Let me start of with the positive. Hawksbill is located on an incredible piece of real estate with fantastic beaches. The staff in charge of the beach activities were wonderful. The resort serves good ice cream. That is it for the positive comments.

A large group of friends and family stayed at the resort during the first week of October for a wedding. If it was not for the fact that we committed to stay as group, I and a small contingency were planning an escape. In fact, one couple did actually leave under the cover of night to switch to a better resort.

Hawksbill was swarming with flies.
Honestly, the first three days we stayed there you could not use a knife while eating your meals - you constantly had to have one hand free to wave away flies from your food. We took turns protecting each others food while people went to get drinks. Even then you could not be vigilant enough, so we had to use extra plates to cover the food. I only wish I was exaggerating. The most amazing part about this was that the staff acted as if they did not see the flies. Not one apology. I now regret not taking pictures of the swarm so that I could post here. During one lunch, a friend actually ate his meal standing in sea so that he could eat in peace.

Blackbirds ruled the dining areas.
The birds would come into the dining rooms, sit on the back of the chairs, and defecated on the backs of the chairs. Also, they would literary steel the food from right under your nose. Again, the staff did nothing. Clarification, I did notice that they placed a plate of bread on the outside of the dining rooms in an attempt to keep the birds fed. Unfortunately, the birds only wanted what was on the plate of the guests.

Vicious mosquitoes
The rooms had screens on the windows. However, the screens are very old, installed poorly, and contain holes. A funny(?) story. One night, the resort sprayed for mosquitoes. Through some chain of events in Mother Nature, when we returned to our room, our bathroom had been overtaken by small flies (bigger than gnats, but smaller than house flies). We called the front desk for assistance, and their instructions for us was to turn out the lights because the flies were attracted by the light in the bathroom. Problem - it is pretty difficult to shower and get ready in the dark. Also, they were now being attracted to the lights in the bedroom. So for about thirty minutes, my wife and I sat in the dark on the bed waiting for the flies to leaves. Didn’t work. We called again. This time security arrived with a can of insecticide. So now we (not security or staff), had to spray the bathroom. Oh, the showering part … we gathered our stuff and went to a relatives room on the other side of the resort for that. Also, later that night, guess who was in the bathroom cleaning up hundreds of flies. You guessed it, me.

Food
Be prepared to eat bacon and eggs, the occasional greasy fish cakes, and precooked barbecue chicken EVERYDAY. By far the worst selection and worst food I have had at any resort. Also, be prepared to be scolded like a child on your food selection. A friend was told by her waiter that she would not bring her what she ordered because she “could not eat all that food.” Positive - they had good ice cream.

Ah the Staff ...
I have never seen a set of more morose, irritable, and generally unpleasant set of people in my life. They must not realize that they are working in the service industry and tourism is the number one industry in Antigua. The simplest of request was treated with scorn. They argued among themselves about the supervisors openly in front of the guests. They did not clean the rooms everyday.

I could go on with this review, but I am bringing myself down reliving this experience. If you are planning on visiting, do yourself a favor - do not do it. If you do, at least make sure you get some rum and raisin or pistachio ice cream.

We had the most wonderful time at Hawksbill.
On arrival we were very pleased as i had read through all the reviews and had been doubtful, however people just winge about daft things so my husband and i were pleasently surprised. The staff are fantastic, so friendly and helpful The grounds are lovely and the rooms are fine. we were originally in a seafront room with no aircon which was fine at first just needed a lick of paint thats all but by second week we decided to upgrade ourselves to honeymoon cove with air con. we had great views in both rooms. i just loved waking up and seeing the sea through the slatted windows.
The food was brilliant, always plenty to enjoy and nice and hot and i must say neither of us had an upset tummy all 2 weeks there! which is a first actually.
The entertainment lacked slightly, the evenings did seem a little too quiet. But then again, we would enjoy earlier nights than usual and waking up early was nice too plus we had a little coffee machine in room so we would sit out first thing and watch the sun come up.
The beaches were great, sea grapes beach is where we spent our days, nearest the bar for banana coladas which one review on here recommended.
Weatherwise, we had a few showers, tail end of a hurricane that we slept through, but the sun was shining every day and the weather was warm so those showers were refreshing.
The staff all need a mention but there are too many! The staff are very relaxed and would do anything for you like i mentioned, always saying hello and smiling and appreciate a smile back too. It makes a big difference to them when they feel appreciated.
Ornella, beautiful she is, at front desk is lovely, she sorted out our room change and was always very helpful. The bar staff, David christobelle, milly, seiko and adrian all so friendly. The waitresses all lovely again. and they never forgot our names too which we've never felt before which made this place special.
We would definately be going back, in fact i'm already looking, and if you fancy a real feel for antigua then stay here because i've found that the big 5 star hotels dont have the same feel to them as Hawksbill does. Great holiday!

We arrived in Antigua on a hot sunny day and were taken to the hotel in a mini bus. On arrival the reception area from the outside didn`t look particularly impressive. We had a warm welcome and after dealing with the administration you always get on arrival somewhere, we were taken to our beach front bungalows. They are not very modern but they are large and very clean which is what you would hope for. The shower was also of a good size and did it`s job very well. Clean towels every day and rooms cleaned daily. All the rooms had a ceiling fan and air con which worked well and our experience for the week was no bugs, lizards etc. Whilst we were there I didn`t see one tarantula spider

The location of the rooms and the outlook was fantastic. Excellent view from your seating area out to a wonderful warm blue sea. Without being fancy the rooms were fine. The food was perfectly acceptable as was the local beer served at the bars. The staff were very helpful, warm and friendly, no complaints at all.

We have always tended to travel east for our holidays, this was our first visit to the Caribbean, it was a fantastic holiday and I would go again without hesitation. I have to say however I would have reservations if I wasn`t staying in one of the beach front bungalows, the other rooms didn`t look very good, they did appear very much in need of work doing on them to bring them up to an acceptable standard.

There are also a number of honeymoon bungalows, they did look fine but can`t say how they were on the inside that said I never heard any complaints from any of the couples staying in them.

We were heading to St Kitts, but thought we'd spend four nights in Antigua as well. Checked the reviews on Tripadvisor around August 2007, and booked the Hawksbill in Antigua, and Timothy Beach Resort in St Kitts. Guys how did you get the Hawksbill so wrong!!

Let me start by saying that the location and staff are really great – it goes downhill from here. First we had a superior ocean view bungalow - the ceiling fan was so high up you couldn't feel a thing, so you roast in your room even with all the slats open. The mesh over the windows to keep out the mosquitoes would work if they fitted the windows - the gaps are big enough for the lizards, so trust me the mosquitoes have no problems getting in. However if they fixed this, everything would just get in through the gaps in the door. The kettle looked untouchable, and the fridge was rusty on the outside and looked like it had been used for years on the inside. The coffee sachets supplied were out of date – would have rung reception/housekeeping but phones are not supplied in the basic rooms. The shower was so small and the curtain so short that they were better off with a wet room, as no water stayed within the shower cubicle.

We then spent one night in a sea grapes suite and felt that this should be the standard of the basic rooms - it was nothing great, everything was just right.

How can you spoil such a great location with such cheap knocked up rooms (bungalows). The reason so many reviews state to upgrade, is because the basic rooms are a very poor standard for a Rex hotel in the Caribbean - they seem to want to make it so uncomfortable that you do upgrade, rather than going for the "well if the basic is so nice, what's the upgrade like...shall we". For the money you pay you should be able to stay in a basic room, and splash out on an upgrade if you want to, not because you have to.

The food is okay – nothing to write home about – lunch and dinner are best. Not sure I could put up with it for a full week, a couple of times it was quite bland and there was never any good desserts. I would however suggest giving tea a miss, as I would have been grateful for some cucumber or tomato in my white-bread cheese sandwich just to give it some much needed moisture. Breakfast you eat with the birds, lunch and tea you eat with the flies!! Which also invade the bars. We thought this was the norm, until we went into town and drank at the Beehive – which serves food and drink in the open with no fly problems. We didn’t have anything to eat at the Beehive, but it all looked really clean, our drinks were made well and the staff were very pleasant. The hotel supplies an early morning shuttle-bus into town leaves 0900 picks up 1245.

Now I’m not sure what people saw in this hotel – The location is great, and the staff are wonderful, but that is about it. It really isn’t worth the money staying here, you are out of the way so it’s added cost to move around. There is one TV (first there gets control) and no internet access other than in the manager’s office. Don’t be fooled by the beach story either – they have 365 on the island, because whether it’s a footsteps width or the width of two buses, if there’s sand it’s a beach. It is your money, but I really would suggest you spend it somewhere else – you will end up upgrading, so why not just look for another hotel worth that kind of money. If you decide to keep to the basic, why not opt for a guest house, just make sure it has a generator as the electricity is turned off in Antigua on a regular basis!!

I will be leaving a review about the Timothy Beach Resort, St Kitts – which was a pleasure to stay at.