The Verandah Resort & Spa

This resort is absolutely gorgeous and well-maintained. There is a lot of friendly staff but not at the bar if you ordered anything other than a drink you just pour in a glass. My 7-year old was met with an eyeroll when he ordered a virgin pina colada and I had the same when I ordered a margarita. There was a ton of seaweed in the water so we preferred to leave the resort to go to Long Bay which is a public beach outside of the resort. The food wasn't spectacular which was disappointing. My biggest issue was with the energy level of the resort. There wasn't any. I like to join or watch activities and they had a list of them going on but rarely did they follow through on them. The music (when they had some playing) at the pool isn't lively like that at most resorts but it is a great place to be if you want to sit and read a book on vacation. I think this was the most disappointing part of the trip since I've never been away where I found the resort boring. There were a number of families that were complaining about the lack of activities and fun. There wasn't even a swim-up bar and you had to walk over to the main bar to get a drink. If you left your drink at your chair to go back in the pool, the birds would flock over and drink it for you. We also had what they referred to as 2 queen-sized beds but it was one queen and one uncomfortable pull-out sofa. Good points...the views, cleanliness, great gym, lots of walking to get around the resort which I enjoyed (they do have golf carts often to take you around if you don't like that part), the birds, even though they drank your drinks, were beautiful to see, the miniputting was great, and the equipment available to use at the beach (kayaks, paddleboards, etc ) was always available. I would love to go back if there was some sort of daytime energy but I felt I had to constantly make my own fun for myself and my 7-year old. By day 4, I was tired of trying to think about a plan for the following day. Again, if you like calm places to read or sleep on your beach/pool chair, this is definitely where you should go because it is stunning. This is just not the resort for me or my family. It would make a great adults-only resort.

This is a beautiful resort! We stayed in a 2 bedroom villa - one bedroom with a king bed, the other bedroom with twin beds and a sofa bed in the living area. Our 3 teenage children were very comfortable with this sleeping arrangement. The villa was comfortable and very clean. The villa was cleaned daily. There is also a pool adjacent to the 2 bedroom villas - many evenings, my children were the only ones in this pool. The landscaping throughout the resort is incredibly beautiful. There are 2 beaches - we spent most of our time at the Main Beach. The beach is well maintained, clean with many beach chairs and covered areas for shade. We enjoyed the water sports which included kayaking and paddle boarding. We were also able to snorkel alomg the rocky ledge at the edge of the beach. We also took the short walk outside the resort to the Long Bay Beach which was also beautiful. The food was very good - we ate mostly at the Seabreeze restaurant and the Beach Bar and Grill - we were happy with the selection at both restaurants. My husband, who is a vegetarian, was able to eat well at both restaurants. Our children liked the wide selection of items available at Seabreeze. We arranged a tour with the tour desk - the young lady at the desk was very helpful and we enjoyed the 1/2 day kayaking/snorkeling trip with South Coast Horizons. Overall, this was one of the easiest and most relaxing vacations that we have ever been on. I think this resort is great particularly if you are travelling with kids. The accomodations were great for a family of 5.

The property itself is pretty in spite of the ugly construction adjacent to the main beach, but the rooms themselves were tired, and the staff was almost universally unpleasant. We’ve stayed at a lot of resorts and have never met so many grumpy staff members! The rooms (233 and 234) themselves were fairly worn, and the beds were quite uncomfortable. We had two adjacent water view villas close to the main pool and restaurants. The room our kids stayed in had a persistent musty smell. The main beach always had chairs and water sports equipment available with little or no wait. The water is calm and shallow, perfect for families with younger kids, and there were lots of kids there, so it may not be a great spot for people looking for a more adult experience. We enjoyed lounging on the beach most days in spite of the noisy and ugly construction immediately adjacent to it—if you look at the website pictures and see the greenery to the right of the beach, don’t expect that when you arrive because it’s been torn down to build another set of adults only villas. They have self-serve non-alcoholic beverages at the beach, which is also nice. We also loved the mini golf. We ate at the Seabreeze, Buccaneers, and the grill at the Rasta beach. Seabreeze buffet was pretty good in spite of the unpleasant service (other than the very friendly omelet chef and Christobel, who was always smiling), and Buccaneers was excellent with the best service we had all week. The service at the Rasta beach bar and grill were both the worst all week; one server was so unpleasant she had our son in tears. My husband thought if a room charge tip system was in place (like many resorts we have stayed at) it would motivate the staff to improve customer experience and help the staff financially also. We did two excursions, Pink Panther half day (arranged with guest services) and a private sailing charter on Cat Tales II - Tropical Catamaran Sailing (arranged on our own). Both were really fun and highly recommended. It’s also important to note that the resort is really spread out and hilly. That wasn’t a problem for us, but it could be if you have mobility issues. The island of Antigua is incredibly beautiful, and I can imagine returning, but if we did, we would likely stay somewhere else, probably on the Caribbean side.

Allow me to begin this review by saying that the residents, staff and just about everyone we met during our vacation was absolutely amazing. They were gracious, helpful, always had a smile on their face and went out of their way to help and try to make our vacation better. A special mention to one of our waitresses, Sharma, who worked in both the Buccaneer and Nicole restaurants. A terrific lady and an asset to your resort. The hotel itself was great, the food was amazing (except for the buffet, horrible) and the restaurants were upscale and elegant. The liquor was all top shelf and plentiful upon request. There are plenty of pools and beaches within the resort which were clean and had a tropical atmosphere. This is not an adults only resort but the management understands the desire for adults to have their space and created an adults only pool, which was nice. The resort is expansive and hilly and transportation to and from anything was accomplished by multi seat golf carts. However, there was no system as to when or where they would arrive. That aspect of the trip needs to be tightened up a bit. Now the downside(s). The bed was clean and comfortable and the sheets seemed to be changed every day. However, the room was oddly situated with a closet that juts out into the middle of the sparsely decorated room. Not at all the tropical feel I expected. Bathroom window is filthy Bathroom window ledge is filthy The ledge above the two pedestal sinks sticks so far out that you hit your head when using the sinks. Furniture is old, worn and dated White tile floors need a scrubbing The corners of the room haven’t seen a mop in years. Closet doors have no bottom track Patio doors are very hard to slide open. Wicker furniture is tattered and falling apart Outside bottom of fridge door is rusty Curtains do not close all the way to prevent morning sunlight in. And I couldn’t take my CPAP breathing machine because bottled water wasn’t free and purchasing it in the gift shop was prohibitively expensive. Lastly, we experienced our first earthquake. A 4.7 to be clear. Everyone around the pool was startled by the rumble and then feeling the ground move. As confirmation, it was reported on line the next day. Would I go back? Hmmmmm, not sure. I go to the Caribbean for that tropical, Caribbean atmosphere. I didn’t get that at this resort. All in all, a 7 out of 10 for me.

My husband and I stayed for 5 nights in a waterfront suite, and when we arrived were upgraded to a premium waterfront suite. We guessed that the premium meant a better location, because we were about a 2 minute walk from the pool, restaurants, beach bar, and main beach, which was wonderful. Positives: food tasted good (even if buffet didn't look like much, flavor was there), good beach, very large pool, walking distance to Pineapple Beach Club (additional restaurants for adult travelers at no additional cost), golf cart shuttles to navigate large resort, clean rooms, spacious and green resort, spa onsite (expensive as most hotel spas are, but good services) Negatives: Inconsistent cocktails, a la carte meals were served quickly (Nicole's was the exception, this meal was properly paced and worth the surcharge for us), inconsistent WiFi (hot spot at main pool/guest services area, had to pay additional charge for WiFi in room) Ezra at guest services was wonderful and very helpful, she booked dinner reservations both at the Verandah and at the Pineapple Beach Club for every night we were there. As our first all-inclusive experience, I was pleased with our choice and would travel here again.