Verandah Resort and Spa Review

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If you want designer martinis and pool butlers, Verandah Resort is not for you. But, if you want a true tropical oasis that blends into the natural landscape, is laid back and offers suites with views of the turquoise sea, then look no further. Verandah Resort and spa meets that criteria and provides a friendly, dedicated staff to meet your needs.

The resort is managed under the watchful eye of Ms. Jenny Liu who is very visible around the resort. The resort is located in Long Bay and is an approximate 30 minute taxi ride from the airport in St. John’s. A private taxi is about $38.00 or $7.00 per person in a collective taxi.

The reception area is in a simple building separate from the rest of the resort. The desk is operational 24 hrs. a day. There are also a couple of meeting rooms and an activities room with comfy chair seating where nightly movies are shown, and a gift shop selling sundries and clothing that are a bit on the pricey side.

Golf carts are used to transport you and your luggage to the rooms. The rooms are spread out along three main roads and surrounded by lush tropical foliage including the island’s largest banana plantation. These roads lead to the main pool, bar and restaurant area with the 100 series located on the edge of the bluff with unobstructed sea views. The 200 and 300 series are located higher up with views of the sea beyond the vegetation and 100 series cottages. The rooms are grouped as two rooms side by side in each cottage. You gain access to your room with a key attached to a large wooden slab. It would be nice to see these replaced with the electronic key card type.

There is a large bathroom with combination soak tub and shower and dual sinks. The bedroom area has a king size bed, chest of drawers and sliding door closet. It is open to the living room area that contains a queen size sleeper sofa, wicker sofa chair, end table and coffee table. There is also a writing desk and chair and a mini kitchen with sink, microwave and mini fridge. The cabinets are stocked with tableware and glasses for four. A multiple channel flat screen TV on a swivel is the finishing touch. The rooms are lighted by fluorescent light bulbs that take a while to warm up and provide enough light in the room. Addition of overhead lights would be a welcome addition. The beds are comfortable and fitted with 300 thread count linens.

There is a safe in the closet. Some are the old fashioned kind with the square lock and key and others are operated by 4-digit electronic code. The safes are located on the floor which makes it difficult to utilize. Fastening them to the wall would be a great idea.

Sliding glass doors open up to a large terrace furnished with a round table and 4 chairs. The balcony has a door that can be unlocked between the balcony separator for those sharing side by side units.

There are two small reef protected cove beaches on the resort property. Both are perfect for swimming in the inviting turquoise blue water and have white sandy bottoms. The quiet beach is close to the main reception area and the tennis courts. There is a bar there that has the coldest Wadadli beer in the resort, served in the bottle (tastes better than the Wadadli on tap offered in the other bars). They can also make a wide range of frozen and straight up tropical drinks. The other cove beach is located at the main resort area and is accessed by a steep flight of wooden stairs (not easily accessible for those with walking difficulties). The bar and grill is at the top of the stairs. There is no waiter service at the beach but a cooler located near the watersports desk contains self serve soft drinks. Watersports include hobie cats, kayaks, water trikes and wind surfers. The friendly staff offers complimentary lessons. The two separate coves provide you with the opportunity to sail or kayak from one cove to the other.

The watersports center also has snorkel gear. It is a long swim from the cove beaches to the reef. It is better to sign out the snorkel gear and walk over to Long Bay Beach (public beach), located 5 minutes walk from the lobby area (turn right at resort exit). A sizeable reef with tropical fish is located just off shore here. You will also find some inexpensive restaurants here serving up good local cuisine if you’d like a break from the resort food. There are also some souvenir shacks selling beach attire and local crafts where bargaining is expected.

Back at the Verandah Resort, there is a family pool located near the main bar and restaurants. It is a large free form pool, but lacks a swim-up pool bar. There is no waiter service. You must go to the bar located several yards away to get a drink.

The adults only pool is located near the 300 section of the resort, away from the hustle and bustle of the main resort area. It is a smaller free form pool with a waterfall. There are several thatched roof sun shields and loungers. There is no bar service, but a water cooler and ice cooler provide self serve soft drinks.

There is a daily activity list delivered to your room the night before that includes walks to Long Bay Beach and Devil’s Bridge National Monument, aquacize classes, pool games, family games and nightly entertainment. The entertainment includes local reggae groups, piano players, singers and movies. All activities and entertainment take place at the main bar area. The entertainment ends at 11:00 PM and the bar closes at midnight, so nightlife addicts need to look elsewhere.

There is a kids club on site that seemed to be popular with the children. A nice size jungle gym is attached to the club. There is also a tour desk that offers sightseeing and water sports tours. We did the $25.00 per person Historic Island Tour to Betty’s Hope Plantation, Nelson’s Dockyard and Shirley Heights. We also went on the $50.00 per person snorkel tour to Sting Ray City, where you can pet and feed the sting rays and snorkel a protected reef with lots of colorful, tropical fish. Both tours were booked through the resort and great value for the money.

There are four restaurants on-site. Three are included in the all-inclusive pricing plan. The Beach Bar and Grill offers burgers, sandwiches, salads, soups, snacks, etc. made to order. Breezes offers buffet breakfasts, lunches and themed dinners and does not require reservations. Bucaneer offers a la carte specialties that change daily based on fresh ingredients the chef is able to buy at market. All of these restaurants are open air and can tend to be warm on breezeless evenings. Nicole’s is the specialty restaurant at $25.00 person. The restaurant is air conditioned and offers more refined service and entrees such as lobster, veal and steaks. Both Bucaneer and Nicole’s require reservations. Reservations can be made one day in advance at Guest Services.

The food was good, especially the Indian food themed buffet one night at Breezes and the molten lava chocolate cake at Nicole’s. It is best to stick with local fish and pork dishes. These tended to be much better than the beef dishes. The vegetables were all fresh and tasty. The house wines were from California and Chile and were quite delicious. Liquors offered were acceptable such as Finlandia vodka, Johnny Walker scotch, Canadian Club whiskey and local rums.

The small on-site spa offers a nice assortment of services and the staff provides good quality treatments. Check-out the daily specials for the best buys. There is also a small air conditioned fitness center with treadmills, bikes, elliptical gliders and some weights.

There is an on-site wedding department that does a great job of orchestrating weddings at various locations around the resort including the quiet beach, ocean view gazebos and tropical garden sites.

One down side to the resort is that there is no wi-fi or cable internet access in the rooms. However, free wi-fi is available near the main pool, bar and guest services area. Electrical outlets are located near the guest services building where there are Adirondack style chairs and tables. There is also a computer for complimentary guest use inside the guest services building where access is limited to 15 minutes of usage at a time. So, if internet access is a high priority, be sure to request a room near the main pool area.

This is a green rated resort. There are solar panels on each cottage that supply the hot water for the units, the gray water is used for irrigation that helps to keep the resort lush and drinking water is supplied by an on-site desalinization plant. This does give the drinking water a slight salty taste. We found that mixing the water with a splash of ginger ale did the trick in eliminating the salty taste. The resort does fog for insects every other day at about 4:30 AM, so it is best to sleep with your windows closed and A/C on. The fogging seems to work since we saw few insects during our stay.

Be sure to take a morning historical tour to Betty's Hope Sugar Cane Plantation, Admiral Lord Nelson's Dockyard and Shirley's Heights. Lots of beautiful views and interesting history at all of these sites.

Overall, this is a lovely resort with beautiful landscaping and sea views that will appeal to physically active people because of the hills located throughout the resort and steep steps leading to the watersports beach. Groups of single women, families and couples can all be happy here as long as exciting nightlife is not a requirement.

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