We are a family of four (2 Adults and 2 Children aged 9 and 3) and this was our first family trip to Antigua, staying at the Verandah Resort & Spa. This is also my first ever online review of a holiday/resort so please bear with me!

We booked via www.theholidayplace.co.uk who appear to handle the bookings for Elite resorts (the hotel management chain). After much searching on the web and proving to Elite that I could book cheaper through expedia.com (I was only booking accommodation - all inclusive - as I already had my flights with Virgin atlantic), Elite finally came up with a deal that was cheaper than expedia. We paid approx £1,300 for 7 days all inclusive in a waterview room.

I refused the offer of airport transfers via the booking company for which they wanted £30 GBP per adult and £15 GBP per child for return transfers. This was a total of £90! Instead of that, I caught a licensed cab from the airport (it's a government run service) and that cost me $28 USD each way ($56 USD in total there and back which worked out to be less than £30 in total. A saving of £60 GBP!).

Journey time is approx 30 mins from the airport to the resort (along some rather bumpy roads I hasten to add).

First impressions upon arival were 'this is very nice'. I'm not into people carrying my luggage and doing everything for me. I have arms and legs and am quite capable of lifting a suitcase and taking it 5 yards to the reception desk. Check in was pretty painless and then it was off on the golf cart to our room (luggage was taken by separate cart).

Room was fine with king size bed for us oldies and a pull out sofa bed for the 2 kids. Room has wall mounted plasma TV with satellite channels (lots of US channels and a few UK based ones like BBC world/news etc. There are kids channels like boomerang). However, we dont go on holiday to watch TV so it didnt really matter to us. Also in the room is a sink, microwave, fridge, tea and coffee facilities, cutlery, plates etc. I have no idea why as the restaurants/bars provide you with food and drink pretty much all day long. Room also has iron/board, wardrobe and safe and bathroom has bath (with shower in) and sinks/toilet. Towels are provided (and changed daily if required) and beach/pool towels can be collected every day from the bar areas/beach. Room is 'serviced' daily.

Onto the food. Breakfast was great especially the omelettes which were cooked to order. There is plenty of fruit and other hot breakfast food as well as juices, tea/coffee, cereals (limited selection - usual cornflakes and something chocolate based for the kids), toast, croissants, continental type stuff (although why anyone would want ham and cheese for breakfast, I have no idea when an omellette or baon, sausage, eggs is on offer)! I could not fault breakfast or the service/friendliness of staff (it's help yourself though except for tea/coffee).

For lunch there are two choices. The beach bar grill (above the beach) which does burgers, chips etc. The main restaurant (Seabreeze) does a buffet lunch including salads, meats, hot meals etc. Again, I could not fault the food, the variety, the quality or the service/staff (again, help yourself except for drinks).

For evening meals, there are 3 restaurants (Seabreeze, Bucanners and Nicole's) although during quiet periods, you will probably find that only 1 or 2 are actually open. We ate at Seabreeze most of the time as having 2 kids we found this to have the most choice. Nicole's is a la carte and you will pay extra for this normally. We didnt and from speaking to others, whilst the food is still good, it's probably not worth it if you have young children. I viewed Nicole's as more a restaurant if you wanted to escape the main dining area and have a bit of extra service/quieter surrounds. Bucaneers is similar to Nicole's whereby you choose from a menu as opposed to helping yourself as in Seabreeze. The food was fine from Bucaneers. At the end of the day, it all comes out of the same kitchen/chefs so I really dont see how it can be much different. They do ask you to book the restaurants a day in advance though which you do through guest services. I think this is more so they know which restaurants to open/close during the quieter periods.

Overall, I thought the food was excellent wherever you ate and I thought the service/staff was just as good.

As for the resort itself, there are 2 pools. A small adult only pool with a waterfall and a main pool by the main bar. No slides, chutes, waves, lazy rivers or watersport events at either of the these pools, it's just a pool for swimming, mucking about and cooling off in. The main pool has a fountain of sorts in the middle but it's just a 'feature'. Pool depth is pretty much the same thoughout the main pool which enables adults to walk around the whole pool without having to swim or drown!

The beach is down approx 30 odd steps and is relatively small. However, it's quite secluded and off the beaten track so no hassle from beach sellers (all beaches in Antigua are public so open to people selling their wares).

Watersports are provided free of charge and this includes Kayaks/Canoes, Hobbies (sail boats), Pedalos, Windsurfing, float rings, small wave boards etc. The lagoon is quite sheltered so you dont get any waves crashing onto the beach and knocking children over! It's a great place for kids to muck about in the warm blue water, build sandcastles on the beach (buckets, spades etc all provided free of charge), bury each other in the sand and even through sand/water in each others face! (kids eh!)

Whilst it may not be the most beautiful sweeping bay on the island, I thought it was great (I prefer small exclusive beaches/bays). If you want a long bay, walk out the hotel entrance, turn right, walk 2 mins and hey presto, Long Bay (as it's known) is right there for you. Another walk you can do is to 'Devils Bridge' which is a 5 min walk from the beach at the resort. It's some rocks that face the ocean that over time have been formed to create a 'bridge'. I wouldnt advise walking over it unless you like "adventure" and want to run the risk of being washed away.

The kids club at the resort is great but is sadly under utilised. In saying that, our 9 year old went a couple of times and did 'water sports' which he thought was great. That included going sailing out in the lagoon and he had a great time.

Whilst in Antigua, we hired a jeep for the day (through the hotel which cost approx $100 USD for the day) and explored the Island. It's pretty easy to find your way around (it's an Island so difficult to get lost!). They drive on the same side as us Brits but funnily enough our jeep was left hand drive (assumed to cater for the Americans). We explored the whole island and visited Nelson's dock yard, a few beaches, the 'rainforest' where the zip wire is and St Johns for a spot of shopping. Parking in St Johns is quite manic (as is the traffic). To be honest, there isnt a great deal to see in Antigua apart from it's glorious beaches so a day in the car was just right to 'see the Island'.

Overall, I would thoroughlly recommend this resort. It's a lovely place and great for familes. When we were there, the occupancy rate was probably less than half so everything worked like clockwork. However, had it been at maximum occupancy, the review may have been slightly different.

The staff are great (very friendly towards our children) and the guest services/tour desk are happy to help. There is a gym on site although I dont go on holiday to use a gym so cant comment. I'm also a tub of lard so avoid gyms! The evening entertainment basically involves people singing to you, which is fine with me as long as a) I have a drink in my hand, b) the kids are happy and c) the person singing doesnt sound like a distressed whale!.

Overall, 5 out of 5 for me.

Tubby Lard

Myself, my wife and our 12 year old daughter arrived back from spending 11 nights at the Verandah this morning, overall we had a great time there.
The rooms are very spacious and pretty well equiped coming with a sink unit, a microwave, a fridge and a wall mounted flat screen tv. They have a nice big bathroom with twin sinks and a monster bath and finally a really nice verandah with table and chairs. The aircon unit is a godsend and kept the room nice and cool. As has been previously mentioned the only downside is the thin walls and we were woken in the early hours a few times by noisy neighbours.
We had no problem with the food in any of the restaurants and always found something to eat with all the restaurant staff being pleasant and friendly. The food at the beach grill was cooked fresh to order but the view from there is so lovely you don't mind waiting 15 minutes for it to come.
The beach was lovely although we spent most of our time by the pool which was also very nice although the main problem here is that there are only a limited number of umbrellas. I was up at about 6.30 every morning and went to read by the pool but there were people who came and put their towels out and then went back to bed, sometimes not returning until 10 or 11 o'clock. There are plenty of other umbrellas near the pool but they are on the grass and have chairs instead of sunbeds.
Evening entertainment was pretty much standard holiday fare and served a purpose, the only improvement that could be made is a designated area for the teenagers as the pool table is located in the casino for over 18s only.
All in all we had a really great time, made all the better by the people we met, and would return.

It was our 3rd time to Antigua, and so for a week of doing nothing we booked all-inclusive at the Verandah in June. We booked with Virgin Holidays. The hotel website made the hotel look perfect with eco-friendly credentials and seemed very elegant. My expectations were high.

However, we arrived to bingo being played in the bar and a beer drinking competition listed as one of the activities – we really did wonder what we’d come to.

The buggy driver seemed to expect tipping and chuntered under his breath when he dropped our bags outside the door. (The info book in the room does state that tips are included in all inclusive packages, but you can tip for exceptional service).

We paid a supplement for an ocean front room and had the very last cottage on the right overlooking Lover’s Beach -one of the 2 beaches. When I walked in I was really disappointed as the room didn’t look like the website photos. However, looking at the photos in the info book I realised it was just clever photography with the furniture re-arranged. The bathroom floor was covered in water after every shower, but staff seemed aware and left 2 floor mats (so much for water conservation).

It was quite amusing to sit on the large verandah and watch people putting their towels out to reserve sunbeds at 7.30am (and I was so tempted to go down and remove them!)

The hotel was about 50% full, but with noisy kids diving into the main pool encouraged by doting parents (despite the no diving signs), we opted to walk 10 mins to the beach by reception – which we frequently had to ourselves. It was so peaceful relaxing and watching the pelicans. The Rasta Bar was closed and drinks are only available in a cooler box, maybe why this beach is so quiet.

The food was fine. Waitresses were charming. Management regularly came to each table to ask how the meal was.

Pool Bar staff are plain miserable. I was told there wasn’t a cocktail menu, so I asked for a rum punch with vodka instead of rum (I’m no cocktail expert!) and was screeched at “what are you saying, I don’t understand you” Most embarrassing. I stuck to vodka and tonic! The champagne is a sparkling white wine so ask for that rather than risk being corrected!

Two of the bar staff previously worked at the Grand Pineapple Beach where we’d stayed 3 years ago. Attempts to engage them in conversation failed. Perhaps tipping is required in exchange for civility.

In the evening the waitresses from the restaurant would occasionally come down to the bar and offer table service which seemed a real luxury!

On our last night the Financial Controller who’s the acting resort manager came to chat and I mentioned the bar staff attitude – he seemed surprised and obviously doesn’t look at this site. Apparently the cocktail menus were taken by previous guests as souvenirs. Get a blackboard, or print some more off!

Disappointingly that there was no yoga and aerobics as mentioned on that darned website!

There’s a timid non-barking stray dog who some holidaymakers feed. He’s no bother and fun to watch. However, the Security Manager said that s/he’d have to go as they were afraid he may bite a guest.

We walked to the beach at the Grand Pineapple and the hotel is now looking really run down (apparently Sandals have bought it and are renovating it into a Beaches property). It’s worth doing the accompanied walk to the nearby Devil’s Bridge.

It’s definitely a 4*, nice clean resort, but I recommend for a maximum of 7 days and know your cocktails! Shame there’s a kids club - it would have made an ideal adults-only resort. Just get rid of the bingo and beer drinking competitions and send the bar staff to charm school.

UK Travellers: If booking with Virgin, there's no Check In & Chill Out and long queues through security

Me & My Husband stayed for 2 weeks in Aprll 2008. The staff are so helpful and could not do enough for you. The Beach is gorgeous. The food is first class. There are steps to the beautiful beach but nothing too steep or even difficult. People need to remember that when on holiday its all about relaxing. For those people who don't tolerate steps, there is a second beautiful beach on the resort - and you can even get the Golf Buggies to take you. This resort will cater for all people. The rooms are beautiful. A resort to be put on your list. Keep it going with the excellent service Barbara & Leroy. Thinking of you all M & M.