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Cobblers Cove is one of the Caribbean’s most trusty and elegant hotels. Set in lovely tropical gardens on Barbados’s famous West Coast, it is intimate and relatively small (it has just 40 suites) and it typifies the graciousness and traditional courtesy of the best Barbados hotels. As one of the Caribbean’s very few Relais & Châteaux, Cobblers Cove offers the ‘five Cs’ - calm, charm, character, courtesy and most notably of course, cuisine. With its discerning, mainly British clientele and beautifully manicured air there are times when it might just be an English house party in the tropics.
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KEY FEATURES
| Well loved Barbados hotel, all suites in 2-storey buildings set in lush gardens, main house, award winning restaurant, Relais & Chateaux member, seafront swimming pool, tennis, fitness centre, watersports - simply one of the best West Coast Barbados beach front properties. |
STYLE
| Understated elegance taken to the tropics, backed by gracious Bajan hospitality at this distinguished Barbados hotel |
CLIENT PROFILE
| Wealthy and well heeled, majority British, discreetly hiding away rather than there to be seen, many long-time visitors in the winter season |
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From outside the Caribbean it is easy to imagine that the hotels that line the fashionable West Coast of Barbados might all be fairly similar, but in fact they each have their own distinctive character and each suits a different sort of traveller. The keynote of Cobblers Cove is its understated elegance and low key but reliable luxury. Its well heeled clientele know they have found a good thing and they stick by it, returning year after year for one or two or more weeks over the winter.
Cobblers Cove hotel is a comfortable size, with just forty suites, and it is tucked away in its own lovely garden enclave at the northern end of Barbados’s West Coast, isolated from the humdrum of the strip. Of course all the restaurants and other beaches are within a quick drive when you want them, but most guests are happy hidden away here and emerge only occasionally during their stay.
As you pass through the lobby at Cobblers Cove and emerge into the garden you are struck immediately by the neatly trained tropical fertility. The suites run down to the beach in lines to the left and right, but they can barely be seen. Either side of the central path are walls of plants, which create ‘rooms’ of foliage in front of each of the suites.
Set in two storey buildings, Cobblers’ 40 suites each have a bedroom and a drawing room, with a balcony or sitting area at the front that looks out onto the gardens and in some cases the sea. The suites use the best of traditional Bajan architectural techniques, with low-pitched roofs and louvres to give a through-flow of air, and balustrades painted in Messel green.
As you head closer to the sea, the main house reveals itself among the palms. It is painted a light shade of pink and is, a little unexpectedly, crenellated, but perhaps this is in keeping with the legendary name of one of the two extremely comfortable suites upstairs, the Camelot. The main house, which was built in the middle of the twentieth century by a Barbadian sugar baron, is furnished and decorated in traditional Barbadian style, with a lobby at the entrance and then a drawing room with mahogany furniture, sofas and armchairs, and a table of coffee table books to browse in moments away from the important pursuits of sunbathing and dining. This is also where the weekly manager’s cocktail party is held.
As you emerge from the other side of the main house, you will find the pool to one side, and beyond it sunbathing areas and the access to the beach. To the other side is the dining room, called the Terrace, which sits right on the waterfront in an open-sided gallery.
At the height of the winter season, from January to early March, Cobblers Cove tends to be filled with faithfuls who have been returning to the same suite on their constitutional winter break to the Caribbean for many years. At other times of year the visitors tended to be more mixed, with a younger crowd. No children under 12 are permitted in the hotel during the winter season.
Stop Press: Cobblers Cove's two new treatment rooms, Frangipani and Hibiscus, opened on the 17th November 2007 in a traditional Bajan-style chattel house. A range of treatments using Pevonia products will be available six days a week, including a Myoxy Caviar Facial (using pure caviar and pearl extracts), an Aromatherapy Salt Glow exfoliation, a creme fraiche, papaya and pineapple body wrap and Cobblers Cove Aromatherapy Ulimate De-stressor Swedish massage. During the hotel's annual summer closure the Colleton Suite was completely refurbished with new furniture and fabrics, and now has a fresher look in creams and greens.
A History of Cobblers Cove Hotel |
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Beach & Swimming
Sand has returned to the front of Cobblers Cove (as it has along the west coast, after erosion in 2006) and so you can walk along the beach at the front of the hotel now. The main beach is just a short walk to the side beyond the pool, a lovely, 500 yard curve of quiet sand backed by casuarinas and palms, splashed occasionally with bougainvillea. Cobblers Cove provides sunloungers on the beach.
The hotel pool is at the front of the resort, on a terrace right above the sea |
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Sports & Recreation
The watersports hut on the grounds of Cobblers Cove offers snorkelling, kayaking, windsurfing, sunfish sailing and waterskiing. Scuba diving can be booked and you will be collected from the hotel. For those who want on-land exercise, there is a gym and a floodlit, all-weather tennis court across the road
The closest golf course is at Royal Westmoreland, which has some limited tee times for outsiders during the morning and is fifteen minutes away by car. Sandy Lane is twenty minutes drive and has three courses. |
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Staff
The staff is one of the reasons that so many people return to the hotel. When you are greeted by Tony Johnson in the dining room, chances are he will probably remember your name. The two gardeners, Edward and Peter, each of whom care for one side of the resort, would be happy to explain the many plants that they tend.
The General Manager of Cobblers Cove is Randall Wilkie who joined the hotel in April 2008. Originally from Barbados, he is a well known Caribbean hotelier who in the past has been at the helm of Settlers Beach in Barbados, Sandals Royal Caribbean Resort in Jamaica and more recently in Antigua at Blue Waters Hotel. |
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The Rooms
The rooms at Cobblers Cove are all suites. Thirty-eight of them are in similar style, set in the two-storey buildings. There are also two luxury plantation suites, the Camelot and the Colleton, which are upstairs in the main house just above the sea.
For what is quite a small hotel, the rooms are large. You enter via a drawing room, where there are wicker armchairs, a coffee table and a writing table. To one side there is a balcony or patio, with two sunbeds and a bench, which can be closed off at night but create a large space by day. Looking the other way you come to the bedroom, whose louvered French doors can be opened so that the whole space becomes one room. Inside they are airy, with high ceilings upstairs, and they are decorated in light tones, and decorated with classical Bajan prints, of tropical plants from the days of the plant hunters 200 years ago. There is a king size bed. The rooms with the finest view are numbers 1, 2, 3 and 4, which are right on the water, and on the other side of the main house, 35 and 36, which have an angled view of the sea. Most of the suites have connecting doors to the next room
Each room has small kitchen facilities, including tea and coffee makers and a toaster and in keeping with traditional Barbados, the rooms can be opened up and ventilated by ceiling fan (rooms do also have air-conditioning if you want it). There are computer ports in the room, but in keeping with the hotel’s quite and refined atmosphere televisions are not installed as standard. They are available on request. Radios are also available at Reception. The bathrooms have Molton Brown toiletries.
The Camelot and the Colleton suites are larger and extremely luxurious. They each have a living room and bedroom and they are set in the main house on the waterfront. They have spectacular views over the sea from their roof terrace and a private plunge pool. |
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Dining
The Terrace Restaurant, one of the places to eat out up and down this part of the West Coast, has a very attractive setting right on the waterfront at Cobblers Cove, on an open-sided terrace with a stained wooden roof whirring quietly with ceiling fans. True to the hotel it is quiet and sedate, but the fare is excellent. The Executive Chef is Christophe Letard a Frenchman from Normandy, who joined Cobblers Cove in October 2007 following seven years as Executive Chef at the Aerie Resort in Vancouver, which is also a Relais & Châteaux property. Since the late 1980s Christophe has developed his skills in a number of other Relais & Châteaux properties in Canada, England and France and his cuisine is traditional French at base with British and North American influences. This is combined with using the best of the good range of ingredients available in Barbados to create a sophisticated continental menu with Caribbean touches. The restaurant has a tie-in with Gleneagles in Scotland, with staff exchanges.
Room service is available all day until 9.30pm. |
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Weddings
Cobblers Cove is a romantic wedding venue and the hotel will work with your travel organiser or a specialist wedding co-ordinator such as St James Travel & Tours to make sure that your day is extremely special. There is a standard wedding plan as well as a list of optional extra features but, subject to the hotel’s approval, you can tailor make all the arrangements.
The standard plan includes a Minister/Registrar, marriage licence and certificate, transfer to and from the Ministry*, wedding cake, one bottle of champagne, a bouquet, a head band, a buttonhole and a decorated location within the hotel grounds. Extras might include photographer, video of ceremony/conversion for UK, steel pan or guitarist, canapés, hot and cold hors d’oeuvres.
* Please note that you are advised to make arrangements through your travel organiser or a local wedding co-ordinator (St. James Travel & Tours) to accompany you to the Ministry and assist with the completion of the paperwork. |
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Children
A new children's Arts & Crafts Room offers a book and toy library, DVD and crafts table. |
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Useful Hints
Cobblers Cove has an elegant and low-key but distinctly English air about it during the winter season. |
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Practical Facts
Annual Closure dates: 01 September-05 October 2008
Dress Code: Elegantly casual, no collarless shirts or shorts in the evenings. Black Tie is requested for dinner on Christmas night and New Year’s Eve
Facilities: Floodlit all-weather (Omni) tennis court, air-conditioned gym, gift shop, water sports, Terrace restaurant, lounge and bar
Complimentary: Waterskiing, sunfish sailing, hobie cat, kayaking, snorkelling and windsurfing. Afternoon tea between 4-5pm daily. Day and night time tennis. Use of air-conditioned gym
Other Services: Exchange dining with a number of deluxe hotels for guests on MAP (subject to availability). In-house laundry, library, same day dry cleaning. In suite massage. TV lounge with internet. WiFi
Accommodation: 40 suites
Room Types: 22 Superior Garden View - Open plan sitting room with ceiling fan, sofa bed, dining area and sun loungers, small Library of best selling titles, dressing area with personal safe, iron & ironing board and trouser press. Bathroom with double vanity and shower over bath. Air-conditioned bedroom to rear with ceiling fan and hairdryer. 8 Deluxe Suites (located closer to the sea) - Open plan sitting room with ceiling fan, sofa bed, dining area and sun loungers, small Library of best selling titles, dressing area with personal safe, iron & ironing board and trouser press. Bathroom with double vanity and shower over bath, English soaps and linens. Air-conditioned bedroom to rear with ceiling fan and hairdryer. 8 Oceanfront Suites (directly overlooking the sea) - Open plan sitting room with ceiling fan, sofa bed, dining area and sun loungers, small Library of best selling titles, dressing area with personal safe, iron & ironing board and trouser press. Bathroom with double vanity and shower over bath. Air-conditioned bedroom to rear with ceiling fan and hairdryer.
Camelot & Colleton suites (Located in Pink Plantation House) - Situated on the top floor of the Pink Planters House are the Camelot and Colleton suites. Arguably two of the finest hotel suites in the Caribbean, they are decorated in the English style and combine marble floors with beautiful coloured fabrics to achieve a cool elegant atmosphere. Each suite has its own plunge pool as well as Jacuzzi.
Children: Welcome except no children U12 yrs accepted between 6 Jan-27 Mar, 2008. Children U12 yrs are encouraged have finished dining by 7.30pm, and U5 yrs are not permitted in the bar/lounge after 7pm.
Weddings: US$1000 for basic wedding plan (see above)
Credit Cards: Visa and MasterCard |
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Rates
| | 01 Oct- 16 Dec 2007 | 17 Dec- 05 Jan 2007-08 | 06 Jan- 31 Mar 2008 | 01 Apr- 30 Sep 2008 | 01 Oct- 19 Dec 2008 | | Meal Plan | BP | BP | BP | BP | BP | | Superior Suite Single Double | 385 480 | on request 850 | 485 730 | 315 440 | 385 490 | | Deluxe Suite Single Double | 460 535 | on request 1,010 | 690 920 | 365 480 | 460 545 | | Oceanfront Suite Single Double | 585 640 | on request 1,190 | on request 1,050 | 455 585 | 585 650 | | Two Bed Deluxe Suite 1-4 persons | 970 | 1,785 | 1,430 | 920 | 980 | | Camelot Suite Double | 1,050 | 2,100 | 2,100 | 975 | 1,070 | | Colleton Suite Double | 1,200 | 2,450 | 2,450 | 1,080 | 1,200 | | Extra person | 180 | 220 | 220 | 165 | 180 | | Child under 12 | 90 | 175 | 175 | 90 | 90 | | Child under 2 | 25 | 90 | 90 | 25 | 25 | All rates are quoted in US$ per room, per night inclusive of service and tax. BP=Room & breakfast. All rates are subject to change without notice. Dinner supplement is US$75 pp/day to be booked in advance. No children U12 yrs during 06 Jan-17 Mar 2008. No minimum stay except during 19 Dec- 05 Jan when a minimum of 14 nights applies. |
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Special Offers
EXCHANGE DINING
Guests staying at Cobblers Cove on a half board basis may exchange dine with a number of deluxe hotels on the island, subject to availability at time of request – excludes transfers.
HONEYMOONS & ANNIVERSARIES- Honeymooners and couples celebrating their anniversary will receive complimentary fruit, flowers and Champagne in their room on arrival. |
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How to Book
If you wish to make further enquiries or a reservation, please use the WEB LINK or DIRECT EMAIL ENQUIRIES facility at the top of this page to make contact with Cobblers Cove Barbados, or if you wish to telephone them, please click on TELEPHONE CONTACT to reveal the number. |
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Tour Operators
If you wish to book through a tour operator or travel organiser, please follow the link below.
See List of UK Tour Operators
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Locality
Cobblers Cove is just south of Speightstown, which is Barbados’s second town, but is distinctly quieter and more local than Bridgetown. You will find more to interest you in Holetown, which is about 10 minutes drive to the south. There are two shopping malls and banks and a supermarket.
There are a number of restaurants within just a few minutes’ drive. North of Speightstown are the Fish Pot, which has a lovely setting in Shermans Bay, and La Mer, which has an excellent setting on the waters of Port St Charles. To the south you will find the Lone Star, any number of restaurants in Holetown (Olive’s, the Tides), and further south, about 15 minutes drive, the Cliff and Calabaza. |
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Meet & Greet
If you are travelling independently, taxis are usually available at the airport, but one can be arranged for you by the hotel at your expense. It is worth putting in the request at the time of booking. The ride from the airport is around 45 minutes, depending on the traffic. Alternatively, if you would prefer to be taken care of from the minute you arrive at the airport, with a range of services that can include limousine transfers, a Concierge Service is offered by St James Travel & Tours. |
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Getting Around
Hiring a car to explore the island is easily arranged. If you are not travelling in peak season and you don't think you will want a car for more than a day or two, hotel reception will be able to assist you. Otherwise, we recommend you book in advance via your travel organiser or direct with Stoutes Car Rentals, who will deliver to the property and issue your Barbadian driving licence, price Bds$10. Vehicles can be returned at the airport or be collected from the property at a pre-arranged time on your departure day. Be aware that in the winter season there is often a shortage of cars in Barbados, so you are advised to book well in advance. Also book early if you want one for a week or more because the pre-booked rates can be more advantageous.
Taxis are readily available through the reception at the hotel, through drivers who remain on property. A perfectly good bus service passes straight in front of the hotel, heading north to Speightstown and south to Bridgetown. |
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