A Week In Paradise, Antiguan Style

So I mentioned a little while ago that I went on vacation.  This year’s spring trip took Michael and I to Antigua!

Antigua is a tiny island that’s part of the West Indies in the Caribbean.  According to our taxi driver, the population is about 100,000, but Wikipedia puts it at just over 80,000 according to the 2011 census.

We stayed at the St. James Club near Marmora Bay.  We were traveling high class this vacation.  We upgraded to the Royal Suites rooms which gave us an extra seating area and a full view of Marmora Bay, where we could watch the sunset over the bay every evening.  It also gave us access to the Royal Suites pool, which had a cool waterfall with grotto feature.  It was once I got home that I realized I didn’t take a picture of it.  I was trying to be more “in the moment” and actually look at what I was seeing while I was there instead of trying to take a gazillion pictures of everything.

The resort can be all-inclusive or not.  Why you wouldn’t take advantage of the all-inclusive plan, I don’t know.  Because not everyone is all-inclusive, the prices are listed for everything, and they had you give your room number and sign for food and drinks.  This was a different experience for us.  We were slightly worried that at the end of the week we’d get this huge bill, as maybe there were some hidden charges that weren’t covered, but it was all fine.  No surprises on check out.

The food was fantastic!  There was the standard breakfast buffet with omelet station, but they also had awesome French toast, and they had a waffle station with various toppings.  You could also order off an a la carte menu at breakfast or lunch if you weren’t feeling the buffet.  They posted the daily supper menus for the various restaurants in the lobby.  The nights we weren’t feeling the buffet, or if there was something really tastey looking at the a la carte restaurant, we made reservations at the a la carte.  That’s how I ended up having some fabulous Bailey’s cheesecake.

The resort looked really big on the map I’d looked at online, but it didn’t feel super huge.  There were lots of different areas to hang out in.  The resort is located on an ismis?  Is that what you call a pice of land that juts out and is surrounded by water on three sides?  There were two beaches.  The Marmora Bay side, where our room was, is very calm with hardly any breeze.  That’s where we spent most of our mornings.  On the other side of the resort is Coco’s Beach.  There was always a nice breeze on that side.  And there were lots of shade trees on both beaches, a definite must for this red-head!  There was also this guy who drove around in a golf cart on the beaches and brought you drinks.  That was pretty convenient.

The timing for vacation this year wasn’t the greatest for me.  We left the week after I’d moved into my new apartment.  It couldn’t be helped, the trip was booked back in October, way before the move was even a possibility.  Things were super chaotic before leaving, as I was trying to work and clean and unpack so I could pack for vacation.  I actually ended up packing the hour before we left.  Not my finest moment, and also not recommended.  I’ve never been so frazzled before a vacation, ever.  I really needed a vacation, but I feel like I didn’t have time before to anticipate and get excited for it because I was so caught up in moving stress.  It took some of the fun out of it for me.  It took me a couple of days to unwind and let go.  I feel a little mad at myself for not being more fully present.

Anyway, enough with the belly-aching.  I’m glad I went to Antigua!  It was awesome and it crossed another destination off my Wanderlust list!  Stay tuned to hear about our little excursion off the resort.