As a Travel Agent i had the chance to meet the hotel Manager of the Jolly Beach Resort when they come to visit our travel shop. I was shown the hotel and the facilities and thought it looked great!. I've recently returned from Antigua and thought it was absolutlet great! As a travel agent we're all the biggest critics in the world and know hwats good nad whats not. I can certainly say this hotel is a thumbs up with the range of resteraunts on site, the friendly staff who would go out there way to help you, the amazing tropic gardens that surround the hotel and the two pools make this stay one to remember. One couple where lucky enough to have a weeding out there which was fantastic to see and of course the mile of fantastic sandy beaches make this hotel one to visit!

24/05/08-07/06/08

This our second time to Jolly Beach and it was every bit as good as last year, a great family holiday.

After we were shown to our room we had a visit from room service, welcomed with a bottle of bubbly and some chocolates to thank us for coming back, a really nice touch.

The food in the restaurants is still very good. Hemispheres put on great buffets, plenty of choices for all three meals served there, how people can say there is not enough choice is unbelieveable, for example, in the evenings there was usually a roast, grilled pork chops and a choice of another two or three meat dishes and usually two fish dishes, plus the mountains of choice that go with them, lots of vegetables, salad bar, mountains of cheese, loads of desserts, fresh fruit etc, watch the pounds pile on!!
We went to Lydias about six times, the food and service as always great, have to mention Natasha, Sharon and Jason, they made Lydias for us, such warm people, and they remembered us from last year, many thanks for your great service.
We only had one trip to Bocciolos this time, the food and service were again very good, couldn't fault it.
The pool grill was great for a snack, food very good, and great service too.

We did a few trips, my husband again went fishing with Captain Derek Biel and his boat Obsession, he went marlin fishing, Capt. Derek is interested in
conservation so it is tag and release, my husband caught a 70-80 lb white marlin which he was very pleased with, plus a few others.
We chartered a speedboat to Cades Reef, Lindon (one of the beach vendors) arranged this, it cost $200 US for two hours, other boats wanted $350 US for the same thing, ask Lindon if you want any trips sorted out, a really great guy.
We took a four hour trip around the island with a taxi driver from Jolly Beach, it cost $120 US, and was a bargain, our driver was very informative.

The staff at Jolly Beach work so very hard to make your holiday great, the staff are a major reason we returned and we will definately go back, so a big thank you to everyone there, we never met anyone who was rude or sullen, we had another fantastic and memorable holiday.

I stayed at the jolly Beach from 31st May to 11 June. It was by far my favourite holiday.
I wasnt sure what to expect from the reviews but i was very impressed.
ROOM:
I think i was very lucky, my balcony was huge, almost twice the size of others, i had an amazing view and i was at the far end near Lydias restaurant, also on the top floor. It was quiet and always clean. The bed was comfortable and there was plenty of room for me. It was a supersaver room, with a double bed. I had american style plug in my room and only one worked so bring a miror if you need to use straighteners as you wont stretch across!
Bathroom was fine, good power shower, fresh towels daily.
i had easy access to the beach and a few mins walk to the bar...always good!
FOOD;
General buffet was great, always something available and hot. Lunch time i thought there could be more choice. There are alot of birds in the restaurant, so be warned! The beach bar was ok, went there for a buger. Had brunch at Lydias and that was nice but not so keen on the evening menu, although a fantastic setting. I could have stayed forever! The Italian restaurant was smart and attractive but i found the food unappealing and it was quite a walk at the other end of the resort.
The bars are great, friendly staff, lots of choice and water is available to fill up your bottles to take to the beach etc.
STAFF:
I never found any staff to be rude, they were always helpful and friendly, always saying hello.
ENTERTAINMENT:
This vairied but on a whole was good. There was a karioke night, magician, disco, caribbean dancing show and a bonfire night. Always there was a band, steel or regaee.
BEACH
Out of this world...large white quiet sandy beach with beautiful warm blue sea, never crowded, always got a sunbed or shade. The sun is mega hot so watch out and pack high factor!
EXCURSIONS:
Deffinately go to Shirley heights, i went twice it was so good. Catamaran trip was a must too. Zip lines is scary but fun and a taxi tour of the island is worth doing.
ANTIGUA IN GENERAL:
A beautiful island full of friendly people. Lots to see and do, great shopping in St. Johns, lovely beaches everywhere, amazing atmosphere and fantastic music,
If anyone wants to know anything more message me and ill happily help.
Now go book that holiday!

Where I do start... my boyfriend and I had saved up for a 2 week holiday to stay in the Jolly Beach Hotel in February 2008. We were really excited but slightly worried about some reviews we had seen. A few weeks before our holiday we were so worried we nearly cancelled but decided to experience it ourselves.... I WISH WE HAD CANCELLED!!!!!

The Room
We paid just over £3400 for a 2 week AL holiday including a room upgrade from the super saver to the junior suite. Upon arrival the first thing to be noticed was the balcony mosquito mesh was ripped in various places; these holes were blocked with tissue. Further to this the general cleanliness of the room was totally unacceptable. We had ants in the bathroom and if you left anything open or on the floor in the main bedroom the ants would swarm to it. (Im not just talking a few ants i mean 50 to 100) When we complained, the reception told us that the hotel was currently full. The ants in the bathroom were not the only problem; the curtain did not cover the whole window which was clear glass, therefore we could be seen from the cricket fields. Also, on a number of occasions we had our dirty towels taken by the cleaner but none were replaced. When we called house keeping it took a number of hours and phone calls until they arrived, in one instance the towels arrived after dinner when we were going to bed at 10:30pm. Overall, the room was totally unsatisfactory with everything mentioned above we also had on going problems with our air conditioning and toilet throughout our stay. (toilet - for one day all the toilets in the hotel broke!)

The Restaurants
The restaurants for an all-inclusive hotel were extremely poor. The main buffet restaurant ‘Hemispheres’ lacked in choice and quality, several times the restaurant ran out of food. There was mesh surrounding the main restaurant to prevent the wildlife from entering, however as there were a number of rips this allowed the birds to get in and sit on the food.
Although one of the restaurants ‘Utsav’ the Indian was very good, we ate there a number of times and were never disappointed. Whereas, Lydia’s fish restaurant was terrible; the food was under cooked and poorly presented for an ‘a la carte’ restaurant. The most shocking of all, was the waitress, Sharon, served our starters, then stood the other side of our table and proceeded to belched out loud, walked off with no apology.

The Hotel
The hotel itself was in great need of a refurbishment, one of the main bars had a number of broken stools which had rusty screws sticking out of the top. Around the bar/pool area there were broken slabs which were very dangerous and on many occasions we saw young children stubbing there toes. Again, this does not suit the description of the hotel that is portrayed on your website. The website promotes a ‘child’ friendly hotel, even though the pool area had one umbrella for shade.

The Beach
It was terrible, we had to be careful of glass, concrete and metal on the sand. The worst part of all was the stall sellers, they constantly hassled us. They even woke my boyfriend up when he was sleeping on the sunbed to sell him things and for him to get food from the hotel. We noticed guests did take food from the hotel to them in return for discounts, even though there are notices up around the pool and beach. But then who cares when the security of the hotel are doing it as well. After our 2nd day on the beach we didnt return and decided to sit by the pool, which made us feel restricted.

The list is endless, I would definitely NOT reccomend this hotel to anyone planning a holiday to Antigua. We saw other hotels while we were there and we consider returning to these instead.