Galley Bay

We stayed at Galley Bay June 3rd through the 8th! I am 30 and my fiance is 28. We take a trip to a different area in the Caribbean every year. We chose Antigua this year & after months of research decided on Galley Bay resort! We had one of the Gauguin suites & i would definitely recommend getting this suite. It is completely secluded w/ a private plunge pool. We didn't even use the main pool bc we had our private pool. The main pool was stunning we just never saw the need to swim there w/ others when we had our 2 lounge chairs right next to our own little pool. On arrival we had little red ants in our room which we thought was due to the flowers they had placed throughout the suite. We called reception & asked if they could skip placing any more flowers in our room throughout our stay. They obliged but it didn't seem to help the ant problem...They stuck around and there were a lot. But we overlooked this because we weren't going to let a few small ants ruin our vacation. The room was always well kept and clean. New towels when needed & we were a small walk away from the beach activities hut where we could grab some new beach towels when needed. We reused all of our towels as often as we could bc we knew it would help their going green cause! We walked around the lagoon & rode bikes, which were provided, around the lagoon everyday of our stay. We booked an excursion w/ Wass, who was great, he took us to Bettys Hope, Devils bridge, long beach, & some shopping. If you love natural wonders like me devils bridge is the place to go, I could have stayed there all day taking photographs! Our last full day we booked a couples massage in the spa. We only did a 30 min massage & asked that they only target our backs because we both have a lot of back pain...boy did we ever wish we had done the hr long massage! It was amazing! We kayaked twice while we were there & also tried our hand at paddle boarding which was fun & interesting! We snorkeled everyday. We brought our own equipment...But if you don't have your own they provide for you. We saw many fish and even some rays along the rocks about 100 yards out from the resort. The food was great... every meal, every day! The only issue we had was that not everyone working at the resort was pleasant. We have traveled to many places and compared to our stays at other resorts we didn't seem to feel as welcome. Other than that the property is gorgeous and food & drink were phenomenal!! I wouldn't hesitate to stay here again!

Just wanted to give you the best, honest review of the Galley Bay Resort & SPA located in Antigua W.I. Very detailed here, but I hope this may help you make your decision. First, it is important to understand what our goals and expectations were before choosing this vacation. Basically, my wife and I were celebrating a milestone anniversary. We wanted an adult only resort, all-inclusive meal, and drink plan, on a properly maintained beach, not overly crowded with other resorts on the same beach, and have great service and privacy. Overall, our experience was "Excellent"! Value - Good. As a shopper, we always want more discounts and opportunities for a good bargain. We just felt that the price could have been a little more reasonable. Mainly, due to the age of the facility. This does not mean that the facility was run down or falling apart, just some amenities are outdated. Ie/ We would have liked a stereo in our room for music. Granted we could have purchased a portable Bluetooth speaker, but would have been great if the hotel provided one. Service - Excellent. Staff pleasant, courteous, and helpful. Upon arrival the air conditioner was not working properly. We advised the Housekeeper in passing, and was planning to follow up with the front desk. We came back from beach to find the air unit fixed and working properly. An indirect issue was addressed and resolved by a staff member not responsible, in our mind, for fixing the issue. Wow! Beach & Pools - Excellent. Beach is secluded and no other resort is on top of you. Clean and very nice. Giorgio Armani's house is located next to the resort. Obviously, he knows perfection! His house is located at a perfect place! Pool was clean and refreshing. Enjoyed the location and the amenities! Dining Options - Good. Limited to 3 restaurants and one outside grill. One restaurant is a pay event, needing a reservation a week in advance. This is the Ismay restaurant. We did not eat there due to the waiting list. However, the Gaugin and Seascape restaurants were awesome! The Gaugin has private cabanas for dinner. The location was great. Service and food perfect. Room Comfort - Excellent. Mentioned earlier the air unit was not working upon arrival, but was fixed within two hours. Overall, the room was great. Clean and everything working properly. Bathroom was spotless and the housekeeping service was outstanding. Only one ask, is my wife and I would have liked more Caribbean music playing at the dining and pool areas. However, our like is another's dislike, but we believe music does help comfort the soul! We "Highly recommend" this resort to you!

if you want palm fringed beaches, coral reefs less than 20 metres off shore (admittedly small ones but who cares) and service to make you think there is somewhere akin to paradise on earth look no further. If you want to totally unwind and kick back at stress come here. you will not be disappointed.

This was our second trip to Galley Bay, I don't usually go back to a resort but enjoyed it so much I decided to go back. I was not disappointed, still a relaxing holiday, to be honest there is nothing I can complain about, so thank you Cedric and his amazing staff Ida, Hazeldene, Keitha, Caryl, Sadi to name but a few. For a excellent trip on the Exellence on an amazing trip to Barbuda which I highly recommend. Well done to Diamonds international for there great service at going o it of there to find what's was after. We went on June the first and although there was a bit of rain it was incredibly hot even in the rain. All in all we had a great time, so thank you Galley Bay once again and hopefully we will be back next year.

Over the years, many reviewers have commented on the factors that for us were significant in the original attraction of Galley Bay, such as the friendly staff, the acommodation, the wonderful beach, the relatively small size of the hotel, its location, layout and significantly the range of inclusive a la carte dining facilities. Those features have brought us back for 5 consecutive years now, each time for 2 weeks. I should say at the start that we once again enjoyed a lovely holiday and in doing so met up with friends for whom Galley Bay has also proven to be a favourite holiday haunt and renewed acquaintance with many of the long-serving members of staff. In previous reviews I have unhesitatingly awarded the hotel 5* but sadly on this occasion I felt unable to do so. The basic reason for that is because for all of our previous visits, which have tended to be towards the end of May and early June, the hotel has always offered a choice of both of the inclusive a la carte restaurants for the majority of the lunch and dinner services. This year however, they had implemented a regime which restricted restaurant opening times so that generally only one of those restaurants was available at each service. We did speak to managers about this who told us that this was essentially due to the hotel being at 60% capacity and that they reserved the right to implement that policy at any time of the year if necessary. Friends who have visited Galley Bay far more frequently than us and at most times of the year said they had never known the hotel to do this previously. If this is a new policy it is unfortunate and to my mind not in the interests of a high quality customer service. We made our reservation last year with the expectation that the restaurants would be open as they always had been in the past.To discover only upon arrival that that was not the case was disappointing and apart from a daily notice written on a chalk board, to my knowledge nothing was formally communicated to arriving guests about the policy or the reasons for it. We had to ask. As I said earlier in this review, we still enjoyed our holiday again, but this situation did become something of an irritation and an unwanted topic of conversation amongst other returning guests. I sincerely hope that Galley Bay, which prides itself on offering a high quality caribbean holiday experience, will reconsider its stance on this issue.