smtravelor

Abaco Trip Report

We spent a week in July at the UE Signature Cottage 8, which was previously a PE Platinum house. We flew in from West Palm Beach on Continental on a small prop plane – about 16 seats - which was on time and pretty smooth, despite rain and heavy clouds. The sun was shining when we arrived. The airport is very small and not too organized. After going through the immigration line, we were met by someone from the Abaco Club with our rental car, a basic 4 door with A/C. He gave us directions, and off we went. The drive was easy - there aren’t a lot of roads – and it took about 20 minutes to get to the Abaco Club. The trip from the airport is not too memorable – flat with pine trees, nothing to see at all. We were met at Reception, checked in as though at a hotel and driven on a tour of the grounds and then to our cottage in a golf cart by a women who introduced herself as our Concierge. This is one of the few properties that does not have a local host and is managed by Ritz Carlton which provides the services of a local host.

Description of the house:
When we arrived at the cottage – a 3 bedroom house - the wow factor immediately apparent is the view. The living/dining room has a full wall of sliding glass doors onto a triangle shaped deck from which you look straight out and down to a large turquoise bay. Almost every room in the house has this view of the bay. From the living/dining room, the view is so expansive that you feel as though you are on a boat. The living/dining room has a cathedral ceiling and is open to the kitchen. The living area is attractively furnished with a comfortable couch and three arm chairs and a large TV in an armoire. The kitchen is open with a bar and 3 seats and the dining room table seats 6. There is another table seating 6 on the deck along with a Weber grill. The kitchen was well-equipped as is standard for a PE house and it had everything we needed, although we do not tend to do much cooking on vacation. This floor also has a bathroom with a shower. Up the stairs is a loft bedroom with twin beds, a tv, and the standard video games. This loft bedroom does not have a door and it has shutters closing it off from the living/dining room. It is designed to be the kid’s room, and there is no real privacy if adults stayed in that room.

To reach the other 2 bedrooms, you go downstairs from the living dining room to a foyer with a chest of drawers and a closet containing the washer/dryer. Leading from the foyer are two bedrooms - each with a king bed and bathroom, and both leading to another deck and a walkway to a deck jutting out over the water with two lounge chairs. One of the two bathrooms has 2 sinks and a tub and a separate shower and the other bathroom has one sink and a shower. All of the showers have rain shower heads and black and white tile. Each bedroom has the same incredible view of the water and if you sleep with the window open, you can hear the surf.

Things to do on the Abaco Club grounds:
The beach is 2.5 miles long and the water is very shallow a long way out, so it is perfect for children. The sand is really nice and it is a good walk to go to the end of the beach and back. The Abaco Club has kayaks, a pedal boat and small sailboats to rent and there is a tiny island with a tinier beach and palapa to kayak to. The beach is lined with palapas for shade and there is a restaurant – Busters- that serves lunch at the end closest to the house. The water temperature right now is perfect, but I expect it may be chilly in December and January. We did some snorkeling since the water is crystal clear, but there aren’t too many fish to see from the beach.

Had a good massage at the spa. The spa building is pleasant but the facilities are nothing special. Guess we got spoiled by the spas on a trip to Thailand last year.

There is a croquet lawn which we didn’t tried since it was too hot. We are not golfers either. There is a boat that you can take out for fishing and 5 nice looking horses available for rides on the beach.

The Clubhouse is a short walk from the house and contains a very attractive circular restaurant overlooking the beach. The food was quite good, as was the service, but high priced for being in the middle of nowhere. $130 for dinner for two with one glass of wine.

Construction:
There is a fair amount of new construction going on near the clubhouse and beach. Five new cottages are in various stages of construction close to the beach and more are being built higher up the hill. We were told these are member-owned and already sold. Jackhammers and air guns are a steady background noise while on the beach close to Busters – annoying but not overpowering. There are a number of palapas further away so you can escape the construction noise. The staff anticipates the construction going on for quite a while – and there are plans for a Ritz Carlton Residence Club, so more construction will be going on. They seem to have broken ground on the Residence Club but haven’t done much so far. The construction for the Residence Club is fairly far from the beach so it won’t be as disruptive. One disappointment is that the pool was closed for repairs – but given how nice the beach was we didn’t miss the pool too much. The pool looked to be almost finished by the time we left.

Things to do off the property:
We didn’t do much during the week and spent most of the time on the beach or at the house. Read 3 books. It was a great place for relaxing but I can see how it could be dull for people who wanted to be more active. The town of Marsh Harbour is very limited and there is no parasailing, jet skis, zip lines, etc that you find at many other beach resorts and that our teenager – who didn’t come on this trip – requires. Fishing seemed to be the big draw here and there were a several decent restaurants and a few shops. You can also take boat trips to other nearby smaller islands.

3DH

Thanks for the great review smtravelor! A few questions/comments...

Do they now CHARGE for these? They used to be complimentary use...


I should have told you to snorkel around the tiny "island" area... to the right, as you look toward the palapa area from the main Abaco Club beach. There are some amazing fish out there!

Glad to hear that the food is good... we never ate at the club (but enjoyed the bar a couple of evenings), as we had a chef one evening, ate at Pete's Pub one night and cooked for ourselves the remainder of the time.

Thanks a bunch for this update! (Future travelers, please keep us updated! )

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"Boutique" is better! Another extremely satisfied LUSSO member!

smtravelor

Sorry to say there was a charge for the kayaks, etc. They should be free.

LTTravel

Sad, they were always free.

vineyarder

And apparently they have also instituted a $20/day parking fee just to leave your car in the lot near the reception area... I just hate that nickel & diming stuff...

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Living in a vacuum sucks!

LTTravel

I was thinking of giving Abaco a second try, but I don't think so now. I agree with the nickel and dime stuff. Was this the Ritz's idea for better service?

NeilGoBlue

I don't have any experience in high end hotels.. I don't have a problem paying what I pay for my DC.. but something about paying 500-1000 a night for a hotel has never sat right with me.. part of that reason was that my experience of high end hotels is that they nickel and dime to death.. yes the concierge will do anything for you.. but they ding you hard for the 'service'

Kage, and others had started changing my mind after mentioning the level of service they got in the high end hotels. but then it rears it's ugly head again..

DC4MS

Thanks for the review.

3DH

...OK, that just goes too far with the nickel & dime thing! What are you SUPPOSED to do when you are at that place? I loved the resort, and knew that those activities were available for us as well as the teens... but, that is ridiculous!

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"Boutique" is better! Another extremely satisfied LUSSO member!

smtravelor

We had a really good week, so I certainly don't want to discourage anyone from going there. We definitely plan to go back.