This one's a real mixed bag. It's in a top location, and some of the staff can't do enough to help. Some of them won't do anything to help though.Food wise, we went All-Inclusive, and soon wished we hadn't. While there are advantages, like an endless supply of drinks (alco and non-), the food is decidely average at best. The themed night doesn't really work, and after a couple of nights we realised that the answer was to pig out at breakfast and eat a lot less the rest of the time. My wife is vegetarian, and the excellent chef Trevor Simon made her a fresh one-off veggie meal every night - they can do it really well when they want to ! Entertainment was absolutely non-existent - the Ents manager Elwyn is a joke, constantly trying to crack onto the women and avoiding their partners. He organised absolutely nothing in the two weeks we were there. The only hassle you'll get at the Rex is from the Tour Rep Lennox, who will badger you incessantly, and his prices are more expensive than going direct to the vendors.The pool is a real health hazard, and the bougainvillea constantly blowing into the pool is just another annoyance. Getting towels seems to be an inconvenience for the towel lady as well, wh would rather sleep all day.It's not all bad though. The cocktail parties every Thursday have some cracking food with them, and the Warri Pier restaurant is stunning, both in terms of food and location. Some of the staff (Trevor Simon, Grantley, Milton Herbert) are genuinely nice people who can't do enough to help. O'Connor doesn't want you there, and will walk away rather than do his barman job, and Elwyn only wants you there if you are young and female.We'll definitely return to Antigua, but not to the Rex Halcyon Cove.

After reading all of the reviews before we went to the Rex Halcyon we were a little worried of what to expect. However we were very pleasantly surprized to say the least.

We stayed on a room only basis (I can't recommend this enough as the food in the hotel is average and there seemed to be little variety). We booked a cheap last minute deal and had a standard room with a garden view. We upgraded within an hour of being there to a larger room with TV,balcony and a Sea View (worth every penny).

I strongly disagree with some of the comments about the staff being rude. We found them to be lovely and very welcoming and infact made many friends.

As for Antigua itself, this is one of the loveliest Caribbean Islands we have been too. The people are so friendly, we felt safe wherever we went and they have the most placid beach vendors inteh world.

One word of warning though - This place is not cheap!!

All in all a top holiday - I would strongly recommend it.

My wife and I booked our holiday to Rex Halcyon Cove through Thomas Cook Signature in December 2003 for the last week of January 2004. We booked a Superior Room on All Inclusive basis. I had not read any of the trip advisor reviews before booking but did so after and have to admit that I was a bit shocked by some of them which spoiled the normally pleasant anticipation of going on holiday. On arrival things could have been a bit more organised, it took almost an hour to get checked in despite only five other people arriving at the same time. We were however pleasantly surprised to find ourselves upgraded to a Poolside Room. This had just been repainted. The furnishings were not replaced and looked a bit tired compared with the new decor but we had everything we needed and it all worked fine with the exception of the aircon which effectively cooled the room but was so noisy that it had to go off at night. The housekeeping arrangements worked fine and the room was kept spotlessly clean, towels an linen being changed every day. Food varied from tolerable to really quite good. Breakfast was taken in the Arawak Terrace and was the same fare every day. It's true that it overlooks the car park but you wouldn't know if you didn't hang over the balcony and look down, much better to sstare at the palm trees and Caribbean sea in the middle distance. Lunch for all inclusives could be taken on the Warri Pier where one could enjoy beautiful views of the beach with a backdrop onto a lush green hillside. Food here was just okay, it was allegedly freshly prepared but never seemed to arrive any hotter than luke warm. Much better to go to the Carib barbeque and have a bit of freshly chargrilled chicken or a burger and nice fresh salad. Service was never a problem and I found thet if one made the effoet to be pleasant and friendly to the waiting staff it was returned. Evening meals were once again at the Arawak Terrace and comprised theme buffets based on food from islands around the Caribbean.Again there was something for everyone and often something pleasant and interesting. No problems with the service, only complaint is that again nothing that was meant to be hot actually was. The hotel ground were kept to an acceptable standard, the pool was obviously not in its first flush of youth but had sparkling water and the broken tiles mentioned in other repots had obviously been fixed. The beach is rumoured to be the best on the island, it's certainly not the best or the biggest I've ever been on but it's really quite nice. There are plenty of beds and shades for all. This is spoiled by people "booking a couple of beds with towels" a la Germans in Spain and then never using them. Pity nothing can be done about that as it's really irritating.
The local hawkers on the beach are not as irritating as some I've met and will give you a bit of conversation and then push off when you say NO. Trips in Antigua are remarkably expensive, it will cost US$ 75 to 100 to do anything and unless you are content to lie on the beach for a week you will need to do something. We went to Montserrat in a helicopter to look at the volcano. The day we went the weather was awful by Antigua standards and despite phonong Caribbean helicopters to question the wisdom of making the trip we were told that all was fine and just to come along. US$400 later I am still waiting to see the volcano but did see lots of clouds. Profit before customer satisfaction I think. Taxi driver just said they were greedy and that it was a rip off so you guys out there beware! All in all I feel that we got what we paid for from the Rex. If I was allowed to give advice I would say book as late as you can, go room only and book five days all inclusive at the Rex when you get there, it will cost you US$80 per day and that will leave you with two days to try out some of the other restaurants on the beach. Don't expect paradise at the Rex, just an old hotel that provides a perfectly adequate service next door to Sandals where people pay four or five times as much for slightly better food and a bed on the same beach!

We stayed at the Rex Halcyon Cove from 20 Dec 03 - 3 Jan 04, nice location, awful hotel!Arrived after a long journey to find the room we were given was awful, it overlooked a hairdressing salon, so requested to move.Moved to a better room but we had no hot water and had to shower in another room near reception. Room noisy due to generator outside the door.Had a meeting with the manager to upgrade our room to beach front at an additional cost but having paid to upgrade, guess what, no hot water again!! Had to shower in a room near reception! Then we had no water at all, shower again at reception! Burst pipes and floods. Worth upgrading to a beach front room just for the view and the convenience of being by the beach.Christmas Eve morning we were woken up at 5 a.m. by men chopping down palms to mend the beach umbrellas, it looked like a hurricane had hit and we couldn t use the beach in the area of our room. Unbelievably they also began to pain the reception/lobby area causing disruption there too and on Christmas Eve!Christmas Day and the arrival of the cruise ships. Our hotel staff were seen taking money from people who were not staying in the hotel for use of the hotel sun beds. These should just be for hotel guests only and our beach was so crowded we had to leave and use an alternative beach due to this fact. There was a public area of the beach just past our hotel so why encourage people not staying at the hotel to use our facilities when we have paid for them?We had to pay to go out for Christmas Day food as the hotel were offering hot dogs and burgers at the beach front and people were queuing for half an hour at a time and we were not prepared to do this.In the evening the roast turkey that was being served was raw and the chef was slicing it off and re-cooking it on the grill, absolutely disgusting and unacceptable.The room we were given to shower in by the manager was then given to a family without our knowledge, I was just getting out of the shower when I heard to door being opened and just managed to put some clothes on before the family walked in, very embarrassing but could have been worse if they had come in a few minutes earlier. TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE.Not enough bar staff, always had to wait a long time to be served. Quality of service was very poor and poor staff attitude towards guests. Only a few very helpful waiters/waitresses.The toilets throughout the hotel were disgusting. We have seen better public toilets in England than the ones in the hotel. The restaurant toilets were unacceptable for a restaurant, the hotel reception toilets were not much better and the beach toilets were unusable.The quality of the food was very disappointing, breakfast was good although they needed two chefs at all times for eggs and omelettes and the queues were awful waiting for these to be cooked. The fruit was the same every day, a bowl of chopped up melon in a sweet syrup, grapefruits and banana. Being in the Caribbean, you would expect to get a better selection of fruit and not cut up like a fruit salad every day.Lunch was much better due to the location on the Warri Pier but the service was poor and the salad bar was the same every single lunch time with no imagination at all, just lettuce, cucumber, tomato if you were lucky, beetroot and potato salad.The main restaurant overlooked the car park and had all the atmosphere of a school dining room. The evening themed buffet s were very poor and the quality of the food was dreadful.They did not keep the beach bar open in the evenings so there was nowhere nice to sit for a drink after dinner. We had to go outside of the hotel each evening to a bar at the end of the beach for some relaxing drinks and atmosphere. The lobby bar had no atmosphere at all and neither did the lounge bar. It was a shame they didn t keep the beachside bar open as at least it was a nicer location to sit.The swimming pool was not safe to swim in, we had heard of a few children getting ear infections and we were not surprised by the state of the pool.