What a great vacation!!! We celebrated our 15th Anniversary and could not have been more pleased. Staying on the Med. Village side in the Luxury Ocean Villa One Bedroom Suite With Private Pool was expensive, but so worth it. It was a trip of a lifetime. As I saw another posting read, our butlers Hunter and David were AWESOME!!!

Dining -
The meals were good (Marios, OK Corral were our favorites)
One thing that I did not see mention was that fact that with Butler service comes pre-arranged reservations for dinner. Not hassle at all. We did not care for breakfast at Barefoot, but we heard others say that other meals there were good. Kimonos I could pass on as well.

Activities -
There was plently to do(snorkel, scuba, sail, etc.), but we opted for nothing at all. Just sitting by the pool, reading and the occasional walk along the beach was just perfect.

Service -
Another source of my fear that was with out warrant. The service we found to be outstanding. Especially the butler service who would bend over backward for us(without being asked). There is always the occasional bitter person, but we could easily look passed them.

Transfer & Check In -
The transfers to and from the hotel were just fine. The typically Carribean Taxi service, no big deal. All of our luggage arrived without issue and was brought to our room promptly. Check In/Out was easy aside for the flights being so early in the morning left us with no help with luggage upon our departure. I am stretching to find something wrong with our stay and that is about it. I cannot really find anything.

I'm definitely part of the read the bad reviews but decided to go anyway club which was perhaps the best decision I could have made. My wife and I stayed there June 7th through June 14th and were married on June 11th. Here's my breakdown on the resort:

Accomodations: We booked a Venetian Suite but were upgraded to a Monte Carlo Suite which was a floor higher and provided a much better view of the ocean. The room was well accomodated with a beautiful whirpool tub, marble floors, 4 poster bed and an unbelievable ocean view. My only complaint is our bar wasn't stocked one day which to me isn't an atrocity but would have been nice. I can see complaints about the Caribbean Village rooms being older but to me the gardens and a bulk of the activities are on that side. If I stayed here again I would try out that side because that's where my wife and I spent much of our time.

Restaurants: Based off of reading reviews we made dinner reservations our first day for the rest of our trip in the concierge lounge. Barefoot was one of our favorites and had awesome views at sunset. Plus it didn't require reservations. Eleanors was another top favorite and offered a good local taste of Caribbean food. Our next favorite was the sushi bar which we had one night as an appetizer before our late seating at Eleanors. We were surprised but OK Corral was another favorite. We almost didn't go thinking we could get the same thing at home but I had the Jerk ribs which were great. And again, the view was awesome. Marios to us was OK but we are harsh critics on Italian food. Cricketers Pub offered British pub fare food and we enjoyed the food there. Plus they served Guiness which is huge in my book. Kimonos was perhaps the least impressive because not only could we get that at home but the food to us wasn't that great. For lunch we enjoyed Bayside better than Marios because it was on the beach. The pizza was good but we had a 45 minute wait. My biggest complaint about the food was the desserts weren't all that impressive.

Activities: Everyday they had activities planned throughout the day plus you can take tours around the island. If you can't find something fun to do here make your check payable to me and I will certainly go back!

Staff: If anyone says the staff here is rude they need a 12 step book on how to be nice. Everyone from the gardener to the concierge was overly courteous. One day a gardener stopped what he was doing to tell us good afternoon.

Clarifying Others Complaints: One reviewer complained about the only beer being served is the local brew which is true. They serve Wadadli which to me smells like a heineken and tastes like a lighter version of one. They also have Carib which is like a Corona and serve Guiness at Cricketers. If you need something other than that you are out of luck. The bar in the room had all Antigua liquor but you could get everything from Johnny Walker to Absolut at any of the bars. One person complained about the concierge level not meaning anything which is partially true. The only advantage of concierge is an in room bar which is nice because you don't have to leave your room for a beverage. But beyond that I saw no benefit. The chairs in the pool to me were no big deal. The Caribbean pool was closed and I could get a chair anytime I went to the Med pool. Yes people reserved a spot but I could always get one. Maybe they fixed that problem. While we didn't stay in the Caribbean side I can see how the rooms are much older. But that side has such luch tropical vegetation plus almost every building had its own pool would make me want to try it. And yes there was some construction which was a tad noisy on some parts but if that bothers you believe me the resort is plenty big enough to get away from it.

Overall: I would give it 4 to 4.5 stars overall. The only thing lacking to me is the food. While we enjoyed our meals overall nothing wowed us nor was it gourmet. It was a slight step above cruise food and if it didn't cost so much I wouldn't complain. But spending what we did I would expect a cut of meat higher than a sirloin. (Which is the highest at any restaurant on the resort.) Beyond that, the beach is awesome, the pools are nice, the staff is courteous, the place is spotless and has almost a disney feel, and there are a wide variety of activities planned. And most importantly, it's where my beautiful bride and I were married and spent our weddingmoon!!!

Sandals Grande Antigua was an amazing resort! We had our wedding there during our stay and everything was perfect. EVERYONE who is part of the staff was extremely nice and went out of their way to make sure we were having a great time. We stayed in the Venetian room in the Mediterranean Village and it was beautiful. Everything was very clean and there are plenty of activities to keep you busy. I would recommend going to downtown St Johns one day to shop. I would highly recommend this resort to anyone!

Having been to Sandals Antigua end of April/start of May and having read so many poor reviews and comments including about over-charging on credit cards for extras, I have waited until now that the credit card statement has arrived before doing our review - thankfully all is as it seems...!

Well, what can we say - what a bunch of moaners the vast majority of Sandals visitors are - especially if that's what people are like on 'holiday' - I hate to think what they are like to live with/work with!

The resort is great - we stayed on the Caribbean side - yes it has seen better days and could do with a face-lift, but hey it was clean (OK the maid sometimes didn't come until 4pm) but it's the Caribbean -- what's the rush?

As for booking the restaurants/people not dressing correctly for the dress code - a slight irritant perhaps but so what if you can't book your favourite restaurant one night - book somewhere else - all the restaurants were great and as a very fussy vegetarian that's saying something - had my husband and I known we could have been so casual though we wouldn't have packed so much and left more space for gifts to take home!

As for the fight for sunloungers by the pool - just go to another pool or the beach!

I have to say we loved it - we avoided the floods of people that just seemed to be on a complaining mission (all you would hear around the pools/bars/restaurants was about who got the best room upgrade!), we just kept ourselves to ourselves, ate too much, drank too much and if I was going to warn anyone of anything - pack really high sun factors - its' hot, hot, hot!!!

The only time we left the resort was to do the zip wire and oh my god what a fantastic/exhilirating and exhausting time we had - def recommend it!

Stop worrying about the negative reviews, chill-out and go - you'll love it! Worth every penny....