If you want to chill, this hideaway is a great place to do it. If you crave excitement, go somewhere else. Before you read on, we should tell you that we're in our sixties. We first visited Galley Bay in 2000 and this was our eighth visit.

The hotel is adults only (except, I believe, at Christmas/New Year) 'all inclusive' beachfront resort with some curious cottage-pairs (bedroom/bathroom) in the garden area. They're linked by a 'breezeway' - i.e. a shielded but open path between the two. Don't forget your key if you visit the bathroom in the dead of night.

We stayed in one of our favourite rooms, a single story deluxe, right on the beach. Large bedroom, comfortable bed, twin sinks and showers in the bathroom, double glazed (which helps keep the noise down if the sea's rough - it was for 24 hours of our eight day stay.)

We love the location, the accommodation, the staff and the food in the Sea Grape restaurant. While the 'all inclusive' price covers a beachside snack bar and a more intimate restaurant (Gauguin), another restaurant (Ismay's) where you pay $35 extra per head per meal. We had an excellent meal there once, but it didn't entice us away from the Sea Grape.

We'd already been to Galley Bay seven times and spent five of the past six years trying to find somewhere to match it. We failed. We have decided that, as long as we can afford it and can bear the flight from the UK, this is where we'll be holidaying in future.

We stayed at Galley Bay from 18th to 25th Jan. This was our second visit,we holidayed here two years ago. We loved it two years ago and we love it even more now. We had a fabulous week. We stayed in a premium beachfront suite (upstairs as we like the privacy), which was kept spotlessly clean throughout the week by our lovely cleaner, Paulette.

The pool area has been extended since our last visit and there are now a lot more sunbeds available with good space between each set of beds. It was very comfortable and relaxing around the pool, made even more so by the fact that there is now drinks service to that area. Hard to resist those cocktails!

Great service in the bar and restaurants, we really could not fault the staff for their friendliness and service. Food was excellent, we had at least 9 different types of fish and each dish was attractively presented and delicious. Our wine and water glasses were constantly topped up. I cannot think of a nicer place to lunch than in the seagrape restaurant right by the beach with good food and a good few glasses of wine. That, to me, is a holiday.

As nice as the pool area now is, it would bea crime not to spend agood bit of time on such a fabulous beach. Again there are plenty of beds available and plenty of space. We swam in the warm, clear waters of the caribbean almost every day.

This is a very relaxing resort, where you can unwind and leave all your cares at home. We are totally hooked on Galley Bay and would recommend it to anyone who is looking for relaxation in beautiful, comfortable surroundings with great food and service.

You've got to have money to be able to afford to book to stay here.  The beach is beautiful, and the room, a premium beachfront suite was fantastic with a few negatives (which I'll cover later).  However what we did learn is money definitely does not make you happy or at least judging by the sour faces of practically every guest here.  Nobody ever smiles nevermind laughs.  How the staff continually smile and exchange pleasantries with these sour-pusses I will ever know!

Good points:- beach, weather, friendliness of staff, cleanliness of the resort and rooms.   Had a great boat trip out around the island with Sean (the lovely guy walks the beach most days) and Freesten - highly recommended.   Just the four of us drinking rum punch as we sailed along - fantastic.   

Negatives:-  apart from the sour-pusses, no mini bar in the room - not even soft drinks and beer - as advertised in the brochure!   4 free cans but you had to pay for any more. Couldn't believe it when we paid an awful lot for this holiday.   Also you have to pay to go to Ismays.   Not worth it at all. Don't bother, stick with the Gaugin.  

Really relaxing week with glorious weather.  Wont go back though as plenty of other places to try. 

Pros -
The room was great! We had a premium beachfront suite. The bed was comfortable. The room was large. the patio had a view of the ocean. There were lounge chairs outside of each patio. The bathroom was great. I am not sure what people are referring to about hospital style bathrooms. There was a large shower with two shower heads. The bathtub was humongous (didn't use it). There were two pedestal style sinks with a long shelf that could store anything you need from makeup to shaving cream. The air conditioning was more than adequate to handle Caribbean heat and humidity.

The rooms and the resort grounds were clean. People were always around performing landscaping and housekeeping duties.

The bar staff was fantastic! They were friendly, attentive and provided great service. There are good brands of liquor available but not the real top shelf stuff. Thank you Sherry Ann and Natasha!

The cons
Dining room service was awful. The strategy became - ask everyone that walked by for a fresh cup of coffee and you may get it in 20 minutes - and you still may not! If you asked for a variation of an item on the menu, such as no sauce, you would have a 50/50 chance of getting what you wanted.
I did not set my expectations for food too high. After all this is the Caribbean and you are not going to get a steak like you will in a good restaurant in the midwest USA. But I still managed to be disappointed. Can you believe at one function there was a pizza style appetizer - tomato sauce and a bit of cheese on a slice of bread! I used to make that for a snack for my children when they were 5 years old. And forget about asking for food to be cooked to a certain doneness - you will get better odds of being successful in the casinos in town. I suppose the food could be sent back but who wants to wait another hour for it to maybe be cooked properly. I am not being picky about fine differences. Medium rare would come out well done - steaks and fish alike. The only bright spot in the dining room was Amanda. She really did her best to get things right.

The bands that played outside the dining room were tone deaf except for the Wednesday night group. There is no music around the bar or pool.

There were plenty of chairs at the pool and beach. They are somewhat segregated in pairs so it is hard to hang out with friends you may have made. It is easy to say just pull them together but the way the area is laid out this would be difficult.

I mentioned most of the above to the CFO at the managers party. He said he appreciated my input. I guess they did not have a staff meeting before my stay was done because nothing changed.