O2 Beach Club And Spa. Sophisticated Barbados Living

Michael Edwards Stays At The Very Cool O2 Beach Club And Spa in Barbados

On the shoulder of buzzing, reggae-beat St Lawrence Gap, the O2 Beach Club and Spa has its own distinctive personality. A beach club that is exclusive but inviting, relaxed but refined. Where Paradise is part of the package and “Your stay, your way” is the O2’s freedom-delivering mantra. Appropriately the beach club is named after the chemical symbol for oxygen. The very essence of life.

“Mr Unstoppable here,” announces the bellman as he delivers our luggage to our suite. O2’s staff sum up the exuberant spirit of a 5* hotel that epitomises laid-back luxury at its very best.

It’s some welcome. Of course, there are drinks and a chilled towel. But then, Beco, a hotel ambassador gives us a personal guided tour. We take the lift to Brisa on the top of the Sun Rise building. A blissful spot, alongside the pool and its sun-loungers, for drinks and tapas. Heading back down, Beco points out a very well-equipped gym and a teenage chill-out lounge with cinema-sized screen, table-tennis and board games.

Our tour continues past swim-up bars with premium spirits, past sumptuous sun-loungers under pink-and-white sun umbrellas and through a deliciously cool and shady coffee-shop where you can grab a cake or sandwich. Although it is a mere 15-minute stroll away from The Gap if you are looking for some more local bars and restaurants, as O2 is all-inclusive, you can just as easily forget about the inconvenience of money until you check-out.

In addition to the welcome tour, there is a briefing for new guests on their first morning, an introduction to what’s happening. An art class on how to paint a quintessential Bajan scene, a lesson in cocktail making or perhaps a game of beach cricket.

O2’s striking decor, contemporary and a touch edgy, greets us in our suite in the Sunset building. Shaped and coloured like a hibiscus flower, the rug, surrounded by a two-seater sofa and a wicker armchair, brings bold style to the suite. Nor does the artwork hold back. Bright cerise octopus tentacles stretch across a canvas. Throughout, the O2 makes the most of its chosen colours: seashell, sand, sunset, tangerine, hibiscus, deep ocean.

Views from ocean-facing balconies are Instagram classics. Beyond the swimming pools, palms fringe 1,000 feet of soft white sand drifting into the Caribbean. The quieter western end of the beach provides safe swimming and activities including snorkelling or kayaking for the more active.

Up above, high on the eighth floor, the Acqua full-service spa gives spectacular views along Barbados’ South Coast. There can be few more serene spots for spa treatments anywhere in the Caribbean and Acqua also hosts Barbados’ only Hamman.

Every meal at O2 is a gourmet indulgence beginning with Elements’ buffet breakfast. Bajan fritters and tropical fruit salad provide local flavour alongside pancakes, a hot buffet and the egg station.

Although Elements offers a lunchtime buffet, many guests head for the Blue Fin tiki hut offering casual eating with a gourmet-take on light lunches such as bul jol bowls, burgers, cutters, salads and steak sandwiches.

Guests can stay casual with the Blue Fin for evenings when the tiki hut rings the changes between Indian, Italian and seafood / land buffets or go a la carte at Elements.

O2’s culinary highlight is Oro on the ninth and top floor of the Sunset Building. This is a Caribbean lobster-tail fine dining venue. Whatever your choice of starter or main course the Mount Gay rum crème brûlée, the very essence of Barbados is not to be missed.

O2 Beach Club and Spa develops the all-inclusive concept a little further. Stay for five nights or more and you are entitled to a complimentary round of golf, including club hire, at the Barbados Golf Club, plus a 75 US$ Spa credit per person. Book direct and you also receive complimentary collection and return to the airport which is a mere 15-minutes’ drive away.

Guests are also entitled to visit sister hotel, Sea Breeze Beach House, around a 10-minute taxi ride. It is another member of the locally owned group of three Ocean Hotels which also includes The Rockley at Rockley Beach. Though it is unlikely that anyone should ever tire of the O2 Beach Club, its activities, superb cuisine and ocean side views. To paraphrase Dr Johnson, when a man is tired of the O2 Beach Club and Spa he is tired of life