When we first decided to get married overseas, the criteria was always to marry on a beach in an adult only all inclusive resort, so that narrowed down the choices. In conjunction with our travel consultant, Julie Mellor of Travel Counsellors, we spent a long time looking at several options. Each time we kept coming back to Galley Bay, as none of the others seemed to have the "wow" factor we desired. Yes it is very expensive, but as it was a special occasion to marry and honeymoon we thought we would push out the boat and go for the most expensive suite and have three weeks there. We decided to fly direct from Manchester, so Virgin was not an option, so BMI it was, and upgraded to premiere economy.

The flight was excellent, lovely roomy seats, tv in seat backs, the premier cabin was not full, so a very relaxed enjoyable flight with nice food (unusual for airlines), great service and highlight of it all, was being presented with a bottle of champagne sent by Julie our travel consultant. I really can recommend Travel Counsellors for taking all the hard work out of planning a holiday, much easier than the high street. The luggage allowance was amazing, 64kgs each plus hand baggage.

On arrival in Antigua, well we were met by a steel band, as it was carnival week, and thought wow we are in the Caribbean until we went around a corner and saw the bedlam in the extremely small, unorganised VC Bird Airport Antigua. I have to say the only reason I will not visit Antigua for a while, is because of the terrible, shoddy, small, packed, hot, bad service, unorganised airport. By the time you have done all the visa, queue, passport control and you get to the luggage carousel, everybodies cases from 3 flights have been taken off and are everywhere!!! Try finding 4 cases amongst 1000s.They really need to get it together with all the up market hotels on the island, and you have to come in thru this, and coming out is even worse, with all the triplicate form filling!!!! Barbados got it right, come on Antigua, spend some of that $20 exit taxes on a new airport, and you might get more tourists!!!!! Anyway I am digressing, we were met by rep from Carib Tours with two bottles of water and a taxi driver who sorted our luggage and told us to pop in taxi into air con and cool off a bit. We must have looked red and frazzled. A simple 20 mins later, having been given a small guided tour on route by driver, we arrived at the sign to Galley Bay.

On stepping out of the taxi, we were met by 3 uniformed staff, handshakes and welcome to Galley Bay, a silver tray with two ice cold towels with lovely little flowers was presented to us to freshen up. The way we felt so hot and tired, that was the most wonderful welcome we have ever recieved in any hotel throughout the world. Drinks are offered, we chose the rum punch and boy did it pack a punch. My partner was about to go for the luggage when a young man said "sir you are on vacation, we take care of everything" and proceeded to show us to a golf cart to take us up to reception. There is a main reception at the gate, which was the old entrance to the sugar plantation, with a sugar mill there. It has lovely covered seating as this is where you get your taxis etc. They drove us over a causeway between the lagoons, and then we came to the customer services reception, where again lots of staff are ready to help you in any way.

Once all the required paperwork was sorted, our driver with luggage on golf cart said he would drive us to our rooms. A short drive took us to the premium suites, and we had a ground floor as we had requested. We went in and wow, it was lovely, a large suite, which led out onto a patio with the most comfy rattan sunloungers on, with a view of the beach. The view was absolutely lovely, it felt like our own private beach. The bathroom is enormous, and the bath itself was larger than my whole bathroom at home!

The bed was huge, lovely furniture, with LCD satelite tv on wall, dvd player, alarm clock with Ipod dock, two sofas , coffee table, desk, very large chest of drawers, good sized wardrobes with free safe, wet bar, fridge full of drinks, stocked with beer, water, cans soft drink, just ask for carton of milk for coffee/tea. Comes with a coffee machine, but I requested a kettle for tea, there in moments, as was an iron and board which stayed for the whole duration.

The towels are changed daily, they seem to give enough towels for 4 people, with beach towels on top. Two lovely bathrobes for your use, and you can purchase these in the shop (we did). The fridge is stocked daily, you ask for anything you want, the drinks man is very friendly, and will happily come back and restock if you need him.

The meals, well, suffice to say I gained 8lbs and I thought I was being careful!!!
Breakfast is fresh fruits (lots), yoghurts, cereals, croissants, banana bread (yummy), muffins, fruit juices and thats just the self service bit. The menu, at first glance consists of eggs with everything, but when you read properly, most of dishes can be without eggs (my partner is allergic to eggs), and he would have bacon, sausage, mushrooms and tomatoes with sometimes other things without eggs. When it says eggs it is so easy to have the main dish, say crab cakes, without the eggs. You can also order bagels with cream cheese, and toasts. They come round with water, tea and coffee all the time and offer constant refills. Nothing is too much trouble. It caused us much amusement in the holiday, that though we kept mentioning could they very lightly cook and not chop up finely the mushrooms, they always managed to cook them what we feel must be Antiguan style, which is black! A couple of times they got it right and left them whole and just lightly cooked them, but in the end we just gave up and I even suggested to my husband, he offer to go in and show them how to cook mushrooms UK style.
Lunches, you can dine in Gaugin without a reservation or Seagrape, are probably the meals with most choices. Every day certain things are always available, with all the specials, which the waitress or waiter tells you each time, I have no idea how they remember them all. There are always some traditional Antiguan dishes on, with lots fish, meat and pastas. The swordfish and marlin is superb. There are lots of salads on offer and always fresh fruit is available.
Evening meals are Gaugin by reservation, or Seagrape. Again wonderful menus, Gaugin has slightly different things, a lot of grills, and is nice and romantic and quieter than Seagrape. Seagrape is the nearer restaurant to bars etc, but Gaugin has a bar. If you feel its too far to walk, then simply hail a driver with golf cart, from your room or reception.
The meals dont look big when they come, but they were very filling, and there were few days we would manage a dessert, much to the disappointment of Sadie a waitress who would do her best to describe the wonderful desserts on offer that day. There is one dessert made with chocolate, cream and cherries I would not resist, which made Sadie very happy.

The bars, well you just have to sample all the cocktails, and decide which one you like best. Galley Bay Lagoons, Antiguan Smiles, Cocoa Loco and Antiguan Kisses were our favourites, but you can have anything you desire. The bar staff seem to know every type of concoction to make a cocktail, not just the ones on the menu. All the drinks are branded, which made my partner happy with his favourite Hennessey brandy. A lot of people go to the teepee bar after a hard day on the beach or by the pool, just for the odd cocktail or 3, to watch the sunset, before going off to change for the evening.

The tree frogs sing once it goes dark, they are so charming, I dont know how anybody could find them annoying as in other reports. The sound of the surf, and the frogs all added to the ambiance we felt, but we never did manage to actually see one of these frogs, though we searched. The land crabs just walk everywhere, so beware you dont accidentally stand on them, cos some are so tiny. We saw so many birds there both on the sea and on the lagoon, and the mongoose were charming if a little shy. There did not seem to be a big problem with mosquitoes, yes they are there, but I was bitten less at Galley Bay than I have been in European countries. There are sprays in each room, I found it best to spray my way out when going out for evening.

The cleaning is daily, the maids take great pains to make sure they clean well, the bed seemed to be changed almost daily, either that or the way they made it looked fresh. Towel changes daily. Bed is turned down each evening, unless you put your do not disturb on.

The beach is beautiful, some days only about 6 people on the whole stretch. The sea is so warm, shelves off quite quickly, and can be fun getting in and out if you dont time the wave right, many a time I ended up sat on my bottom laughing. The snorkelling is quite good, especially around the rock at Seagrape restaurant, but do NOT snorkle at Gaugin end it is too rocky and the surf is much harsher there. There were a couple of breezy days when there were a few jelly fish about, but dont worry, the sting is so mild you have forgotten about it in minutes. I only got stung once, and that was swimming in the sea every day for 3 weeks. The water sports man is great, he will take you out on the hobie cat to assess if you are capable of sailing it, but no worries if you dont want to, ask him to take you over to the wreck in Deep Bay with your snorkles and see the boat in 20 foot of water and all the fishes there - its a great way to spend an hour. On the beach the angel fish will find you, they appear to chase you, they are not shy, go up to Seagrape rocks, take a banana from breakfast, and feed the angel fish in the water, boy do they like banana.

Free internet access, take your usb or dongles so you can send the wonderful photographs home. Its all wireless broadband.

The entertainment at night in Galley Bay is very low key, and this hotel is not for the lively, stay up all night kind of people. Some of the bands are excellent, but its all laid back, do as much as you want or as little as you want. I have to say that in 3 weeks we only managed past 11pm twice, the place is just so relaxed, but most other people seemed the same. You can go into St Johns ($20 taxi) for the night clubs, but we didnt bother.

The wedding at Galley Bay was lovely. We had Ernestine to co-ordinate it, and we felt like she became a friend and we could not thank her enough for all her hard work and help. If you are getting married at Galley Bay, everything will be wonderful. We chose to have Antiguan people as witnesses, guests could come and watch if they chose, but we wanted to do it Antiguan style. We married on the beach, I had local garden flowers, the service was so lovely, with lovely cake, and the decorations in the gazebo where we cut the cake were fantastic. I would recommend to anybody to marry this way, there is simply no stress, the whole day is just enjoyable and we had such fun.

I would recommend if you want trips that you go to Barbuda on the Excellence, that was one special day, worth every penny. The stingray park is also a must, it was not scary at all, we really enjoyed the experience. We also booked a taxi tour of the island, and were recommended to Mr Stanford Payne, with his luxury car, who took us everywhere we wanted, with more he suggested, his boot full of chilled drinks, and yes you can book a cheaper taxi, but this was so chilled and relaxed, it was worth the extra money. The Extreme Circumnav was fun too, but they also do that on Excellence which is one brilliant boat. We went deep sea fishing, on Overdraft, but I would not rec that in summer months, the fishing isnt as good, and they take you out into Atlantic which was so choppy we could hardly stand up. We found later the "squall" was the edge of Hurricane Dean and were told by people in port that no way would they have gone out that day in that weather. One man in his yacht sat in a bar said I have been sailing for over 40 years and I would not have gone out in that today. I have been on many boats, on many fishing trips even in UK in choppy water, but never have I been so ill and so sick and felt in danger. We should have gone out previous day, but when we got there, they had double booked us and gone with others, that was after an $80 round taxi trip (we made them pay that) and paying $150 deposit. They didnt even show us where the life jackets were, and we felt that we had been taken out in bad conditions, after hiring the boat for a whole day just for ourselves, the fishing was bad, in 5 hours only catching a small tuna, small mahi mahi and one decent sized kingfish - all that for $650!!!!! We felt that they only took us out for the money, as its a quiet time in Antigua, and that they put us at risk in weather that was not really safe, being a hurricane was in the area. We discovered most of this later. We recieved no discount for coming back early, yes I know they say they dont give that, but seeing as they double booked us day before, when weather was not as bad, and put us to a lot of trouble, we felt quite shabbily treated. This was the only downside of the holiday. Shirley Heights was interesting, but I felt it was more for tourists and less for Antiguans. We did enjoy the sunset but a couple of hours would have been enough.

It was the 50th Antiguan Carnival while we were there, and we went down into St Johns and walked the route with them for 5 hours, and had an absolute ball. Those people sure know how to party - they had been at it since 4am day before for Jouvert. Still to this day I am going round singing Papi and remembering how I danced in the streets with people I had never met, and ended up in a mas troupe for a short while.

In St Johns there are some lovely shops, but I have to say the people at Farrah Quarras wine shop and the jewellers next door, stood out because the jewellers looked at a watch wasnt working, and fixed it, and would accept no payment for was only loose back, and the wine shop, well he kept giving us free things, and we ended up leaving without paying for something and he said ok, no worries, when we returned and said he enjoyed our company. Go into the Vendors Market for a laugh, but you need to haggle, and sometimes just keep going for they want you to look at every stall and there are 100s.

There are some wonderful staff at Galley Bay, but certain ones stood out to us. Kerry made me laugh so much, I even ended up dancing with her in the carnival while she was in her mas costume and many other evenings when she was on her break - Kerry thanks you are wonderful. Iba, what a lovely, polite young man - he was the first to greet us, and I felt like he was a long lost son by the end of the holiday. Bobby as well, always there to drive you about with a smile. Then there is Heather in the restaurant, such a lovely smiling lady, full of fun and so good at her job. Sadie, well Im sorry Sadie, I didnt manage many puddings, and your advice to "embrace my waist" made me laugh. All the staff are wonderful, but some just stood out. The assistant manager, sorry I cant rem his name, but he was such a lovely, friendly man and then the owner James, so amenable and even drove us over the lagoon when we left.

I felt so moved by the whole holiday, I have to say this is an excellent hotel, 5 star without a doubt, that I put pen to paper and wrote some poetry, which I presented to the management before we left. James said he felt very proud that his hotel was the subject of poems, and that they would be framed and hung.
The management should be very proud of their hotel and staff, it is very special.

They do not tell you about all the wonderful things they do in the brochure at this hotel, they said they save some of the "special secrets" for when you get there to discover.

You cannot go wrong with this hotel, its is simply excellent and well worth every penny. So many people had been before, we now know why.