This was far better than we ever expected stayed at the beach club not in the main hotel, and felt we had a far better room and veiws. Food was very good.Facilities on the beach club all included.
Would recommend this holiday to anyone.

We have just returned from St.James's club Antigua and although we had a lovely break we wanted to warn those expecting the same standards as St.Lucia that we were disappointed by comparison.

Having stayed in St.James's St Lucia at Easter 2002 & 03 we were expecting the same idyllic setting and standards. We were disappointed by the orginal room allocated, which did not match our booking or the description on the web. We were quickly moved to a better room in quieter part of the hotel. However, the happy smiling friendly staff we had seen in St.Lucia were not apparent in Antigua. This may well have been owing to the Easter break and it did seem short-staffed but my partner ended up on a mission to make the staff smile. I rather think this should be the other way round. There were one or two exceptions - the girl who ran the business centre was delightful but generally they did not seem as friendly or happy as our previous experiences.

The main pool seemed rather dirty and we did not see anyone clean it or test the water the whole time we were there and with an 11yr old we spent most days there all day!

A list of activites were published each day on the noticeboard but they did not all seem to take place. For example, Aqua Aerobics was listed each day at 10.30 am for the entire stay and it did not take place once. We were told by the activities coordinator that the cassette player was broken but there was a portable one in the gym working which easily could have been used for this. The gym had two running machines out of action the whole time and I did not see anyone attempt to fix these.

In St.Lucia the staff worked hard to create magical experiences such as Barbeques on the beach at night, live DJ party sessions by the pool in the afternoon but in St. James's Antigua they did not offer the same. Easter was particularly disappointing as absolutely nothing was laid on for the children - in St.Lucia we had all enjoyed the fun of the Easter Egg hunts. There was also a huge disparity between the prices paid by guests. One company seemed to have better rooms on the beach for their guests than other guests who had booked through a different source. If you are looking for a lovely safe bay for children to play then this is great but if you are expecting a luxury holiday for the money then do your research first as in our experience this holiday was generally not as luxurious as St.Lucia.

We spent 10 days at the St. James's Club in February and we would definitely go back.

The location is very good, although we practically could not use the ocean side beach because of the strong winds. The little bay with water sports is very handy if you want to paddle or have a little go on a boat, but if I have to be honest, we were somehow bothered by the constant noise of the motorized water sports in the same tiny bay. I found very dangerous to have a swim because I feared to "bump" into a boat or a skier.

Of the 4 restaurants, Piccolo Mondo and the Docksider are to be preferred both for the food choice and atmosphere. We were pleasantly surprised to find an excellent wine list and nicely presented meals.

The sevice, although sometimes "casual" is good and we could exchange more than a few words with some of the staff, particularly nice and helpful.

The Kids' club was run by a very cheerful young men that was able to captivate his young guests and entertain them with energy and good taste. In the meantime, parents can have some peace!

We were pretty disappointed by the front desk/reception. We paid for a room upgrade and an ocean view but we were given a tiny room, very dark and noisy with a view that was far more than partial and when we pointed this out, the receptionists said no one had ever complained for that room (where have we heard it , again?), so we just said we won't spend too much time in the room. In general, the whole front desk was very far from going the extra mile!

Thanks God we could rely on the guests help desk (just opposite!) thet were on the contrary very professional and helpful for reservations and other tips.

Th St James's park is very big but is cleverly done and you do not realize how many people are around: people use the spa, the gym, the pools, the other facilities and everybody is respectful of your privacy.

The kid loved the place and we did, too.

If we go back, we will be more attentive to the room choice!

Just got back from the St James Club and wish to echo the reviews of most of the April entries, particularly the one dated 1st April. The most recent reviewer of 16th April sounds suspiciously like a travel agent and the place doesn't merit that sort of praise in my opinion. I travelled with my wife and 6 year old daughter and we had a standard ground floor room in the Hibiscus block. Having read earlier reviews I'd asked for a refurbished room. Good spacious room, big bathroom and all kept imaculately clean by the staff. Beds feeling their age a bit but otherwise quite pleased with the accomodation. Great views from our balcony onto the smaller beach leading up to the Coco restaurant and the sand & warm water just a few steps from the room. The superior rooms which opened up directly onto the beach were slightly larger and had fridges but otherwise nothing really to justify the extra premium.
The smaller beach was excellent and provided hours and hours of fun for us and our daughter with swimming, snorkeling and exploration of rock pools. Plenty of sunbeds and shade but in no way crowded. The pools were also good, the busiest one being near the main Rainbow restaurant but we preferred the smaller Coco bar pool and the atmosphere was just a little less butlins. There was a significant amount of ongoing building work (foundations and the start of walls going up) in front of the busier pool on the waters edge but not at all noisy or intrusive. In fact I only noticed workers there on one day and then they weren't actually doing much. I do find it competely implausible that Virgin only knew about the work within 3 weeks of our holiday and strongly suspect a policy of notification only after the bookings are taken (we booked in February).
The restaurants were also good though the Rainbow was a bit impersonal. Highly recommend the Docksider or Coco's, both with lovely settings, especially Docksiders right on the waters edge. Staff excellent and bent over backwards to help out with any special requests. The all inclusive package provided an excellent and varied menu range but only extends to wine/champagne/beer by the glass and you can guess how good the house versions were. Plonk! Cocktails were very nice though and made with all the usual big name brands of spirit.
Watersports were on the larger beach and the facilities were reasonable though only two hobi cats and two windsurfers were available. Didn't think this was enough given a 400+ room complex, including the villas, timeshares and the Beach Club all using the same beach. Could only book the cats out on the day of use and by 9.05am you'd had it. St James Club needs to get much more kit on the beach. Major irritant if you'd booked this place thinking the watersports package was half decent. Staff were typically laid back but helpful and friendly.
The dive centre run under the Ultramarine name was top notch. English divemaster, plenty of Mares kit and wetsuits barely a year old and a good selection of dives, including try dives and stuff for kids as young as 6. Best outfit I've encountered in about 8 years of holiday diving.
The excursions were typically expensive as were local taxis but our daughter loved swimming with the stingrays on one of the half day trips.
The check in/chill out facility with Virgin was fine until we reached the airport. It just isn't geared up for the 747 and rather than 'sailing through with your boarding card to the gate...' we queued for absolutely ages while just a couple of immigration/security staff tried to process us. It was laughable and Virgin could really do with working harder with the airport authoriites to get more staff on duty when their big Jumbos are on the tarmac.
Lastly, would we go again? No, there are too many other places in the world to visit and St James Club and Antigua itself compete at a price level where other resorts we've been to have delivered a better overall holiday. It was good but not enough to draw us back I'm afraid.