Hotels & Trave

Beach Club at St James Club Antigua St. James Club All Inclusive

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Stayed all-inclusive at the Beach Club in July 2008. St James Club essentially comprises 3 parts – hotel rooms around the reception area, the centrally located Beach Club accommodation (two floors) facing the Atlantic Beach, and a complex of what I believe are timeshare apartments. We did have a note left on our room door inviting us to a timeshare presentation, but we were never pestered about this.

We had two upstairs rooms at the Beach Club which is well situated for all the on-site amenities – beaches, tennis courts, restaurants, taxi rank, etc. The rooms are big with high ceilings, large beds, a small kitchen sink unit and fridge, ironing board and iron, free safe and large TV (mainly US channels). The bathroom is also big with a large bath, two basins and hairdryer. A large balcony overlooks the Atlantic side beach. Rooms are air conditioned and have large ceiling fans. They were spotlessly clean and housekeeping services were excellent. The rooms were never made up until mid afternoon but this did nott cause us any inconvenience.

The Atlantic side beach benefits from a sea breeze so is less stifling that the beach on the bay side. Seaweed, which other reviewers have complained about, is cleared from the beaches each morning so they stay clear for the daytime. The Atlantic beach offers opportunities for first time snorkellers - at the Coco’s end of the beach where the reef comes to the shoreline and the water, when we were there, was surprisingly warm. Trips for more adventurous snorkelling are run from the Mamora Beach (where pedelos, kayaks and sail boats can also be borrowed at no charge). A PADI dive school operates from the hotel and runs daily trips to numerous dive locations around Falmouth Harbour.

For the most part staff were friendly and helpful. The St James Club manager appeared to tour around the restaurants every night – so there is always an opportunity to complain (although we had no cause to).

People staying at the Beach Club usually eat at Coco’s restaurant (but are directed to each of the others at least one a week). We had no complaints about the food – mostly buffet but a good selection. Drinks are freely available from the bar and from a trolley that circuits the two beaches. Lunch is available well into the afternoon and seems to overlap the start of afternoon tea. You do have to book the time for your evening meal at breakfast time but this is not the problem I thought it would be – it gets dark early so you tend to be off the beach, or back from trips long before evening mealtimes. We did experience slow service on one Sunday evening (when Coco’s offered a menu rather than buffet service) and the two occasions we used the Docksider restaurant it was very busy.

St James Club is located on a fairly remote peninsula (with guards on the main gate) and unless you are very adventurous you will need either a hire car or taxi for trips around the island - nearby Falmouth Harbour is probably walkable, if you can cope with the heat! Note that if you use a hire car there are almost no road signs anywhere on the island. The upside of the remote location is the absence of beach hawkers and not having to wear the all-inclusive wristbands used by hotels in the busier resorts. The downside is that you do need transport to get anywhere (although this is probably true for many other hotel locations as well). Taxi fares are set by the Government and most taxis are air conditioned people carriers. Taxis can be booked from reception or you can just turn up at the taxi drivers hut across the road from the Beach Club which is more convenient. The drivers will act as tour guides for you, pointing out things you would otherwise miss, and will usually wait for you (or come back at the appointed time) to return you to your hotel if you go to any of the tourist sites (the taxi driver who took us to Stingray City even came out on the boat with us!).

Antigua is a small island and most trips can be done in a half day. We went to Stingray City, St Johns and to Jolly Harbour for a helicopter trip over Montserrat and on each occasion we were back in time for a late lunch! All of the above are recommended as are the zip-lines at the Rainforest Canopy tour and a look around Nelson’s Dockyard.

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