Awesome ANTIGUA awaits!
Dive with turtles, bask on the island’s beautiful beaches, explore Nelson’s Dockyard — and it’s all restriction-free
ALMOST everyone here has a nickname. ‘Local’ (because he is), Lobster 2 (because he works at the beach) and Tidy (yes, the cleaner) are all delighted that Antigua is so keen to welcome visitors — and that the island remains on the UK’s travel corridor list.
And quite right, too. Latest figures show that there have been only five deaths on the island and 151 Covid cases overall.
Which is why I had no qualms about bringing my wife and three teenage daughters — Ellie, 18, Daisy, 16, and Lily, 13 — here between lockdowns, as a special treat for something or other — and I am a tubby 56-year-old with high blood pressure.
‘Local’ taxied us to St James’s Club & Villas, a 100-acre resort on the south-eastern tip of the island, where we had opted for an allinclusive week’s stay, which, as well as meals, included all manner of free water sports, such as paddleboarding, kayaking and sailing Hobie Cats.
St James’s Villas has been around since 1983, and before that it was a Holiday Inn. One great thing about it is that there are two beaches, one on the Atlantic side (which is slightly windier but great for swimming), the other on the Caribbean coast, enclosed in a small bay that’s perfect for families with younger children. For the energetic there’s a
gym; for the tired, a kids’ club; and for party animals, a nightclub (although owing to Covid its an 11pm finish at the moment). For the brave, there are also scuba-diving courses for an extra cost.
Ellie did a half- day scuba induction session for £150, which included a dive with turtles and rays, although you can do longer courses to get formally PADI certified.
Car hire is essential in Antigua if you want to get around as taxis are expensive — so we hired a Jeep to explore.
Driving is a breeze (left-hand side of the road) and traffic pretty minimal, though the odd cow or goat may surprise you.
Over the course of our stay, we mainly tootled around the southern beaches (where the trade winds blow less) and came up with three firm favourites.
First, Darkwood, bang in the middle of the South Coast, with a backdrop of native forest and hills. Then there was Galleon beach, five minutes from St James’s and around the corner from Nelson’s Dockyard in English Harbour.
Finally, on the East Coast, the famous Half Moon Bay, the family favourite with its winning combination of 3,200 ft of white coral sand, crystal-clear water and the aptly named Beach Bum Bar.
A sign at Half Moon Bay describes the imminent opening of a luxury hotel, but that’s all up in the air now, according to the chatty Beach Bum barman who does a roaring trade in £16 lobster plates.
Nelson’s Dockyard is one of Antigua’s biggest attractions. It’s where Britain’s favourite sailor was based in the 1780s to enforce trade rules with the newly founded United States. The historical Dockyard has just reopened, and the shops, restaurants and yacht harbour are as lively as ever — attracting locals, yachties and tourists alike.
HIGH above English Harbour is Shirley Heights. This clifftop fortress hosts the 39- yea r-old Antigu an institution ‘the Sunday BBQ party’, where magnificent sunsets form the backdrop to live music and Caribbean food.
Continuing our road trip around the southern beaches, we stumbled across Jacqui O’s, an upmarket beach bar and restaurant, with views of Montserrat and its smoking volcano. Lance Leonhardt, the owner, made his fortune removing dents from cars and moved to Monaco, but wanted another adventure.
The girls were impressed to learn that One Direction’s Louis Tomlinson dined on burgers there just weeks ago, while my wife Louise and I lapped up his stories of long lunch es with Roger Moore in St Tropez.
You can’t experience the true splendour of Antigua without taking a boat trip. As is the way of island life, we asked Lance if he knew anyone who could arrange this for us. Step forward Stevie, who had lost his job on the private yacht he captained prior to Covid — another reminder of how tough it’s been for many people on the island — but has started up a charter business on his own boat.
From Jolly Harbour, a lively resort village on the east coast of the island, we motored out to Cades Reef, where spotless water allowed us to see rays, squid, conch and hundreds of reef f i sh, a source of special enchantment for my environmentally minded youngest.
The elder two were more impressed that their handsome captain had turned down an appearance on their favourite Netflix fix, Below Deck, an reality TV series about the crew of a superyacht during charter season.
All three loved wakeboarding from the back, an enjoyment matched only by Louise overhearing my onesided conversation with Stevie as we headed back to port.
‘Steve, do you ever get bored?’ I asked. No answer came my way. Steve just smiled and pointed at the ocean.