Where do I start?

Having literally just landed back from Antigua today I felt compelled to write right away... All week I have had comments that I had read on this site flashing through my mind and I really want to share my experience with you.

We were due to stay at the Verrandah hotel but as the opening has been delayed until mid october we were reprotected to the St James Club. Initially I was a slightly dissapointed, the reviews on Trip Advisor weren't brilliant and I thought it was going to be a let down after looking forward for 9 months to staying in a brand new resort.. how wrong I was! In hindsight I am glad we were moved (although I am sure the Verrandah will be great) as we have just had the most fantastic week.

I work in the travel industry and a major part of my role is around hotel inspections and product selection, I therefore (through no fault of my own :-) have become a self confessed hotel snob and can't help but find faults when they are there. What faults could I find at the St James Club? none!

We stayed in a standard room on the all inclusive plan and I hope my comments help you when planning your trip to this stunning island.

THE ROOMS
We were in room 183, very close to the main pool and Rainbow Garden restaurant, a couple of minutes walk from both beaches - perfect. The room was large with a king size bed, cable TV with over 100 channels (personally I love American TV and can always find something to watch!), a coffee maker, big bathroom - perhaps a little dated, but no 'cracks' or other things that fellow travellers had reported. There was plenty of storage space, an iron and ironing board, excellent air conditioning, ceiling fan, full size fridge and a wonderful housekeeping service.

THE FOOD
On the all inclusive plan, you will never be hungry. Breakfast is taken in the Rainbow Garden restaurant, Mrs Francis, the breakfast and lunch supervisor is an absolute treasure. There are a selection of cereals, fresh fruits, baked goodies, yoghurts, juices and a full hot section with omlette station, pancakes, french toast plus the usual bacon, eggs, sausages, beans etc.. ask for toast if you like it and they'll happily oblige.

Lunch is either at the Rainbow Garden, Coco's (situated at Coco's beach) or from the beachside grill at Mamora Bay. In the Rainbow Garden there is a vast buffet every day with soups, salads, a large choice of hot foods, delicious bread and scrummy puddings. Every day I had good intentions, but it's too good to pass up! If you don't fancy the buffet they have a menu you can order from too - burgers/hot dogs/club sandwiches etc.. all delicious! (Keep an eye out for the white chocolate crispy cakes...yum).
We didn't have lunch at Coco's so I can't comment on that, and although we didn't eat from the beachside grill, it was open until 4 in the afternoon and smelt great, again offering grilled burgers, hot dogs etc.. from here you can eat at one of the tables or have it to take away which is handy if you fancy chilling in your room for a bit out of the heat.

If you have room, or want to get out of the sun for an hour, afternoon tea is served on the garden patio - teas, coffees and a selection of cakes and sandwiches are laid on for you to enjoy.

Dinner is very exciting. 3 restaurants are on the AI plan - Rainbow Garden, Docksiders and Coco's... these rotate and 2 are open each evening. In the lobby they post the menu's for that day and also the following evening so you can see what you fancy and make your dinner reservations. We ate at all 3 and I have to say that the Rainbow Garden was my favourite. Some nights it's buffet style and others it's A La Carte but the service is just SO good in there that it helped outweigh it in comparison to the others. Docksiders had the advantage of it's romantic location on the waterside, when we ate there on the a la carte evening it was very good. We also ate there on a Caribbean buffet evening when they had the steel band on - this was fantastic, yummy food and good music.. it also proved very popular and the restaurant was very busy - we did notice that on this evening the service wasn't quite as good and we had to ask for drinks etc which hadn't been the case anywhere else - without wanting to be too critical, we did wonder if this was a more typical representation of when the hotel is full (it was only about half full there this week)... but that aside, as I said, food and atmosphere was fab.

We ate at Coco's one night, it was stiffling-ly hot and we weren't overly hungry (thats the problem when you can't say no to breakkie and lunch!) so again our experience probably wouldn't be fair..but as I mentioned above, I did find the service in the Rainbow Garden far exceeded both Docksiders and Coco's.

The other evening option for dining is Piccolo Mondo's up in the village. For those on AI - there is a $35 pp supplement and I would say it is worth it for a special occasion or last night treat. If you are happy to sit through a 30 minute time share presentation they will give you a $70 credit and a $75 gift shop credit so you could do it for nothing if you like! (they will pop the details through your hotel door). The food was superb, service great, romantic setting with nice views over the bay, and all in all a relaxing evening. Portions are large, so again save your appetite!

THE DRINKS
Being on all inclusive is great, just stroll up to the bars, give over your room number and off you go. Cocktails are delicious - try the BBC's, the Bahama Mama or the Melon Ball - all v nice!
Wines and beers by the glass are includeed even the French 'sparkling wine' - Very NICE!!! I quaffed it like it was going out of fashion, and loved every minute.
The only drinks that you need to pay for are bottles of water and bottles of wine.. that said, glasses of water are of course included and the tap water is perfectly safe to drink, so it's not essential.. I didn't buy any water, I had a couple of bottles from the plane and just kept topping them up and chilling them overnight in our fridge.
We were able to get drinks all day at the Reef Deck Bar, there are a couple of bars at the beach, as well as a cool golf buggy that comes around delivering drinks to your loungers too and in the evening you have the indoor air conditioned Jacaranda bar.

THE SERVICE
Absolutely wonderful. Everyone from Keiron at the front desk, Tammy & Lionel at Guest Services, Mrs Francis in Rainbow Room, Glamourous Albertine at the Piccolo Mondo and all the other friendly, approachable and lovely staff in between. I was so impressed, nothing was too much trouble. Many of the reviews I read on here commented on the service, and I was expecting the staff to be a little curt or short, by culture, but we experienced absolutely none of this. Polite, well mannered and extremely customer focused staff were all we came across in our week long stay. We don't have kids but there were a number of families there, again the staff in the restaurants had taken the time to know the children by name and always gave them lots of attention.
Many of the staff also made an effort to remember our room number, which I thought was a lovely touch.
Every day we were there we also saw the Duty manager around at somepoint which was so refreshing - lovely chatting to you Jeff! and on more than one occasion while we were eating, the restaurant manager would come and check on all customers. Jeff was saying that whenever he talks to clients, he always asks for feedback and they are constantly striving to improve where need be, I totally believe that too.

THE ENTERTAINMENT
In the lobby you will see a daily posting of any activities that are on, these included bingo, water aerobics, beach volleyball and dance lessons. They are not compulsory and the staff will not pressure you to join in, but they are quite nice to have if you feel like breaking up your sunbathing time.

If you want a busy nightlife with clubbing and dancing, Antigua in general is possibly not the best destination for you. At the St James Club there is entertainment of some form or another each evening, either live music in the restaurant, the bar or a combination of both. We saw a steel band one night, and there was a limbo show on another.. nothing earth shattering, but pleasant to watch / listen to whilst enjoying a Red Stripe or 2 and relaxing on your holiday.

THE ACTIVITIES
You won't get bored here. Tennis (you can hire equipment from the front desk), watersports including kayaking, hobbie cats, peddalos, windsurfing and snorkelling.
If you like to venture out there are a number of tours you can book through the hotel too.

All in all, as you can tell, we LOVED it here - I would definately go back and wouldn't hesitate to recommend this resort to friends, family, colleagues and customers. At the end of the day, as trip advisor proves, not everyone can be happy at every resort, and it really does vary by person. But if you are looking for some relaxation time, chilling in the sun, catching a few rays, swimming or doing some water sports, enjoying some great food and few drinks, you really can't go wrong. My only slight gripe is that I found the gift shop to be a bit pricey - but hey, that's only because I was too lazy to take the bus into town and try some other shops!

I am more than happy to give further advice or answer any questions, please feel free to get in touch.