We're from Canada and visited the Verandah from Feb 21 - 28 for our honeymoon and had an excellent time. We'd rate it a 4.5/5, but you can't select that on Trip Advisor.

Our trip from the airport to the resort was probably our biggest complaint about the trip because our taxi driver was an aggressive driver. There's a lot of things to worry about including many goats, pot holes aplenty, people walking on both sides of the very small roads and aggressive drivers coming the other direction. But at the same time, there's lots to see and experience on your way to resort. So enjoy it for all it's worth!

The most unexpected thing about this resort was its family friendliness. We visited a much larger resort in the Mayan Riviera two years ago and could swear we saw more children at the Verandah. Most of the children were from England, which their accents were amusing. Funny part is they think Canadian's have weird accents! Our guess is that there's 60% English/Italian people at the resort and 40% American/Canadian's.

There's lots of space in the rooms and the verandah was nice to sit on. Our not so positive comments about the room are that sitting on the verandah was on the windy side, so it's hard to sit and relax and play cards. The TV was in an awkward position, but who watches TV in Antigua!? There's only one garbage can in your room, which was a little bit of a nuisance. The walls definitely aren't sound proof, so you really have to be conscious to respect your neighbour. Our fire alarm went off on a couple occasions, we're not sure if it was the chemicals the maid used to clean the room or from the moisture from the showers. There's no snacks/beer in the mini-fridge, which is something we really liked in Mexico. The shower "door" is questionable as it only covers less than half the length of the shower. It's more for looks than practicality, so water will leak almost every time you shower.

The quaint atmosphere of the Verandah is definitely different than a larger resort, which we liked. You get to recognize most of the guests quickly and can pick out the new people. With a quainter resort, the nightly entertainment isn't as much of an event. The bands and singers were all good for the most part, but it's more of a cafe type setting where they're just there mostly in the background.

We enjoyed the "casino" room because it had a pool table and it was something to do at night other than just sit at the bar, but was only open from 6pm - 1am. It wasn't open every night though because the guy that runs it is not at the resort every night.

There's a lot of reviews lately that the food at the Verandah isn't very good. It's no surprise to read bad reviews of the food and service at any resort because people are fussy eaters. We didn't have any complaints about the food. The breakfast is essentially the same every day, so you just have to find your niche of what you like and stick to it. There's 3 restaurants and all use the same kitchen. We visited all 3 for dinner. Buccaneer's menu never changes. Nicole's is open 2-3 day a week and you have to book a day in advance. We weren't crazy about Nicole's only because it's not much different than going to buccaneer's and you'll get better selection at the buffet. We didn't have to pay a surcharge at Nicole's like a lot of people have been suggesting. One thing we really enjoyed was the Swordfish when it was the catch of the day. Funny thing is, My wife hates eating fish! We'd recommend mainly going to the buffet, unless you insist on being served on.

We walked over to Devil's Bridge which is definitely worth the trip. Our travel rep told us it's a 20 minute walk down the highway and turn left. But what we found out once we got there that there's a path at the back of the beach which will only take you 5 minutes that way.

We took the trip to Shirley Heights on Sunday. Probably the best part of the trip is the trip to Shirley Height's because there's some breathtaking views. The sunset at Shirley Heights is beautiful too. It's very very crowded there on Sunday so it's hard to get a good view and really enjoy it. We'd recommend finding out if you can go on an alternate date when it's less crowded, unless you really enjoy a crowded party atmosphere.

We also took a walk to Long Bay beach which is a 2-3 minute walk to your right on the highway. It claims that it's the best beach in Antigua. Problem is that it's shared by two resorts and is also a public beach. It is a really nice beach, and is worth the walk to see, but we preferred the beach at the verandah because it's less busy.

On Tuesday we took the trip to St John's for shopping. It's not like most places where everything seems to be on one road, the shops are scattered all over the place. We mostly went to take in some of the local life - which we really enjoyed. The one big negative is that you're guaranteed to be hassled by a lot of guys for a taxi ride or island tours and the odd time by people at the shops. The people at the shops are not as aggressive as in Mexico, which was nice.

The staff at the resort were all very friendly and got good service. We found the staff at our resort in Mexico to be a little more personable. The only bad service we had was the night the buffet was a la carte, they just seemed to have forgot about us once we finished our main course. Oh well. The steak was amazing!

The drinks at the bar were great, they definitely have more brand names than other resorts typically would have. The draft beer is Red Stripe and the local beer Wadadli. We weren't particular about the house wines. You can pay for other types of wine, which we saw people do at times.

We really enjoyed the beach. You definitely don't need water shoes to go in as there's no rocks like in Cancun. It's protected by a reef and is in a cove, so it's not wavy at all. It is a very small beach though, so you can't really go for a walk. That's the one thing that Long Bay would be better for. We saw a few fish, which were minnow like fish. There was a crab on the beach, which we found really amusing to watch. It was about the size of a grapefruit. Also, the pelican's were fun to watch as they do a lot of impromptu dive bombs into the water.

Overall, we had an awesome time on our honeymoon and are glad we chose the Verandah. Passing by the Pineapple, it doesn't appear as appealing from the highway. We chose Antigua because it has great beaches and it's not as popular as Cuba, Dominican or Jamaica where most Canadian's go. We wouldn't recommend the Verandah for older couples who have a harder time getting around as there are stairs to walk down to the beach and you'd have to do a lot of waiting around for a cart. The target market for this resort is most likely younger families, but we'd recommend for anybody who likes to relax at a great beach. Yes it's very windy in Antigua, at least at the Verandah resort, but the wind also helped when tanning on the beach to cool off! The weather was very consistent. They don't post the temperatures at the resort, but think it was around 27 Celsius every day. We haven't been to any other islands to compare, but overheard somebody who had been to Barbados and said Barbados is more lush, but Antigua has better beaches. Our only concern for coming back in the future is how busy the beach will be when the remaining rooms open and it's at full capacity. The beach was hard to find a chair on the weekend, but otherwise every other day was fine. Maybe when all the rooms open, they'll be able to afford to heat the pool so more people will go there?

Hope you enjoy your visit if you decide on The Verandah!