Karen H.
Yelp
Was this the worst vacation I've ever had? Of course not, we were in St. Thomas right on the beach. However, for the money, there are many other places I would rather go.
My review would be 3/5 if more restaurants were on the premises, but you're stuck with Iggy's (taxis are pretty expensive and there really aren't too many places to go on the island that are worth the drive). The food is subpar at best, with the exception of a few items. You have to reserve and wait over an hour for every meal. They served us raw, pink chicken and then did not make us feel heard when we told them about it (very frustrated with one manager) But I'll save that for the restaurant's review.
The snorkeling is by far the best thing about Bolongo Bay. I was lucky enough to spot a seat turtle underwater steps from my hotel room and could casually drop by to look for him again whenever I felt like it during the day. However, that means there's some coral and lots of rocks. This is not a smooth, sandy, relaxing beach. You have to be careful and pay attention. On shore, there were a LOT of gnats and sand flies, which made it nearly impossible to just sit by the beach or walk along it. Many, many patrons had red marks all over their ankles.
Pool with walk up bar is a huge pro, especially when there's live music, which is often. However, even that got a bit old after a few days. We didn't feel like there was really anything to do after dinner besides go in it, every single day from dinner until bedtime. Relaxing, but we would've liked another option. As mentioned before, the beach was too buggy and you're kind of stuck at the resort. There is a game or activity every day, an hour long or so, and they were GREAT. We LOVED THE STAFF at the hotel, and they put on the activities and helped with snorkeling, etc. Lovely people. But, I've heard that at other resorts, there are a few options each day. We definitely could have used more, even if it was just community board game time or something like that.
Lastly, I woke up on our last night to the smell of burning. It freaked me out, but no fire was spotted. It ended up being something electrical behind the wall, which never would have caused danger because it just burned out. However, since it was the middle of the night, no one could take a good look at it, so we changed rooms to sleep. The staff member helped us right away and was extremely nice, so I definitely don't blame him for this, but it would've been nice if the resort had compensated in some way afterward as it was pretty inconvenient.