Grenada as a summer destination, has anyone been or have recommendations?

[Misty]

Considering this as our first long haul AVIOS flight booking. We would like a low key destination, not necessarily looking for luxury, character would suffice. Would prefer B&B and eat in a variety of restaurants but am not sure if that is practical in the Caribbean as lots of hotels seem to be AI, maybe 10 or 11 days.

We don’t have a 241 and the following are the price/miles point’s I am getting (managed to catch the web-site when it was working ). I was thinking of the 92,000 + 425, but am not sure if this is the sweet spot, would that be the next one down? It’s for PE. Thank you.

115000 Avios + £ 330.00

92000 Avios + £ 425.00

82500 Avios + £ 525.02

67000 Avios + £ 645.00

50000 Avios + £ 760.00

33000 Avios + £ 895.00

[MGOR]

Love Grenada ! Been in summer and happened to hit carnival which was fun. It’s hot sticky and possibility of heavy rain. Plenty of places which are not AI. In fact it’s one of the islands where you don’t need to be AI. Consider True Blue, LAE Cottages albeit both off beaten track or Blue Horizons for a more central location. Depending on budget Mount Cinamonn is also with considering.

[NorthernLass]

If you possibly can, travel on off-peaks dates to save a lot of avios in PE. To the Caribbean, the RFS price starts at 47,500 avios plus £175 each way, which is a pretty good deal. I think on peak dates the avios goes up 60k each way, which is quite a difference.

[Misty]

MGOR wrote:

Love Grenada ! Been in summer and happened to hit carnival which was fun. It’s hot sticky and possibility of heavy rain. Plenty of places which are not AI. In fact it’s one of the islands where you don’t need to be AI. Consider True Blue, LAE Cottages albeit both off beaten track or Blue Horizons for a more central location. Depending on budget Mount Cinamonn is also with considering.

NorthernLass wrote:

If you possibly can, travel on off-peaks dates to save a lot of avios in PE. To the Caribbean, the RFS price starts at 47,500 avios plus £175 each way, which is a pretty good deal. I think on peak dates the avios goes up 60k each way, which is quite a difference.

Thank you to you both, it’s great to get a positive review of Grenada, I have priced up Mount Cinnemon and it’s definitely up there as one of the contenders.

northern lass I think when I did the dummy booking the outbound was off-peak and the inbound was peak. There is limited availability so that made it difficult to find 2 off peaks at dates that suit us. I think if I went for 14 nights I could have got 2 off-peaks but looking at 11 days one of the flights was a week-end.

[masaccio]

Mount Cinnamon is very good and walking distance to restaurants. Rooms are excellent, staff great and the beach outstanding. For food I’d recommend Mount Cinnamon’s beach restaurant, the sushi place at the end of their road, Umbrellas and the place up the hill overlooking BBC beach.

A bit further away, the restaurants at Calabash are truly memorable. Calabash itself is usually very pricey, but if you can bag a discounted AI, it’s well worth it.

By Caribbean standards, there is a fair number of places to visit on the island.

If you dive, Grenada is very good with some top quality dive sites. Dive Grenada next to Calabash is one of the best dive shops I’ve experienced anywhere.

[Misty]

@masaccio thank you so much for such an informative post, I think Mount Cinnamon gives B&B prices on the places I have checked, but you can upgrade to half board etc but it was really expensive, and I don’t want us to feel obliged to eat in the same place each night because we have prepaid for it. Seems to be a few other options as well.

[masaccio]

Should have said Dive Grenada is next to Mt Cinnamon, not Calabash.

[Misty]

masaccio wrote:

Should have said Dive Grenada is next to Mt Cinnamon, not Calabash.

Thanks again, apologies for tardy acknowledgement, been away .Mount Cinnamon still front runner.

I think the info in my first post is incorrect, and it may have been for a solo traveller not a couple, no wonder iot seemed like a bargain !

[marshy11]

Another Grenada lover here. The history on this island (it being so recent) is really quite something. Lovely people and stunning beaches. You must take a stroll (if you can’t stay) on Grande Anse.

[Misty]

marshy11 wrote:

Another Grenada lover here. The history on this island (it being so recent) is really quite something. Lovely people and stunning beaches. You must take a stroll (if you can’t stay) on Grande Anse.

@marshy11 Thank you, unless I have it incorrectly, I believe Mount Cinnamon is on/close to Grande Anse beach, which is one of the attractions for us, as it is supposed to be stunning. I’ve mind trawled all the various Caribbean Islands that BA fly too and Grenada is the only one that stands out for me. Although I am the first to admit I’ve never been before so have no comparators.

[marshy11]

Misty wrote:

marshy11 wrote:

Another Grenada lover here. The history on this island (it being so recent) is really quite something. Lovely people and stunning beaches. You must take a stroll (if you can’t stay) on Grande Anse.

@marshy11 Thank you, unless I have it incorrectly, I believe Mount Cinnamon is on/close to Grande Anse beach, which is one of the attractions for us, as it is supposed to be stunning. I’ve mind trawled all the various Caribbean Islands that BA fly too and Grenada is the only one that stands out for me. Although I am the first to admit I’ve never been before so have no comparators.

Yes it is, what I meant was if you don’t stay there then do at least visit the beach. It is stunning.

I do love Antigua but Grenada comes a close second for us. Very envious of you.

[masaccio]

Misty wrote:

marshy11 wrote:

Another Grenada lover here. The history on this island (it being so recent) is really quite something. Lovely people and stunning beaches. You must take a stroll (if you can’t stay) on Grande Anse.

@marshy11 Thank you, unless I have it incorrectly, I believe Mount Cinnamon is on/close to Grande Anse beach, which is one of the attractions for us, as it is supposed to be stunning. I’ve mind trawled all the various Caribbean Islands that BA fly too and Grenada is the only one that stands out for me. Although I am the first to admit I’ve never been before so have no comparators.

Yes it’s on Grand Anse beach. Their beach bar is a lovely setting and it’s a very pleasant place to spend the day with plenty of shade and good service. There are prettier beaches in the Caribbean, but I still like it because Mt Cinnamon is good value.

If you want something less developed than Grenada, Tabago is drop dead gorgeous. You will definitely need a car, but it’s much quieter than Grenada. But still, of the two, it’s Grenada we keep going back to.

[FatherOfFour]

We’ve done Barbados in the Summer months (End July) and Grenada early November. Weather in Barbados was particularly bad and locals said it wasn’t usually that bad, even at that time of year.

Our Grenada holiday was AI, so different to what you are looking for, so I can’t comment too much on the smaller hotels. Enjoyed our tour of the island with a local taxi driver, who was ex US Military so was able to give us a bit of history on the 1983 coup. We only had a short time on the island but one regret was not venturing much outside St Georges. We saw the very typical highlights (Annandale Falls, Chocolate factory, spice market, Fort Frederick, but I’m sure we missed out on seeing some hidden gems in the outer parishes.

If you are fortunate to fly Club or UC, enjoy the private experience at the airport, it’s a treat!

[Misty]

@marshy11 are there any particular parts of Antigua you would recommend ? Either in terms of resort or hotel ? We are very flexible on this.

I’m struggling a bit with flights to Grenada, the cost of a reward flight/Avios plus Cinnamon Hotel on hotels.com is more expensive than booking it as a BA holiday or a Virgin holiday. Unless I am doing something wrong.

@masaccio would also consider Tobago, we would be happy to hire a car, as it’s your favorite any thoughts on resorts etc?

@fatheroffour, for some bizarre reason we don’t really fancy Barbados, We are not anti-Ai exactly. It’s more that it to adds an awful lot to the costs in the Caribbean. We did AI to the Red Sea resorts 4 times, and just swerved the evening meals each night and went out to eat, however the upgrades from B&B to AI were stilly money like £150 a week.

We wouldn’t be travelling in the periods of state school holidays, so I hoping to get at least one of the flights, off-peak.

Thanks for all the information so far.

[FatherOfFour]

I only mentioned Barbados as a comparison weather-wise – they are in the same area of the Caribbean.

I’d rather go to Grenada in summer than not at all, but if I had flexibility of dates, I’d choose to go outside of hurricane season.

Personally, as a slightly-picky vegetarian, AI CAN be limiting if there are only a couple of restaurants, and it can make you feel “tied” to the resort as if you buy off-resort you’re effectively paying twice. However, the last time we did it, we appreciated that 99% of anything we wanted to do, eat or drink was included and therefore it was convenient.

[masaccio]

Misty wrote:

@masaccio would also consider Tobago, we would be happy to hire a car, as it’s your favorite any thoughts on resorts etc?

We rented a villa in the hills. It was a while ago so I don’t know if it’s still as good, but it was this one.

[Misty]

Hi

When I say summer in the title I’m thinking end of May or sometime in June. So hopefully the weather will be OK. I know little about the Caribbean but thought the hurricane season was the Autumn, September/October time?

Beautiful Villa @masaccio.

[NorthernLass]

May and June are often delightful – calm, clear seas and not a huge amount of rain, and lower prices than winter. The best weather we ever had in GCM was one year when we were there the last week in April and first week in May.

I’ve also cruised around PR and USVIs in early June and don’t recall any rain at all!

[Misty]

NorthernLass wrote:

May and June are often delightful – calm, clear seas and not a huge amount of rain, and lower prices than winter. The best weather we ever had in GCM was one year when we were there the last week in April and first week in May.

Hi NorthernLass, I’ve realised putting summer in the heading was probably a bit vague, but I didn’t want to limit the replies & our options. I’m worried about availability now we are in Feb, as realistically it’s only a few months away. I assume that going over the last week in May would hit UK school holidays, but am assuming not many families will travel that far for a week. Many thanks for the info on the weather.

[NorthernLass]

You might struggle for avios flights but I would imagine cash bookings would see a decent amount of availability. Americans are surprisingly keen on the Caribbean in summer, but tend to have similar school holidays to us, i.e. July and August.

[dmm27]

We stayed at True Blue last June/July. Nice place. OK breakfast included I think. Their “street food” night is good fun with lots of variety. Aquanauts dive centre based there who were excellent. There isnt masses of “posh” restaurants but that was fine by us (are there actually that many “posh” ones anyway?). We walked round to Container City a couple of nights for some cheap eats and there are a few other streetside places to eat that were pretty good low cost tasty stuff (cuban, greek).

We have also been to Ti Kaye on St Lucia which was also lovely – went for their “lunch & dinner” package which was good value and different menu every night.