I have to strongly disagree with one of the previous reviews. We have just come back after a wonderful week at the Jolly Beach. We had no queue at reception, our room as basic but its only a base for a week and most of our time was spent enjoying the wonderful scenery, the clear blue sea and fantastic sized swimming pool. My husband and I usually like adventure holidays but decided for a change and we just chilled out and enjoyed a fun packed holiday.

The food was out of this world with lots of variety, the staff were really friendly and helpful and never expected tips etc.... which made a nice change. THere were that many water sports that were included it was difficult to choose what to do next.

I would definately return to Antigua, to discover the beautiful island in more detail.

Its a must!!!!!!!!!

Deb & Phil (Cheshire UK)

Just returned from a week (11-18th june) at the jolly beach resort were we had a great time. This was our first time to the carribean and first time on an all inclusive.
Flew with virgin holidays which was great and went without a hitch, but the airport at st johns is very small and slow (this is the carribean way so it is best to expect this so as not to get frustrated) and this is true of the departure as well, all i can describe it is as chaos.
Eventually were put into our minibus cab along with about 6 others to make our way to the resort about 25 mins away, this was an interesting journey seeing antigua for the first time and driving through mostley what you can only describe as "shanty towns".
Arrived at the jolly beach resort were we where greeted with a slush rum punch, check in was slow but efficent, it is $15 US per week for a room safe and this is worth having but you have to ask for it while checking in. We along with our luggage were loaded on to a small courtesy bus and taken to our room. We had a super saver room and after reading other reviews we were not expecting much and more or less got what we were expecting. The room was bigger than expected with a ceiling fan and air conditioning and tv with lots of good stations, if you think typical spanish package holiday room you will get the idea, we are used to much better accomodation but were happy with it, it was clean but could have done with a renovate. Dont expect to much with maintenence if you get a problem, the tv remote didnt work on arrival, no big deal but we told reception straight away nothing happend then 2 days later the fan stopped working again told reception, later that day we were told that a new part had be found and would be done the following day,the tv remote was then fixed but the fan was never fixed, the air con started to leak the day before we were leaving, we didnt bother asking for it to be fixed.
The large grounds are well maintained just how you would imagine the carribean to be with lots of palm tree's etc, and all the accomodation is in eye shot of the beach, the beach is fantastic and makes the resort real picture post card stuff, white sands palm tree's blue green sea, we spent every day on the beach and didnt bother with the pools ( round a pool you could be anywhere ) more about the pools in a mo. There are lots of sun loungers on the beach but the fixed sun shades are limited so we got up early and had a sunbath then left our towels etc at one while we went for breakfast and lunch. There were beach vendors walking along about 3 a day coming up to us but a simple polite no thankyou was enough and they walked on, we didnt find this a problem at all. We had decided not to do any excursion's but we hired a jet ski a couple of times which was great ($45USD for half hour) and as a qualified scuba diver i was please to see that there was a dive shop on the beach (jolly dive) so i went for an afternoon dive (boat equipment 1dive 2 hour trip $70USD).
There were 2 pools 1 large 1 small, i prefered the smaller because it was quiter, the larger pool,was nice but they had a lot of entertainment round the pool which was not what i wanted on a carribean holiday, bingo numbers being called out loudly and "agadoo" blearing out the speakers i steered well clear of this.
I thought the food was great, hemispheres is the buffet where you have breakfast, lunch and dinner, there was plenty of variety on offer (wedensday night bbq not to be missed). You need to book for lydias beach front seafood restaurant, ustav's indian and bocciolo's italian which is not a problem. I thought bocciolo was the best of these, all 3 menu's were a bit limited but they are all worth trying, i prefered hemisphere's, dont forget there is a strict dress code for bocciolo's. A tip for hemisphere's, ask to be seated outside, it is cooler sitting under an umbrella, it gets stuffy inside, also when eating there through the day it is like eating in an aviary, there are loads of birds making the most of the scraps, this didnt bother us and we found it quite amusing to watch but remember when you get up from the table to cover your drink/food other wise you may find a bird helping itself when you return. The coconut grill at the main pool served burgers etc i had a jerk chicken once, didnt think it was that great and found the grill to be a bit on the grubby side.
I found 95% of the staff to be very friendly and non of them were rude as i have read on other reviews, the carribean way seems to be to make small talk and to give people some time so a tip would be that everytime you order a drink or go to ask for a table to dine,go to reception etc a simple "good morning/ evening how are you today ( something we all should do anyway) would be appreciated by the staff and also get you further with them, not doing this is considered rude and they may be rude back.
I am not a snob but one downside i found were a lot of the other guests there, to me it looked like as lot of them got lost on there way to blackpool, there were a number of wedding parties there and i think a lot of the invited guests would not normally have chosed a carribean holiday.

The entertainment was average, the steel bands were good a gave a nice carribean feel to the holiday, there is a harbour and casino a 5 min walk away and we spent 3 nights here after eating at jolly's, there is also a bar,restaurant and club there it a very impressive building.

I would rate it as follow's. the beach/sea 5 star, food 3+ star, resort 3 star, accomodation 2 star.

I probably would not go back to the jolly's but only because i would like to try the other islands but if i had to go back i would do so happily.

Hope this helps and enjoy you holiday.

We went to the JB to get married, along with ten of our friends and family and from reading the reviews before we left i was a bit apprehensive.

The accommodation is not 5 star but hey you are in the caribbean and it was kept lovely and clean which to be honest if you are not in your room all day who cares? The air con did break down quite a few times though which made sleeping uncomfortable.

The beach and resort is beautiful and the weather was fantastic.

The wedding went well -the ceremony was lovely. However, we both felt in the dark about arrangements for the big day.

The food and drink (slush puppies with rum served freestyle is a must) is plentiful but without air conditioning, eating it was tough going. Unfortunately, apart from a few members of staff i.e. the infamous Glentist, Elvis, many of the staff were rather rude and this was my main upset. we were always friendly- please and thank you's always as usual, but we still had drinks slammed down at us and we felt that we were a nusiance for being there! Dont go to the Italian especially for this reason.

Would we go again? To Antigua definately, to JBR probably not.. but never say never it would be nice to visit the place where we got married in a few years.

Our first impression of Jolly Beach was not good. After arriving at the reception, we had to wait over 45 minutes in a queue before we spoke to a receptionist. Then we were told that our room was not yet ready and had to wait another 45 mins before we could get into the room. Not what you want after an 8hr flight, and navigating the primative airport. The check-in process was terribly slow and inefficient - they could make radical improvements here.
We had a king size bed - the rest of the room was cramped, but did have air conditioning which was a godsend and good cable TV. Overall the staff service was poor - most looked and acted as if this was the last place they wanted to be, most couldn't communicate well and some were actually rude (snatching plates away in front of you without asking if you had finished). There were one or two exceptions, but overall service was poor. The hotel needs extensive redecoration. and had a tatty feel to it.
On the plus side, the food was generally good with a wide variety of choice. Drinks were ok - the spirits certainly had generous helpings! The beach and sea were great, although some of the traders could be annoying (we had one bad experience with one tour seller, who was trying the hard sell a little too much). The entertainment did have a definite holiday camp feel to it, but if you take it tongue in cheek, some parts can be fun. The signs pointed to a previous disco that they had tried to blank out - we feel that this might have added some variety on the entertainment side.
Ultimately we wouldn't return to Jolly Beach - we can see that it would suit some people, probably families, but my advice for couples like us would be to spend a little more to hopefully get better service - if you can afford it.