Above and beyond excellence

The resort was amazing from top to bottom, amazing Staff from the GM, Mr. G to food and beverage manager Gus and all the staff at the Aqua centre, Fern, Alex and Kieran to name but a few. All the employees were very friendly and always had a smile to offer. We will definitely be back sometime in the future.

2nd time round

Was as exceptional as our first trip. Despite infrequent sun, this Sandals rocks. Great people, great service, great pool!! Take the island helicopter ride. Best tour we've taken. All round, a 9.5 out of 10.

Amazing Resort and Staff

Beautiful Grounds, very well maintained. Staff are Fantastic. Shemika at Travel & Loyalty was Amazing. Food Delicious. Girls at Bella Napoli were Fantastic. Beach is Great. Very clean and the water is gorgeous.

Great Resort with a few issues.....

All in all, a great resort. Staff very friendly and helpful. Just a few "downers".... 1 - water pressure in room VERY poor. Pressure from shower was like standing out in the rain... 2 - "Marios" & "Drunken Duck" restaurants claim to be "air conditioned", but not so much. Very uncomfortable eating when you are sweating. 3 - Not enough lounges by pool/beach for the amount of guests. After the 2nd day, we began to set our alarm for 6am, to get up  [... read more] reserve lounges with towels. If you simply went to the pool around 830-900, you didn't have a chance at getting chairs. 4 - Lastly, I realize they don't have control over Mother Nature, but crickets & tree frogs VERY loud all nite long !! Began around 5:45 pm and didn't stop until around 6am. A little difficult to sleep as they were very loud ! Other than that, a great time, great weather ( we had 45 mins. of rain one afternoon) Snorkeling was fun. Food was good.

Amazing resort Sandals Grande Antigua

My husband & I spent 14 wonderful days in Sandals Grande Antigua. We were there August 6 to 20, 2016. We were checked into our room very quickly. They originally had us booked for the 3rd floor, but when I asked for a walkout room they showed us both rooms and we picked the walkout. The patio was bigger and had two lounge chairs with a round table in between them. And a rack to hang our wet bathing suits. The room was wonderful. Two sinks, a jacuzzi tub and a walk in shower. Lots of shelf an [... read more]d counter space. The room was always kept very clean by the housekeeping staff. The king size bed was comfortable. We had a fully stocked bar, including white and red wine, liquor, beer, juice, water and pop. The restaurants are all very good. I wasn't as keen on the Ok Coral, but my husband liked it. It's really a matter of personal preference. We ate at the Bayside restaurant several times. I would recommend the Chateaubriand or the lamb. The meat was cooked to perfection by Chef Kerry or Chef Dwayne. The appetizers and desserts were also delicious. There were different buffet theme days for lunch at the Bayside restaurant, again, very good food. Eleanor's has a la carte breakfast. Eggs Benedict and blueberry pancakes are amazing. You can even get them with sides of bacon, sausage or ham or all three! Also has Browns. The Eggs Benedict is quite filling. We ate at the Barefoot Grill for lunch. They have jerk chicken or pork, mild or helfire. The portions are generous. We had the steak and lobster for dinner and it was excellent. Mario's has a buffet breakfast. We were in there almost everyday for breakfast. The best thing about it was the chef who cooked our omelettes. Ronalyn was always smiling and has a great sense of humour. After a couple of days, she already remembered what we liked in our omelette. She recommended the use of pepper jack cheese in the omelette and she was right, we loved it. Desire was also one of the chefs who ensured the buffet food was kept full. Rosalyn and Desire made it worth going to Mario's. Rolrene and Asana were very good servers. Kimono's was entertaining and the food amazing. Chef Nathaniel and server Oydayne made our experience great. I suggest you try the Sake Cruise drink, it is refreshing and delicious, but can go down very quickly as you don't taste the booze in it. The main pool was fun. We have never had such good pool bar service. Celestine took our drink order soon after we got our lounge chairs by the pool. She was also quick to return to ask if we needed refills. LaToya was the bartender at the Caribbean pool. Between volleyball games she would set us up with shots, sometimes we picked, sometimes she surprised us. Celestine filled in as bartender when LaToya went for break. Both of these wonderful ladies made the best drinks! The entertainment staff got people involved in the games, flip cup, beer chugging, ring toss, name that tune, trivia, etc. and of course pool volleyball. Cheers to JoJo, Rakim and Antonio for making the volleyball and other games fun. The resort grounds are beautiful and well maintained. Fogging is done to keep the bugs away. The beach is beautiful with soft powdery white sand. The water was warm and clear. The only negative thing I can say is that the beach is public, so you have vendors coming up to ask if you want to buys various items or go on tours. A few pleasant "No, thank you" responses are accepted. We met a lot of very nice people from Britain, the Sates and our fellow Canadians. The resort staff are friendly and very nice. They go out of their way to make sure you have the best vacation. I want to say thank you to nurse Angelina and Dr. Stevens for taking such good care of me when I needed it. Shemika and the rest of the Loyalty Club staff are wonderful in helping you make the difficult decision of which Sandals to go to next. We would return to Sandals Grande Antigua, but we want to try other sandals before returning. We have been to Sandals Grenada, Whitehouse in Jamaica and the Royal Caribbean in Montego Bay. Each resort has so many positive aspects and very little negative. It all depends on personal preference.

Paradise

Wonderful food, cleanliness, service & ambience. The Penthouse Romeo & Juliet Room was so luxurious and spacious. The weather was perfect: 28/29 during the day, 24/25 at night, with slight breeze and only one brief shower.....oh and no humidity. Only suggestion would be to have a couple of larger scale shows, per week.

Paradise Found

Recently returned from 2 weeks at Sandals Grand Antigua. Our 5th 2 week Sandals trip and we now rate this one #1. Staff go beyond in every aspect. Not uncommon to see Mr. G., Kevin, Frank and many others picking up glasses, towels, etc around resort. Ate at all restaurants without any complaints. Resort grounds beautifully manicured. Ground crew take pride in their work as do the rest of the staff under Mr.G's expert leadership..Stayed on Mediterrean side. Rooms great. View beyond great. Service [... read more] impeccable. Definitely a resort we would return to in a heart beat!!

Beautiful resort, great food, friendly people

The grounds were perfectly maintained. The food was delicious. The beach and ocean were perfect. Have to go early to find a beach chair at the beach or main pool. The staff is very friendly. There are all sorts of in motorized water sports that you can partake in. The only complaint is when you are on the beach it's a public beach and there are several local residents walking up and down that will constantly try to get you to buy something.

Fantastic

Beautiful Resort. Service was spectacular, very nice and friendly staff. Food was excellent! Only meal we didn't like was at the Drunken Duck. Room was clean with well stocked bar. Maybe the only negative was the bed. Not the most comfortable I have slept on.

Amazing

It was the greatest experience for my wife and I. Our agent Brenda Melo was truly a wonderful person . The sandals resort was incredible food , room and services . Sandals truly knows how to keep their guest happy and the staff were just to polite and respectful. AAA++++

Amazing experience in Antigua

We stayed at the Sandals Grande Antigua for a week at the end of February and had a wonderful time. From check-in to departure, the staff were friendly and helpful, the facilities were lovely and every detail was taken care of. There were plenty of pools and restaurants to choose from, and we never had difficulty finding chairs. We were unexpectedly upgraded to a rondoval with pool upon our arrival, which added an extra touch of amazing to our holiday. We would definitely go back!

Had a great time! Beautiful Resort!

A prime resort on a prime location of beach! It is just as the pictures show, beautiful turquoise sea, white sand and lush gardens all around. Can't see how anyone couldn't have a great time. Food & drink plentiful and delicious.

Disappointing

Beautiful grounds, lovely restaurants except the Asian which needs an upgrade. The food quality was very inconsistent along with the non existent service in the pool area and beach took us by surprise. We stayed in the Mediterranean side for five days and found that it was just sleeping quarters. The lost opportunity of establishing a restaurant on the top floor overlooking the harbour is beyond me and the lack of a bar left that building with a lack of atmosphere. We moved to the Caribbean side [... read more] and loved the room and the fact we had room to sit on the balcony whereas we couldn't on the Mediterranean side. Overall the staff were very pleasant and friendly. Since we have returned we have been on two additional trips and every conversation we had with people who had been to a Sandals Resort said basically the same thing. Great marketing and poor food.

The grounds were beautiful

Again, the common areas were terrific, we were disappointed in the room and some of the restaurants. The Japanese restaurant was average at best, the cook was not qualified in my opinion. He kept dropping the utensils and all the food was overlooked and very tasteless. Eleanor's breakfast service was real slow, my wife and I ordered 2 omlets and it took 1/2 hr. We didn't try the sushi restaurant because of experience we had at Kimonos. The room was clean but the furnishing were old. The TV stand [... read more]/dresser had broken hardware, and the tub caulking was dirty and falling off. We were in room 807, look for yourself . We spent a lot a money on this holiday and we were a little disappointed since this is considered to be a high-end resort. Pools were exceptional , grounds impeccable, great selection of alcoholic beverages

Wonderful Holiday.

Room was great, got an upgrade to a one bedroom suite midweek at no cost. Food was good, servers in some restaurants could use some more training. The grounds are very clean and well kept. Would return

Amazing honeymoon!

My husband and I stay at the Sandals Grande Antigua for our honeymoon. From the moment we arrived it felt like a second home. The resort was breathtaking and so clean. We stayed on the carribbean side and our room was a pool front and garden view. It was beautiful! The room was large and very clean. The pools were amazing and we swam in 3 of them. But we spent must of our time swimming in the ocean, which was breathtaking! We ate at all of the restaurants but our favourite was the barefoot restu [... read more]rant. All of the food was amazing and there was lots of options. The staff were so kind and were always smiling and saying hello. Everyone was so friendly and polite. But there was one staff who went above and beyond with his hospitality. His name is Shannon and he works at the barefoot resturant. He is truly the kindest and must generous person we have ever met. He made our stay there memorable and special. He is an outstanding employee! Thank you Shannon. We highly recommend Sandals Antigua. Thank you to all the staff and to Antigua for welcoming us.

Sandal's Resort Grande Antigua

November 16, 2014 Returned. My wife and I just got back from this beautiful resort! The resort reflected in reality exactly as the pictures depicted it! I can't say enough about the resort staff: EVERYONE..and I mean EVERYONE..couldn't do enough for you! The staff are the best of the best!! The food also was barr-none! The care they took in cleaning your room..turning down your bed every night and checking on your personal fridge in your room was so on cue...and welcomed! Nightly entertainment w [... read more]as great and sometimes occurring at different areas of the resort for the different tastes..awesome. We would definitely return to this resort. A special thanks to Julianna in Guest services for assisting us when we received a troubling phone call from home...she made the news easier to deal with. Thanks Julianna!!

Great place to visit and relax

The staff were all very friendly. The pool bar tender remembered us from 18 months earlier, The gift shop girl came over to talk to us on her way to work, the management was visible and accessible and the gardeners spoke to us as we passed. My wife in a wheelchair got extra attention an even the OK Corral made special arrangements for us to enjoy their menu as we couldn't get up the stairs. We enjoyed it so much we booked to go back to Sandals in April 2015.

Our favourite Sandals Resort --Grande Antigua

We recently returned from a 2 week vacation at Sandals Grande Antigua, a great vacation at a fabulous resort and we would recommend Sandals Grande Antigua to anyone – it was a perfect vacation for us. Grande Antigua is now our favourite resort – We were at Sandals Grande Antigua for 2 weeks in late April, a great vacation at a fabulous resort and we would recommend Sandals Grande Antigua to anyone – it was a perfect vacation for us. Grande Antigua is now our favourite resort – closely fo [... read more]llowed by Sandals Whitehouse in Jamaica. Once we landed we were pleasantly surprised as we quickly made it through the airport lines and then 25 minutes later arrived at Sandals where the check in was very quick and well done by the ever smiling Orena. The resort itself was beautiful, the gardens and grounds are amazing, very lush with lots of plants, shrubs, and trees and the gardeners were very busy keeping things looking great. The beach is one of the nicest we have ever seen – and yes there are vendors on the beach but just say “you’re not interested” and they leave you alone. You can walk along the beach for quite a distance on both sides on the “Sandals property” -- making a nice picturesque beach walk a daily must for us. There are at least 5 pools at the resort – the main pool is very large but enjoyable with servers taking drink orders while you relax there. We could always find a chair around the pool, even after lunch. The Caribbean Pool and the other 2 “quiet” pools were frequented by us as well, especially if we just wanted to read, relax, or float around the pool. We found all the restaurants to be good. We had no trouble booking a reservation at either Eleanors or Kimonos and the resort was full the first week we were there. The birds were a nuisance at Bayside at both breakfast and lunch, and we found the service “hit and miss” at Bayside as well during these meals, so we decided to dine elsewhere for most breakfasts and lunches. Bayside has an excellent menu in the evening and we met our favourite waitress the 1st time we dined there – Kellyn is exceptional and we requested her the other times we dined at Bayside. The meals at Eleanors were good but the service was slow, especially the second night. Kimonos was good, OK Corral was very good, Barefoot’s food was excellent at night. We ate at the Drunken Duck both Sundays at noon for their buffet – it’s excellent. Mario’s was our favourite restaurant – breakfast is excellent there with omelets and smoothies made in front of you. The evening meals at Marios were excellent as well, be careful not to fill up on the anti pasta bar as it is amazing and you want to try everything but you have to leave room for the delicious entrees and the famous lava cake – which really is as good as all the reviews say. Ken, one of the managers at Marios, is always helping out and talking to everyone, making your dining experience even better. Soy, the sushi bar is lots of fun with a nice variety of sushi made right in front of you. The sushi chefs are great and very helpful – they made a sushi fan of me – we ate there 3 times. The pizzas at Bella Napoli are very delicious and convenient to take to the pool. A nice surprise was the Courtyard Grab and Go -- the food there was great and it’s very convenient, you could eat in the Courtyard or take it back to the pool, or anywhere else. And don’t forget the Café de Paris – the lattes and other drinks are great and the cookies and other treats really are delicious. It’s a great place to visit any time of the day and all the staff at the café are great. We found the entertainment very good – there was something going on every night at both the Caribbean Courtyard and the bandstand outside of the Drunken Duck. The fire eating / limbo dancer was fun to watch, and one of the highlights was the chocolate buffet – delicious. We were at Sandals for reunion week and the excursion to the beach was lots of fun. One of our highlights was the trip to the school, where we planted shrubs in the school yard while other guests helped the students with their school work. Interacting with these smart young Antiguan children was an experience we will never forget. The one thing that really stood out to us at Sandals Grande Antigua is the staff. Just some of very special staff we met there include Andrea, the environmental manager, we met her at the reunion week dinner and saw her many times around the grounds afterwards – she was always so friendly and helpful and was fun to be with at reunion week excursion and the “tree planting” at the school. Kellyn at Bayside—a great waitress who was always looking out for my wife’s allergy, Gerda in housekeeping – she wasn’t our housekeeper but we saw her many times including the reunion week excursion and the school tree planting, she asked our names after the 2nd day and would say hi and talk to us every time she saw us. Ken at Marios was a great host and always had an interesting story to tell you as you dined. Orena (our colgate girl) at concierge was very friendly and always smiling, and Cecellia at the “Soon Come Back” desk helped us out on many occasions – we called her “the girl who knows everything”. The ever busy manager, Mr G, can be seen helping out everywhere – we first saw him gathering up empty glasses by the main pool, and then saw him every day after, he would always stop to speak and make us feel at home. It’s easy to see he loves his job and passes his enthusiasm on to all his employees. We’re not sure where we are going next year, but we will definitely be back to Sandals Grande Antigua in the future.