Overall Pros: Seclusion, beautiful beaches, warm water, reasonable prices.
Overall Cons: Purchase of basic items other than food is difficult, hotels can be basic.
The bottom line, Tortola is a great vacation for seclusion and relaxation-- our favorite ever, even versus Hawaii. Fort Recovery is a moderate-class hotel with average quality-- not a top quality property.
We stayed at Fort Recovery of Tortola in the British Virgin Islands in June 2001. I cannot recommend Tortola enough - it was an incredible vacation. Our review of the hotel was mixed. It was good-- but not great. In our opinion, the hotel''s press was somewhat exaggerated. It was a value hotel with basic accommodations.
Pros:
* Price was reasonable.
* Very clean.
* Right on the beach.
* Great views.
* Bedroom has air conditioning.
* Kitchen
Cons:
* Lodging was very basic.
* Air conditioning did not cool all rooms - only bedroom.
* Breakfast was meager and repetitive-- toast, coffee, juice, bannana bread, and hard boiled eggs-- every day. Size of breakfast not an issue, just repetitiveness. Staff does not particularly encourage eating breakfast in serving room - would recommend this to help meet other similar guests.
* Beach is very small. Most people at condos do not use beach. Very windy at beach on this side of island. Saw no-one swimming at beach during entire trip.
* Almost nothing is within walking distance except a basic convenience store-- no restaurants are walkable. A car is pretty much required. It is possible to use taxis, but much less convenient as most beaches are hard to reach.
* Condo staff was somewhat "flaky" and recommendations were vague. Very few recommendations, particularly restaurants, are written out which would be helpful.
* Condo staff made repeated VERY personal calls in lobby area that were often uncomfortable to overhear. Recommend a private office area for condo staff to handle personal calls.
* Condo has no restaurant. Meals are served in your room. While food was good and GREAT service, a restaurant would be nice and encourage social interaction with other guests. Meal packages include cost of meal, but not trip (not sure why).
* Several "Free" items with special package are included for all guests anyways with 7 day stay-- dinners, breakfast, boat trip. Main package benefit was arrangement of rental car-- not sure if discounted rate in total. It is easy to rent cars on island and many rental agencies are near hotel.
I would not necessarily recommend you not go to this hotel-- it was pretty good. However, their marketing literature and promotion of packages as a superior product was a little overstated. I would give this property 2 stars out of 4-- not 3 or 4.