Treasure Beach Hotel

In Depth

Treasure Beach has been a fixture on the prestigious West Coast of Barbados for many years. It has a lovely atmosphere, both personable and intimate, and it is very much a part of the West Coast ‘scene’, while not being hung up on all the glitz. Set within a shout of the beaches, restaurants and villas of St James, it is one of the few privately owned hotels on the West Coast, and it is popular with a savvy crowd of Barbados regulars. For all its low key calm and discretion, it can be quite a social place in the season and has been carefully steered by some of the Caribbean’s best known hotel managers, including current General Manager, Jason Patterson.

Because of its size, the hotel is inevitably referred to as ‘boutique’, which it is to a certain degree, certainly in its prettiness and poise, but it also has a Bajan personality and friendliness that belies the aseptic minimalism generally associated with the word. People return because they know they are assured a trusty holiday in classic Bajan style.

Set on Payne’s Bay just south of Holetown, Treasure Beach is laid out in a U shape, a horseshoe of buildings on a fairly narrow strip of land leading down to a lovely section of beach. It is all quite compact, but this is part of its intimacy, and for all the modernity of the building, there are some pretty Bajan touches that also contribute to the feel, in the coral stone arches, coral render walls and the pickled ceilings.

You enter at the bottom left corner of the U. From the lobby you can see over the dining room and bar, which are laid out right in front of you, with the tables in alcoves and different levels. The tables spill out onto the terrace, set beneath parasols. Beyond here you see the grass and a fringe of tropical greenery in which there is a gazebo. The dining room has won awards recently and is well regarded enough to attract some of Barbados’s discerning guests for dinner in the evenings. It is part of a dine-around programme with a small number of other leading Barbados hotels.

Turn left and you will be looking along an alley of tropical greenery with the bedrooms either side, some in two storeys, others in three. The pool is at their centre and beyond it there stands a huge mahogany tree (which looks particularly good when it is lit at night) and then the beach. There are some watersports, but Treasure Beach is not really intended to be a playground of activities. It tends to be lower key and more social than that. Guests spend their days around the pool and beach, or reading on their balconies, and then gather for a drink before dinner, or the manager’s weekly cocktail party around the pool.

There are just 35 suites in all, and they each have two rooms, a bedroom and sitting room, with a balcony or terrace. Their balconies all have a view over the gardens and to the sea. The bedrooms can be enclosed and air-conditioned, but the sitting rooms open out onto the balconies and the natural air.  Six suites are on a third storey to some of the buildings, which were added a few years ago. Two of these suites, overlooking the beach from either side of the pool, are extra-large and have their own plunge pools.  The largest and smartest suite at Treasure Beach is the Hemingway Suite, which is set high up near the front of the resort and is decorated and furnished more sumptuously, with a separate living room, plunge pool and a full bar on the terrace.  

Other facilities at the hotel include a new spa suite in the former lounge and library. The gym can be found downstairs at the side of the hotel. It is behind the restaurant and accessed as though you were headed up to the Hemingway Suite.

Beach & Swimming

Treasure Beach is set on a lovely stretch of sand towards the southern end of Payne's Bay. There is a reef offshore within swimmable distance, where you can snorkel, and there is a shallow section right offshore which is suitable for children or beginners. One of the pleasures of the beach on the West Coast in Barbados is to walk along it, and it is possible to do so from Treasure Beach for quite a way to the north. Southwards you can walk for a while, but it is impassable beyond the fish market just beyond Tamarind Cove.

The shorefront at the hotel is dominated by a huge mahogany tree. Loungers are spread around the lawn and across to the pool, which is irregular in shape. It is large enough to swim for exercise as well as simply to dip and cool off and it is a gathering point during the day

Sports & Recreation

Treasure Beach does not operate its own watersports facility, but it does provide complimentary snorkelling gear. Small catamarans and water-skiing are available through concessionaires on the beach.

In case you feel the need, Treasure Beach does have an air-conditioned gym with a bicycle, step machine and a heart-monitor treadmill. Of course there is plenty to do in this area of Barbados, including golf and tennis. See Locality below.

Between April and August, during the time that hawksbill turtles lay their eggs on the beach at Treasure Beach, the hotel hosts a weekly lecture about turtles that visit Barbados. Lectures are given by the Barbados Sea Turtle Project.

Staff

The staff at Treasure Beach are very much part of the family and of course the returning guests get to know them well. Many members of staff have been there for over twenty years. Perhaps the most visible is John Doughlin, who is in charge of the dining room. Another man to look out for is Richard King, who runs the bar (it is now known as Richard's Bar). He joined the hotel in 1978. Two members of staff that have worked at Treasure Beach even longer, arriving in 1977, are Enid Lashley the housekeeper and Celeste Worrel-Clarke, who spent many years at the front desk and is now the accountant.

General Manager, Jason Patterson joined the hotel in November 2010 following the retirement of veteran Caribbean hotelier, Hamish Watson. Jason came to Treasure Beach from the Pink Beach Club in Bermuda where he was General Manager, having previously worked at Cambridge Beaches, the Millennium Hotel Abu Dhabi and Four Seasons Maldives Kuda Haraa.

The Rooms

The rooms at Treasure Beach are all suites, with a bedroom, sitting room and a balcony or terrace. While the bedrooms are air-conditioned, the sitting rooms are open-air and are designed to open up onto the balcony. The rooms have been undergoing renovation and they now have a more contemporary style. The bathrooms have also recently been redone in modern style, using chrome fittings, with salad bowl basins on a mahogany vanity surface. The base colour is light Bajan limestone and there are glassed in showers.

The largest suite is the Hemingway Suite, which has a separate sitting room, dark wood furnishings and a large balcony with plunge pool. It also comes with additional services such as airport collection and a full bar which is restocked daily.

Dining

The dining room at Treasure Beach, has been renamed Kathy's Restaurant (formerly known as Al Fresco) and is one of the strengths of the hotel. The executive chef is Kirk Kirton who took over the kitchen in October 2009. Chef Kirton is a Barbadian national with 14 years of experience behind him. Following graduation at the Florida Culinary Institute, he headed out to the UK where he was head chef at The Inn on the Green in Cookham Dean, The Globe in Cowes and Incognico in London. Back in Barbados, he joined La Mer working under Master Chef, Hans Schweitzer before moving on to head up the kitchens of some of the West Coast's top restaurants, The Lone Star, Olives Bistro and The Clubhouse Restaurant at Royal Westmoreland. On arrival at Treasure Beach he created a new a la carte menu which combines a Mediterranean style with the use of fresh local ingredients, with dishes such as 'half local baby chicken, roasted and served on a sweet potato puree with piperade and herb butter'. With such a lively restaurant scene on the West Coast of Barbados the guests of the hotels often go out to other hotels and Treasure Beach also sees some diners from outside (Treasure Beach is a part of an exchange dining programme which is offered in conjunction with Cobblers Cove, the Coral Reef Club and the Sandpiper). The setting is very pretty, with some tables set undercover in a number of alcoves that look out onto the gardens, and then others under umbrellas in the gardens themselves. It is also possible to dine around the pool and closer to the sea.

Room service is available between 7.30am and 9pm at no extra charge. There is no room service menu. The menu of the day is used.

Weddings & Honeymoons

Treasure Beach Hotel presents a delightful venue for a wedding and they will give you a room upgrade (subject to availability) as well as the services of their dedicated wedding co-ordinator. If you want to organise something extravagant or more complicated such as a church wedding with traditional wedding reception, talk to the hotel or to St James Travel & Tours who have a dedicated Barbados wedding planning service.

The hotel also offers a year-round honeymoon package, which can be booked in combination with any of the Garden-, Pool- or Ocean View Suites and is of course valid with their supreme Luxury Suites including the Hemingway Suite.

Children

The atmosphere at Treasure Beach is often quite sedate and low key, and under 12s are not permitted during the hard core of the winter season. They are welcome at Christmas and New Year, at Easter and during the summer.

Cots and high chairs are available.

Useful Hints

It might be important to know that although Treasure Beach can be quite social, it is distinctly lower key than some of the other major hotels along the Barbados west coast, some of which have a certain reputation for dressiness.

Practical Facts

Annual Closure dates: 2012 to be advised

Dress Code: Casual by day, casual elegant in the evening - no T-shirts, jeans or shorts and gentlemen would be expected to wear a collared shirt

Facilities: Freshwater swimming pool, Kathy's Restaurant and Richard's Bar. Air-conditioned lounge with wide screen cable television, DVD player, well stocked library, selection of games and DVDs, and computer with internet access. Air-conditioned fitness room

Complimentary: Weekly cocktail party with art exhibition, snorkelling gear, room service, WiFi access and internet facilities, fresh orchids in all suites, a fruit basket for each arrival throughout the winter season, complimentary afternoon tea served around the pool, complimentary cold facial towels & morning fruit kebabs

Other Services: Concierge Service, watersports on the beach (separate to the hotel), wedding co-ordinator, laundry and dry cleaning service

Children: All children are welcome during the holiday period of Christmas, Easter and during summer (18 December to 09 January and 01 April to 31 October) during other times children over 12 years of age only are welcome

Weddings & Honeymoons: A standard wedding package costs from US$880

Accommodation: 35 rooms

Room Types: Each suite has an air-conditioned bedroom with ceiling fan, bathroom with hair dryer, tub and separate shower, iron/ironing board and English toiletries. The living room, with ceiling fan, has a wet bar area with fridge (can be stocked as mini bar), toaster and kettle, and leads out to a private patio or balcony. All rooms have a mini safe, WiFi access and flat screen cable TV. 12 x Garden View at the back of the hotel or at the top of the U-shape; 10 x Ocean View - two in the northern wing (on the right as you look towards the sea) and the others in the southern wing; 10 x Pool View - six in the northern wing, two in the southern and two new suites built in 2006. All Ocean View and Pool suites are newly renovated and feature coral stone walls, marble tiled floors, plasma flat panel televisions and larger bathrooms. 3 x Deluxe Suites: The Hemingway Suite features luxurious furnishings throughout, separate living area opening to a large terrace with plunge pool and wet bar, and bathroom with large freestanding tub and a walk in shower for two. The two new Hibiscus and Hummingbird Suites are one bedroom suites built in 2006 and sit on the edge of the beach. These feature coral stone walls, tiled floors, plasma TV, a spacious sitting room leading out to a terrace with plunge pool, and a large en suite bathroom with whirlpool tub and walk-in double shower.

Credit Cards: Visa, MasterCard and American Express

Locality

Treasure Beach is about a mile south of Holetown, where the English first landed in 1625 and came back to settle in 1627. There are two shopping centers in the town, the smaller Cave Shepherd Plaza close to Sandy Lane and the larger West Coast Mall in Holetown itself. Here you will find a large supermarket, bank, photo centre, duty free shops, video rental, and various shops and boutiques. The Limegrove Lifestyle Centre is a recent addition with a range of designer shops, an art gallery, bars, cafes and restaurants.  Close by is the Chattel House Village, a series of shops in traditional looking Bajan style, which sell mainly souvenirs, the 24 hour Sandy Crest Medical Centre, and a market stall where you can buy fresh fruit and vegetables. As a local community, and has all you would expect to find in a small town - police station, post office etc.

There are a number of restaurants within just a few minutes' drive of Treasure Beach. Daphne's is within easy walking distance along the beach to the south, Scarlet is nearby and a little farther away you will find The Cliff and the Cin Cin By The Sea. There are any number of restaurants in Holetown, including Nishi and The Tides. There is also good nightlife in Holetown with lively weekend gatherings in 1st and 2nd Street, where the restaurants and bars stand shoulder to shoulder, with some providing live music. Drinkers tend to spill out into the street to mingle, creating an easy-going 'street party' type of atmosphere. The current 'hot spots' are The Mews, Elbow Room, Spago and Lexy Piano Bar.

Meet & Greet

If you are travelling independently, taxis are usually available at the airport and will cost around US$22 each way. The ride from the airport is around 30-40 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.

If you are booking through a travel organiser, it is likely that their representative will be at the airport to meet you. This service and your return airport transfers should be included in the cost of your holiday. Please check at the time of booking.

Getting Around

Hiring a car to explore the island or go to a different beach for the day is easily arranged. Book via your tour operator or direct with Stoutes Car Rentals, who will deliver the vehicle to the property and issue you your local driving licence at the same time. The hotel will also book car hire for you. Be aware that at the height of the winter season there is often a shortage of cars in Barbados, so you are advised to book yours in advance. If you want a car for a week or more the rates can also be better. Vehicles can be returned at the airport or be collected from the property at a pre-arranged time on your departure day. Taxis are readily available through reception. It is also easy and quite fun to take buses along the West Coast main road.

Treasure Beach Hotel Video

Please see below for a video of Treasure Beach Hotel, an intimate exclusive Caribbean resort on the western coast of Barbados, set on Paynes Bay. Ideal for fine dining, weddings and honeymoons.