English Harbour Holidays

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"Before traveling to Antigua I did a lot of research on different hotels and after reviewing the comments on Trip Advisor decided to go to St James. An excellent quote from TravelRepublic helped to make up our mind ! However, after reading some of the most recent reviews I wonder if they had actually visited the same resort as us! Let me start with some slightly negative points - the hotel is currently building an extension and refurbishing the Docksider restaurant so it was closed shortly after we arrived. A bit inconvenient, but being pragmatic about it, they are open 12 months a year and this is their low season so I suppose it makes sense to do it now. There are 4 swimming pools, one adult only, one child friendly and 2 others, none of which are particularly large, but with 2 beautiful beaches we didn't really want to spend much time by the pool anyway. There was some seaweed washed up on the beaches, but each day the hotel religiously cleared it up. Occasionally there were some jelly fish, but this was the same with the other the beaches we visited. They are very small and I didn't hear of anyone being stung. None of this caused a problem to us, but in response to some of the other comments, whether it's a 3, 4 or 5 star hotel, I'm not aware of any hotel that can stop nature. It is the sea after all, not a theme park! On the plus side, the sea view room was very clean if a little basic. Each day it was thoroughly cleaned and fresh towels provided. Any time we wanted an extra towel or extra coffee we rang the reception and it was delivered within minutes. The food and drink is excellent at the hotel. You have the choice most nights of the al a carte menu or a buffet and my daughters (aged 10 and 15), loved both. The al a carte food was worthy of an expensive restaurant, the wine was excellent; service was faultless and free champagne! The buffet's never ran out of food and was also of excellent quality. Each night there was a choice of local dishes, international dishes and also lots of local fish each day which was delicious. One other bonus is that the hotel water served at the table is perfectly safe to drink and better than the UK tap water ! The beach bar offered simple food (which was enough after the previous evening), burgers, chicken, salads etc. The standards and service was always very good or you could go to the main restaurants if you wanted something more substantial. Every hour or so the drinks buggy visited both beaches and pools, which is very welcome. The water sports are very good; we used the Kayaks and the Hobbycat sailing boats. My daughter and I had 2 sailing lessons and the water sports staff was very attentive and helpful. If anyone got into trouble, they went out in the boat to make sure they were ok. We played tennis most nights; they have 4 excellent floodlit courts and 2 that are not. Tennis rackets and balls are available in the hotel reception. There is also table tennis tables and pool tables by the beach. The General Manager is to be seen most nights, talking to the guests and asking for feedback. If you had any concerns during your stay, you could raise it with directly with him. The staff was all very polite and friendly. Antiguan people are not naturally chatty or over-friendly and perhaps can appear slightly disinterested. We hired a car for 3 days (a must) and drove all over the island. The warmth and friendliness of all the people we encountered was amazing. Please don't mistake a laid back, slightly reserved attitude for being rude, they're not! The hotel has a lovely, relaxed feel to it. The gardens and beaches are beautiful, the food is excellent and plenty of choice. If you’re thinking of visiting Antigua I would highly recommend this hotel and will definitely return in the future."

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