Antigua, Sandals Antigua Resort & Spa

We went to Sandals Antigua. It was the best experience! The staff was wonderful! Always a smile and polite greeting. We had our wedding and honeymoon there. Each day, we enjoyed wonderful food, including lobster, steak, and ribs; along with top shelf drinks. I was shocked to see expensive alcohol at every bar! The wedding staff was so helpful and greeted us by name every time they saw us throughout the entire trip. The photographers took amazing wedding photos and we are now good friends with the photographer (Marion)...she is so sweet! I would advise any couple to book a trip at Sandals Antigua! After traveling on numerous trips in the past 26 years, this has, by far, been the best experience of my life!

Pros:

-FREE upgrade from the cheapest room to the rondoval with private pool and 24 hour room service!

-Most beautiful place I've ever seen

-Snorkeling was fantastic

-Kayaking was lots of fun and there was never a wait

-Swimming in the ocean as it was never crowded

-Excellent deals at the gift shop and SnapShots

Cons:

-Food wasn't great

-LOTS of solicitors on the beach

-Lounge chairs were always full

-Reservations were tough to get, though we did eventually get to do everything we wanted to

My husband and I came to Sandals Antigua for our second anniversary (got married at Sandals Royal Bahamian) and we had a GREAT time and feel like the trip was well worth the money we paid for it. HOWEVER, I think we'd feel very differently if not for the free upgrade.

On April 12 2008 I and my husband went to sandals Antigua. We had booked to stay in the beachfront rondavols. When we arrived our butler greeted d us with champagne and told us that we had an upgede to the Mediterranean village honeymoon suite. We were disappointed because it wasn ' t the room we booked. As our butler walked us in our room we absolutely were thankful for r the upgrade the room was beautiful and huge and had our own balcony. We checked out what we did have booked (the rondavols) and they were nice but people could lay out right in front of your room so you had no privacy on the porch. So we were thankful for the upgrade. Most reviews I read before went I was nervous to go because it didn ' t sound great. But honestly it was more than I expected service was awesome and they waited on us hand and foot. I felt like I was a millionaire. We didn ' t leave the island to do excursions because we were nervous. The outside of gates of sandals was really run down looking. Besides it was plenty to do on the island. The gardens are beautiful and the place is super clean. Our butler made sure we had a spot and cooler by the pool every morning. It does get crowded so get out there early if you aren ' t got a butler to help. The food was great... ok coral was awesome too. Every staff member I came across was very friendly and always smiled. To me this was more than I expected. I would def go back.

+ couldnt have asked for anything better. i highly recommend stayin in the meditteranian village and being at sandals antigua

Me and my partner went to Sandals Antigua Resort & Spa for 2 weeks in april 2008.

The first room we got was terrible there was a gap under the door about 3 inch! anything could of crawled in!

The bath was half the size of a normal bath and had all what seemed like mould around it. The wardrobe was a hole in the wall! The air conditioning system had dark coloured water running down the wall and this was supposed to be 5 star luxury! We complained straight away. After a couple of days of this, we got moved to the Mediterranean village. The room was lovely. If we hadn't of had that room I don't know what we would have done, Probably got the next flight home. The food was poor not like you see in the brochure with the steaks and fancy foods. The dress code was more like pontins!!

It was the worst holiday ever and wouldn't recommend to anyone.

My husband an I got married in Feb 2006 at The sandals resort in Antigua and it was the worst experience of our lives,we were never informed of the buildings works going on at the time either by our travel agent or Sandals themselves. We arrived having booked a beach side roundall with its own contained plunge pool and were accommodated in a normal roundal as the others were booked out!!!! My mothers room had a blocked toilet for 4 days my mother in laws air conditioner never worked and although reported was never fixed. During our honeymoon period the main pool was closed for 5 days for renovations the whole site was slowly dug up around us and we were woken at 8am every day by the constant work site noise that carried on for the whole day........I have photographs of our wedding day that would make your hair and toes curl.

Having complained to Sandals a company that prides itself in it customer satisfaction no less than 10 times they take no notice and just send out standard letters with no apology... Do you really want to get married in a place like this?

Visited this resort on a work trip and was extremely disappointed. I had read several reviews and many of them were true....

The ONE redeeming quality the resort had was the butler service in the Mediterranean Village...they were OUTSTANDING!!!

Other than that, the food was definitely lacking, most of the employees were cordial but did not have answers to any questions.

A large handful of them were very rude and unhelpful.

A small handful were above and beyond pleasant and helpful.

The resort and the rooms were also infested with mosquitoes - who LOVE the tourists :) And there were SEVERAL power outages on the Friday night I was there. Power outages to the ENTIRE resort....which left us in the dark for several minutes....

I have traveled all over the world in all types of hotels/resorts/hostels with all types of people.

Since I didn't pay for this trip (was work related) - I suppose it was acceptable (and beyond my control). However - had I paid upwards of $2000 to travel across the nation for a wedding or honeymoon I would have been seriously disappointed.

Can't speak for any of the other Sandals resorts - but if you are looking for top of the line treatment and great food - this resort is not the place to be.

And yes - the pictures are AMAZING - but deceiving.

I would stay away from Sandals Antigua, especially if romance is in your plan. One of the couples we met there ware planning their wedding and nearly called the whole thing off because of the miserable conditions/environment and the poor service. They waited until the last minute to pull through, fortunately they went forward with the wedding because they make a really nice couple! Leave Sandals to the miserable staff that run it, we sure won't miss them!

The Sandals Antigua Resort & Spa is definitely somewhere worth going. I don't know about the other rooms, but ours was breathtaking. They fill your bar every day and it's all included. The grounds are beautiful, and there is always something to do if you want. I definitely recommend the extreme circumnavigation - it's worth it!

Sandals Antigua Resort & Spa is nice, but I don't recommend this hotel to anyone. Although the area was nice, the hotel was awful. The worst quality, and the worst place I've ever stayed, and I have travelled the world, so I know a lot of places!

This is my personal opinion of how I perceived my holiday/honeymoon at the Sandals Antigua Resort & Spa;

If you are expecting an all shiny, new, perfect resort like the adverts you'll be a bit disappointed. Unfortunately because I'd fantasized it would be like the brochure & video, I felt let-down. We ended up deciding we were not going to ruin our honeymoon by sulking, as it's not all bad. After a couple of days we worked out where the quiet pool was, (NOT the pool bar, as it's full of intoxicated, loud couples playing water-polo etc - lots of screaming & screeching & shouting). We found where the romantic, quiet part of the beach was, (down by the honeymoon suites) & stayed near the "English" contingent where it was peaceful in the Bayside restaurant, (breakfast & lunch).

We don't really drink much alcohol & had to request they clear our fridge of "liquor" then we asked for OJ, milk & diet coke, oh & a kettle, no problems done quickly & courteously!

You feel very safe, as there are a lot of security staff about, we left books & bags on our loungers at lunch time & so did most people & we didn't hear of anyone having problems.

You had to go to the bar for drinks which was a bit annoying, as we'd expected a pool/beach waitress service. There didn't seem to be enough staff on at the bar, as it was frequently closed around 10am for approx' an hour & when it was open you had to queue for drinks. I was frequently passed over for other people when I'd been waiting longer & then the staff were quite surly, very slow & would slam your drink down on the counter without a word! I eventually refused to go to the bar area & made my husband go, as they intimidated me so much.

In comparison the staff in the Bayside restaurant were so smiley, helpful, efficient & courteous it was quite a contrast.

We started feeling non-special to be honest, because every couple we seemed to talk to was on honeymoon too!

I'd say if you want a fun, loud, party type holiday with lots of water sports, alcohol & food near a beautiful beach, then yes you'll love it. But if you want a secluded, quiet, and romantic honeymoon where you are pampered & waited on hand & foot, choose somewhere else, like we should have really! We were told that the St Lucian Grande is more like that, by a few couples we met that had been there, however it is more expensive & I can't speak 1st hand!