great if you an active family with kids. The resort has something for everyone and it is compact so your kids can't go far. The food is somewhat monotonous and competitive and the kids club nannies can be less than energetic but for older kids they generate their own fun.

Stayed in one of the beach front villas and found it to be clean and generally well maintained - we would give it a 3 star rating.
Food excellent with a good choice. Sailing facilities excellent and well run. Weather rather windier than we expected but safety boat was always on hand.
Don't use Thrifty car hire who operate from the Reception area - they require a US$1,500 excess which you cannot insure against - the taxis outside were very good and the prices seemed to be regulated.

Marion & Derek

First the good: The sailing here is great. There are more than enough boats, they are generally in decent condition, and the beach staff is excellent. The only thing that might improve the sailing is some smaller keelboats or more stable options for getting more people out in 20+ knot days.

The rest: I have stayed in $29 Motel 6 rooms that were better maintained and outfitted. Mattresses are hard and thin, bathrooms are worn and badly repaired, A/C can't keep up with outside temps, everything is generally cheap and worn. There were some interesting bugs that added to the overall feel of the place. Expect little from the room.

The food is plentiful (buffet), but mediocre at best. There is a heavy English influence in the menus, which is not surprising considering the mix of the guests. This is not all bad - the coffee was terrible, so we learned to drink tea. Dining areas, like other reviews stated, are noisy at meal times.

The food would not be a problem if it were possible to walk to better dining, but this is not a reasonable option. Taxis are available and the prices aren't bad, if you want to go that way.

The rental powerboats are cheaply made, underpowered, almost all broken, and overpriced.

If you're going for the sailing, and you don't care about anything else, you'll enjoy the place. If you're going for a general seaside vacation, I have got to think there are far better options.

We stayed at Colonna over New Year 2007/08
Also booked an additional week with Sunsail on Flotilla from Tortola on BVI

At Colonna - Sunsail do what they do well.
They provide sailing & instruction, in well maintained small dingies, hobies & windsurfing ect - EXCELLENT
Your beach team were great, instruction & service second to none

Over the last 5 years we have been loyal customers to Sunsail, staying at Galini, Perili & lastly Phokai, enjoying many sailing holidays however Colonna was a let down.

To date this has been the most expensive Sunsail holiday. Obviously in high season, we paid top dollar for poor accommodation - even with the dollar being so low !!

The established gardens were lovely - pity the hotel was not as well maintained !!
Colonna is in desperate need of a complete overhaul.
This is happening this year, however we obviously had to pay for it in advance !!

At new year there must have been at least 280 guests, being that time of year, many were very young families.

However you have to cater for all your paying guests - unfortunately there was no escaping, no quiet spaces to read or have a quiet drink.
There is only 1 x central bar area, in the middle of the dining area where everyone is herded too
Quiet, fine dining was simply not on offer @ Colonna - it was very noisy - more like school dinners !!

Food was OK - but basic

Larger boats - were older and in need of a refurbishment, however were available for an additional cost of approx £120 per day.
You have to make a 30 minute expensive taxi ride to the east of antigua to Jolly harbour
Advice : hire a car - its cheaper and it can also be used to explore the rest of the island.
English harbour on the South side is lovely & well worth a visit, its approx 45 minute taxi ride.

We expected more of Antigua - more infrastructure.
Antigua is a lovely island but very expensive for what they have on offer. The only development was in the expensive resorts.

Diving was important to us & part of our holiday and was supposed to be @ Colonna - it was not.
We had to organise this seperately @ Jolly harbour - expensive & not well organised
Diving COULD be great, with plenty of fish

We would recommend Kite surfing @ Jabberwocky beach - independent from Sunsail, we organised this ourselves - which was excellent - but do book in advance

BVI - was wonderful, easy sailing, between the islands - well worth a visit - but BVI is very expensive - in spite of the low dollar and very busy!!
As for the connections & transfers to & from Antigua - stamina & patience is required

As a family we were really looking forward to this holiday, but the quality of the resort & accommodation was extremely disappointing & simply not worth that kind of money.

Sunsail - I honestly think the resort is too small & too confined, too offer the same activities you provide in your other resorts.

Perhaps at Colonna, less would be better ?
Concentrate more on quality rather than quantity !!

Sorry Sunsail - Colonna, was a real disappointment.
With the dollar so low - it was very expensive with low standards
We could not recommend Colonna at this time.