We went during the "quiet season of August"; but that is still no excuse for the lack of interest by the kitchen staff.

We went to Tobago for 2 weeks and ate in the hotel only twice. The first meal we had was on the night we arrive and we would have eaten anything after so many hours of travelling but the slop that was put in front of us was inedible.

We decided to give it another go about 3 nights later and were served a plate of over cooked pasta with a jar of cheap pesto mixed into it. there was olive oil everywhere and it was revolting.

In our opinion breakfast in the carribean should have been full of many types of exotic fruit; at the Blue Haven we had a choice of melon or pineapple. I coul dhave produced a better selection of fruit if I had gone to our corner shop.

Overall the hotel was OK-ish but the food coming out of the kitchen was a disgrace and whoever was the chef has absolutly no interest in serving food that could be eaten.

We had the most idyllic holiday at this hotel, the staff and manager could not do enough to make our stay fantastic, even going so far as to find me a lobster, which isn't easy in the West Indies! We had special requests for food cooked by the Head Chef, Damian, who is the most helpful man, even first thing in the morning when he's cooking breakfast.
Everyone, absolutely everyone, from the guy on the beach who found us the best places to sit, to the charming manager, just made the whole thing wonderful.
If you want a typical Hilton holiday, where you get the weather and no notion of what the location and residents are like, then this isn't for you, but if you really want to know that you were in Tobago, then it's wonderful.

After reading all the other bad reviews of the Blue Haven I decided to go with an open mind and make my own decision about the hotel after all this is the Caribbean and I was prepared for things to take a little longer than usual.

The good things about this hotel are the views and the friendliness of the staff however these are vastly overshadowed by all the bad things about it:

- When we arrived our room had only been partly cleaned - one of the beds was still unmade
- The food is bland at best - even the most simple of recipes were a disaster
- The staff while being very friendly are completely incompetent. They told me that they had confirmed a dive course which they had not ( this was a birthday present for my boyfriend and he ended up sitting in a shack for four hours watching dive videos), after waiting one hour for a taxi they told me it was never booked (taxis not being booked happened more than once), I booked a massage and it never happened, they gave our £45 bottle of wine to another table and then poured the glasses of wine back into the bottle once they realised their mistake.
- The bar is unmanned during the day and therefore even trying to get water can take about half an hour. One day the bar man did not turn up at all.
- The rooms are serviced everyday however they rarely refill things like soap and toilet roll
- The mini bar was never refilled during our 10 day stay
- Our phone was broken and kept ringing in the middle of the night so we had to unplug it

The manager is on site but obviously cares little about the hotel or the guests feedback.

This hotel is a three star at best however it is five star prices. After spending a large amount of money on this holiday it was really frustrating to feel like anything that was asked of the staff they were incapable of doing. When we ended up booking restaurants to avoid the awful food we literally had to stand beside them and listen to make sure it as done.

Tobago is a beautiful island and if you book any tours outside the hotel they are carried out professionally.

This hotel has huge potential but after an obviously cheap refurb I think it is on a downhill slope.

I really hope that it is taken over and transformed into the great hotel that it could be.

Don't be led by the description of "old world charm" and "extensively renovated in 2001".It's very tired and quite rundown.We just had a week there and were very dissappointed.
We booked superior ocean view room and found on arrival that:-
1. the room door lock required a minimum of five minutes of jiggling key to unlock.
2.the safe didn't work
3.the phone didn't work
4.the wardrobe doors kept falling off their sliders
During our stay,only the safe was resolved.
The beach is public and locals take it over on Sunday for soccer.
There is no shade on the beach.They should provide umbrellas for guests.A daily circus occurs with guests constantly moving their sun loungers around to follow any shade from trees nearby.
As a result the beach is deserted in the afternoons because guests literally can't stand the heat!
When it rains,everyone runs for the only shelter....the beach restaurant.
The food is ok but bland.We had hoped for more real creole
tastes.
Overall,it's about attention to basic details.Running a hotel is not just about putting pretty flowers on the bed covers.