Stayed in Siboney's for the last 4 days of our holidays. The appartments are quite reasonable - nice bathroom with lots of hot water, reasonable living room and bedroom. The problem is noise and security.

The front facing rooms have only a single pane window, the bedroom has louvre windows, the living room only a louvre door.

The bedroom has an airconditioning unit which is extremely noisy, the living room only a ceiling fan. The curtains in the bedroom are very flimsy all the sunlight comes through which is a problem at five in the morning!(to me at least)

There is a restaurant just left of the building, Coconut Club, which is open from early morning until the last guest leaves which is usually after midnight. All these people pass through the side of Siboney's and there is no security - would be easy to break through the appartment's door, which are not particularily secure!

The beach outside the building and the restaurant is quite small and is freequented by locals - one afternoon a party of about 30 kids turned up and had a great time by all the noise they made but nobody else had a good time. This I believe happens quite often.

The Coconut Club is a great restaurant, but is not a part of the hotel, which means you cannot charge your expenses to the bill and need to carry cash (or credit card) each time you want to visit.

The swimming pool is quite nice set in a tropical garden but not sure how well maintained it is. Was not inviting enough for me to use. The whole Dickenson bay is very average, cannot understand why people rank it as one of the best in the Caribbean.

Overall, would not stay there again even for free, and was very happy to leave.

We had a fantastic stay at The Siboney Beach Club. Before we arrived the staff was helpful in creating the ideal vacation by answering all of our (and sometimes silly) questions. And despite the 'island time' attitude which we were told about the entire staff at The Siboney were all attentive, kind and helpful. I really can't say enough good things about everyone at the Siboney they really made our time there special. Service with a sincere smile.
HOTEL: We stayed in room 5 (mid-level balcony) which we loved and had great views of the garden (to left) and partial views of the water (to right). The room was spotless and had a great sitting/living room with kitchen table, 2 couches, and coffee table that opened onto a balcony with sitting chairs and table. We spent each morning drinking coffee, listening to music, reading or planning our day on the balcony. The birds were great entertainment and, although they came close, they never were a bother but gave us a nice serenade to get the day started. They brought us a TV which I don't think we ever turned on. The kitchenette was great and fully stocked with everything needed to make meals and although I don't think we ever got too ambitious we did use the stove to make breakfast and snacks. The small refrigerator was perfect and kept us in cold water and beer all week. The bathroom was nice with a large shower (detachable shower head) and nice counter and sink space. Our bedroom was large with several screened windows that, when left open at night, brought the sound of the ocean (and early morning voices) into the room and afforded partial views of the water (obstructed only by trees and flowers). We had an AC unit which we hardly used but worked really well when we did. The bed was not very comfortable, large but not the best. I spoke with a friend who stayed at a high-end Antigua resort (Blue Water) and she said that despite almost double the price her bed sounded no better than ours.
GROUNDS: The Siboney has a small manmade beach perfect for dunking and swimming (there are no waves) that sits just in front of Coconut Grove restaurant and Bar. This is not owned by the hotel but is in an ideal location for delicious food and a rum punch at sunset (or midday refresher!). The garden is beautiful with a hammock and wonderful pool. In the afternoon you will probably find owner, Tony Johnson, feeding sugar water to the birds. Men, be aware(!) Tony, who celebrated his 80-something birthday while we were there (looks mid-60's), is debonaire and charming and, if you stop long enough to listen to even a fraction of his story, you are in for an insightful treat. You may decide to scrap the day-to-day and move the family to the islands! His motto seems to be to enjoy each day of life and live it in style and that translates in the detail and ambiance of The Siboney Beach Club.
LOCATION: Dickenson Bay. This stretch of beach is home to Sandals Resort as well as a couple of other large hotels. The Siboney is, without a doubt, an oasis on the beach. Due to being on the south(west) end of the beach it is far enough away not to feel like you are in a large commercial resort but close enough to be in the action if you want. The bay is calm and the temperature is amazing. They had a storm the week before we arrived so the water wasn't crystal clear but still quite nice. There are enough merchants slinging tours and water-sport rentals to keep you busy if you want to be active and if not, a simple, "no thanks" sends them on their way to the next sunburnt tourist. They were all nice enough and never seemed too pushy (I bought jewelry from Jenny, who sits quietly at The Siboney, and fresh veggies and fruit from a woman in the neighboring parking lot). Stop by Sneaky Pete's for a rum punch and great conversation.
ACTIVITIES: We did do the Wadadli Cat Circumnavigation Island Tour which leaves at 9:30am and returns at 4:30-5. It was a full day of sailing with a couple of hours docked on Green Island to snorkel (not much color or life to the reef, sad to report), swim, and eat (bbq chicken & fish-pretty good food) lunch. But the location is really beautiful-postcard quality. After snorkeling it was all the rum punch and beer you could want but most people stayed pretty mellow and just relaxed in the sun. All-in-all it was a good tour and gave great views of the island and most of the 365 beaches in which they boast. We rented a car and headed south to Half Moon Bay-WELL WORTH IT! Driving is a bit scary, everything is backwards if you are from the USA, so we drove cautiously and slowly and made it safely. The Siboney arranged the car so we had it in the morning and used it for a one day rental. Getting a bit lost was great b/c we saw parts of the island we wouldn't have otherwise and once we made it to our destination we had a beautiful, crystal clear water, white sand beach basically to ourselves. Pack a cooler with food and drink and spend the day in the water and hiding out in the shade at Half Moon Bay. There are cricket games in downtown St. Johns, we missed it by about an hour but it sounded like fun.
FOOD: Coconut Grove is great, good island food, nice wine list.
Beaches Restaurant was one of our favorites. Casual good food. Hemingway's Restaurant was good food and located in St. John's. C&C WINE BAR was GREAT. SImple menu to accompany the delicious offerings of wine. We found this gem while looking for Hemingway's and really loved it. small inside bar and large outside patio seating.
We also stopped on the road and purchased a half bbq chicken with local beers. This was actually one of my favorite meals (the sauce was homemade and wad delicious) but I think my beau had a slightly bad belly the next day?!?
**there is a local hot sauce that is INTENSE so be very careful, we love hot stuff but this was painful!**

Next time we go to Antigua we will stay at the Siboney but also venture to the other side of the island. I would like to spend more time down at Nelson's Dockyard and English Harbor we didn't have enough time to explore down there.

My husband and I chose the Siboney for our one week stay in March. We typically book rooms at smaller, less comercialized hotels/B&B's and the Siboney was just that. We stayed in the treehouse suite which was smaller than the other 12 rooms, but adequate for my husband and I as we spent very little time in our room. Housekeeping came in each day to change linens and tidy up. The grounds are absolutely beautiful and very well maintained. We found the staff to be very friendly and helpful to recommend restaurants or to arrange taxi service. The restaurant attached to the Siboney, the Coconut Grove, had mixed reviews on this site. My husband and I thought the food was excellent and the staff went out of their way to accomodate us. We quickly learned that Jermaine and Johnny both poured a mean rum punch and we knew we would be spending many evenings sipping on this marvelous concoction!! We would definately stay at the Siboney on our next visit to beautiful Antigua.

The hotel is great for everyone who prefers small scale charm. The courtyard is attractively landscaped and the very nice pool was under-utilized which was fine with us as we took one or two dips per day! There are not many activities or rentals right at the hotel but you can wander down to the vendors in front of Sandals or organize a tour at the front desk. The staff is friendly and was helpful.

I think I can sum up the difference between Siboney and Sandals next door with one observation. I woke up at 7 AM and decided to take a walk while the family slept. I wandered past the Sandals pool which was surrounded by many beach chairs. Nearly every chair was reserved with a book or in some other fashion even though was essentially no one in the pool area at that hour. Waking up at 6 AM to grab a spot by the pool or leaving things overnight to retain your hard won chair just doesn’t seem like vacation to me. By contrast Siboney had a few chairs on their beach, under the palms, and on the outcropping in front of the hotel and they were nearly always available and if they were “in use” it was because someone was sitting in the chair not because their book was tanning while the book’s owner was in the restaurant or still asleep in their room.

In our 3 island holiday (including the St Johns and St Lucia), we encountered the most mosquitoes in Antigua. They didn’t spoil the trip but they were prevalent enough to warrant counter measures. We liked to have the door to the patio open at times during the day so we accumulated some visitors. When we closed up at night we hunted mosquitoes for a few minutes and we put up the hotel mosquitoes nets over the couch beds in the living room where the boys slept. We kept the main bedroom door closed during the day so didn’t have a problem there. We were in the ground floor which may have made mosquitoes more of an issue for us. There is a stagnant lagoon across the street from the hotel which perhaps makes mosquitoes more of a local problem for this hotel. Again, not a real problem but do bring some repellent.

After St. Johns, Antigua seemed expensive. The on premises restaurant, Coconuts, is rather expensive. We did pay as much on St Lucia but had far better meals at the same price. Our meal at Coconuts was a bit of a disappointment which was a little troublesome as there are not many other options within walking distance. The one other restaurant close by “The Beach” which was reasonable and better priced. We also ate from and recommend the Friday night Fish & Chips truck (which has more than fish and chips) that parks very near the hotel.