Let me start by saying that the positive reviews I read of this resort (the very few of them!) are most likely written by those people with whom the resort succeeded in their goal of getting anyone who might be upset with their service drunk.

Positives:
1. The resort is gorgeous and very well kept. The villas are perfect (the ones not near construction, that is).
2. The sushi at Kimonos is AWESOME! (don't bother with the actual restaurant, though - it's awful)
3. The work of the wedding coordinators cannot be beat. They are very professional and know how to give you the best wedding possible. After the wedding, I suggest you leave the resort.

Negatives:
1. The treatment of guests by the staff of the resort is unforgivable. The management, while very good at making promises they can't and have no intention of keeping, is incompetent.
2. The staff clearly HATE tourists. You can see it in their faces. I have been to many Caribbean resorts and expect service on "island time," but slow service coupled with a serious attitude problem is unforgivable. I don't know if Sandals doesn't pay them well enough, or if it's just the general feeling on this island, but either way, for an island supported wholly by tourism, it does not benefit them to alienate their source of funds.
3. The butlers, who DO work for tips, are generally pretty good....
although service waned over the week as they were on to trying to impress the newer guests.
4. The bartenders may or may not pretend you're invisible when you're at any of the bars (especially the pool bar in the Mediterranean Village). Occasionally we got a good and attentive bartender, but more often than not, they ignored us until we demanded attention, and then they were rude.
5. The food is less than mediocre, especially considering this is supposed to be a 5 star resort. Breakfast is the exact same buffet every day and gets old after about 2 mornings. There are no other breakfast options. Mario's is good. Avoid Eleanors - I got food poisoned there.
6. We waited an HOUR to be able to check out at 7:00 in the morning ...and we were the ONLY ones there checking out! Never mind the fact that we had our butler try to check us out and we, ourselves, went to try to check out twice the day before and were assured that everything was taken care of. It took over an hour, actually, to get someone to come get our bags. Everytime we called the bellhop desk, we were told they were on their way. And then they repeatedly and blatantly ignored us. Our butler was not in yet (he was late) so there was NO ONE to get our bags....and the front desk pretended to not be aware of our need for this service. They failed to call transportation for us, then failed to give us the transportation voucher until my husband asked for it. It was like being at the Hotel California and we darn near missed our flight home.
7. Their answer for an upset guest is to have a bartender immediately give them a strong drink. I'm sure this works for many people, but after a good week of the game, many guests become wise to it.
8. There is no longer construction on the Mediterranean Village side, but there is on the Caribbean Village side and it starts early in the morning and is loud.
9. There IS construction directly on the other side of the Mediterranean Village and it too starts early in the morning and is loud. We specifically asked to be in a villa away from the construction and were initially put in a villa literally 15 feet from construction. We requested to be moved and were blatantly lied to about room availability. Only after our travel agent spent over 30 minutes on the phone "yelling at them" did they agree to move us a villa away from the construction that was available from the very start! Apparently you have to "squeak" very loud and be in a position of power to move past the lies.
10. Finally, the difference in accommodations between the Caribbean Village side and the Mediterranean Village side is DRASTIC and the prices do not reflect this difference.

The island is beautiful, but it is crystal clear that the residents of the island (at least the ones who work at Sandals) absolutely despise tourists so it's just not a comfortable place to be.

It's a shame. I've been to other Sandals resorts and have not had this experience so I'm inclined to believe it really is an Antiguan attitude problem and not just a Sandals issue.

Don't waste your money on this one. You pay too much to be treated like the scum of the earth.

We celebrated our Birthadays, Anniversary and Valentines Day all in one week at Sandals, Antigua, Feb. 9-16. By far, the best vacation and the nicest place we ever stayed. If 5 star is the highest, they were 10 star. Thanks to the staff of Donovan Dobson, Sonya Herzberg and Geoffrey Cochrane, just to name a few. They were on hand from the minute you walk into the village until the time you leave and truly make you feel that they are sad to see you go. Classy and warm people. The Island of Antigua is pretty spectacular too. This was our third Sandals and hope to return real soon before venturing onto another Sandals property.

This will be a review with some mixed feelings. The hotel itself is very nice, and you may have read some previous reviews mentioning the construction that had irritated other guests, however when we were there this was not an issue. They are revamping some older smaller buildings, but we were not inconvenienced by this. The food we had at ALL the restaurants was very good, best of any Sandals we have been to. Most of the people on staff were very friendly, and while checking out and expressing our frustration at a number of things, the manager was as apologetic, and accommodating as humanly possible. The weather was gorgeous and the island is very nice. The Sandals property itself is beautiful. The problems mostly were related to our specific requirements and our expectations based on past experience with Sandals - 1) we were looking for hummingbirds, and booked (through Sandals for a trip advertised by Sandals) a trip to "Bird Island" purported (in the Sandals-provided brochure) to have birds on it. Nope, no birds. From the air, it resembles a bird. 2) We had concierge service, and had expectations from other Sandals properties for what concierge service means. It was not that same, apparently, at Antigua. Instead of facilitating they were another obstacle to planning, procuring and reservations. A simple request for a bottle of rum took 2 days to fulfill. 3) One of the staff, a young girl who probably is lacking in social education, made a comment to my wife that had her in tears for the rest of the day. She had to call both her mom and her best friend to talk her down. 4) Sandals has a history (according to many others with whom I have spoken) of "upgrading" you to a better room, even if it is not to your liking (example: we are not impressed by ocean or beach view, yet they moved us from our preferred garden view to a 'better' ocean front room) We were in this room the first night, then they moved us to the garden room we really wanted the nect day. 5) When we first started staying at Sandals they had an established 'dress code' at the nicer restaurants for dinner. Consider that I don't really like dressing up for dinner, but what they refer to is a nice button up shirt (I have some REALLY nice Hawaiian shirts for this) and dress slacks (and the dress slacks to match the shirts), this is kind of nice. We were actually turned away from the Southwestern style restaurant the first night because of my sleeveless shirt. Then 2 nights later I am in the more upscale Italian place and notice men in shorts, T-shirts and sandals (and hairy toes really do enhance the ambience). I check with the management and find the "dress code" has been pretty much abandoned.
So reading through this, if you have different expectations and no need to see hummingbirds, consider the rating closer to a 4 than a 3.

The new Med village at Sandals Antigua is absolutely beautiful. We just returned from a 7 day week in paradise! We were lucky enough to be upgraded to a gorgeous suite that overlooked the pool and ocean. One of the nicest rooms we've ever stayed in! The concierge service was very helpful and they always had a smile and were pleasant.

The grounds were full of flowers that added color and style and the newness of the place made everything feel fresh.

Food in all the restaurants was presented with style and, on the whole, very good (especially Kimonos and Bayside), but if you didn't have concierge (or butler) service, getting a reservation in some was a problem. Lunch at the outdoor Barefoot restaurant was convenient and very low key upscale fast food - served to you as opposed to the other lunch buffets which had overflowing food of every kind (the pasta alfredo at Marios was delicious).

It seemed like most of the activities were on the older, Carribbean side during the day and the new Med side was quieter. One small quirk - you had to walk to the Carib side to know what the activities of the day were. They were not posted anywhere on the Med side. The live bands and entertainment in the evening were split between the two sides.

Getting a chaise at the pool, however, was a challenge if you didn't throw your towel on one by 8 am. Having champagne and mimosas served right in the pool by an intern named Rudy put a smile on our faces. Snorkeling was just so-so because of the trade winds blowing, but I heard the scuba divers raving and there were plenty of sailboats always out on the ocean.

Interesting blend of two clubs in one. We would definitely go back.