The Verandah Resort & Spa

We recently visited the Verandah Resort last week and were a bit concerned, having never visited Antigua before. Our worries melted away when we arrived at The Verandah ! Check in was quick and smooth, staff were very friendly and helpful. We got a shuttle to the Main Bar to wait for our rooms to be ready. The grounds are beautiful and the shuttles run regularly if you are further away from the restaurants etc. or you can call to be picked up from your room. What a lovely idea for a room for your vacation ! Lots of space and having no rooms above or below you meant it was nice and quiet and the bonus of a back Verandah to relax on in the evening or any time. The rooms are a bit older, but clean and fairly comfortable. Our biggest worry was the food, having been sick in the Dominican Republic on a recent trip. Again no worries, the food at The Verandah was amazing ! Not a lot of restaurants to choose from as on much larger resorts but the selection and quality of the food made up for that, we were very pleasantly surprised ! Their desserts are out of this world ! The only disappointment for myself was the shallowness of the water at the 2 beaches. I am not a pool lover and was looking forward to bouncing in the waves in the ocean. The 2 beaches are too shallow for that, but are perfect for families with children. We went next door to the sister resort The Pineapple twice on their beach and had our swimming and bouncy wave experience there. It's only a 2 minute walk to Long Beach. One suggestion would be to serve alcoholic beverages at the new drink stand that was built on the main beach. You could only get slushies or pop out of machines which meant that we had to climb the 39 stairs to the Beach Bar whenever we wanted an adult drink. Overall, we were very satisfied with our stay at the Verandah and would definitely return.

The resort itself is very nice, rooms great, food quality better than most, A La Carte excellent, most of the staff very pleasant, main pool very noisy and busy, this is a family resort! Luckily it has an adult (over 18yrs) pool. BUT the grounds are too spread out forcing long walks up and down very steep walkways to get to any of the facilities, tiring in 30+ degree weather and time wasteful. Shuttles are provided because of the distances between facilities but are very unreliable in their time keeping. (eg. waiting more than 20 mins on many occasions to get from room to restaurants etc.) Beaches are very poor with the Rasta beach being so small and away from almost all rooms and the main beach over crowded plus more than 35 steps to access it. The worst item on the bill is that the owners have taken over what we understand is protected national parkland to expand the resort to accommodate a couples only section, stripping the land and taken away from what was a pleasant view of the parkland. This will further densify the overcrowded beach area. Having travelled for many years this is the first resort my wife and I have found that we will not be returning to.

This was our 5th visit and 3rd with our daughter and grandsons for the Easter break. The boys met up with other boys they had made friends with the previous year who like us found this gem and loved it. What’s good and what’s bad, good is arriving and bad is leaving! Everyone is different, I personally don’t want to be in a multi roomed building with a beach – this isn’t. The Verandah is made up of avenues of small Villas in which you have various sleeping styles. For us we were happy with the basic, a UK King while next door adjoining us our daughter and family also used the queen sofa bed and added a single foldaway for the boys 9 and 6. When older we would opt for a bigger unit for them but this trip and for the two previous this was fine. You need to decide what suits you on booking as you would with any hotel. In 5 trips we have always had spotless accommodation. It’s hilly so they provide a golf buggy service to take you around the resort and like most buses they can get busy but you are on holiday, the planting is superb so just chill and look around or ring reception and ask to be picked up. You have a small beach with Rasta bar and snacks shack, palm trees and loungers scattered about, crazy golf across the road and tennis then a trip on the buggy takes you up to the main area passing the adult only pool on the way. Main area has the large pool shown in the pictures, the bar and restaurants, Sea Breeze their buffet style main restaurant, brilliant with kids and perfect for a laid-back holiday. All restaurants ask you cover up for meals. On either side of Sea Breeze, you have the restaurants you have to book, Buccaneers with waitress service and for a supplement of $30 per person Nicole’s which is that little bit special. There is so much variety in the food, all good wherever you decide to eat. Usually a weekly barbeque set up around the pool. Then a stroll takes you down to the main beach with water sports and plenty of loungers, non-alcohol drinks bar and just beside it the beach bar and grill which I’d rather keep to myself as it gets very busy and we loved it. Also available to book for evening meals. The entertainments crew put on various activities and if they are taken up it goes ahead but if no one turns up they move on to the next thing. Music each evening around the main bar till 11pm. The Spa has every treatment you might want to pamper yourself with. The mix of things for us and for the kids to do in a safe and friendly environment and the relaxation of doing as much or as little as you want to in such a beautifully landscaped place is 1/5th of the reason we go the other 4/5ths are the people, this is Antigua, the Caribbean, it’s not pretentious, it’s real and over the years the improvements show, it’s 28° life is at a slower pace, go with it. Relax. Thank you everyone at the Verandah 100% effort appreciated. The Andersons

What a great place for a family break. We loved the ambience of having bungalows in the beautiful grounds and it really helped us ‘go with the flow’ of being in the Caribbean. Our bedroom was large - plenty of room for us and our two boys (12 & 9) and a large Verandah overlooking the sea. Boy’s bed was a sofa bed but we left it as a bed all week and that worked fine for us. Great facilities - mini golf was fun as was all the water sport activities on two white sand beaches that were very safe for snorkeling and swimming (clear water, gently shelving). Food was great - even the buffet which I’m not usually a fan of. Nice how the Beach Bar & Grill got transformed some evenings into an a la carte restaurant. No cellphone calls on the beach was a great idea! Coffee at breakfast not the best....but the rum punches later in the day made up for that! Friendly helpful staff topped of a great week.

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.