Having stayed in 5 star hotels in 4 other Caribbean islands I think I am qualified to judge fairly.

7 night stay with my wife.

This place is superb. Why?
- Beautiful location: back drop of lush farmland and then rain forested hills, view across the water to Montserrat
- 1 mile away from cades reef
- Next to Old Road village, a charming, safe rural idyl
- Stunning design: a daring grey that works ideally, suiting thye evening sky, occasional cloudy spell and is understated and suggests pure class (which this place is). Carsile Bay has in a single sweep made nearly all the other 5 stars look old-fashined and rather gaudy and gausch
- The rooms (all suites) are oppulant and 'Cool' very quiet air con if you want it, subtle yet no-expense spared furnishings
- Numbers: the hotel size versus rooms means it is never crowded (just 83 suites yet 250 staff, 9 tennis courts, 3 bars, massive pool...get the picture)
- The beach: Short swimming distance from great visability snorkelling (50 foot visability), we saw lobsters, a turtle, sea slugs, beautiful corals, an excellent selection of fish, a manta, star fish, conch and many other things. Clean. Pure sand enoughthat is fine enough to jog on in the early morning bare-foot. There are a fgew sand flies after dark, so dont sit on the beach at night, or if you want to spray some of the Off provided. NOTE many / most other islands have worse problems inc. mosquitoes
- Service: top notch. The beach team in the diving shop are very helpful and knowledgable, cleaning and waiting staff also first class. The hotel makes it so easy to do whatever you want e.g. go on a boat trip to a deserted beach and have a delicious picnic lunch (from a wide choice) with cold wine, rum punch, beer and juices...get picked up and dropped off from the hotels jetty night off the beach
- Food, excellent: intlligently cooked and well presented; first rate cocktail list
- Antigua: if you know the Caribbean then you will know that Antigua is not poor, it is safe, friendly and lush, in fact, it is one of the most attractive islands, with agreat personality. If you want sanitised, boring to look at and rich all over go to Cayman.
- Spa and gym - we never made it there, looked great, but in 7 days there was just too much elase to do!!
- Pool had to be 40 metwers long and 25 wide at its widest oints (its free form and on 2 levels in terms of ebtering it (very clever)

Anyway, thats enough from me, even though I could go on (and on), just go there and find out for yourself!

My husband & I went to CBay for our 10 year anniversary. We are travel snobs & very hard to please. We LOVED it and would return again in a heartbeat. My only complaint is about the beach/water which was still fine, just not ideal (see below). Very chic, hip hotel with great service & suprisingly good food.
*rooms- very spacious, elegant modern decor, yards from the beach (ocean suite rooms)
*dining- excellent; we thought we would tire of the same two restaurants for 7 days/nights but the daily specials kept things interesting. everything we tried was good and some dishes were delicious.
*activities- tranquil outdoor yoga w/an instructor whose Carib. accent lulls you into relaxtaion; loads of tennis; decent scuba diving; movie theater was fun; we golfed at Jolly Harbour & it was about a 2 star course if that. I believe the other island course is better maintained; windsailing & kayaks galore w/free lessons from friendly staff
*beach- very nice setting but my only complaints lie here. I am very sensitive to sand flies & used bug spray daily. I still was bitten a handful of times (mainly at dusk). Also- the sand is brown, not that beautfiul sugar white which results in water that is dark green, not the turquoise you dream of in the Caribbean. Still pretty- just not excellent.
*service- excellent (especially for the Caribbean), the easiest check in I have ever had- they basically gave us a yummy almond scented towel to freshen up and a champagne cocktail and we were free to go to our room! tip-find a beach waiter you like the 1st day, tip him about $10/day and you will get the best service ever. Also you need to tip them cash, one of them told me they don't actually get the full tip if you add it to your bill. Try the Roti (Antiguan sandwich wrapped in dough)
*getting there- if you are coming non-direct (we are from Texas & flew thru Puerto Rico) beware of Carib. Sun airlines. they have an unrelenting 2 hour pre-flight check-in deadline. We almost missed our connection in PR b/c some clerk with an attitude told us the flight "was closed" 1 hour and 50 minutes prior to departure time. After an hour and 1/2 argument, her supervisor had to rush us on the plane. ridiculous! take an American or British line if at all possible.
*outside the resort- sadly, you should not leave the sanctuary of the hotel. Antigua is very poor and the roads are bad. Trust me, you are not missing anything out there.
*other guests- its was about 50/50 split btw couples & families which the resort keeps pretty well separated (kids tend to take over the pool, the kids' club is supposed to be finished in June- looked very nice); mainly Brits (who were all very friendly); also a big fav of celebrities/socialites (John Kerry was there before we went; Oprah, travolta etc).
Enjoy! We did!

My husband and I just returned from carlisle bay and it is absolutely magnificent! We travel alot and enjoy staying at the leading hotels-Cap Juluca, Palmilla, etc. The location is stunning, as is the ambience. The food at Indigo is wonderful. Be sure to book a Jetty Dinner- What an unforgettable treat! Also, concerning the mosquitoes-there weren't any!
I always get bit and this was the first place where I did not have a problem-that alone was the best treat!! The suites are large, tastefully done and have amazing ocean views. We really enjoyed the whole feel of the place- soothing, romantic, & intimate.

We stayed at the Carlisle Bay on their 4 day special package and had a fabulous time.

Thnkgs I liked:
- website and reality matched well i.e. rooms/common areas were really exactly as they looked on the pictures and in good condition. It all felt very good quality.
- the rooms are really large (we had an Ocean Suite) and the bathrooms are great with double sinks and large walk in shower
- Facilities in rooms were good with lovely dressing gowns, good quality slippers and plenty of shower gel, shampoo, conditioner plus kettle and tea bags. Water is also brought to you daily.
- the rooms have both aircon and a ceiling fan to allow you to choose how cool/eco-friendly you want to be which I thought was a good idea
- there are lots of nice little touches: for example, cold scented towels are brought round to you on the beach so you can freshen up ... lovely! The library has a fairly large and diverse collection of books to borrow during your stay. There are also 2 PCs for internet access for use by guests
- the manager personally greeted us and said goodbye - and checked whether everything was ok. Felt very personal and generally the staff were friendly
- Breakfasts were really lovely and although it was order at the table rather than buffet they didn't mind how much you had! Also I thought the Afternoon tea idea was great too ... and they will serve it anywhere (even on the beach!)
- Great facilities e.g. watersports, tennis etc. and a great setting - the bay is very private and tranquil

Points to note:
- There were a lot of families there - which didn't bother us in the slightest as generally the children were well behaved and also the families tended to be in the Beach Suites so were kind of separate from the couples who tended to be in the Ocean suites. However they are building a "kids club" so do expect to see kids at the hotel
- The prices are expensive - expect to pay full "London" hotel prices for drinks, food etc. even if you get the local beer!
- Service was slightly erratic at times for example we ordered a glass of white wine with the starter and a glass of red with the main and the white arrived after the starter (after prompting) and the red never came at all. Not disastrous by any means but not 100% perfect which the prices would imply
- There isn't that much in the way of really local cuisine in the restaurants. Both serve lovely food but I did feel a little guilty about all the food miles involved in many of the dishes (one restaurant serves Eastern oriental food and the other more Italian/European type food). There were a few local dishes and there are daily specials (but one day this was fish based and the fish was not even local). I just would have liked to have more of a "Carribean" flavour as I'd travelled so far
- There's a schedule provided for events for the week (e.g. watersport clinics, films etc) which is really helpful but often inaccurate - a couple of times we found the clinic wasn't happening or it was a different film to advertised .. again not a problem for us as we always ended up doing what we wanted but just a small point to note
- No "Gaggia" expresso machines in the room as advertised in all their brochures and no milk either for tea. Again - didn't bother us as we don't drink coffee but they do seem to make a big deal of these in the brochures so worth noting.

Don't get me wrong - this hotel was everything it should have been ... the setting, the quality of the hotel & rooms, the ambiance was all I'd hoped for and we really did enjoy ourselves. I would definintely recommend it as a place to chill out and relax.