me and my husband have just returned from a wonderful relaxing, very hot two weeks at the beach club at st james. it was wonderful, it,s our first time to the carribean and we could,nt of picked a nicer place. we arrived on friday 26 august after a five and a half hour delay with virgin atlantic [not a very good flight and the delay did,nt help]. we were very tired, but very pleased when we saw our room we upgraded to a supeior room which was right on the beach. it was a nice size room with a massive bed, t.v, large bathroom and a well stocked fridge and a nice bottle of rum, and of course the wonderful air con[ which was much needed]. we found the staff to be really nice only the odd one to spoil it, but in all they were very helpful. the maintenance staff were very good and would sort out any problem very quickly. there are two beaches, the atlantic side is more cooler with a lovely breeze but alot more sea weed but still very nice and there,s the carribean side which is lovely but alittle too hot for us. there are four swimming pools as well. there are four restaurants to eat at, but if you are on the all inclusive you could only eat at coco,s and two nights a week at the rainbow garden and the docksider [which was our favourite] and there is an italian restaurant, piccolo mondo which is nice too, but you have to pay a surcharge of $35 which is not alot really. we were very lucky because it was so quite they shut coco,s in the evening so we could eat in the restaurant that we liked with out paying a surchange [only at piccolo mondo did you have to pay]. so we had breakfast and lunch at coco,s and mainly ate at the docksider. the food at coco,s was o.k not brillant but at the other restaurants were much better. the only thing i was disappointed with was the fruit, not much to choose from and not enough [but the desserts made up for it]. the cocktails were really nice my favourite was the club special. there is entaintment in most evenings [the crab racing was funny] to be honest we were so tired from laying about in the sun drinking cocktails and eating dinning that we rarely made it pass 10 o,clock. we did go to shirely heights on the first sunday we were there and that was fantastic, good music loads to drink and the sunset was amazing. we also hired a cab for the day with another couple that we meet and want round the island, we saw some fantastic beaches it was definetley worth doing. st.john,s the capital is o.k if you like diamonds [what girl does,nt] but not much else apart from souvenior shops still a great place to see. in all the beach club at st james is a great place to stay at and antigua is defenitely worth seeing. we would go back in the future. so if your going have fun i hope this review has helped.

We have just returned from a two week stay at The Beach Club at St James's and we thought it was wonderful. Two holidays in one really. We stayed at the Beach club on a room upgrade and had access from the patio to the beach down 4 steps... It was a wonderful holiday and the most of the staff are quite friendly and happy although that doesn't account for all of them ...(you get rude and miserable people everywhere these days and staying at the best hotel doesn't guarantee otherwise.).. on ordering ice cream for my son one day the waitress said " that fat bladk lady wants more ice-cream!!!" . But that aside the majority of the staff were friendly and happy.

The Beach Club side really was wonderful and cool with the Trade winds and after breakfast we would often go around to the Caribbean side and enjoy the water sports and palm trees of Mamora Bay.

It was a lovely place the only thing that left a little to be desired was the repetative menu which after two weeks left us wanting to get home and get some spicy chicken and mangos something they simply did not have there. Bland was the kindest way to describe it and that was generous.

One of our friends met Colin the cochroach at breakfast one morning he was hanging around in the sugar bowl..... at Coco's.

The only cochroaches we saw were outside the villas on Mamora Bay side. Our room was clean with a only a few sugar flies. Although we were eaten alive with midges or sand fleas we did not seem to have the usual mosquitos.

All in all a good holiday with little to complain about really.

Would we go again. I think so but we would only stay for 10 days max (due to the food). Seven days would not be enough to cram in the helicopter ride to Monseratt or the swimming with stingrays or Shirley Heights or Nelson's Dockyard or Tropical Forest for the day or many other sights you end up going to ohhh and remember to hire a car for the day and if you do OJ's os a great place to eat and check out the beach....

It was great and I could go on forever.....enjoy!!!

Good hotel, great location, fair food and most of the staff very friendly although several let the team down!
We stayed at the beach club for 2 weeks and from what we saw of the St James club, the Beach Club is probably the better of the two, even though you can only dine at one resturant on the all inclusive basis.
Our bigest gripe is about the drinks. Firstly if your on the beach you have to keep a good eye out for the lesser spotted glof cart with drinks on it, blink and they are gone. Also the drinks are watered down , but in fairness to the hotel, a quick word with the manager and the problem was sorted. On the whole its a good hotel which would deserve a 3 1/2 star rating but not 4 star, i mean plastic cups at the bar( whats that all about ? ) all in all a good hotel but watch out for the jelly fish, loads of people stung.
If your looking to book try the Grand Pineapple. FANTASTIC!!!!!

We stayed in The Beach Club, part of the St James Club resort, and overall we thought this was a fine resort, and just what we wanted for a 2-week beach holiday in some luxury in the tropics. We booked The Beach Club for June 11-25 on an all-inclusive package from Virgin Holidays at 1299 GB pounds each (we thought this a good price before we went). On the way out from Gatwick our Virgin economy seats on the 747 jumbo were Ok for the 7.5 hour flight, with good in-flight films and the food was pretty good. The luggage allowance had amazed us, being per person 2 x 32 kg cases (very heavy!). The taxi transfer from the VC Bird airport to our hotel (organised by Virgin) was a bit of a nightmare and I told the driver and Virgin when we got there after 30 mins (for a '45 min transfer time') that he drove much too fast and ignored all the hazards (like bends and other cars) - luckily our later taxis during our stay were ok. We had a super room on the upper floor overlooking the palm-clad Atlantic beach (see pictures attached) with its lovely constant breeze. The room's air-con in the daily 30-degree heat was very efficient, and a ceiling fan was also a boon. The room had a very spacious bathroom with huge bath and excellent shower, and a very large balcony. There was a coffee-maker (no kettle) and a fridge and the TV could get CNN and some local channels, and each block had an ice-maker downstairs. You could drink the tap water as the supply comes from a desalination plant. The package provided 4 meals a day at the Coco's Restaurant (including afternoon tea with sandwiches and cakes) which was fine for us -
Coco's we thought was a delightful, open-sided wooden restaurant over-looking one of the pools and the breezy beach, and was open and airy with a fine ambiance, and friendly staff who generally served you quite quickly. Many meals were buffet-style so you could eat as much as you like from the varied menus of mostly delicious food. And of course being all-inclusive, you could have as many drinks as you like brought to your table - e.g. cocktails or wine by the glass etc, and after you could order yet more (all day) from the bar (including bars on the beach and a beach drinks buggy that toured both beaches during the day with free drinks - brilliant). Sometimes the evening entertainment singers were rather good. The free watersports included excellent sailing on Hobiecats or Sunfish, windsurfing lessons - and kayaks and pedaloes (but both these had no back rests so were very hard work). The extensive and well-maintained grounds, with security-gated entrance, were a pleasure to stroll in and so beach vendor pestering was not a problem here (nor on the rest of the island we found). We hired a car for 6 days via the Virgin rep from Dollar, but found it poor value at 250 GB pounds for a soft-top jeep with air con - you could probably get a better deal booking a car in advance from your home country. However it did enable us to visit the island's best sights (e.g. the view from Shirley Heights and historic Nelsons Dockyard, while St Johns the capital was colourful, crowded and hot) and some of its superb beaches - our favourites were Grand Pineapple Beach (see photo), Fryffes Bay and Hawksbill Bay - all within a 45-min drive and all had palm-shaded areas, fine sand and sheltered seas for safe swimming. The resort also offered fine tennis courts - but the weather was too hot to play - although the table tennis table at the St James Club end of the resort was popular, and there were at least 4 swimming pools. We avoided the promoted excursions, except for a visit to the island of Montserrat (still a British protectorate) to see the volcanic eruption devastation of recent years. Overall we thought the resort and the package was excellent value for money and we'd go there again - with Virgin.