The Ritz Beach Resort, Freeport

Pro's: The pool and beach at the resot are amazing. The pool has a swim up bar and a water slide. It would be perfect for a family with kids b/c you can see everything and the water is pretty shallow. The beach is pretty private so you don't have to worry about it being hectic. There are no taxes on anything. You can take a little boat into port Lucaya where there is a marketplace with food and souveniers. The restaurant we liked was called pices pizza. There is a bonfire that takes place at Taino Beach on Sunday night. There are bonfires at other beaches on other nights but you have to sign up in advance for someone to pick you up and it may get cancelled if enough people don't sign up. Sunday is probably your best bet. The beach is gorgeous and the water is a beautiful blue color, you can see right through it. There is an Island tour that you can take which had its ups ad downs. They take you to the garden of the groves for an hour and it is beautiful an you learn a lot. Then they take you to a little strip of shops and a liquor store. That's about it. Just decide if it's worth your money. Twice a week there is a ggrocery run. It is a great idea and I strongly suggest going. It costs $3.00 and you have an hour at the store. The food is really expensive ($12.00 for ice cream) but it is worth it to not have to eat out everyday. There is some cheap food you just have to watch the prices. The weather was great... about 80 degrees and brezzy. It was pretty humid though... about 90%. Cons: There is only one restaraunt within walking distance and it is the one at the hotel. We arrived on sunday evening and there was a bonfire going on so the restaurant wasn't serving food unless you attended the bonfire. That was $100 and it was already halfway over so we didn;t want to spemd the money. We were able to order pizza from Domino's. The food at the hotel restaraunt is pretty good but the service is not. A 15% gratuity is automatically added to your bill so the staff don't really have to work for their tip. When you arrive you have to pay about another $160 for utilities while you are at the hotel. Also, our first morning we were woke up by a phone call that told us we had to come to orientation. We asked if we had to go and they said yes. We went and all it was was a timeshare pitch that they make you feel like crap about not buying. First we hadn't even seen the island yet so we didn't know if we would want a timeshare. Second we don't have disposable income and they make you feel like crap for it. We told them we had no intention of buying and they asked us why we came then. We told them because we were told we had to.

We stayed one week at Taino Beach, the only nice thing about this place is the beach, the water was clear and beautiful, needed a lot of cleaning and most of the lounge chairs were broken but over all was beautiful. The rooms were nice and again needed a lot of upgrading, the housekeeping service was terrible they never answered the phone and the line was always busy, we asked why they do not p/u the phone the answer was we DO NOT have time to answer the phone, very poooor manners and service, they let you know that they do not want you there, it seemed like we were bothering them, we had to pick up our own towels and they were so hard it felt like you were cleaning your body with sandpaper. They only have 1 Bell boy service when we checked in we had to wait over 1 hr to have our luggage brought to the room. The girl at the front desk never smiled or apoligized for the delay as a matter of fact she was very rude. The facility does not have a gift/snack shop on the premises, the bus to take you to the market only runs once a day 3 days out of the 7 and you only have 1 hr. to do your shopping. The pool was dirty full of sand and had no filters the water felt very grease, we only used it once. They try to push and sell Timeshare, I believe that they should not take advantage of the people, they need to be a little bit more polite to the tourist maybe they will sell more timeshare... they definetely need to fix the attitute problem.

Our stay was great! The beach was awesome. The accommodations were nice. Our 1 bedroom condo had one queen size bed and 2 pullout sofas. It was pretty inside, had new appliances, and all the kitchen items we needed. The huge pool was our favorite place. The pool's waterslide was lots of fun! The onsite restaurant was good.

The Grand Bahama Island is huge with far fewer people then Paradise Island and Atlantis. Those islands have tons of people and its more like a city. Be prepared for the blast of humidity when they open the plane door. Its changed a lot since the last hurricane. The Princess Casino was blown away and never recovered. Only one casino The Lacayan and thats down town Freeport. We rented a car for the week $400. and probably paid for it by eating at McD's a few times. Lunch anywhere is tough to find under $50. Every place always puts 15% gratuity on the bill. Its your call for an additional tip since the house keeps half. With a car were able to find the fish market and ate lobster 3 nights. $19. lb. The one supermarket close by is filthy. Eggs kept in a broken cooler we ignored. A small can of peanut butter was $5.75 and a standard roasted peanuts jar was $13. Pack your own coffee and cremora etc. Take onion,garlic,salt & pepper if your going to cook in the time share. The meat at that super market I wouldn't touch. The only other market is downtown Freeport. Its like a Sams Club, big quantities. If you do the lobster thing just cook it in margarine after seasoning it. Its great! Fast food places have typical prices like here in the states. The condo has pots,pans,silverware. The pool is huge. Probably take you 20 minutes just to walk around. Grotto bar, water slide. The pristine white beaches are 3 minutes away with lots of eye candy. Luckily my great wife pointed them out! Sunscreen is a must or you will fry!! You can rent scooters, jetskis, parasail (2people at a time) bring money! The international bazarre was also blown away and never recovered but new places opened at the marina next to the big Casino. Lots of shops, t shirts will shrink down to the size of my dog. Dont bother. Plan your trip so you are there at least one weekend night. There is a huge show on weekend nights. A Band, singers, fire eater, an incredible guy who does Limbo. They have a big pavillion or you can sit at one of the many bars surrounding the place and eat and drink and watch the show. There will be lots of people there including the folks off the cruise ships. The Flamingo Hotel next door says in its advertising that its next to the theme park, there is no theme park! If you rent a car don't forget they drive on the left! It tough to get used to but they do have a huge sign on the window that says "Stay to the left!" If you are a smoker here is a great tip when your leaving. Get your luggage through and go through to the waiting area. There is a bar you can hang out in and its got a separate section for smoking. You can drink, grab a sandwich next door and surf or read your email. Take your laptop, theres wireless every where! One more thing. Cash is at equal value to US. But get rid of it before you go. PS The Condo itself isn't too bad. But its taken a beating. The one we were in had a queen bed (very comfortable),3rd Fl, a balcony, full kitchen, combined microwave & convection oven, huge shower. A steel stairway in the middle of the room that went up to a loft with its own bath. Really really steep stairway! If your short, chubby and like to have a few cocktails, you may be taking your life in your hands. The faucets are quite corroded from the sea air and came off in my hand. Have fun!

I am a timeshare member and you would think that as a member there would be some previleages or at least get a phone call returned or email responded when your trying to book your vacation week for a vacation you've already paid for !!! I've tried the 888-311-7945 number (i know so well by memory) , incurred cost by calling the land line, and either the lines are busy or no one answers or they take a message. I've even emailed Kim Russell..nothing! On my 30th call- i called the salesmen, Devon King and Antonio Brown, who were so nice to sell me a useless timeshare and again...nothing!!! I've been trying to book my vacation since October 2008!!! I'm so frustrated and am eager to go to Taino so I can tell every person that stays there "NOT TO BUY A TIMESHARE AT TAINO!" and stick my stupid agreement up Tracy's A$$, the representative who keeps apologizing for taking my name and phone every time I call and unwilling to help in booking my vacation....WHAT IS WRONG WITH TAINO? DO THEY NOT WANT THE BUSINESS!! DON'T YOU WANT MEMBERS TO UPGRADE AND SIGN UP NEW MEMBERS???

My Husband and I went here for are anniversary (we are wyndham owners & rci members) it was nice and quite we were right in front of the pool are room was on ground level with patio pool which was awesome just had to have the pool guy clean it everyday because of the trees and hotel guest wanting to play with the water fall you would think they would have common sense to think that its someone elses patio that paid $100 dollar utlitity fee for 1 week i've never had to pay utlitities before at a resort that was its down fall also theres no entertainment on property. The locals are great if a chance go to the locals backyard fish fry food is great,music is wonderful its a outside in the woods club party.

Taino Beach Resort has two big assets, the beach and the pool. Both of which are an oasis on Grand Bahama. The grounds are kept meticulously well. They do not clean up the beach area with as much dedication. Many of the guests were terrible about littering on the beach and not picking up after themselves, and the resort staff didn't pick up after them either. It's sad to see such an amazinglingly beautiful beach treated with such disregard. There are hammocks and beach huts sprinkled throughout the property. The pool itself is wonderfull with a lazy river, zero entry, waterslide, swim up bar, hidden 'caves' and underwater chairs. The accomodations are what one would expect who is accustom to timeshare travel. As for our room, Taino is nowhere close to the nicest timeshare resort we have visited. But it was clean, roomy and well equipped. We didn't spend much time there anyway. The only odd thing we found was no chest of drawers to unpack with and only a very small amoire which couldn't even hold one persons belongings. There also were no luggage racks. The staff was by no means rude, but not exactly friendly either. They seemed to do the minimum required. They also gave misinformation repeatedly, so we learned to search for our own answers. As for the resort activities, the staff doesn't seem too thrilled to be there. We rented scooters twice, but had to take the ferry to Port Lucaya to get them. The snorkeling guides seemed annoyed to be there. They took us out to the reef and told us to swim in front of the boat and offered nothing further. We didn't find the most amazing areas until nearly time to leave. When we asked for assistance, the guides gave minimal help. The restaurant, Taino by the Sea, is decent and priced on average compared to other area restaurants. We found Bahamian food quite bland. Even the restaurants which received good reviews by Fodors and Frommers were disappointing. According to everything I read about Grand Bahama even while we were there, Taino is one of three "nice" resorts on the island. The other two are hotel resorts, the Westin and Sheratin. There are also two other timeshares resorts, Xanadu and Viva Wyndham. Out of curiousity, we checked all of them out. The resort grounds and beach area are much nicer at Taino. In our opinion it was the best choice. In summary, Grand Bahama itself is definitely worth visiting and Taino Beach Resort is a good choice. We had a fabulous vacation. Just don't expect Taino to hold up to luxury standards. Plan to rent a scooter get away from the resort. Do your research before you go and look for activities and restaurants that are independently owned. Don't expect great seafood just because it's on the ocean. If you are accustom to timeshare travel, you will probably not be surprised by anything.

You are in the Bahama and on Bahamas time. We own in the new part (Marlin) a good upgrade from the Coral. We arrived aroung 8 oclock pm so no wait time. We were given 4th floor. No elevator past the third floor. The next day we contacted the office and was given third floor, 1 bedroom with a Bahamas room. (what we had bought into.) In Feb. things are slow so we didn't do much outside the resort because things weren't running. We still had a great time and relaxed. I always bring food in packages and buy fresh meat and milk when we get there. Food is expensive on the island but it's because of export taxes. Over all we had a great time the beach is great and the view is wonderfull. Pretty island.

Resort is very clean, modern,quit,comftorable,--You have the Bahama type service which is not what you maybe used to but in Rome do as the Roman dooo. I call it Bahama time.. I like very much right on the ocean....

We've been members for a long time, started out in the original Taino apartments (that are now demolished from the hurricane), then bought into the Ritz 1. We always request the ground floor, as you can just walk right out to the beach/pool from your back door. We bought into the new section, that is more "homey", with carpeting, real furniture, a bathroom with real walls, not glass. The 1 bedroom with Bahama room is roomy, modern appliances, 3 flat screen tvs (including in the master bedroom). There is an "accordian" pull-out door that gives extra guests some privacy with the pull-out bed in the Bahama Room. Since it's usually just my husband & I, no problem there. We'd buy the extra bedroom model if we had kids around still. As for the amenities, we do bring as much in the way of groceries with us as allowed: coffee, sugar, powdered creamer, cereal, oatmeal, peanut butter, snack-y stuff, even dishwasher & laundry detergent tablets! The Winn-Dixie IS more expensive than at home, but it is an island, so everything has to be shipped in, of course. I carefully plan every meal, buying only what we need (don't forget things like paper towels & regular kitchen soap). Along with staples like milk, butter, bread, fruit & veggies, I usually buy chicken, steaks, pasta, cold cuts, yogurt. We usually spend just over $100 for a week, and then plan on having 3 or 4 meals out, usually over in Port Lucaya. An Irish pub called Shenanigans is a favorite! The pool and beach are lovely....since we've been there so much, we just kick back & relax, going to the pool in the AM, then the beach in the afternoon, or vice versa. We've already done all the sightseeing tours you can do. My advice is to buy a weekly ferry pass, as you can use it as much as you want, to get over to Port Lucaya. From there, walk down to the public bus stop: for a dollar you can go anywhere in Freeport, as opposed to taking a cab, which is always "$20" no matter how far you go!!! As for the pace, get used to Bahamas time....nobody is in a hurry, so don't you be either! Just take it all in, for the most part, everyone at the resort is pleasant & helpful. The place is what you make it....you decide how much or how little you want to do, and enjoy doing it!