St. James's Club & Villas

This was our fourth time at St James Club, along with many visits to other Elite Island Resorts in the Caribbean. The location is stunning and has two completely different sides to the resort. On one side it looks out onto the ocean, with a beach protected by a reef meaning you can swim in (the sometimes lively) waves. There is some seaweed washed up every morning, but this is collected and removed by a tractor and trailer every morning. The resort has built a wall along the length of this beach, creating a two tier environment, upper for lounging on sunbeams, lower for swimming. You can watch the pelicans, frigate birds (spectacular) and Egrets fishing in the ocean from the pool and 11/11 bar/restaurant at the far end. This location is great for a relaxed lunch with decent menu, drinks and service. The golf cart mobile bar trundles around offering a good selection of alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks. On the other side, is Mamora Bay, this is the far bigger beach in the much calmer protected bay and is where the water sports facility is located. The team here are great and will give advice on using the new Hobby Cat catamarans, (x5) paddleboards, etc. The bay is safe but can provide some exciting sailing if the wind gets up! There are plenty beds on this beach, but it can get quite busy. Food available for lunch at the Beach Bar and Grill, again decent menu, drinks and service. The place is typical Caribbean relaxed, mostly adult guests but nobody over indulging in the all-inclusive drinks. The range of premium spirits was the best I have seen in the Caribbean, measures are generous, sometimes really generous! Draught beer is local Piton only and served in smaller glasses, wines are decently drinkable. Service at the bar is usually good but can be slow when busy. Breakfast is only at the Rainbow, buffet style with an egg station and all the expected cooked offerings. They also offer a full continental range of pastries, cold meats, juices and smoothies. The restaurants in the evening are Rainbow Garden (a la carte), Coco (a la carte) both needing reservations a day ahead, 11/11 bar restaurant and Docksider bar and buffet. Reserved dinner slots are 18:30, 19:30, 20:30 with 19:30 seeming the most popular and therefore the busiest for staff. There is an additional cost Italian restaurant (50USD/person) again needing a reservation, we went for lobster and steak which were delicious, service on the slow side. Rainbow and Coco menus change weekly, generally we preferred Rainbow as menu suited us and the service was a bit better than Coco. The food offering is good overall, and you have daily theme at Docksider, Indian, Oriental, Roats, Seafood, etc. Need to mention the Mamora Café which is open 24 hours (manned 06:00 – 23:00). Great to be able to have a Barista coffee (hot and iced) and speciality tea along with a cake, pastry or savoury whenever you wanted, especially early morning when suffering from time difference to UK. Staff were great (but older lady was especially nice). The vast majority of staff are friendly and professional, with only one or two exceptions, and try their utmost to deliver a good service. There does seem to be a shortage of experienced staff, with a fair amount under training, hopefully this resolves soon. The new GM (Riaan) is very hands on, chatting to guests, helping keep the restaurant running smoothly by clearing tables etc. He is clearly focussed in lifting the level of service at the resort and we wish him well. Also, Donna (Rooms Manager?) was to be seen helping Riaan keep the restaurant service levels up. Other staff we wanted to recognise are Vivienne (Pool Fitness), Sarafina (Royal pool bar), Beverly (Rainbow evening), Dorland (Rainbow breakfast), Nicola (11/11 lunch), Breanne reception, Denisha (Royal pool bar). Looking forward to a return next year.

We enjoyed a wonderful stay at St. James club for hubby's 55th birthday. The management and staff made it enjoyable and memorable. Although it was only 3 nights, it was so rejuvenating, it felt like a week. We appreciated the food options-the coffee shop was our favorite spot, and the curry night Docksider was great. To top it off, we made new friends. Riaan, thanks to you and your staff, we can't wait for the next visit.

We came for 5 nights in November 2025. There were good and bad pieces. Here is my outline: The good: We had a newly renovated room in the Pineapple building, goes directly out to the beach. The front desk and guest services staff are extremely friendly and helpful. The shells are absolutely amazing if you love to collect. The water pressure and ac at this resort is probably the best we ever had. Chrisada at the main pool bar is a sweetheart. The saxophone and singer they had one night was really good. We enjoyed the beach party on Friday night. Pink panther excursion was worth it! The bad: The food is honestly probably among the worst we have had. Most people working in the restaurants seem like you are bothering them. Literally one day there was a huge grease fire at the beach grill, they moved customers away but like didn’t shut down or tell us anything. They really need to do something about families with kids. Some of them are out of control. Now I get it, I have 4 of my own, but there is a way to control guests. For example, one day there was a younger aged child running around naked rolling on everything and nothing. Another day a mom was changing their baby at the pool who had poop all over their back, she washed them off at the shower next to the pool that we all use!!! The Catamaran cruise was seriously a death trap. We were going over swells of 10-15ft plus, no lights on the boat, they never should have taken us out. Housekeeping is severely lacking. They never cleaned unless we asked so only happened 2x over 5 days and they always forgot us, maybe they didn’t know the room was occupied? Lastly, if you get a room with a tub, it is difficult getting in and out, I do not recommend for older couples. Tips for management - offer waiter service at the pool to get drinks and lunch food - figure out a way to better control guests with kids - improve food Tips for travelers - bring bug spray - request room with shower if necessary - bring snacks as food is not good -

A lovely stay at St James villas in a spacious beach front room with a great view and decent food. A few frustrations along the way. Communication was poor and could improve so many things, and housekeeping needs fixing. There are friendly villa/timeshare owners that frequent there and are keen to tell you ‘it’s getting going’ or just ‘getting started’. But we were there for a week of the year and wanted to get settled fast, so the lack of info in the rooms, restaurant scheduling, lack of activity planning and incorrect information didn’t help us settle in quickly. Having said that we liked the hotel and liked being on the windy beach, with the contrast to the other calm beach just minutes away where we spent the days. We thought the staff were lovely and enjoyed the food. We’d describe it as a full board type hotel with drinks even though we did all inclusive. No late night snacking either, maybe the coffee shop for cakes or a wrap. Pros. - Beautiful location and friendly staff. - Food was generally very good, Cocos was our favourite and portion size in there and another restaurant had improved on second visits. - Our beachfront room was really nice and presumably recently refurnished, with a big terrace to sit on. - Spacious hotel and grounds, beaches are very close, plenty of room to walk around and find different places. Beach beds and towels easy to find. - Decent gym. Water sports available. - Nice coffee shop and friendly staff. Joe Ann (and her colleague) were friendly and made a nice coffee - Staff- Jamiera made a good stir fry on the oriental buffet and we liked the job the front of house ladies at the Beach Diner, Dockside, 11-11 and Cocos did. Cressida on the Reef bar was a pleasure to talk to. Sylvere was great too. - Caribbean Beach party was great fun - Good for gluten free preference if it’s a choice - Breakfast buffet was really good - The buffets are decent and better than many, nice food, good variety if you arrive early otherwise the oriental Peking Duck (everyone’s favourite!) becomes roast lamb! Cons. - Running at a basic level, perhaps due to price point, and ‘no frills’? - Housekeeping let the hotel down (3 star level)- it’s every other day which doesn’t seem enough with sandy and dirty floors, and towels that tend to dry slowly in the air con if you shower more. But also, it wasn’t cleaned well on those days and items not replenished. Our shampoo started half full. The floor was filthy on arrival day and we had to use hand towels to clean our feet (it wasn’t from outside) tables not wiped another day, cups not cleaned etc. - No drinks in the room even though there’s a big empty fridge, tea and coffee not restocked. - Basic activity list for the size of the place, with no week schedule - Rowdy neighbours & their friends on the terrace next to us (6+ people at one point) one was sick on the beach, and another ‘smoking’ (not cigarettes) on the room terrace a few times. Meant our room smelt unless we closed the patio doors and listened to the air con rather than the ocean. The website FAQ says rooms are no smoking. I asked the hotel but apparently they have ashtrays on terraces (ours didn’t) and the hotel said they can’t do anything and can only ask them to consider other guests. I didn’t expect this in a hotel, maybe in a bar or on the beach yes. Our bad luck. And you have to laugh… - Offered a welcome drink that never arrived, asked where it was and it still didn’t arrive - Offered an anniversary drink at Cocos by the booking team, never arrived - Asked about where to get daytime ice cream at reception, told it was ‘an evening thing’ - No lunchtime desserts at the restaurants, except buffet - then we saw ice cream appear later in the week at a restaurant that said it hadn’t got any - Asked about nuts for a healthy snack, told they can be bought in the shop and ice cream too (Otherwise your snack is always sweet - cake or fruit pot, a small wrap or you could take something from the buffet, or order at restaurants) - Sausage rolls arrived on the day we left! - Yoga advertised on website- there was none, then it was 8.30am Friday but was actually 8am. ‘I heard - It’s just starting back!’ No stretch or other similar classes and I missed half a class I’d planned around - On checkout day our room keys stopped working before leaving time, after we’d paid to extend! We ate in Piccolo Mondo, it was nice and we had lobster and steak. The venue or meal sadly wasn’t enough to get us back - we would have gone back. We enjoyed Cocos more. Bars were fine, one seemed to pack up early in the evening, the other couldn’t do pina coladas one evening - a shame if you’re not a daytime drinker and enjoy your drinks in the evening. Cocktail menu may or may not be available… We would return to Antigua (we’ve been once before and to the Caribbean). This is a nice hotel and lovely location. We rarely do all inclusive and aren’t massive eaters or drinkers but we do like nice food, and I think we just expected a bit more ease, more food variety if we fancied a holiday snack, and maybe more quality if we upgraded. The advertised yoga or even a stretch class were what we expected a few times too, not just one class. We really liked the place and had a very good holiday but it needs some work. My 4 star is for the location, the staff being friendly, and the food.

We stayed for 10 days in August and there were good and bad things. Our room was dated, smelly, damp and not cleaned very much. I went to the reception after being there for four days with five requests and issues, I said our toilet didn't flush well, some body wash, clean towels, body wash and a ash tray that I had asked for when we arrived, we left our dirty towels on the floor and when we went back to our room in the evening someone had been in our room and just bought an astray, the towels were still on the floor, I had to go back to reception and I asked the manager to come and see our room, he looked shocked when he came in and we were given all the things we asked for. We did laugh everyday to see if our room had been cleaned or not. The food was average, staff seemed like they weren't that bothered and one time we walked into the lunch area and were totally ignored, however it wasnt all staff, the ones on the boat trips were excellent. I watched birds jump in the food at breakfast time, one day there was food and drinks left all round the pool area until 6 o'clock at night as we were still around the pool area at that time. We made the most of the holiday and it wasn't all bad but I would not want to go back.