Based on your experience, which is better and why? Thanks!

Other than Sandy Lane, whose prices are in the stratosphere (and their noses), Coral Reef Club is the class act on Barbados. They are a little pricier than Colony Club, but with more extensive grounds and beach, rooms and cottages more spread out, top class restaurant. Family-owned and run for some 50 years, and it shows. Colony Club is nice, but not the same. They do have a string of pools, with some of the rooms stepping out to a pool, if you like that.

xkenx: Any thoughts on Cobblers Cove?

Cobblers Cove has nice rooms and a very good restaurant. Most rooms overlook a central lawn without an ocean view. VERY few rooms afford an ocean view. In front of the hotel is rocks, not beach--you actually have to go off the property to sit on the sandy beach. We had to haul chairs. IMO it is overrated as a tropical resort, except for the dining.

I've never been to the Coral Reef Club, but unlike the previous poster I loved my stay at Cobblers Cove. My husband and I stayed there for 4 nights in the summer of 2002 and enjoyed every moment of it.

We were not in one of the ocean front suites, but rather in the building right next to them. Being on the second floor we had a lovely ocean view that was only partly obsured by the lush foliage. The suites are spacious and ideally laid out--the open air balcony, wet bar, and living space coupled with a nice-sized bedroom that can be closed off for air conditioning if desired.

The food was fantastic, the grounds were lush, and the staff was gracious and reserved. The hotel put up a handful of chairs and lounges on the beach area just a few steps from the grassy grounds and provided little flags to stick in the sand if we wanted bar service on the beach. Usually my husband and I were the only ones on the beach, as most of the other guests seemed content to sun on the grounds. Can't figure out why, as they looked awfully crowded to me. The beach at the time was shared only by a handful of large, luxury villas so it felt quite secluded. About 1/2 a mile long, we walked up and down it several times.

The location at Cobblers is pretty out of the way, which was ideal for us for only 4 nights. We ate dinner onsite twice and tried out two other restaurants --The Cliff and Brown Sugar--both of which I would recommend.

The rocks that the previous poster refers to are in fact immediately in front of the restaurant and the patio area, but since the sandy part of the beach begins just a few steps away, it is not in my opinion a hardship.

FYI - Brown Sugar burned down during 2004.

That is very strange -- Brown Sugar restaurant in Grenada burned down last year as well.