We (my husband, son and I) stayed at Kalingo for 2 weeks in March right before the island shut down due to Covid 19. There were many things we loved about our stay at Kalinago and I'll write about those first. The setting is beautiful. We were on the 2nd floor (of 3 floors) and all rooms have a great view of the beach. The room was spacious, with high ceilings and pretty comfy beds. The beach is lovely and in a small bay, Morne Rouge Bay, around the 'corner' (so to speak) from Grand Anse beach. So with the exception of the Rum Runner boat that parks in the bay and deposits other beach goers for a couple of hours a few times a week, it's much quieter than Grand Anse. Given that we were there during the beginning of the pandemic, it was even more quieter, which suited us just fine. There were also locals on the beach, which gave it a great vibe. The hotel is kept clean and the staff were nice, especially the women who cleaned the rooms. We joined the beach BBQ , bon-fire the first Saturday we arrived, which was great. We only ate at the restaurant twice and the food was okay. We loved the fish tacos at La Plywood on the beach and also ate at Bohos' over looking the bay owned by the same people. Sur La Mer is a restaurant right beside Kalinago and their food was great. So there are a couple of decent choices right on the bay. Contrary to what other reviewers have said about the 'walk' to Grand Anse beach being really hard, we disagree. Instead of walking up the steep driveway, just turn left out of the main doors to Kalingo Resort and follow the road up, which is much less steep than the driveway. It's only a 10-15 walk to Grand Anse along Morne Rouge. There's a great mall with a grocery store (IGA?) and other shops, as well as a Pizza place, sushi and Italian restaurants nearby. Do be sure to eat at Umbrella's Beach Bar while you're out on Grand Anse beach too.
Okay, so there are some 'negatives' about Kalinago and I'll outline those here. There were a couple of evenings when the music at the bar was way too loud and there wasn't anyone at the bar except the staff. I really wish the management would invest a bit of money as the place seems rundown. When you enter the reception area, it appears as though guests used to be able to walk through that area to the beach. That area is overgrown with weeds, is dirty and closed off now. It would't take much to do some improvements and not be such an eyesore. The rooms are fine. It's not a 4 star if that's what you are expecting. However, a few little changes would really help. Rather than just instant coffee, why not buy coffee machines for each room? The shower heads were pretty crummy. The air conditioning unit leaked in our first room. They moved us to another room and the safe was broken in that room. The second room had a 'welcome booklet' with details about the resort, activities, etc. , which wasn't even in the first room. That didn't matter, because it was so out of date that the activities listed in it weren't even happening any more. Pillows were missing for the chairs, and things just seemed rather shabby. Again, overall, it's a lovely place and it really wouldn't take much money and effort to make a few small changes to really improve the place and give it a fresh look.

I will preface this review by saying we visited just at the start of the Coronavirus problems in mid-March 2020. The place was quiet, and we understood that on Grenada generally lots of holidays had been cancelled, and lots of facilities were not as available as we understand that they normally are.

The rooms - the beds were very comfy and the shower was hot. Enough drawers and hanging space, hairdryer in the bathroom and reasonable number of plugs.

Beach - absolutely beautiful, quiet and relaxing for 90% of the time. Until, that is, until the Rhum Runner boat arrives (most afternoons) depositing a large number of additional visitors for about an hour and a half. Now, they are as entitled as anyone else to be there, and they were not themselves badly behaved, but as the name may indicate it is a boat that seems to serve up alcohol fairly freely, and my only real complaint is that it pumps out loud music for the duration it's moored on the beach. No doubt those who booked places on the boat are happy with that, but those of us on the beach for other reasons get no choice in the matter, which is rather inconsiderate to say the least. It is a small bay so you cannot get away from it. Shame, but I guess there is little that the hotel can do about it.

Hotel - is a small hotel and little isolated in the sense that there is not a great deal that you can easily walk to. There is a taxi service based at the hotel. If you are particularly fit and committed you could get to many places and Grand Anse beach on foot, but it's not easy. There is a restaurant at the hotel. The breakfasts were good (Irecommend the corn fritters), but we found the menu in the evening very limited and while the food was ok it was nothing special. Whether this was because of the circumstances of the timing of our visit, I don't know. Other reviews report different experiences. Staff on the whole were very helpful and pleasant. At the bar the music was sometimes a bit loud for us and seemed at times to be more to please the staff, but you can't please all of the people all of the time can you?

We ate once at the Boho Cafe at the end of the beach. We were told it was fairly newly opened. We both had freshly caught fish and it was absolutely delicious. A nice relaxed little place which we loved.

The main purpose of our trip was scuba diving. We dived with Dive Grenada on Grand Anse Beach who picked us up from the hotel every day (see separate review) and dropped us back afterwards. The dive sites are very close so no long trips in a boat and the sealife is amazing.

Grenada on the whole is a lovely island. We spent one day going round the island with Greg (the taxi driver at the hotel). While many places were partly shut (Chocolate Factory tour, Rum Factory tour etc) this did not bother us, as we got to see the island.

Tip - we got the impression that the 3 commonly accepted currencies were ECD USD and GBP. Not so for GBP. Banks will change GBP but it is not accepted in shops, restaurants etc.

We were in room 5 on the ground floor which opened onto the garden and beach with a lovely view through the trees.

We had a lovely time.

Kalinago was small and quaint and felt uniquely local and tropical. We loved it. Our top floor room was beautiful with tall ceilings and real wooden furniture. All rooms face the water. Our balcony overlooked the beautiful small bay and small pool with thatched roof bar. One negative - instant coffee in room vs coffee maker. There was also a small fridge, safe, electric water pot, iron, etc. Sat. nights they offer dinner on the beach with full service and tables in the sand with real tablecloths. Large fire with a drumming band beside us on the oceanfront. Very nice in a beautiful setting. Choose your meat from the grill and the rest was buffet style. This is not the luxury feel some demand. We had stayed at that cookie cutter standard large luxury resort on Grand Anse on the front end of our trip. I could have been on a beach anywhere in the world. It went on forever and lots of resorts nearby with restaurants we could walk to. It was also very nice... Still, at Kalinago I knew I was in the Caribbean and this is where I would want to relax and enjoy being far away from civilization. Their restaurant had flowers and wood and real tablecloths. Pretty setting and food wasn't bad. Service slow. Better food would have gotten them 5 stars. We much preferred Boho's restaurant, short walk up from the Kalinago. Highly recommend it. We also enjoyed great fries, conversation, fish tacos and beer at La Plywood Beach Bar, small open air 'shack' right on the beach by Kalinago. Lovely memories made here.