caribbeandiscoverytours & Stephen Broadridge

[Drs Leo]

Fondes Amandes House should have been our base during our four day tour, we are a family with three children.The website showed the opposite of what we experienced. The mountain view was gone because the garden was overgrowing itself, the large swimming pool was empty and filled with leaves, the whole house had the unbareble smell of their dogs. We did not see any BBQ possibillities. The room we booked were to far apart when you have children, the parentsroom did not have any windows that could be opened and the rooms are covered wtih carpets and other non-tropic-resistant materials. We didn't get access to fax machine or internet as we tried to book a hotel nearby. The rooms were moisty and smelled like fungus. No musquitonets were present and there were bats flying throught the bedrooms, making this a most undesirable accommodation.:eek:

As we explained to Mrs Broadridge that we would pay her the way we aggreeded but would like to book a hotel on out costs she freaked out in a way I have never

experience before. When we left we felt like runnaways.

 

The tours we had booked in advance with Stephen in his landrover weren't done in the way we aggreed. He rented a taxibus for four days, very uncomfortable with not enough space for our legs. smelly and without aircon. The driver was secure, but extremely slow. His mother guided us the first day in and around port of spain. She showed us one church and after lunch and later a cup of coffee we stopped in a harbour, far away from the city . The whole trip she told us that the city was getting destroyed and that she couldn't accept this. Her husband was the best architect the city ever had, we think he passed away. The other two days we had a guide that had to be picked up first, two wasted hours in a hot taxi. Because the house is far away from tourist sites you spend more time in the car than you get to see the country. We left at 9 AM and returned at 6.30 PM, we had visited the ASA Wright for 2 hours and spend 90 minutes at a waterfall. We only saw Stephen to collect the money. The last day, after paying him 1500 U$ he wanted another 40 U$, because he needed the money to cover his costs. The last day was unguided, the guide we got was included in the nariva boattip and not because Stephen did a proper job.

Conclusion: The family is only interested in Money not in customers. They don't do what was promised. They hold the cards because you can't book something else on such short notice. I felt betrayed and very uncomfortable, esp. when his mother called us names. Be warned and dont do this trip this way.

[Aplmac]

Fondes Amandes House should have been our base during our four day tour, we are a family with three children.The website showed the opposite of what we experienced. The mountain view was gone because the garden was overgrowing itself, the large swimming pool was empty and filled with leaves, the whole house had the unbareble smell of their dogs. We did not see any BBQ possibillities. The room we booked were to far apart when you have children, the parentsroom did not have any windows that could be opened and the rooms are covered wtih carpets and other non-tropic-resistant materials. We didn't get access to fax machine or internet as we tried to book a hotel nearby. The rooms were moisty and smelled like fungus. No musquitonets were present and there were bats flying throught the bedrooms, making this a most undesirable accommodation.:eek:

As we explained to Mrs Broadridge that we would pay her the way we aggreeded but would like to book a hotel on out costs she freaked out in a way I have never

experience before. When we left we felt like runnaways.

 

The tours we had booked in advance with Stephen in his landrover weren't done in the way we aggreed. He rented a taxibus for four days, very uncomfortable with not enough space for our legs. smelly and without aircon. The driver was secure, but extremely slow. His mother guided us the first day in and around port of spain. She showed us one church and after lunch and later a cup of coffee we stopped in a harbour, far away from the city . The whole trip she told us that the city was getting destroyed and that she couldn't accept this. Her husband was the best architect the city ever had, we think he passed away. The other two days we had a guide that had to be picked up first, two wasted hours in a hot taxi. Because the house is far away from tourist sites you spend more time in the car than you get to see the country. We left at 9 AM and returned at 6.30 PM, we had visited the ASA Wright for 2 hours and spend 90 minutes at a waterfall. We only saw Stephen to collect the money. The last day, after paying him 1500 U$ he wanted another 40 U$, because he needed the money to cover his costs. The last day was unguided, the guide we got was included in the nariva boat trip and not because Stephen did a proper job.

Conclusion: The family is only interested in Money not in customers. They don't do what was promised. They hold the cards because you can't book something else on such short notice. I felt betrayed and very uncomfortable, esp. when his mother called us names. Be warned and dont do this trip this way.

Don't want to say much...but my one brief meeting, back in the 1990's

at the Fondes Amandes house -with the mother

proved her to be neurotic as hell...I'm sorry to say

Nuff said. Apologies for my candour.

.