We got back 2 days ago. Spent 8 nights.
The location:
-30 min south of ELH;
-good for accessing Harbor Island, Spanish Wells.
-Southern tip of island is about 2.5 hours.
-On the west side of the island and behind some low hills- so wind at the Cove will be calmer for any wind out of the NE to SE.
The Beach:
-Two coves (North and South) split by a peninsula (which contains the main pool),
-Rough sand with chunks of coral at both beach locations
--The beach sand is just OK. The sand at the Cove is not even in same ballpark as Pink Sands Beach, French Leave Beach, etc.
-A line of moss covered black limestone/coral is just inside the low tide water line that forces you to enter the deeper ocean water at certain locations
-Chairs and beach umbrellas are numerous at the North and South coves, they were never more than 1/5 occupied
The Pool
-Unheated- this should be heated for this level/cost of resort
-Saltwater
-Chairs and umbrellas are numerous, they were never more than 1/10 occupied
The Room
-Oceanfront king (#17). Excellent room layout, ceiling fan, and A/C- and loved the front deck for lounging, loved the outdoor shower, the indoor shower was very large with shower heads at opposite ends, two sinks, and a separate deep soaking tub. The bathroom is a 10/10.
-Bedding (pillow, duvet, sheet) quality was worse than the Westin Hotel on our trip down. I think the Westin has quality bedding. The Cove wasn't on the Westin's level.
-Room water: the tap water is unpalatable (we were never told to NOT drink it out of safety concerns)- it tastes very sulfury. Free of charge glass water bottles are supplied.
-In the bar/coffee area, there was a non working ice maker.
The Grounds
-Very nice quality daytime and nighttime appearance, on par with 5 star hotels in which we've stayed.
The Staff
-All very outwardly happy and always greeted us with a smile
Non Beach/Pool Service
-Welcome and Check-in process: Parking for rental car is super close, Shorter check-in than most, very nice staff. Bellman took our bags in a golf cart from our rental car to the room.
-Room cleaning and Turn down service: Daily room cleaning was prompt and unobtrusive (we never ran into them). Turn down service was a little early (around 6pm) (I assume they anticipate you're out for the evening). Quality of cleaning was very good, however, replacement of drinking water bottles was not consistent.
-Massage: We had excellent quality couple's massages twice (both my wife and I have had massages at multiple world spas, including 4Seasons, etc). There is no spa per se, just a room next to the Hospitality Room (next to the "front desk") in which the spa services are provided. Scheduling for our massages was "next day"- seems they were free with at least 36 hrs notice.
Beach Service
-Hugely lacking with respect to chair service
-We spent at least 14 hours (over 6 separate times) at the beach chairs- we were given drinking water once and never solicited for bar drinks or food orders
-Beach chair towel and personal towel are provided on the chair, but no one sets up your chair for your
Beach Service: Activity desk (present on the south cove only)
-Super easy to check out any water-related item you want [snorkel gear, floaty chairs, SUPs, one or two-person kayaks (the yellow 2-person ones have a clear bottom which I thought would be super cheesy but turned out to be super cool), etc.]
-There are some big floating disks with a mesh bottom, anchored to sea floor, that are fun.
-Then there's the "personal island"...which has two hammocks and is anchored about 50 yards off the beach-- umm, yeah, no thanks---$150/hour with 2 hour minimum- it's just not that special.
-The guys working that desk were super helpful getting you on the water; however these are also the same guys responsible for getting water/etc. to the beach chairs; they were never busy enough with their activity desk to not serve the beach chairs.
Pool Service
-Very lacking
-We spent at least 6 hours (over 4 times) at the pool are we given drinking water twice and twice solicited for drink or food orders
-The other time we spent poolside, we were completely ignored by the staff
-Beach chair towel and personal towel are provided on the chair, but no one sets up your chair for your
Food
-Overall: expensive, but you can expect this on Eleuthera, in general, and certainly at a place like the Cove
-Remember 18% gratuity is included on every meal (and is added for the below estimates)
-Expect to pay, for one person, for one plate, without alcoholic drinks:
--Breakfast: $25-30
--Lunch: $30-40
--Dinner: $40-70
-Food quality: Mediocre. Again, both my wife and I consider ourselves reasonable, not overly critical, food evaluators. The sushi was not great both in imagination, fish quality and roll quality, I had a tuna poke bowl with fish that was not fresh (overly fishy, couldn't finish the bowl). The dinner entrees, in general, lacked spice and seasoning- the curried snapper was sadly bland...things along that general theme applied to the other entrees-- just disappointing overall. I would say we ate dinner there more than we wanted to, simply because there aren't many regional dinner options despite having a rental car.
--A taxi ride to Daddy Joe's (5 min card ride) was $20 each way
--Unca Gene's (Gregory Town) was the best dinner we had while on the island.