This was our 2nd honeymoon/anniversary trip and, man, did we make a mistake!!

First of all, you need to understand that those pictures on the Sandals website are not an entirely accurate representation of what you will see, as parts of their website have not been updated in a long time. A lot of the things they tell you and promise you are not there. We were there for 5 days and the spa was not open 1 day!!! Also, you do not need an electrical converter when you stay there; however, it states on the Sandals website that you do. Here is our experience: (Think seriously before you book a trip to Sandals-Antigua, we beg you.)

We arrive in Antigua. We are greeted with a Sandals rep. She is nice and tells us to get our bags. A man, whom we assume is from Sandals, runs over to get our bags after he sees which ones we are getting. He says he will get them. We assume it is a Sandals service. He takes them about 50 feet to Immigration on his cart, we show our paperwork, and then he takes them another 50 feet, (our luggage had wheels and was very easy for us to manage on our own) to the taxi. He then says, "Tip, please." We are tired from our long flight and give the guy a couple of bucks, but are very confused. Our taxi ride was very terrifying. The man drove in the middle of the rode, played chicken with the drivers, and ran in the ditch several times. He almost had a head-on collision several times. We were very scared!! Then, we get to Sandals, and he has the nerve to also say, "Tip, please!!!" We were so glad to be alive, we tipped him also, that is how scared we were.

We get there, we are greeted wtih the cold towel and champagne, which was nice. We are starving, after traveling from 3:00 a.m. until 9:30 p.m., but could not get into a restaurant, so we had to wait until 11:00 p.m. for the Bayside Grill. We got an upgrade for our room. We stayed in the Honeymoon Veranda Suite and the balcony overlooked the ocean, which was nice. The room was not very nice though. It looked like something that you would find at maybe a Comfort Inn. I was very disappointed, as it was our honeymoon!!! It was clean though, and I did not see any bugs. They sprayed for mosquitos, etc. in our room daily though. Our mini-frig was stocked with very old soft drinks that had expired. You have never heard of any of the liquor, except for Red Stripe. You are lucky if they restock it daily; it was hit or miss for us, and if you call and complain, they are very rude to you.

The food is awful. The Bayside Grill, which is buffet-type food at breakfast and lunch is equivalent to what you get in a college cafeteria or at a Western Sizzlin or Shoney's Buffet. If you like that type of food, you will be in heaven. I had a stomachache and a headache literally everytime I ate their food. One morning, for breakfast in the buffett, they were serving baked beans as a choice!! Also, as others have stated, birds do land on the fruit and pick at it, drink from glasses, it is true, my husband witnessed it.

The OK Corral was horrible. Our steaks were very weird grey color and had absolutely no taste, except the taste of the charbroil. I am not even sure that WAS steak. My entree at the Italian restaurant was disgusting, not only because my food was awful, but because a cat decided to sit right beside me and scratch and lick himself and hang around my table, while the waitress stood there and did nothing. I counted three cats running through the restaurant as we ate. This was on our 1st anniversary dinner too!!

One tip as far as the restaurants, if you decide to go, order everything at once, your appetizer, entree, dessert, all of it as soon as you see your waitress, because she doesn't come around but maybe once or twice the whole time you are there.

The staff there are so rude. There was 1 person out of all of the staff that was halfway nice, seriously. They act like you are a bother to them. The people at the bar are rude, the people at the grill are rude, all over, they are rude. I didn't pay good money to be treated like crap!!!!! My husband wanted to go windsurfing, but the staff just kept telling him to come back at 1:00, then come back at 2:00, and acting like he was just a big bother to them and making excuses. It is hard to find someone there to do all of those "wonderful" activities that they claim you can do that are included with your package. They mostly want you to do the excursions that you have to pay for.

The nighttime entertainment sucks, unless you like playing, Name That Tune or listening to really horrible Karoke, sung mostly by the staff from what I heard. It is very, very boring at night. The music they sing and play is so annoying. It all makes you appreciate the United States so much.

The bar sucked, and the drinks, well, they are free for a reason!!! Have you ever had a margarita made with a spoon? They had blenders, but a lot of times they were too lazy to use them, and they didn't care if you liked it or not. Same thing with the pina colada. My husband would get a rum and coke, and they would NEVER put coke in it, they put water in it instead. They would make your drink and look at you like they wanted to kill you.

The beach was the best part of the trip, but it is not the best beach I have ever seen. It is also filled with people trying to sell you jewelry, t-shirts, horseback rides, you name it. They bother you the whole time you are lying on the beach. They really harrass you big-time, as it is a public beach. They are relentless. One day, we just sat on our balcony to avoid all of that.

We were more happy to leave the place that morning than we were when we left to go there. We left with another couple who also were just as unhappy as we were. The man had been to St. Lucia Sandals and he said it was the same way. I definitely would not recommend wasting your money on such a crappy, rundown place, full of rude people, and nasty food. You can get more for your money at so many other resorts. We regret our trip so much, and wish we had our money back. We don't want anyone else to go through what we did, without realizing exactly what they are really going to get, not what Sandals tells you. It is not the magical experience it appears to be on television and on their website, believe me.

Having been to Sandals St Lucia (2003) and Jamaica (2004), third time lucky was Antigua.
This is not ultra all-inclusive. It looks to me that they are having to cut costs to keep margins compared to 2003.
The following are only minor points but are symptomatic of a falling from grace for Sandals.
Staff. Boy they are a sullen, miserable bunch, with only one or two exceptions. Poor service in the restaurants and no customer service skills at the Front Desk.
Rooms are faded, furniture is old and chipped, sinks cracked.
Food is going down a notch compared to St Lucia.
Just be aware this resort is now about 3.5 star, not 5 star.
Had a great time there though! People we met, great weather, beach, Antigua etc etc
Just be aware it is not value for money, oh and by the way, the new place next door is total absolute monstrosity - how they ever got planning permission I'll never know.

5* it is not. The resort is in need of refurbisment. It's tired and so is most of it's staff. It's dirty, with old damp furniture in the reception area and chip, scratched and bashed in the bedrooms.
The only part which is well maintained are the gardens. The resort is a disgrace DON'T waste your money going there.

My wife and I celebrated our 25th anniversary at the end of November / beginning of December. It was very hot when the sun was shining but it did rain a lot. The rain never really interferred with too much and it was fun to go in the hot tub and the ocean in the rain. The beach is spectacular and the water was always warm. The last part of our week was very windy and all watersports were cancelled. We really wanted to go snorkelling but couldn't get out.

There are many "vendors" on the beach. Usually a polite "no thanks" will send them on their way but they do return - often. We met several who were not polite at all and others who were very nice. Talk to the woodcarver, Somarly, he has a very interesting history. When the cruise ships dock in St. John, a lot of the passengers end up walking the beach. It never caused us any problems. We did talk to guests who were approached on the beach to buy drugs . It never happened to us.

We REALLY liked the Japanese restaurant - ask for Sugar - he's the best!. OK Corral was very good as was the Bayside. We didn't really like II Palio. The pasta is nothing like real Itialian. Men bring long pants, shoes and collared shirts. Ladies need a couple of dresses, skirts or dressy slacks etc.

Entertainment ranged fron very good on some nights to not very good on others. Rain did interfere with the entertainment a couple of times.

There are some mosquitos and sand fleas. Some others got bit - we didn't get bothered at all. WORD OF CAUTION: We brought 3 containers of bug spray with us (as recommended in other postings here). We didn't use them and the Antigua Airport staff would not let us take them back on the plane. They said they are banned because they are flammable. Our airline allowed us to take them to Antigua. We protested but to no avail. Funny, they let other aerosols, like hair spray go on the plane (very flammable) but not the bug spray.

Speaking of the airport, the departure area is nice, the arrival area is not. It is very crowded, hot and unorganized. We lost some of our luggage and no one seemed to know who could help us out. We also had to search out a Sandals rep to get to the resort. On the way back we were treated much better (except for them seizing our bug spray)

We disregarded the resort's 2-hour paid shopping tour of the duty-free area of St. John. We went on our own and walked though the downtown area where the cruise ships come in. We found lots of good deals and we had a good time on our own schedule. Taxi ride was $10 US each way. There are lots of vendors thereso be prepared to say "no thanks" a lot. Another vacationing couple we spoke to got scammed for $150. Use caution with any free offers you get in the town. We turned them all down.

REALLY IMPORTANT! If you like it quiet to sleep, bring ear plugs. We were in the older rooms with a screened window with only a shutter on it. The crickets (some said they were sea frogs) started chirping at dusk and kept it up till dawn. Lots of guests complained about them. We turned the ceiling fan and air conditioner fan to the highests speeds to drown the sound out - it worked for us. They are really loud!

Overall - a great resort with a fantastic beach. Be prepared for a slow pace. No one moves fast on Antigua. Perfect.