I was at Hilton Barbados in March. Really nice hotel. Beach is nice, rooms are nice, but drinks are overpriced. Try to get your drinking in during the half price happy hour .

Too many great places to have a drink while visiting Barbados. Paying for overpriced booze at Hilton seems like such a waste.
As for Happy Hour, your competition for beach bar space comes from the flight crews of a few major carriers who take over the bar area. One group actually loaded up a table full of Banks a few years back at Happy Hour.

I'll be staying here in a few weeks, does anyone know if the rooms has a mini-fridge (other than a mini bar)? I'll have a rental car, so I'd like to stock up on beverages if possible.

I haven't been back since it opened (2005) but at that time there was only a minibar but they were willing to empty it out so we could use it as a fridge, but of course, as always, YMMV.

Hi,

I'm looking to book this hotel for 4 or 5 nights next year. I have an option of booking the following rooms for two adults, two children:-

2 Dbl Beds. Balcony. No breakfast. $309 per night.
2 Dbl Beds. Balcony. Panoramic view. Family Fun (Breakfast) $329.
2 Dbl beds. Balcony. Panoramic view. Exec Floor. $359.
2 Dbl beds. Balcony. Panoramic view. Exec Floor. Family Fun. $379.

I'm not a regular Hilton guest so I'm not fully sure of the Diamond benefits, however I do have Diamond status based on my BA exec club tier.

Thus what is my best strategy? I definately want breakfast for the whole family. Do I just book the base room and automatically get breakfast for everyone or do I need to book the family rate? Also benefits of exec room.

Any advice greatly received.

I was most recently here on the past weekend and can offer some insights. First all rooms have balconies, and none are awful. But the resort is two buildings connected by a bridge, with the lighthouse tower closer to the ocean and all rooms are ocean facing, whereas the fort tower is double sided so it has ocean facing and bay/city facing rooms. Exec rooms are higher floors with ocean views.

In terms of breakfast with lounge access it will not be an issue to bring the 4 of you to have the continental offering provided- so I would not pay extra for breakfast. So in short I would book the cheapest room you reference. Enjoy- there is a lot to see/do.

PS- the EL was closed for renovations on Monday/Tuesday this past week- looked like new carpet and some paint.

Thanks Paul.

Does anyone else have any more input on these two questions? Our trip is coming up in a month and I'm still curious how US-based Verizon service with iPhone 5's (phone/data/GPS) will work in Barbados...?

Also wondering what anyone's recommendation would be for a rental car (both the length of time to have one, and who to get it with/how to book). Any recommendations would be greatly appreciated - thanks!

I don't believe I was able to get service when I was there (I have Verizon). If you need GPS and want to use your phone, I would recommend downloading an offline map app such as this (Android-not sure if there's an iPhone equivalent).
https://play.google.com/store/apps/d...smand&hl=en_GB

And then downloading the Barbados maps and using your GPS like that.

For phone, if your hotel has wifi, you can use Google voice
http://google.com/voice

and an app such as this
https://play.google.com/store/apps/d...oveip&hl=en_GB

Which will allow you to call the US/Canada for free (provided the internet connection is decent enough).

I have ATT and on my most recent trip prepaid $30 for 20 mb of data on my tablet and smartphone. The non prepaid rates were eye popping- $20 per mb iIRC. Check to see what prepaid plans Verizon offers.

We prebooked a Jimmy Jeep with auto tranny from Stoudts on their website for about $70 per day all in, picked it up at the airport on arrival, and kept it the whole time. Yes it sat in the hotel parking lot a bit but we avoided all taxis including to/from airport, and went wherever whenever we wanted. There is a lot to see. You can rent a car for a day with hotel dropoff if you prefer- not sure about the cost.

I'm landing at BGI around 11pm. I'm too cheap to spend 60k points or $299 for this first night. Can anyone please recommend a cheap place (maybe near the airport) where I can spend the night before heading over to the Hilton for 5 nights? Thank you.

Just got back from Barbados and went by the Hilton to check it out (I did not stay there).

Frankly - this is not a property I would stay at (even though I am HHonors Gold and would enjoy the points and stay/night credits).

The location isn't terribly good - you need to bus/taxi everywhere and the beaches in this area aren't the best.

Plus - with all the guest houses on the South of the island along with the resorts up on the Western side, Hilton Barbados doesn't seem that differentiated to me. Definitely not worth the price in points or dollars IMO.

can anyone comment on how good or bad the wifi is here?

Where can we buy local SIM cards (we both have Verizon iPhone 5 phones, which use nano SIM cards), and I'm assuming the $2.50 is just the price of each card, not the additional service once installed..? Once we've purchased and installed those, what will pricing of the service be? Does it affect only phone calls, or text/data as well?

Thanks in advance!

It's OK. Not that great, but not terrible either. I was able to make voice calls with pretty good quality over wifi but in some spots in the room the wifi would drop.