I had the pleasure of staying at the Allamanda Beach Club from January 5th - January 23rd. I would highly recommend this resort for the tranquility and peacefulness that we had on our vacation. Just a short stroll to Shoal Bay, this spot is truly what makes Anguilla. Carlene the General Manager was most gracious and our maid was like family to us with her giving us hugs when we left!!..Just a short stroll down the beach, grab a couple of rum punches at Uncle Ernie's , pull up a lounge chair from Ray, and just relax!! As a manager of a resort, I found everything from the management to the attentiveness to the room fantastic...A must!!

We just returned from a trip to Anguilla where we stayed at the Allamanda Beach Club. Here is the good, the bad and the ugly.
The Good
Really short walk to Shoal Bay Beach. The beach is beautiful and there is hardly anyone on it.
Staff is nice. Room cleaned well every day. A couple of times, the housekeeper even cleaned our dirty dishes which was nice.
Nice private seating area right outside each room.
Pool is nice but nothing great.
TV has a nice selection of channels.
Big yellow beach towels


The Bad
Rooms are very outdated.
Bathroom so small that you could barely sit on the toilet without running into the wall (and I'm not a big person).
Kitchen lacked a lot of stuff. When we got there, there was no coffee maker in the room, no can opener, and limited cooking equipment.
No office hours evenings and weekends. Anyone checking in on Saturday or Sunday just gets a note and the key left in a mailbox on the premises. Any problems can't be solved until Monday morning at 9:00 am.
Restuarant on premises is good but super expensive, just like the island. A glass of rum punch is ten bucks.
Bed was kind of uncomfortable.
Pillows were ok, but a couple were lumpy.

The Ugly
We got an electric shock when the stove was on and we tried touching the pans that we were cooking with.
The restaurant next door rigged up a homemade gutter system to divert rain from its roof into the hotel pool. Probably no big deal but weird none the less.

Verdict
If you can get this place for a really good price ($120 or under) I'd say it's ok for the money given the expensive nature of the island. The kitchen helps if you are on a budget or don't care to eat out for every meal.

Third time staying here, last time being in 1999. The rooms are adequate, nothing special. Great location on Shoal Bay, which is obviously the main attraction when coming to Anguilla.

Most of the beach bars/restaurants on this beach are cash only, so bring money!

If you have a laptop or iPad, you'll have free wifi in your room. You'll need it for researching places to eat or things to see. The office wasn't that helpful in this department, but thankfully I was able find out most things by asking others.

We booked a terrific package with our room which included daily cont. breakfast, a 1 day car rental, a 1 hr massage, and 2 welcome punches @ Gwen's Beach Bar. An outstanding value for this pricey island.

Zara's restaurant is onsite and is wonderful. Chef Shamash even cooked up a scrumptious breakfast for my son one morning in leui of the free cont. breakfast. Truly not to be missed.

One tip, if you need to access an ATM on island, some of the machines will not allow you to enter more than 4 digits for your PIN, Scotia Bank in the Valley is an exception.

Also, remember to bring repellant, the mosquitos will eat you alive if you let them!

This review is about a year and a half in the making. My husband and I went there in June of 2010, and can you tell I love to procrastinate? Anyway, this place is perfect for anyone who wants reasonable lodging at a reasonable price. It's not fancy or luxurious, but it's clean and quiet, and most importantly for us, is located at a lesser traveled part of Upper Shoal Bay. We basically had the place to ourselves in June, which is off-season, so I can't speak to what it's like in season. All the staff were very friendly and accommodating and did their best to answer our questions and get us set up with car rentals, snorkeling gear, etc.

The one thing to mildly complain about was breakfast... a continental breakfast was included in the price of our 4-night summer bash package. Every morning the chef would ask us if we wanted eggs and other more substantial things, but never offered a menu or told us that it would be an additional cost. We were the only ones there, and we thought he was just being nice (which he was. He was very personable and made good food.) But when we checked out, we had additional charges because of the extra food he made. We expressed our surprise, and the person at the front desk took the charges off, which was very kind of her. I think they just need to make sure the chef is communicating all this properly to the guests.

Breakfast confusion aside, Allamanda is wonderful. We definitely want to go back there. If you get a room with a kitchenette, I would recommend to buy food at a market, cook yourself, and take your meal down to the beach to eat. Restaurants in Anguilla are super expensive. Also try the food at the food carts downtown. We got delicious fried chicken and rice and peas that was enough for two meals. I'm getting off track from the review here, but what I'm trying to say is cheap local food + beer + Upper Shoal Bay equals heaven.