Antigua Holiday Dec 2011

In May 2011, I attended a travel trade function run by a Caribbean hotel association marketing company and met with the general manager from the exclusive Curtain Bluff hotel in Antigua. It was a fantastic opportunity to experience his hotel first hand. We flew with Virgin Atlantic and their flights both ways were almost fully booked, The transfer from the airport was approx 30 minutes or so across the island to the Curtain Bluff hotel. It truly is a fabulous property, built on a headland with a calm bay to one side and open sea to the other, every room having a sea view of one or the other. The hotel is owned and run by an eccentric American lady who lives in an enormous villa at the end of the property, and she is very hands on with meeting and greeting guests during dinner and other times, and pays maticulous attention to detail. Staff are mainly sourced from the local village and become part of the family of which the owner is at the helm. The Curtain Bluff is the most all-inclusive of any all-inclusive hotels I have been to, by that I mean they include activities like deep-sea fishing, snorkelling trips and other watersports as part of daily life. Many guests we spoke to have come back there year after year, in fact one couple said it was their 19th visit. A testimonial in itself if ever there was one. After 5 nights of sheer paradise, it was time to sample another property in the form of the popular St James Club, This is around 20 minutes from the Curtain Bluff past English Harbour, and is again set on a headland. This is a much bigger property with both villa and a hotel to choose accommodation from, many of the villas are in private or timeshare hands. The St James Club is a nice enough hotel, but naturally lacks the sheer quality and exclusive feeling of somewhere like the Curtain Bluff so it is unfair to compare the two. Antigua itself is still fairly undeveloped. sign posting virtually non-existant and in some areas wild goats wonder aimlessly around totally oblivious to traffic. If you are interested in maritime history, a visit to Nelsons Dockyard is a must. For shopping, head to the capital St Johns, where the cruise ships arrive daily so shopping becomes a serious occupation. Antiguans know how to party and none is better than the Friday evening gathering at Shirley Heights, a sunset lookout point with great views down to English Harbour and venue for a barbeque and knees-up till late. One other unique experience I sampled was the Stingray City visit, where you can swim with and handfeed stingrays and learn all about these strange fish. As with most holidays, my third trip to Antigua was over too soon, and I hope to go back there again to sample a few more of their famous 365 beaches. !