Good value for money.

OK, this is not 5 star hotel and is not priced like one. It is decent and clean place and you are not going to get hungry as well. Antigua is on the expensive side and this hotel makes it affordable to visit with out breaking the bank. The rooms are on smaller side but enough for two people. We stayed in renovated part of resort in standard room and there was nothing to complain about, but again we read reviews and knew what to expect. THIS IS NOT A 5 STARS HOTEL. Unless you upgrade room  [... read more]there will not be no fridge, iron or coffee maker in the room. It did not matter for us. I also take with me wire hangers as there is never enough (read in review) and it was perfect as there is no drawers in the room, every thing on hangers or limited shelves. The bed was very comfortable, new Certa King size mattress. Air conditioner work well, for nights we were turning it off and slept like babies. Only one thing bothered us, room was by staircase and people getting down or up talking loudly were waking us up. There are no glass in windows from the entrance side, (first time see this kind of design), so ask for room far away from staircase and you will be fine. Most of the rooms are ocean view, the resort is set in horseshoe, ask for 2 or 3 floor for the view. Warning, no elevators if you have mobility issues. Another thing is coffee quality, we love coffee and they do not have cappuccino machine and the regular coffee was awful. Buffet, pretty much like everywhere else, repetitive but ok. Restaurants, very good and unlimited but you can reserve only one at the time, day before, so be at concierge desk early if you want specific hour. Drinks are flowing and wide assortment. Staff generally friendly and helpful with few exceptions, One of bartender ladies working in the morning acting like she is forced to be there, on border of being rude. On the other hand you have Zawda, bartender for evenings, most professional, friendly and helpful lady ever. Another person worth mentioning was Solonge from front desk, very professional and helpful, personally assuring that we were happy with our room. Now the best part, BEACH !!! Is beautiful, the best beach that we have been to so far, (so why to worry about the hotel, you will be only sleeping there). They also have beautiful pools but this is not for me, why to get in pool if you have this beach with warm calm Caribbean Sea. I was told that there is no snorkeling off the beach. Good news, there is snorkeling off the beach!!! East side of the beach is rocky and there is lots of marine life there, it was good. Maybe not for scuba divers or very advanced snorkels but it was very decent. Walks on the beach are also nice, a mile or so long, sugar white beach, breathtaking. Summarizing this is very good family vacation, if you will be looking for reason to complaining you will find it, but if you keep in mind money saved compared to Sandals you will be very happy. We were!! Suggestion, try to see Barbuda, Jolly Beach is beautiful. Barbuda is out of this world!!!

Amazing beach

Hotel is a bit old and tired however grounds and beach is amazing. Staff is great. Rooms are bit small but clean and you do have anything you need. If you like to stay in room a lot than this hotel is not for you but if you like beach and pool and spend your day outdoor you will love it.

Breathtaking Beach

The beach has a view that you never get tired of. Nice long beach, soft sand, great for long walks.. Adequate clean rooms, good food and friendly staff. Awesome sunsets. Catamaran trips that pick you up on the beach. Can't wait to go back.

Returned just for the amazing service and views!

This is my second time going to Jolly Beach, I wrote about this before and I feel that this gem is something that more people need to visit. It is steps away, literally steps away from the beach. The rooms are cozy and the staff ensure that you are safe no matter the time of day. I went for a week (Sailing week). I took part in Jet Skiing (not apart of the resort package but you can do so if you want) snorkelling (this is included along with other water sports), Swimming with Sting Rays in Sting [... read more] Ray city. You can book to be picked up or you can find your way there but it is located on the other side of the island. I planned a day trip to Barbuda where I was able to visit the caves, 27 Mile beach and have a lobster lunch on said beach. My room included a double bed, washroom, balcony which Facing the pool bar/activities and beach!!!! The staff ensured that I ate every day as I was always leaving to go on an adventure. The local food is great and if you are not west Indian or not familiar with the food and do not want to venture out, they have a Caribbean night! One of the most memorable moments was when I went Scuba Diving with Antigua Scuba School. The staff are amazing, professional and great to be around! Please look them up if this is something you would like to do as it is not included. Now, I always say this but the pictures give this resort no justice! What you find on the website is nothing close to how much land this place covers! You can walk along the beach starting where Jolly Beach resort is, until you get to the end of Jolly Harbour. Tammy booked this trip with me via Air Canada and I love flying with them. It is a direct flight and about 4 hours. The new airport in Antigua is a huge upgrade from the one they previously had. So many places to shop and eat! I also had the opportunity to eat at Big Banana Antigua (located in the airport and in St.Johns as well) The food is amazing and worth every bite! If you are a person that is not as adventurous as I am, you can literally stay on the resort and relax or spend your time there as they have ample events and activities, they have sports, water sports, BBQs on specific nights, fire side gatherings and mini festivals, contests in the day, and about 2 pools. It comes off like it is 3 as the large pool looks like it is split in two as it is located where the pool bar is. I had an all inclusive so this really helped when I was tired and did not want to leave the resort. Did not have to worry about food/liquor/drinks. I would come back again and again to this resort. It feels like home every time I arrive. Kudos to Jolly beach and their staff for always welcoming me and remembering me! It was so heart warming for them to remember me even though I had not been there in about 2 years! I chose this resort because it is affordable and it is very accomodating for a single person. They do allow families and there are couples that I have seen getting married! Lovely resort and place in all. I miss it already.

Great Trip

Absolutely loved the location. Mountains behind the hotels. Very favourable kayak licatuon. Great beach to walk down. With a marina and market on Saturday s to visit. Restaurants & grocery store close by..Nice comfortable feel, beautiful scenery. Clean. good service Would definitely go back again. 👍

Great Value! Amazing beach!

I'm going to start with the not so great, and it will be obvious immediately upon your arrival, the hotel is old, very old. In fact, I saw a plaque that said it was built in 1979:-) So, the resort and the rooms will be dated. Also, the rooms (super saver room at least) are very small. Now that that's been said let's move on to the positives and there are quite a few! First of all the beach is AMAZING! The waters are so warm and super calm that I spent hours in there. I also thought the food was  [... read more]fantastic! I thought there was enough variety to keep me satisfied and during my short stay (4 nights) the fish options included Red Snapper, Mahi Mahi, Tuna etc. Every day the menu varied and there were a lot of local Caribbean options as well (for example Roti, Jerk Chicken, etc. etc.). I have a super sensitive stomach and I wasn't sick once. The buffet wasn't huge, but in my opinion, it was big enough. I didn't have the opportunity to eat at any of the a la carte restaurants so I can't speak to them. The majority of the staff were super friendly and helpful. A few were indifferent but that didn't bother me. I found the grounds to be very clean, even if they were dated. I also thought the room was extremely clean. Every room has an ocean view, which is a nice bonus. Our air conditioning and fan worked just fine. I really liked this part of Antigua as well because there was a harbour with little shops and restaurants and a grocery store nearby. So, it had a real community feel. There are very few umbrellas available on the beach, so you'll have to arrive early, or otherwise you'll have to rent an umbrella from a vendor ($10 US per day). Overall I really enjoyed staying here, but I went with realistic expectations. Antigua is EXTREMELY expensive and you cannot expect a 5* resort for a 3* price. In short, you are getting what you pay for. You are sacrificing room size and modern amenities for a world class beach. You will get great food, good service and a dream location for a decent price. I would stay at this resort again. This is definitely one of my favourite beaches in the world and I think it is worth staying in an older resort in order to have the chance to go to Antigua. After all, are you going to spend time in your room or to spend time on the beach?

Very Unsatisfactory

The hotel was very run down, a great disappointment. My bathroom was disgusting, there was mold and cob webs all above the walls. My blow dryer caught on fire, therefore not usable, my phone did not work. The cleaning staff was very nice and accommodating, she did everything possible to make our stay comfortable. The grounds need a lot of work, I did not expect this resort to be a 5 star but I certainly did not expect it to be 1.5 star. The food lacked choices, the entertainment was good and [... read more] the staff were very courteous and pleasant. Antiqua has one of the best beaches I've been to, but Jolly Beach Resort needs to be torn down.

Jolly Beach Resort

Visited the Jolly Beach resort April 2-9 2017 just arrived back. Resort needs to be updated the rooms were old and dated and the bathrooms need to be renovated badly we where very surprised that the pics on the website looked better than they where when we got there. Had a sliding that we could not open and toilets where very old. Other than that Beach is amazing,staff are very wonderful and very helpful. Restaurants have very good food and also breakfast is good lots of variety. Was very disa [... read more]ppointed that we had to purchase bottle water or have to pay 2.00 us per bottle. Wish they would update the rooms cause the Beach is a five star, hotel is more like a 2 star.. go with an open mind cause it is not a 3 1/2 star as stated in the website. Entertainment was very good every night and buffet was okay...go with a open mind and you will not be disappointed.

Great staff

Our stay at the Jolly beach resort was okay the food was plentiful but a little more variety would of been nice especially at lunch and dinner. The jerk chicken at the beach grill was good, and the drinks were great. The beach required more umbrellas not enough, the beach was gorgeous tourquois waters and fine white sand. I was not impressed with the pool it was runned down so we stayed at the beach instead.The rooms were bad a lot of broken stuff handles were falling off the doors and the water [... read more] in our bath was yellow, not impressed and the washroom s were dated and in very bad condition and dirty we had to call to get them sanitized .The entertainment and the beach is what made our stay worthwhile other than that I would rate it a 2 star only sad to say a gorgeous beach and a 2 star hotel with a runned down resort and the lobby was disgusting dirty and small certainly what we had not expected.

5 star beach

Arrived at the Jolly beach resort and was a little disappointed about the dated room and the washrooms really needed renovating really in poor condition and small.The lobby was small and not comfortable to do your wifi and a little dirty. They need more umbrellas on the beach , and a lot of vendors on the beach because it is a public beach and not a private one. The entertainment was great, and the staff was awesome,and the bartenders and the drinks were great. The breakfast was good and plentif [... read more]ul with a lot of variety but not enough restaurants, the buffet breakfast and lunch could have a little more variety . Going back to the rooms we had to buy our own water and carry it from the grocery store and the fridge in the room was empty no drinks at all a big disappointment if we had a choice we as a family even though the beach was beautiful we don't think we will be going back.

Not bad for price

food was fair, Resort could use a little TLC. Staff friendly. Beach was very nice! rooms small but clean drinks good and service was excellent. Little quiet at night so if your looking for a late night party this place is dead after11pm

Tired Resort

The grounds need some TLC as well as the building's themselves and the pools. But you can't beat the beach and the beautiful blues of the ocean. Food was really good, the buffet was limited but enough and not overwhelming. The bartenders and staff were awesome always smiled and treated everyone so nice and accommodating, except for the older fella that gets you lined up to go onto the shuttle at the end of your trip for the airport, now he needs to take some happy pills because he is very ru [... read more]de and actually was yelling at one of the guys on our shuttle.

Lots of relaxation

We found the resort very comfortable. The grounds were well manicured. The beach wide, and plenty long for walking down. .The harbour quiet enough to kyake around... Food pretty good.. I would definatley go back .

Sun, fun and relaxation on Jolly Beach Resort..or shivering, shoveling and deicing at home.

In most reviews the debate rages about the rating of a resort which many reviewers will support with subjective and objective critiques and leaves many readers scratching their heads...is it as bad or as good as the review(s) state. Before I go on, let me tell you that my wife and I have been to Mexico, five times, to Jamaica, Aruba,St. Martin, ( twice ) Cuba, Hawaii, ( twice ) Tunisia, Canary islands, Majorca and many others, all four star or five star resorts. Did we expect Jolly Beach to li [... read more]ve up to any of the four or five star resorts? Of course not and we were not " disappointed ". We conducted a rather unscientific poll at the resort, asking generally, " how do you like it here " and the final sentence, invariably, was: " We had some reservations considering it was rated a three star but it is very affordable ". Full stop. I tried very hard not to write the review because I want to hear myself talk but make it inclusive enough so it means something to you. Objective: We stayed in a super saver room. Small, by modern standards, with a king size bed. Small shower and tube type tv..clean, no mold and always hot water with good pressure.The mattress had bumps, got it replaced, and the mattress is covered in plastic with a sheet over top which causes the crunching noise of plastic every time you turn over. We don't care about the size of the room and we do not pay for room upgrades because we are outside 90% of the time. The grounds do not have manicured lawns or flower beds and are kept "reasonably " clean. If you are a non-smoker and dislike cigarette smoke don't go. Although there are designated smoking areas, there are people who can't read, and the whiff of cigarette smoke carries. You will see butts on walkways, the beach and in the bushes. They do not clean them regularly. Internet connect is ok...not great not bad, just ok. The booze is not " premium " and I don't know where they brew the stuff. I cannot comment on the beer I'm not a beer drinker. The service ranges from good to indifferent to bad...just like in north America. The beach has " grainy " sand and the top end is packed...it's not powdery. The provision of shade umbrellas is " insufficient " and creates a 6am scramble to find the best spots. The Marriott in Marco Island, at $ 350,00 a night, has insufficient shade umbrellas and if you want shade on the beach you have to pay $ 50,00 dollars a day. Nuff said. The food selection, for breakfast, lunch and dinner, is greater then most three stars but not as great as a four star. The hot food, for the most part, is " warm ". Why? Because they have to feed 200-300 people over two hours in a buffet setting. What doesn't help is that " some " people don't put the covers back on. The quality of the food is great..fresh vegetables, fresh bread, fresh salads and good meat and fish. They do not cater to, specifically, vegetarians, vegans or any other food sensitive people...shouldn't surprise anybody. Are there line ups at food stations, yes. Why would anybody expect not to be in line ups? Do they run out and have to refill? Yes. Do they refill in a prompt and timely manner? No, not always. Take a bug repellent! Take a bug repellent! Subjectively... It's, architecturally, an " old " resort. It has, for the most part, tube type T.V's. The super saver rooms are small and the shower and the water controls are old. You want larger rooms and a flat screen T.V you have to pay for the upgrade. The food is very good, but it is not cooked to Martha Stewart standards and I'm willing to bet that out of 300 people there are 100 people who do not like Martha's cooking, which made for " flat " tasting food including the beef bourguignon, roast beef and stuffed pork roast, barbecued ribs and turkey..yes they served it up, no kidding...not every day..but hey, in a three star? The onsite restaurants aren't worth going to unless you want table service and we weren't prepared to pay for " upgraded " dishes. They do have ice cream..but you got to ask for it. The catamaran trip around the island was worth the $ 110,00 U.S. per person. You want to go to St Johns, you can pay the $ 24,00 U.S. for a taxi or pay $ 3 E.C per person and take the local bus. We took the bus. We didn't take any other trips, because if you do, you'll spend another $ 400,00 to $ 500,00 U.S. The view from the beach is wonderful. You can see other islands and the mountainous tree covered surroundings. The entertainment is ok. Does it compare to Vegas...well no. But they can carry a tune, try hard and it offers an hour or two of...well, entertainment. The really good part is that not once did I hear a drunk recite " I did it my way " during karaoke night and the steel band sounds a little " repetitive ' after twenty minutes...but then so does Adele. ( ouch ) The short of it is, if you want to be on the beach in February, swim in the ocean and run around in shorts, while getting a good nights sleep and reasonable food at a reasonable price, it's the place for you. If you want four star in a three star, with a large room, flat screen T.V and 50 channels, smiley service all the time and 2017 decor and fixtures, immaculate flower beds and grounds and no smoking on the grounds and hot food all the time and no mosquitoes, you might want to rethink booking Jolly Beach.

Simply Lovely Retreat from Canadian Winter

Not having high expectations (we generally stay in 3 star Cuban resorts), we were pleasantly surprised with Jolly Beach Resort. Similar concrete block construction and minimalist rooms was the only commonality to Cuba. The resort is blessed with a stunning west-facing beach for gorgeous sunsets and sun-filled days of sapphire skies over aquamarine water with gracious, friendly & attentive staff, good quality evening entertainment, and tasty food. Many excursions easily accessed or take a long [... read more] stroll along the beach to Jolly Harbour to gander at the lovely sailboats moored there. Don't miss a chance to sail with Treasure Island Tours and snorkel at Cades Reef - we saw multiple sea turtles and an octopus!

What a GAS UP wooooooooooo!!!

Beach was just beauty. Most of the staff are very friendly and sometimes kinda funny. Loved all the meals served as well as the A la cartes. Rooms clean but for the price We weren't there to complain we were there to GAS it up with the Wadadli.

GOOD BANG FOR THE BUCK

WE ENJOYED OUR 2 WEEK STAY AT JOLLY BEACH RESORT .YES IT IS SOME WHAT DATED NOT A BAD THING THERE STAFF WAS AS FRIENDLY AND ACCOMMODATING AS ANY WERE WE HAVE BEEN PROBABLY MORE SO .WE FOUND IT RELAXING QUIET .SURPRISINGLY THEY HAD ENTERTAINMENT EVERY NIGHT.FOOD WAS GOOD LITTLE LIMITED BUT ENOUGH VARIETY FOR US . BEACH AND GROUNDS WERE GREAT CLEAN AND GROOMED..NOT ONLY WOULD WE GO BACK WE ARE GOING BACK NEXT YEAR .FOR US IT WAS AND IS WHAT WE LIKE .ALSO WOULD LIKE TO THANK JESSICA PICHE FOR HER H [... read more]ELP IN GETTING THINGS SET UP FOR US .WILL BE CALLING YOU NEXT WINTER THANKS JESSICA

It was ok

The resort was ok .. it had very small rooms with a very uncomfortable bed but overall the room had the basic needs. The beach view from the room was amazing. The beach was pretty and weather was amazing. You could not snorkel off the beach tho due to merky water. The food was good..the a la cartes were good but if u didn't line up super early to book u often didn't get a reservation. I would not go back to this resort .. but it was ok for the money spent.

Nothing fancy but fine if on a budget

Jolly beach is nothing fancy close to a two star resort the food was average the drinks were average not enough bars and the super saver room is smaller then a prison cell and if u have a bad back the mattresses are very uncomfortble and non supportive But the beach is beautiful the staff for the most part is friendly if you r looking for a 5 star do not stay here but antigua on a budget it works fine the locals are wonderful and there is a grocery store around the corner u can walk to if u nee [... read more]d something buy bottled water as u do not get any in your room bar does not open till 1030am entertainment at nite wasnt bad bring bug spray lots of mosquitos and the pictures on the Internet must be 15 years old

OK hotel. Great Beach

Hotel and beach were pretty much as most people say. Hotel is older but reasonably maintained. Its clean, the food is ok based on what we paid. Beach is awesome and big, Staff is good.Not the greatest hotel but if you want to go to Antigua on a budget this is the spot.