Barbados

Cobblers Cove Barbados

Price per night from$838.48

Price information

If you haven’t entered any dates, the rate shown is provided directly by the hotel and represents the cheapest double room (inclusive of taxes and fees) available in the next 60 days.

Prices have been converted from the hotel’s local currency (USD838.48), via openexchangerates.org, using today’s exchange rate.

Cobblers Cove Barbados Photos

Style

Nice ‘n’ stripey

Setting

Turtle paradise

Explore

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Cobblers Cove is Barbados at its finest: pastel-shaded suites set around a tropical garden and pool terrace, overlooking a secluded strip of golden sand on the island’s coveted west coast. Pink and blue pinstripes and an afternoon tea tradition lend it the air of a classic English country club – but don’t worry, the vibe is understatedly elegant rather than anything approaching snooty (and the weather is sure to be better, too). By day, indulge at the spa, thrill-seek with watersports, or grab a snorkel and try to find Nemo. Just make sure you’re back by sunset for a potent rum punch.

Smith Extra

Get this when you book through us:

A welcome bottle of rum punch and a fresh fruit bowl in your room on arrival

Facilities

Photos Cobblers Cove Barbados facilities

Need to know

Rooms

Forty suites.

Check–Out

Noon, check-in from 3pm; both are flexible, subject to availability.

More details

Rates include breakfast, served in the restaurant or in your suite; typical options are a full English fry-up, crab eggs Benedict, and cinnamon French toast with bananas and walnuts.

Also

Cobblers Cove has absolutely no connection to beach-dwelling shoemakers – the name comes from the cobbler bird, which you’ll still see fishing off the shore of the hotel. The on-site Salt Whistle Store stocks designer beachwear and souvenirs made by local craftspeople.

At the hotel

Swimming pool, watersports beach, gym, spa treatment room, boutique shop, minibar, tennis court, free WiFi and parking. In rooms: Minibar, air-conditioning, tea- and coffee-making facilities, locally made bath products.

Our favourite rooms

Camelot and Colleton are the only two suites in the Great House, occupying the two turrets; each one comes with its own rooftop terrace (Colleton Suite has a plunge pool overhung with bougainvillea too). The next-best views are from the Ocean Front suites, which look out over the umbrella tops to the sea.

Poolside

The kidney-bean-shaped pool is on a sprawling terracotta terrace, with three sets of steps down to the beach. The snooze-ready sunloungers are as appealing to look at as they are to lie on – the vintage white frames are topped with extra-thick padding and towelling cov… Zzzz.

Spa

You’ll have the in-house Sea Moon Salon to yourself if you book in a session in its single treatment room; options include body scrubs and wraps, deep tissue massages, mineral facials and couples treatments.

Packing tips

No need to pack your snorkel and flippers – you can borrow them at the beach – but bring an underwater camera for selfies with the turtles.

Also

Spa treatments can be taken in your own suite, on request. Common areas and many suites are accessible for wheelchair users.

Pet‐friendly

Pets aren’t allowed – but you will have fish, turtles, seabirds and the occasional green monkey to keep you company. See more pet-friendly hotels in Barbados.

Children

The hotel welcomes children 12 years and older.

Sustainability efforts

The ethos here is to invest in local industries, for the good of the island as a whole. Fruit, veg and meat comes from nearby organic farms, and fish is whipped straight out of the sea by resident fisherman, Barker. Bajan artists contributed many of the paintings, and the furniture is repaired and reupholstered by a local artisan.

Food and Drink

Photos Cobblers Cove Barbados food and drink

Top Table

The prime spot is along the seafront edge of the restaurant – just watch out for adventurous birds eyeing up your breakfast.

Dress Code

Refined and respectable, but nothing too stiff – seersucker jackets and flowing floral dresses fit the bill.

Hotel restaurant

Breakfast, lunch and dinner are served with lungfuls of sea air at Camelot restaurant, where painted bamboo chairs and starched white tablecloths overlook the glittering water. Bajan-born chef Jason Joseph prepares local and international cuisine in the kitchen, including seared yellowfin tuna and fisherman Barker’s catch-of-the-day. Every Tuesday is barbecue night, which means steak, ribs and seafood sizzled on the grill and served under the stars.

Hotel bar

The circular bar is in the shade of the Great House terrace, not that you’ll venture up there much when there’s service to your sunlounger. On the beautifully illustrated menu is the house rum punch, made to the classic Bajan recipe, ‘one sour, two sweet, three strong, four weak’. The signature drink though, is the Cobblers Cooler, made with grenadine, banana, orange, pineapple and several glugs of rum. Please drink responsibly… 

Last orders

Breakfast is served from 7.30am to 10.30am, lunch is from 12.30pm to 2.30pm, and dinner is from 6.30pm to 9pm. The bar is open all day and evening, from 8.30am to half past midnight.

Room service

Any item from the lunch menu can be brought to your room, within restaurant hours.

Location

Photos Cobblers Cove Barbados location
Address
Cobblers Cove Barbados
Road View
Speightstown
BB26025
Barbados

Cobblers Cove is on the sunset-facing west coast of Barbados, in the parish of St Peter, between quaint Holetown and the crumbly charm of Speightstown.

Planes

There are direct flights from North America and Europe to Barbados’ Grantley Adams airport; major carriers include Virgin Atlantic, British Airways and American Airlines. Cruises and package tours are synched with flight schedules – try to avoid rush hour on Saturday afternoons if you can. From the airport, it’s a 45-minute drive to the hotel; call the Smith24 team to arrange a transfer (US$90 each way).

Trains

You can still see the rusting remnants of railway track along parts of the coast, but the last trains stopped puffing in 1937. Too many banana leaves on the line, perhaps.

Automobiles

Beach bums will be quite content snoozing away at the hotel, but for exploring the island, a car is very handy. It’s easiest to pick up and drop off from the airport; call Smith24 to book. There’s parking right outside the hotel lobby.

Other

Bajans love buses – specifically, the bright yellow ‘reggae buses’ which whizz down the winding roads blasting laidback beats. There are blue, government-run services too, which are an awful lot more sensible. Caribbean cruises regularly begin or end at Bridgetown, the island’s capital. If you’re sailing your own vessel, drop anchor at Bridgetown and be sure to check in with the harbourmaster to complete the legal formalities.

Worth getting out of bed for

On breaks between sunbathing sessions, head to the watersports hut and meet Bradley, who has all the gear and lots of ideas. Guests get one free lesson in waterskiing, kayaking and sailing each day; other options include scuba diving, and fishing with the resident fisherman, Barker. Or, stick on dry land – there’s yoga on the beach, a tennis court across the road, and dreamy golf courses nearby. To explore the island, take advantage of Cobblers’ impressive roster of bespoke tours. Esteemed local historians Sir Henry Fraser and Miguel Pena take guests to the Bridgetown’s blockbuster Unesco sites, as well as arranging private visits to colonial plantation houses ordinarily off-limits to the public. Chef Jason Joseph runs a market tour to work up your appetite for dinner, or you can set sail on a catamaran, bound for nearby coves. Channel your inner Titchmarsh (we’ve all got one) with a trip to Hunte’s Gardens set deep in Caribbean rainforest, and Andromeda Botanic Gardens near the pretty village of Bathsheba on the wild and rugged east coast. Insta-ready St Nicholas Abbey is a preserved sugar plantation house with a rum distillery for tastings attached. Mullins is the pick of the local beaches, along with the more secluded Gibbes.

Local restaurants

The Lonestar (Mount Standfast, Saint James) was once the kind of petrol station you’d stop at even if you didn’t need petrol – it backs onto a particularly paradisiacal strip of sand, with palms leaning over the lapping waves. You can still fill up there too, but now your options are a whole lot tastier – including Thai green curry, salt-fish risotto, and the house special shepherd’s pie (cooked to exacting British standards). Surf ‘n’ turf paella is the star of a sea-to-table menu at The Cliff Beach Club (Derrick’s, Saint James), or you can put on your Sunday best and head next door for fine dining at The Cliff. Hugo’s (Speightstown, Saint Peter) is the latest upscale eatery on the west coast, offering delicate modern seafood in hand-painted interiors.

Local cafés

Mullins Beach (Saint Peter) popular for all kinds of reasons, not least the copious watersports and plentiful sand descending gently into the sea. But it’s the imaginatively named beach bar, Mullins, which makes it an all-day destination – there’s nothing like a curried chicken roti to refuel after jetskiing. You can take a paddleboard straight out of 111 East (Speightstown, Saint Peter) for a pootle around the bay… or you can just watch someone else put in the effort, while you sit back in the beach hut with Speightstown’s best coffee or a cool beer.

Local bars

The locals will give you a warm welcome (and probably a straight-up slug o’ rum) at John Moore Bar, an authentic, unpolished beach shack in Porters, Saint James. Nikki Beach (Six Mens, Saint Peter) is a glitzy beach club which lures a young, trendy crowd with sushi boats and signature mojitos.

Reviews

Photos Cobblers Cove Barbados reviews
Jonny Lamb

Anonymous review

By Jonny Lamb, PR person on the go

When you think of Barbados or the Caribbean in general, it would be normal to imagine white sandy beaches, crystal-clear turquoise waters and lashings of rum punch. Well, that vision is wholly accurate, we discovered when staying at Cobblers Cove Barbados, a pastel-hued shoreside hideaway which provides all of the above and much more.

There’s something magical in the hotel’s postcard-perfect combination of sunlight, sea and relaxation: a true textbook definition of paradise. And chatting with the locals, and exploring the copious amounts of restaurants, bars and activities on-island provide you with as much (or as little) mental stimulation as you could possibly need, when you’re not simply basking in Bajan sunshine.

Nestled away on the northern end of the ‘Platinum’ West Coast, Cobblers Cove is a tranquil, rattan-accented, largely pink-hued haven, situated between strikingly contrasted exotic gardens and a boulder-lined (man-made) beach. The boutique resort is gloriously populated with tropical flora and native wildlife – say, hummingbirds and occasionally monkeys, who play on the rooftops or explore the grounds at will. 

On arrival, you’re greeted with classic Caribbean hospitality and warmth, and are eased into the hotel’s more leisurely pace of life. Once the formalities are taken care of, you’re welcome to sit poolside and sip one of the many rum-laced cocktails on offer; the Cobblers Cooler (with rum, grenadine, banana, pineapple and lime) is known and loved by regular guests for good reason, but do heed the ‘don’t enjoy yourself too much’ warning on the menu – it packs quite a punch.

Afterwards, staff will escort you (or carry you depending on how many punches you sink) to your room (in my case, an exquisite Ocean Front Suite), where you fully embrace the Cobblers’ experience. Picture this: you lay your head on sumptuous bed linens, awakening only to the gentle sounds of the ocean lapping at the shore. You step out onto your balcony and gaze past the palm trees lining the beach boundary as you contemplate whether you should venture down for breakfast, or – better yet – eat it in bed while admiring the island’s natural good looks and sun-drenched horizon. We’re certainly off to a good start, and may have formed a habit – this picturesque serenity is the reason why so many guests return year after year to this Barbados institution. 

Breakfast is included as part of the room rate, so we ventured down to Camelot restaurant to enjoy iced coffees, local fruit, exquisite fresh juices and a wide array of à la carte breakfast options. Pro tip: try the divine cinnamon French toast one day and the smoked-fish eggs Benedict the next – you won’t regret it. Quintessential staples, such as a hearty full-English, are available alongside many lighter choices. At breakfast and lunch, the dress code remains relaxed, but at dinner, there is a strict but fair set of rules in place to ensure an atmosphere of relaxed but refined elegance. Men may wear shorts, but if you do so you will be politely asked to dine in the more casual alfresco area; so, be sure to pack some trousers too.

After fuelling up in the morning, it’s time to wind down, reclining on the hotel’s chic pink-and-white sunloungers under a matching umbrella. Butlers are never far away, ready to take a cocktail order or provide you with fresh-fruit kebabs and ice lollies to keep you cool; and, should you laze long enough, you’ll discover that afternoon tea is served daily, which adds a classic English air to proceedings. 

Lunch options are vast and depend entirely on your mood. Either graze on something more casual on your sunlounger or head back into Camelot for a more official midday treat. The lobster Caesar salad and yellow-fin-tuna Niçoise featured heavily during our stay, as did the burrata bruschetta and grilled-chicken roti. Throughout the week there are set days with special dining options, including the much loved ‘barbecue Sundays’ with freshly caught seafood alongside the usual meat and vegetarian options. 

But, it’s dinner where Camelot truly comes alive, and it’s extremely easy to polish off three courses (maybe more) every single night. Highlights include the chilled cucumber soup, the Thai green curry with chicken and the chocolate mousse with a Scotch bonnet kick. However, if you fancy a night away at one of Barbados’s many amazing restaurants, most are just a 15- to 30-minute taxi ride away. Be sure to visit the Tides Restaurant, the Cliff Barbados, QP Bistro, and Fusion Rooftop: all sure-fire hits. There is almost always entertainment as you dine or settle in for your evening cocktail, typically in the form of resident musicians and singers. Always light-hearted, these singers’ dulcet tones mingle with sounds of birdsong and soundtrack riotously hued sunsets, creating the perfect ambience for post-dinner relaxation.

When it comes to activities, staff will happily arrange something thrilling for you. Many, such as a range of watersports, take place on-site (there’s a dedicated stretch of beach) and are free. And taking the hotel boat out to swim with turtles is unmissable – true bucket list stuff. Otherwise, the world is your oyster: from romantic dinners for two under a starlit pergola overlooking the sea to a full-body massage at the Sea Moon Salon spa, all of which can be booked from the comfort of your sunlounger. And the blissfully air-conditioned Salt Whistle hotel shop is full of wonderful treasures (bone-china mugs, snuggly logo-bearing robes, rattan charging pads, and homewares by local artisans) to take home for others, or – if you’re anything like us – yourself.

Plus, year-round sunshine is pretty much guaranteed in Barbados, so whether you visit in the high or low season is essentially irrelevant. What does matter is that you book your flight immediately to discover the Caribbean’s headline isle, with Cobblers Cove Barbados’s signature cosseting, of course.

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Price per night from $752.40

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