We got married in March 07 at Jolly Beach Hotel, and the whole run up to our wedding, the stay at the hotel and our actual wedding day was made so special by all the staff at the hotel - but especially by Beverly.

We had planned our wedding through Virgin Holidays, and after filling in our form, Jolly Beach took care of everything.

Beverly, the wedding organiser was fantastic ( and she has a wicked sense of humour and great laugh as well ) - you have to register your marriage, so as part of the package, you go to St Johns and see the register, we were taken there and back with Beverly by car - again all arrangements were taken care of and once I had put that i wanted red as my main colour on the booking form Beverly organised everything.

I had a lovely bouquet of red/white flowers, the cake was decorated in same colours, the wedding chapel ( by the pool, and overlooking the beach ) had red flowers decorated round it and we also wanted a steel band, a dvd and photos - which again was all taken care of.

As part of my wedding package, i also had my hair done, and a manicure and pedicure, and I felt so pampered and relaxed ( at this time, my husband to be was in the pub!!)

Every little detail, from picking me up from my parents room, where i got ready, to Elvis *shushing* people at the pool to *posing* for pictures, was taken care of. Some were in the hotels grounds, and then we moved down to beach and my favourite one of us, I have had enlarged and is on my bookcase at home with pride.

After our wedding, we then had drinks on the patio - where people staying at the hotel would come up and congratulate us, and then we had a fantastic meal at the Italian.

To end the evening, as my husband ( love using that word )and I went to our suite, there were rose petals all over our bedroom/living room, and there were flowers on our towels, and champagne and glasses in a cooler, making a lovely end to our perfect day.

We had breakfast in bed the following morning with more bubbly.

I can honestly say, that I could not think of a single thing that I could have wanted or needed, everything was catered and looked after by the wonderful staff at Jolly Beach on my wedding day, but also the rest of our holiday/honeymoon was lovely.

Nothing is too much trouble for ANY of the staff, they were polite and always happy/smiling, the entertainment in the evening was good with either singing/steel bands/fire on beach with limbo dancing.

My husband ( see there I go again ) highly recommend Jolly Beach Hotel, and for anyone who is thinking of getting married abroad, I can only say, get married and stay at the Jolly Beach, or just go there for a relaxing holiday.

Pros:
All Inclusive. 5 of us spent 4 nights in two Standard rooms.
Rooms were a bit small, but comfy. 2 single beds each.
The food was great. Indian food was really good. Seafood was tasty. Staff was friendly and helpful. Beach was crazy good. Learned to sail, and sailed every day. Beach was clean and calm. 1 mile long. Guests were lively, pool bar was popular. Nightly entertainment. Lots of families.

Cons:
Too many birds in main dining area. They tried to net them out, but the birds got in anyway.

I am from Trinidad & Tobago.

This review is dedicated to all the great people we met at Jolly Beach from the 18th August to 1st September.

They include:-

Klint and Adeline,Chris and Sharon,Pat,Sally,Sarah and Sophie,George and Ruth,Jenni and Michelle, Karen and Nigel ,Lee , Rachel and Colin, Allison and Derek, Martin and Sue,Anne and Barrie. Sue and Craig,Alan and Maggie ,Mandy and Elaine and of course all the kids attached to the above named.Also Terry and Rick from New Jersey.

This place is paradise!

My wife and I have just returned froma a fabulous two week holiday at this resort.

We flew Virgin Atlantic Premium economy to Antigua on the 18th and arrived at the resort to be greeted by smiling people. an amazing beach, and a turquoise sea. On arrival we were taken by bus with our luggage precisely 10 yards to our room with two other couples which was very amusing. It transpired that the two couples lived only 2 miles from us and from there we became a group called the "whole 10 yards". and friendships were born.To arrive in our room already in laughter was a great start to our holiday.

Now on the the practicalities of this resort:-

Room was 3.5 star but clean and functional and was maintained well all day.

Service excellent in that every query or minor complaint was dealt with courtesy and efficiently.

Pools:- My wife and I were mainly using the small pool throughout the holiday and this was a very pleasant place . However it appeared that the poolwas not always cleaned as regularly as it should have been and was at one time closed for two days due to a filtering problem.

The main pool was very large and provided the main venue for daily activities.However again the pool sometimes was not as clean as it could be but eventually this was resolved.

Food:-

Very good 90% of the time. Hemispheres was a good choice and the food was in abundance. We were never hungry.This is take what you want buffet and was the main restaurant we used.

The grill at the main pool was good also especially the burgers.

Utsav:- good resturant word of warning though has no ceiling fans so sit outside to eat.

Bocciolos :- good food used twice and once for my wife's birthday Watch the dress code though very strict.

Lydias went for both the lunch with steele band on Sundays(essential) and on the last night of our stay. Nice food the restaurant is on the beach.

Bars

Main one at the main pool was good and lively.

Hemispheres was the main bar for the night's entertainment and was well stocked.It was also open during the day from 10:30AM.

Complaint it appeared that some of the staff had a problem smilingand in some cases were giving the impression they just did not want to be there,,many people noticed this.

Also red wine in a plastic mug and chilled?????

The Beach:- Is glorious and despite the recent influx of Jelly fish caused by the hurricane provided hours of enjoyable and relaxing bathing.Also we found the vendors on the beach to be friendly and always accepted a no thanks response.

There are many sun beds on the beach as well shaded areas.

Entertainment:- The staff work very hard here and as we are seldom found to be joiners in they must have done a very good job as I took part in the dancing competition,Mr Antigua and found fame with my holiday buddy Klint in Karaoke with the singing of We will Rock you and we ended the evening with YMCA.thanks all for suffering this.

On stage at Hemispheres they had mixed nights of entertainment from bands to amateur contests and a fashion show as well. I would rate the entertainment as good overall

As a holiday experience this was great. We made so many friends and contacts and the nights of laughter will remain forever in the memory.The kindness of the staff and the general feeling of happiness that this resort generates fills you with warmth all over.

I alway judge my holiday by the way I feel on leaving.As I climbed the stairs of the Virgin aircraft on Saturday my heart fluttered as to having to leave this place was sad.

Well done Jolly Beach, well done Antigua.

To everyone we met good luck for the future and thanks for the laughs.

Ian and of course Mel

Waltham Abbey UK

We stayed at the Jolly Beach Resort in the last 2 weeks in August for our honeymoon but took our children (aged 11 and 15).

We booked 2 adjoining rooms and had upgraded to the superior rooms for the Wi-Fi internet access. We were first put into superior rooms which did not get the Wi-Fi access but this was soon resolved and we were moved to the rooms we wanted the next day.

Rooms
The rooms are basic but the superior ones are spacious with a king sized bed and sofa area. There is a TV with about 13 channels (including Disney channel and film channels), a fridge and a coffee maker. It was ok for our stay but after going visiting the 'Suites at Jolly beach' which is also part of the resort and still very close to the pool and beach I would advise anyone taking older children who want some privacy to go for the suites as they have 1 and 2 bedroomed apartments with kitchens.

Food
The buffet is ok, great for breakfast (except for the birds) and average for the evening. It is usually a theme every night and some are better than others (mexican is excellent), sunday nights are also good as they did a fantastic roast dinner one night. We tried all 3 restaurants during our stay. The indian Ustav was not to our tastes, we love India and it just wasn't very good. The Italian Bocciolo has a very strict dress code but this is good as it gives you the chance to dress up for a night out. Some nights and for some meals the Italian was lovely, on other nights we tried it, it wasn't so great. Lydia's the seafood restaurant is the best restaurant there and is wonderful (unlike some all-inclusives where you are allocated nights for the restaurants at Jolly beach you can book anywhere any night and there is usually places so we ate here almost every night the last week), I do not eat any seafood or fish and still loved it! Amazing soups and wonderful T-bone steaks ($30 surcharge for steak but worth every penny!!), lovely atmosphere and great setting. The grill bar at the pool is excellent for lunch doing a great seletcion of burgers, toasties, chicken and fries.

Bars
There is one main bar near the buffet restaurant which we didn't like much, but this where the entertainment went on. There is a lovely courtyard just outside of reception with tables in where we used to sit at night which was great when the INidian restaurant was open as you could use their bar, but on nights where it wasn't then you couldn't get a drink there. The pool bar is good during the day and has the nicest swim up area I have seen.

Pool
The pool area is lovely, with one large pool and one smaller deeper pool, kept very clean and tidy. Was very easy to get sunbeds and there are umberellas on the beach and there are also easy to get. A third pool is being built later on this year for the rooms out near the conference centre and the suites.

Beach
The beach is amazing and has loads of sunbeds etc. The Jolly beach watersports are good and let you go canoeing and out on catamarans. There are also various gazebos set up on the beach for the paid watersports. We can highly recommend Lydon who has the white tent down near the main bar. He took us out snorkelling on his speedboat for $40 each and took just me and my husband out to cage reef (really out at sea but don't worry) and it was incredible, he snorkelled with us and even got us some great big conch shells to take home. We also used him for the jetskis which was great fun.

Tours
We did all our tours through our holiday company and can highly recommend the Excellence Catamaran (Virgin's Ahoy) and the Jeep Safari (Virgin Dundee) as both are excellent! We also took a taxi into St. Johns for shopping ($40) and walked over to Jolly Harbour a couple of days (excellent supermarket!)

Positives of the holiday
Nice resort, lots of activities during the day, gorgeous beach, lovely island and people.

Negatives
Not enough bars (or not enough quiet bars) at the resort, rooms could have been better (pick the suites!), and the hotel charges for bottled water (cheaper to fill fridges from supermarkets)