This was our first ever visit to Sandals or indeed an all inclusive resort.
The airport is chaotic but after European and North American airports it is actually quite funny to watch!
Once through we were picked up and were in the resort in about 20 minutes(driven by a rather large, very jovial black lady).
When we arrived we were given Champagne and cold towels as we registered, a nice touch.

We were given 2 upgrades and the room was literally 6 feet from the pool. The room itself was OK, maybe a little tired but clean and well equipped. But as I did not intend to spend my holiday in the room I was not too bothered.
We enjoyed the food, found the restaurants good, the Bayside was excellent for breakfast and lunch and the evening meals were good. I don't generally like Italian food but Il Palio was great. Kimonos was different but because of the way the food was, there is only one main course , we only ate their once, but I was a little disappointed with the OK Corral where the service was poor, although the food itself was good.

We were told that there was a dress code for the restaurants and we packed and dressed to this code, however many people were in these with shorts, T-shirts and flip flops. I don't really have aproblem with this but if you have dress code, ENFORCE IT, if you don't intend to enforce it don't have a code.
The evening entertainment was interesting but low key, the piano bar was great if only for the air conditioning.
Being a wrinkly never went to the nightclub!

The guests were predominately American and as such some of them can be loud, but that is the American, they are on holiday as well!!

We met some great people but you can mix or not whatever you wish.

I found the staff fine and very polite.

Sadly there were a couple of people who treated staff like dirt and I am sure they did not get great service. Serves them right.

All in all a great holiday

we just stayed a week in sandals Antigua, The grounds are very beautiful, the beaches are well kept. The food in Sandals was NOT very good. The Japanese restaurant was a joke. Dirty
smelled like mildew, the "chef "was not entertaining or talented.
the Italian restaurant was the one we enjoted most.
The employees competed for the Sandals tour business. We were confronted by employees to have their friends or family members provide the 'same' tour as sandals, but in a private auto. (that was a bit scarey). Other employees were rude and
not very accomidating. I felt as if I were imposing on them. The main bar in the coutyard was the problem, those bartenders, especially the day time batenders were downright rude. The upstairs piano bar was freezing cold and full of german cockroaches. (the dirty restaurant kind) At about dusk everyday
some kind man comes around with a diesel fuel vaporizor of sorts and fills the air with some sort of bugkiller, no warning people get sprayed too.

We have just returned from out honeymoon at Sandals Antigua and can only say how excellent our stay was. On arrival we were given champagne and snacks and told that we had been upgraded to a Junior Concierge Suite directly opposite one of the smaller swimming pools.

Our room was superb, clean, airy (air conditioned), stocked with a full bar (replenished daily) and was literally a few strides away from the swimming pool. We asked for specific spirits for the bar and had them the very next day.

The resort itself is in a very well maintained condition with beautiful gardens and swimming pools. The pools were swept twice daily and were always at a comfortable temperature.

The bar staff were really friendly and always gave us fantastic drinks (though you are in the Carribean so don't complain about the not-instant service; we never waited more than 2 minutes for our freshly-made cocktails). Our only negative was that the house-wine wasn't particulary great but then again we are both very picky with our wines.

The food was nothing short of fantastic. Breakfasts were buffet-style, lunches were either buffet style or from the grill bar. Evening meals gave you an option of four restaurants, all of which were excellent (though the marlin steaks in the Italian were by far the best meal we had during out stay). We enjoyed the food immensely and small things like chocolate buffets on our last night make excellent surprises.

The beach was always kept clean and had plenty of sun-loungers. The beach vendors were present but all were polite and it only took a 'no-thankyou' for them to leave us for the rest of the week.

In terms of watersports we used the hobbie-cats (really fun cateraman sailing boats) and did two dives each day. As very experienced divers we have dived some of the best dives sites around the world and we were very impressed with the diving operation at Antigua. The dive guides were efficient and welcoming, the boats were designed and fast and the diving very relaxing and enjoyable. The water was around 28 degress centigrade and there was plenty of things to see (we saw baracuda, snappers, squid and sharks to name a few). The dives wen't out at 8.15am and 11.00am and we enjoyed all of our 8 dives.

We didn't partake in the organised events during the day (volley ball, beach hunts etc.) but other guests we spoke to gave good comments about them.

During our stay we talked to many couples both American and British and heard nothing but good comments. One couple were on their ninth visit to Sandals Antigua and have never had a bad experience.

Yes, the construction site does start operations at around 7am but we were never distrubed by the noise. Yes, there are a few cats around the report but they are not a nuisance and are clean. Yes, there are mosquitoes etc. but you're in the Carribean so just take bug-spray and after-bite instead of moaning about it.

All-in-all we were extremely impressed and will definately be visiting next year (if not sooner) for aniversary.

Hope you enjoy your trip as much as we enjoyed ours.

Mark and Hayley

This was our sixth visit to a Sandals property and probably the worst one.
Pros: Service was excellent and people were extremely nice and accomodating.
Food was very good. However, my husband did get sick one night which we think was from the mussels. Lobster was served on two occasions and was excellent. The wines were very good for an all-inclusive. Met lovely people from US and England.

Cons: Our room needed to be fumigated while we were there. Not at all pleasant. This was due to small spiders, ants, and other small critters. I have many many bites on my legs and arms and need to go to the nurse while there. Yes, they seemed to take care of the problem with fumigating it, but I really felt like some other compensation could of taken place. I paid dearly for the room and did not count on pests sharing it with us.
While the beach is beautiful, it is seriously ruined by the loal vendors. Sandals does not take enough stance to try and keep vendors away. I understand it is a public beach, but we had vendors come sit in our chairs and ask for beer/food and tell us their life stories. I am sympathetic to anyones plight, but I don't need to deal with it on vacation! I know this sounds harsh, but I have saved for this relaxing time, as my life isn't so easy either, so I was quite bothered by this going on.
We made the most of this, still enjoyed ourselves, and got fantastic tans. I would not return to this property though.