with a broad smile and a ‘Welcome to the Magdalena Beach, are you here to check-in?, let me help you with your bags’. ||Reality was somewhat different. As soo as I got out of the car and popped the trunk open a security guard incoherently barked ‘You can park there’.||I smiled and replied that ‘I’m not parking, just dropping the bags’||The barking continued, ‘YOU CAN’T PARK THERE’||My smile had dropped but I tried again to explain ‘We’re not parking, we guests, here to check-in, just dropping the bags’||Again, barking, but this time too incoherent to actually understand. I figured the bell desk would send someone out to help, but no, it was clearly un-manned and so I had to lug all the bags and cars up the steps into reception and … just leave them resting against the wall with everyone else’s whilst our favourite security idiot glared at me.||The only person who seemed to have a clue what was going on was the lady serving the welcome ‘cocktail’. She mentioned that there was parking around the corner so I parked where she suggested. By the time I got back to reception there were cars parked in the Restricted Zone, but for some strange reason they weren’t being shouted at. ||So the room wasn’t ready - that’s OK, we were a little early and were bluntly told to sit downstairs until 3pm. ||And this is where reality bites!||The hotel was largely deserted, absolutely no atmosphere apart from (or possibly due to) the constant tinny ring of reggae muzak. Only two people on the pool deck, assuming you don’t include the fully hazmat clothed workers spraying the rocks a few feet from the deck with high pressure just of liquid designed to break up the oil slick that has devastated the beach. (Check the pictures). They looked like the worst ever Ghostbusters tribute act that had crossed the streams.||One or two guests passed us and said hello ‘Checking in?’ they asked, ‘that’s right’ we nodded. They looked at each other in disappointment, like broken prisoners caught in a dystopian nightmare. LEt’s just say after 15 mins they had clearly and accurately briefed us on just how bad this hotel is. ||We had booked a suite, but had been warned not to accept any rooms on the south wing of the hotel as the diggers, trucks and Ghostbusters were most active there. So we declined the room and asked to move to the North wing. Our Suite was exchanged for a family room with a cot.||And the rooms are really tired, the wifi a complete joke, and air-con rattling 24 hours a day. It would take too long to go into every gory detail. ||But guess what, the diggers and trucks are just as bad at this end of the beach!||There’s a 2nd pool which is probably the saddest little deck area at any hotel I’ve ever stayed at. No covers for the plastic loungers but you can go to the main deck to sign for a couple of beach towels, which are rally just small thin bath towels.||To cut a long story short we checked out at the first opportunity, and it’s difficult to find anywhere decent on the island that has availability as everyone in-the-know has already snapped up places and cancelled the booking at the Magdalana beach.||Other low-lights include the catering which is on the whole dire (although the Kali’na dinner made a reasonable attempt at being acceptable). A special place in catering hell should be saved for the utterly incapable staff in the Robin Crusoe Pub. After 90 minutes only one drink had arrived and we finally gave up on any food. The manager said she could get it to us in 5 minutes so with seconds to spare two styrofoam takeaway boxes arrived with a special treat of an undercooked inedible burger and chips, and next to it (see the picture), that’s the lovely shrimp!! ||Now I hope you’re sitting down because I have to tell you that one glass of beer, one watery cocktail and those two boxes of rubbish cost…. US$70. That’s SEVENTY US DOLLARS!||So, we checked out at the first opportunity and flew to Trinidad. ||So in summary this is probably the worst hotel I’ve stayed in in 40 years of travelling for business and leisure. The staff are rude and incompetent, the facilities were once cutting edge, but that was in the 80’s and now th whole place is dirty and tired. Add to that the debacle of the oil spill and the shameful lack of communication to my travel bookers and you have a destination which deserves to slowly fade...

I got married on February 2nd at the Magdalena Grand in Tobago West Indies. I had such a great time, and such a bad time as well. Take a page out of my book and DON'T do some of the following things that I did if you are planning a destination wedding. First, go through a destination planning business, even if it costs more money. Second, know that the hotel may offer you vendors, like a wedding planner to use, but this may not always be the best course of action, even if they have worked with the hotel before. My case was a bit unfortunate.

First, this hotel is actually really nice. We had a few issues, but nothing that was not resolved rather quickly. For example, we had an issue with the tub in our honeymoon sweet, that was fixed within the hour. Room Service was great. Anything we called for we received. The service industry in Trinidad and Tobago is quite terrible, but for the meanwhile, the staff at the Magdalena makes you forget about this. We stayed from Monday night until Thursday. Our wedding was on Tuesday. The person who made our time there exceptional awesome was Carineh Deokiesingh. She is a joy and a delight. She made our wedding day amazing and our stay even more amazing by getting us some special perks for our wedding. She dealt with all my pre-wedding jitters with grace and was just an amazing person. She is really the picture of perfect hospitality.

On to the wedding. The day was so beautiful. The weather was perfect. We had a lovely day, thanks to Carineh. She was there to help with a lot of details that wedding planner, Therese Chung Waldropt, completely missed. There were a few issues with the ballroom when we got to the reception. The staff there was exceptionally unpleasant, especially the manager that was on staff that night. She made everything more difficult and was unhelpful. The dance floor was a terrible mess. It broke apart while we were dancing causing a hazard. I told the general manager about this when I saw him a few days later and he kind of shrugged like it was not a big deal. But it was. Three people hurt themselves, and this could be an issue for the hotel in the future. My uncle actually told the folks putting the dance floor together earlier that day about the hazard of the poorly constructed dance floor, and again, they kind of shrugged like there was nothing that they could do. They also kept turning the lights up on us during the reception totally ruining the mood and making people think they had to leave even though we pay for the place until midnight. Again, when asked about this, the staff shrugged and didn't really listen to us. We told Carineh all about this, and she was lovely about it and apologized. At that point, there was not much that could be done.

The absolute worst part of our wedding was the alleged wedding planner that Carineh suggested to us. Therese Chung Waldropt. I feel so bad trying to write this review because I really liked her as a person, but she is not the greatest wedding planner. And this really is not a reflection on Carineh either, just a series of unfortunate events. First, I don't think she has every planned a destination wedding before, something that I should have asked her, which was totally my fault. She assured me, however, that that she could handle all the tasks that I asked her to do. It turns out, she just wanted the money. She caused me so much stress. She was an over communicator which at first I thought was a good thing. But she has a severe problem with lying. She told me that she was getting my flowers for the reception from Italy. When we got there, she barely had any flowers anywhere at all, and they still had the price tags from a store in Trinidad. She charged me a lot of money to decorate, and when I got there, she had hardly done anything at all to the ceremony site or to the ballroom. Her day of coordination was God awful. Everyone complained about her. Worst of all, I hired her to do three events for my family as this was a destination wedding and folks were coming from out of town....

After reading previous reviews i was a little apprehensive at what we had in store at the Magdalena but please don't let the reviews put you off.||Pros:|Overall we had a lovely week long stay - at check in we were greeted warmly and with a cold drink it took no longer then 20mins. (around 30 of us arrived at the same time as well) the hotel is located on beautiful grounds with lots of wild life to spot.|Rooms were spacious and we had a lovely view of the ocean - rooms were cleaned daily with clean towels. Queen size bed which both myself and my husband found very comfortable. There is a small mini fridge that you can keep water in and a decent kettle with teabags and instant coffee - if you want milk either call up and they will bring you some or take some at breakfast with you. AC worked well.|Breakfast and lunch are always a buffet but lots of options from freshly made omlets and fruits to fish and cooked ribs with salad and rice at lunch. And nice sweet cakes.|Pool bar opens around 10am and shuts at 6pm. The resort is on the Atlantic side so even when the beach is open its not suitable for swimming in - if its the beach you want take advantage of the free shuttle bus to pigeon point beach they put on a few times a week its around 15mins drive and is on the Caribbean side and is beautiful. |Take advantage of the free golf course- you do need to pay for the clubs around 30USD and bring your own golf balls|You will need to book in to the al la carte restaurants in advance so be mindful of this.|The staff really did try their best and were so friendly and welcoming always saying hello and asking if you would like another drink etc.|They allowed us a late check out at no extra cost|The staff kindly decorated my bedroom as a surprise on my birthday :-) ||Cons: |They ask for your room number constantly......and you have to 'sign' a bill each time for a meal even though we were all inclusive - there has to be a better system as sometimes we were asked our room number 3-4 times during one meal/drinks seating - I'm guessing its to capture activity or the amount of food consumed i'm not sure but an improved system is needed.|Service times could be a bit hit or miss and at times felt incredibly slow - i think though it its just the 'Tobago way' and you have to have an open mind when visiting different countries. Always around 30-45min wait for food and not bought out together - better communication with the front of house staff and kitchen staff is needed.|They also did run out of some items randomly I'm not sure if they are trying to cater for it being slightly less busy but there is always something else you can order|Yes the resort is dated - i would say around 10yrs plus - if they could upgrade the towels and bed linen and pool side furniture it would make everything a lot more comfortable and to the standards I think people expect. |Evening entertainment is very limited and so are hotel day time activities if you are someone who likes these kind of things this place isn't for you.|The bar closes at 11 which seems fairly early - also the pool table i think must be 20+ years old if this could be updated as well would again make things so much better.|They have really tried hard with the oil spill clean up - we didn't really feel effected by it when were were there - they do still have a big screen up by the pool but the day we left they said that they were in the final stages of cleaning and were hoping to be done in a few weeks time - it was defiantly better than we had imagined||Tobago is a beautiful county and the people all seemed very welcoming and kind - i would recommend visiting. We hired a car for two days to see the rest of the island which I would recommend doing - not many places accept card so make sure you have enough cash on you as there are minimal cash points available - would also recommend attending 'Sunday school' for some great Tobago culture and live steel band music - we shared a cab we a few other people staying at the hotel...