Great beach and lovely people

Thank you for another amazing week at your hotel - this was our 2nd time at Jolly and will not be our last The people make the resort so warm and inviting The beach is amazing Please ensure to give the stingray city a try - you will be so incredibly impressed

Sept13-20 2019

I've been at this resort seven years ago Somehow previous memories washed away with time... Nowaday I'm a bit more experienced traveler and can say a bit more: Room a cozy, but definately enough for two. No storage cabords : open concept You have to pay $15 for safe key TV -old tube style No fridge No coffe machine ======= Food: I'm not picky about food;sometimes you can find very tasty treat , sometime average.Hard to satisfy everyone )) ====== Resort grounds been clean & maintain  [... read more]daily. === === Here's a few pickles: Only two showers located at pool areas and far away from beach After sea swim you can't even wash you face Also dificult to keep you feet clean if you deside get back to room, and this extra work for cleaning crew. At last - luck of public bathrooms; one near reception and thats all... Can't even imagine about water status at main pool Well, it's not a staff fault but compound design flaw

Great vacation!

This resort was well maintained, all staff from entertainment crew, servers, bar tenders, maid, reception, etc were all happy and helpful. Rooms need updating, but the beach is stunning and where most time should be spent anyhow! Good mix of people from Europe, North America, etc. of all ages

Awesome resort!

Very friendly staff! Loved that we had a song every morning at breakfast. Grounds were kept clean and tidy, More air conditioned areas would be appreciated as everywhere is open. The bathrooms in the rooms are small and could use some updating. Pool bar could be updated with maybe a thatched roof and a nice seating area at the bar itself. Garbage was left in the middle of the small round tables in the pool bar area. Maybe this could be cleaned up more often. Birds seem to be a hu [... read more]ge problem in the eating areas but not sure how that can be fixed. Would definitely come back to this resort! Loved the way the resort was laid out.

Good value, amazing beach!

My husband and I just recently got back from the Starfish Jolly Beach resort in Antigua (July 2019) and our trip was great! If you're looking for 5 star luxury this isn't the place for you, but if you are interested in safe, clean, good food, great staff and service and a 10/10 beach then this resort is worth the price and you won't be disappointed. One piece of advice, do NOT book the supersaver room as it is tiny, pay the extra money for the standard room (king bed and suitable for 2 people).  [... read more]Also, be aware there is no food available once the buffet finishes at 10pm so bring some snacks for your room, as well as a Bubba or some kind of cup to fill up with water as they don't provide that in your room either. Literally no complaints on our end, well worth the money and had everything we needed!

A soild friendly resort

This is truly a 3* resort in terms of accommodations but 5* in terms of the friendly staff and of course Jolly Beach itself. The rooms, while dated, functioned well. I stayed in the standard room and I had heard from other resort quests that the supersaver rooms were compact. The food was the usual standard but better than anything in Cuba...lol The coffee was horrible though. The beach was amazing and one of the best in the Caribbean. For a price, in American dollars, you can rent a seadoo, ka [... read more]yak etc. I took 2 excursions: Shirley heights and the Excellence catamaran tour around the Island. Both were great to experience.

Relaxing

The buildings are little worn but staff and food very good. Everything was close at hand. Will probably go back. Beach a little pebbly. The room was clean but compact. Overall a needed restful holiday.

1st time in Antigua...

My best friend and I have travelled extensively through out the Caribbean (St Marteen, Bahamas, Cuba, Jamaica, Mexico, Barbados, DR etc)… and we always end up back in Cuba....for the beach and the people. And the fact that you can go anywhere without fear of being harassed by hagglers, vendors or without fear of safety. We have stayed at 3*, 4*, 5* and adults only. So - we have been around! This time we decided on Antigua and booked at the Starfish Jolly Beach. Our first thought was …  [... read more]the infrastructure of the local roads are bad....bus driver is crazy...and when we arrived at our resort we thought..."on no"...saw our room and we honestly said to one another... "this is more of a 2 * in Cuba".... If you can get past the old rooms, you will LOVE LOVE LOVE this resort and all it has to offer. After 2 days and getting over the initial shock of the dated and basic rooms - we forgot all about it. The resort is old...as are the rooms. You need to pay for the safe, theres no fridge or coffee makers. Beds are decent, our AC was loud, water pressure was ok, water heater was mostly luke warm. Resort is beautiful, 2 pools...directly on the white sand and turquoise water ocean. The pictures really does not do it justice. There are allot of vendors on the beach....but they are friendly and polite. The food is decent, buffet while repetitive is decent. A la cartes were decent. Mostly, its the people that will really strike you. Everyone was extremely friendly and genuine. The entertainment is really really good for a 3*…. Overall, a 3*...rooms a 2*….food 3*…..people/beach/entertainment 5* We will be back.

Good resort

The beach is wonderful.The staff are really great and polite. The food was really good. The room was nice and the bed was very comfortable.The entertainment crew were really great. This hotel is very outdated and really needs remodeling!

Okay for the price we paid

I travelled to Starfish Jolly Beach Resort April 26-May 3, 2019 with my best friend as a girl’s trip. We left the kids and the husbands at home, and looked forward to a nice time away. We have travelled together, and separately, many times in the past. We’ve been to Cuba, the DR, Mexico, the Bahamas, Vegas, and we’ve cruised together. We’ve always stayed at 4-5 star resorts, so we were hesitant to book a 3 star, but we wanted to see Antigua, and this resort was in our price range. We p [... read more]aid $1300 CAD for it, and I would advise anyone thinking of booking this resort to not pay any more than we did. Rooms-We were in the Dominica building, in a standard room, and our first reaction when we walked into our room was “oh my God”. And not in a good way. The reviews are accurate. The rooms are old. The doors have some kind of slats that can be opened from the outside (luckily we didn’t have an issue with anyone doing this), and the bathroom has an open window with a screen that leads to the walkway. The shower in the bathroom is tiny. The tv in the room is an old box tv. There are no dressers, just some shelves in the closet. The phone didn’t work very well-tons of static. We ended up with one king bed, which wasn’t a huge deal. Our room (3045) overlooked the buffet and the main bar/entertainment area. It was loud first thing in the morning, and it was loud until at least 11pm, but we were fine with it. We watched most of the shows in our pjs from the comfort of our balcony. Our AC worked super well, so well in fact, we were cold the first night before learning to turn it down at night. As the week went on, we grew to really love our old, quaint room that was kept clean thanks to Donna. Food-The food in the buffet was okay every day. It was quite repetitive, and not much variety. But it was decent. I had an omelette every morning and we ate a lot of rice, chicken, and veggies for lunch and dinner. We went to all 3 a la cartes. Lydia’s seafood restaurant was our favourite, and we went twice. We thoroughly enjoyed the food and the atmosphere both times. The Mexican was good. The Italian was quite disappointing as there was no Italian food. Very strange. We were expecting pizza, pasta, etc. But we ended up eating turkey, potatoes, rice and veggies. Neither of us got sick from the food, but we definitely used the bathroom 3-4 times daily. Maybe it was the water? The drinks? Maybe it was the food? Who knows. Beach-The beach was nice. It has a lot of crushed seashells towards the top of the beach, and then has nice, soft sand the closer to the water you go. Be careful as there is quite a dip in the sand when you first go into the water and we almost tripped many times. There was no seaweed which was awesome. There are some kind of fish in the water that like to eat off your feet, so the fish touch you often and we weren’t huge fans of that. It’s really beautiful to look out at the turquoise water and the blue sky. We walked the beach often, and it was awesome. If you want a palapa, you need to be out early and put a towel on a beach chair. The game is real. The beach chairs are old, plastic chairs, but serve the purpose. The turquoise water and the blue sky makes for a gorgeous view. We walked the beach often and it was lovely. Staff-We read many reviews stating they experienced the nicest and best staff ever, but that wasn’t our experience whatsoever. We found that 1/4 of the staff were nice and friendly, 1/4 were awkward and uncertain, like it was their first day on the job. The other half were rude and/or indifferent or uninterested. We walked away from the bars a few times because the bartenders were blatantly ignoring us while talking to their coworkers. One woman who works at the beach grill was nothing short of a miserable B towards every guest. We’ve never seen so many miserable workers in all the resorts we’ve been to. Are they overworked and tired? Is management awful? I have no idea. What I do know is that regardless of the reason, as the front end workers, they need to put a smile on their face and greet the guests. I must also mention that we smiled and said hello to every single server, bartender etc we interacted with. All they had to do was smile and say hello back. Unfortunately, for a lot of them, that was just too difficult a task. Grounds/gym/wifi-The grounds were ok. Definitely not kept up as well as the other 4-5 stars, but it’s what we expected. The gym was good. Older, but we had everything we needed. The wifi was spotty. We didn’t pay for it, and were able to connect in most common areas, but it would kick us off and it would take time to reconnect. We were able to keep in contact with our families back home, so we can’t complain too much about it. Drinks-We didn’t drink a ton, but the drinks we had weren’t weak. If anything, they were made a bit strong for us, so we would ask them to use a small amount of booze. Misc-We got a foot massage from Alex-the man in white-on the beach, and he was amazing. $40USD for half an hour and he was spot on with telling us what “issues” we had. He was probably the nicest person we spoke to all week. He and Bernice, the masseuse next to Lydia’s, were by far the kindest people we met. We took the bus to St.John’s for the afternoon, and it worked out really well. Bus number 20 picked us up outside the hotel, and dropped us off at the supermarket on our way back. The best part was the $3USD price tag for 2 people each way. I’m glad we didn’t take the shuttle or a taxi. The buses are like small shuttle buses, so they were quite comfortable. The hotel doesn’t offer bottles of water, so we bought a few at the supermarket down the road. We would refill them at the bar or in the restaurants where the water was filtered. Also to be noted, there are seagulls everywhere. Many, many seagulls. We weren’t expecting that at all, and while it isn’t the hotel’s fault, I must say that they were quite annoying. Apparently the birds are there during mating season, from April-November, I believe. They are loud, obnoxious, and aggressive. They will take the food right off your plate with you sitting there if you aren’t careful. I’m not sure if the hotel could put some fake owls around to keep the birds away? I don’t even know if that would work, but it may. There are also a lot of pigeons, and some kind of small black bird. We saw a lot of people feeding those birds, which would attract the attention of the seagulls and then you would get swarmed. Please don’t feed the birds!! There are also cats that wander around the property. We saw people feeding them which made the cats keep coming back. Going into it knowing it was a 3 star, I can deal with the rooms, the food, the grounds... my biggest issue was the rudeness of the staff. It actually makes me wonder if that’s just the general attitude in Antigua. And if that’s the case, I don’t even think I will return to the country, let alone the resort.

Une plage doré

Plage merveilleuse, l'hotel tant qu'a lui manque toujours d'amour. Un rafraichissement lui donnerait une valeur ajoute, Après 3 visites en 7 ans il serait bon que le management pense à rafraichir cette endroit de Rêve.d Les piscines auraient besoin d'un bon nettoyage journalier...... un peu beaucoup .

A True 3 ☆

My best friend and I visited this resort for one week from April 26 to May 3, 2019. The hotel grew on us after a few days, however having been to numerous resorts in the Caribbean over the past 20 years, this one ranks one of the lowest. Overall, the resort is clean and functional. The food at the main buffet was good. We are not picky eaters so we found something we liked every night. We went to the Italian Restaurant one night and would not recommend it. Lydia's Seafood Grill was by far the be [... read more]st - try to reserve there as often as possible. Many of the staff at the hotel seem annoyed all the time. The service was just "okay", from the reception, bar and restaurant staff... they mostly all seemed unhappy. At this time of year, there are many birds at the resort. Apparently it's matting season. They are a nuissance. Always trying to eat your food and really noisy. The beach and scenery are absolutely stunning. Although fantastic, it didn't make up for what the resort lacked in other areas. It is truly a 3 star and if you can lower your expectations, you may enjoy this resort, however, I will not be returning. I'd rather pay an extra $300 and go somewhere more modern that offers a nicer experience for their guests.

Starfish jolly beach resort

We stayed for a 7 night vacation, we found the staff so friendly and very accommodating. The staff at breakfast had sung morning song to all, everyday which put a smile on your face, lunch was usually at the pool bar, and supper was at the buffet which had so many different dishes for any picky eater to chose from, we had the fish every night it was so good.Now the beach area was amazing we could walk so far and there was so much of the baby blue water to see for ever, also on the beach were lit [... read more]tle huts with the local ladies selling clothes prices were really good, and they always had a smile and never begged or bothered you.i loved the look of the resort so white and blue, it’s not a 5 star but it has everything going for it, most enjoyable stay with all of new friends we meet and staff and we want to say a big Thanks to Shawna our rep from Sunwing she was amazing.Allen & Kelly

Things Have Started to Slip

Excellent location and amazing beach. It stops there. I have been to this resort several times and have kept going back as everything about it had been great. This trip, we discovered the resort had been sold, and no one really knows who manages it. Most things are left in disrepair, the food is now just palatable, and front desk staff are not empowered to assist with any kinds of issues that may arise. It's a real shame as Jolly Beach had become our 'go to' sun destination. We will not  [... read more]be returning.

No frills resort

The beach is outstanding. Food is simple. Food choice is limited. Coffee is awful. Actually, the worst coffee ever experienced. Staff is friendly, but not properly trained. Sunwing stuff is excessively talkative. Rooms are clean. Transfers from and to airport are well-organized.

Awesome place!

This resort is exactly what we expected and more. Yes the rooms and resort is outdated and needs to be renovated but we knew that going here. Like they said 3 Star resort with 5 Star service. The beach is amazing and beautiful and so are the people. We really enjoyed our stay at Jolly Beach and will be returning very soon.

Great resort!!

This hotel is great. Staff very friendly and helpful. Our only complaint was the air conditioning was not cold enough, it was preset at 16c and you couldn't lower it. Rooms are basic but clean. No complaints with the food, or drinks. Beach is amazing. Would definitely return to this resort.

Nice stay.. Best beach!

My husband and I recently stayed at the Starfish jolly beach. The hotel for sure was a 3.5 star at best ..our room was falling apart but we didn't bother complaining about it as I believe the rooms were all in this state (old but mostly functioning fan/AC,s etc). We had a nice beach view from our balcony which was lovely. The staff at the resort were extremely friendly and the food was delicious!! We only ate at the buffet and were always satisfied. The entertainment wasn't that great and we end [... read more]ed up always going back to our room early. Would go back to Antigua and Jolly harbour Beach but likely would stay at a private villa or a different resort. Thanks for the stay! Note: we didn't do any excursions but we took the local bus down to the city which was nice (the bus looks like a minivan sized shuttle not a typical bus which would have been helpful to know beforehand). They take ECD not USD but we were able to get ECD from the lobby

Beautiful Resort

My 3 adult Son's and I stayed at the Jolly Beach Resort and Spa for 1 week from March 30th to April 6th., our first impressions of the resort were favourable, the lobby area and grounds were extremely clean and with the background of the lovely pool area and gorgeous turquoise water of the Caribbean sea, plus the mountainous backdrop was absolutely awe inspiring. The rooms were very basic but kept spotlessly clean by our housekeeper (Wendy) anything we wanted or needed for our room was provide [... read more]d, and with a smile. I had emailed the resort in advance and requested that our rooms be close together, ( we got adjoining rooms) since standard rooms do not have refrigerator, I requested at least 1 of the rooms have one (I did receive a fridge at a cost of $50. US per week), I also paid for internet in the room at a cost of $70. per week (it did not work in room, but did work fairly well on balcony). I was happy that all of my requests had been met, but found the extras to be a little pricey when figuring in conversion. We loved the food at the buffet and found it to be a good variety and delicious, we also went to the Mexican a la carte and had no trouble at all making reservations the day before, it was also wonderful. We were very happy with the entertainment and found it to be top notch. We thought the drinks at the bars were very good and the service was at a reasonable pace, we ate at the BBQ for lunch every day and it was also good quality food. We liked the closeness of the grocery store and it was lovely to wander over to the marina, one day we had our lunch at the marina (Melini's) the pizza was awesome. I would definitely recommend this resort to friends and family and would return if the price was right.

Best Beach, Staff and Sunsets on the Island

Went March 16 - 27th. Everything is as advertised. Resort was first built in 1979 and has aged. All however is super clean and everthing works. The grounds are very well maintained. Our room was a standard with a King, and while it was smaller than some newer resorts, nothing to complain about. You shouldn't be spending time in the room when there is such beauty outside Staff are super friendly and fun and were the best service group we have experienced. Nothing beats, being sung to each b [... read more]reakfast morning. It makes you feel good about life and people. Entertainment was also very good. Some great singers, musican's and performing artists entertained us each night. Lots of fund in the evening. Have been to Caribbean and several of the Islands over 30 times, and the Jolly Beach ranks amongst the best beaches bar none. Every night a glorious sunset as the resort faces straight on west. Being on the Caribbean Sea side, also, the water is calmer than the Atlantic Sea side Food was all very good. Perhaps not as many choices in some larger resort but still plenty of choices and the buffet changed up every night. Had some of the best fish we have ever tasted at Lydia's. The only 2 items of minor concern that people should be aware of: 1) Saving chairs under the beach canopies. We found for the 11 days we were there, you needed to be out well before 6:00 am in order to secure chairs by placing your towels and saving yourself a spot. We couldn't sleep one night, and awoke at 4 am and looked out to see there were already towels placed on chairs under several canopies.saving spots We did also one day overhear 2 couples say they paid (believe a local kid) to save chairs for them so they didnt have to get up so early. We did advise the resort in our comment card, and hope the resort addresses puts an end to this. 2) Reservation system for dinner. They need to improve upon the system of lining up for dinner reservations the day before to get into non buffet restaurants. People would line up 30 minutes before the start time of reservations in the sun, to get a reservation for Lydia's. For the Italian restaurant, One lady was 7th in line and did not get a reservation. They need to rethink how reservations can be made, so lining up doesn't have to happen and guests have the opportunity to go to at least some number of times, to one or more of the specialty restaurant's depending on the length of stay. These 2 issues did not distract from us having a wonderful time.