On one of the Caribbean’s best beaches, Sea Breeze Beach House provides all-inclusive Barbados luxury. Relaxing on a prime oceanside site, the 121 key hotel has 1,000 feet of white sugar-soft sand. An idyll of a tropical beach for relaxing and enjoying the water sports.

“Your stay, your way,” is the motto that runs through the DNA of the approachable and gracious staff. A cooled drink and chilled towel welcome set the tone.

Tradewinds breezes

Luxuriating over three acres, the hotel with a family pool, a lap pool and a blissfully peaceful adult only pool has plenty of room. There is space for everybody to do their own thing. All cooled by the Tradewinds breezes that rustle the palm fronds.

In pole position, Sea Breeze Beach House is perfectly situated for enjoying Barbados’s South Coast. Ostins, renowned for its lively fish-fry evenings, which becomes a real party on Friday evenings, is just a short walk away. Watch fishing boats come and go. Perhaps even head-out onto the ocean. Strapping yourself into your seat, Hemingway style, for some epic deep-sea fishing.

Buzzing nightlife

Look out for the flying fish, a symbol of Barbados, at Ostins market. It may be a marketing slogan but it is said that if you eat flying fish you will return to the island. Even livelier, St Lawrence Gap, buzzing with bars and clubs, is the pulsating heart of Bajan nightlife, a mere ten-minutes drive away.

Though on 21 miles long by 14 miles wide island, only just larger than the Isle of Wight, nothing is too far away. The concierge will help book island safaris, catamaran cruises, diving or whatever appeals. For a taste of old Barbados head to St Nicholas Abbey, which has nothing to do with religious worship. Ride through the sugar plantation on a restored train, tour the Georgian plantation house and try the rums.

A tranquil retreat

A recent multi-million dollar refurbishment of Sea Breeze Beach House, by local owners Ocean Hotels, makes one of the 44 luxury ocean front suites the place to stay. Colours of aqua, deep ocean, sand, seagrass and seashell provide a supremely calming Bajan take on Zen. A tranquil retreat for focusing on the restorative here and now. And if you should encounter any problems, every guest has a phone number for a hotel ambassador who will immediately be on the case.

Driftwood-style timbers create a tropical beach feel for the headboard behind a super-wide bed that invites ocean-deep sleep. Flooring picks up the driftwood theme too. Art work further riffs  on the maritime tones. In some suites, a huge portrait of a turtle is a reminder that the turtles lay their eggs on the beach below. If the Caribbean heat ever proves too much, suites are cooled by both a fan and air-conditioning.

Inclusive water sports

Take a drink from the mini-bar, with  beers and soft drinks refreshed free of charge daily, out onto the balcony. Or a coffee from the Keurig coffeemaker. This is the place to watch guests trying their hand at the all-inclusive water sports: body boarding, kayaking, paddle boarding, snorkelling and maybe a trip on the Hobie Cat. If you should tire of watching the ever changing colours of the Caribbean there is a discretely wall-mounted 60-inch television.

Bars and restaurants: all-inclusive Barbados luxury

From your ocean front suite, take the lift down to emerge by Mahogany Restaurant for a buffet that runs throughout the day for breakfast, lunch and finally dinner. Though it is just one of the options for lunch and dinner.

The colourful Rum Shop, in colourful timbered chattel-house style, open from 10 am. It serves up coffee, tea, cakes, sandwiches and true to the name – rum.

Ocean-side, waiter service at The Flying Fish Bar and Grill, offers a light lunchtime menu of fish cakes, roti, salads and wraps. Though another lunch option, Tipsy on the Beach is literally a sand-between your toes bar and grill on the beach. There is a real Robinson Crusoe feel to the menu with fish and breadfruit kebabs.

After sunset champagne on the terrace of the Aqua Terra restaurant it is time to make a decision on dinner. As well as Mahogany’s buffet, there is a choice to be made between Aqua Terra and Cerulean, both a la carte. Although Aqua Terra has a wide-ranging menu the sushi section is particularly impressive.

Fine-dining Cerulean restaurant, is named after one of the Caribbean’s many shades of blue. Open sides allow trade winds to cool a restaurant designed with the dark woods of Barbados’ sugar plantations.

Indulgence

By the adult-only pool, Drift Spa sits in a quiet and tranquil corner. After a long journey it is a soothing haven to unwind and relax. Have your  taut muscles massaged back to life. Facials and pedicures are also available. Adjacent to the treatment rooms there is a fitness room to keep your body beach-honed.

Sea Breeze Beach House has plenty going for it: a paradise location, architecture that is easy on the eye and superb restaurants. Yet it is the staff, full of character providing a truly Bajan warm welcome, who give Sea Breeze the edge over many other Caribbean hotels, contributing to a heady ambience of all-inclusive Barbados luxury.