My Husband and I just returned to Sandals Grande Antigua the first week of February. I will never understand all the negative reviews, I swear these people bring the negativity with them. As I wrote an extensive review last February, I just want to reinforce what a wonderful positive experience we had again. Traveled on a Monday and zipped right through Customs and Immigration. We were given our forms to fill out on the plane. Easy transfer to the Hotel. We arrived at 2:30 and our room was ready. I must say we are long time Select Guests and that we are often given upgrades. We knew what we wanted this year, (same as last) and that was the Romeo and Juliet Penthouse Suite on the 6 th floor of the Cypress Tower. Gorgeous room that comes with Butler Service. We were in room 606 which is right in the middle of the building with gorgeous views of the property, Dickenson Bay, the Beach and Ocean. The pictures for the Penthouse Suites on the web site are dead on. The Penthouse Suites are the same on 6th and 7th floor. We ate breakfast on our balcony every day. Housekeeping was excellent, came whatever time you asked them to. We were blessed to have Reginale again, who left us flowers and delightful designs every day. A huge shout out to our wonderful Butlers, Nkozi and Sheldon. We are not demanding people at all but I suffer from chronic illness which requires a little help with certain things. These guys were great, they were fun and incredibly thoughtful and we just loved them. They did reserve us an umbrella on the beach every day as I need the shade due to my illness. Now, I am well aware of the situation with people reserving ahead and then not showing up, which is totally bogus as far as I am concerned. We were on the beach every day by 9:30 and honestly, this is a service you pay for in the Butler Category. I believe they are going to enforce the rule that if people don't show up by 10:00 then the "saved" spots can be taken, fair enough, and I agree... There were many more shade tents this year then last and the beach looked in much better shape this year as well. Beautiful white powder and the ocean is to die for. We are not pool people and I understand there is a real issue with saving spots, floats etc at the pools but can't write about what I haven't experienced. As far as the weather it was perfect, tons of sun and no humidity. A quick shower every once in a while with a rainbow and that was it. Sheldon and Kozi bought us a cooler for the beach every day, stopped by with cocktails and left us snacks and appetizers in our room every day. Try a Banana Sip-Sop!! All you had to do was ask for anything and they made it happen. And we did come home to a couple of beautiful bubblebaths.. The food was fantastic, love Eleanor's, Barefoot and Mario's in particular. Had a blast with a fun group at Kimono's one night, great food and company. You are on Island time, relax. Pizza as so many mention is delicious, had it every day. As far as the Beach Vendors..a polite No Thank You, usually is all you need to say.. Everyone we came in contact with was lovely. We didn't care for a relentless woman calling herself "Sunshine," The Aloe Man, Keith is fantastic. I wish more people would listen to him and buy the fresh Aloe for $15.00. I would use this stuff year round if I had access to it. Totally takes care of the burns, peeling, and bites, if you have any, which I will add, we did not. They do fog every day around 5;45, never had a bite of any kind..We did do Barbuda By Sea on The Excellence. It is a very nice Boat, wonderful, helpful Crew, who cooked a delicious local Lunch for us once we arrived. However, the process of crossing the Atlantic for 1 1/2 hours each way in "Moderate Seas" was nothing short of torture. I have grown up on the Atlantic Ocean and been out on Boats a lot but this was awful. People were sick all over the place and I believe they suspended that trip for a few weeks after our trip due to the time of the year. Lovely untouched beach in Barbuda, but like the one at home better. Anyway, we love this Resort and will absolutely return. I believe you get what you pay for here and yes, that does mean the Butler Rooms come with some advantages. However we met many people staying in all parts of the Resort who loved where they were. This Resort is so beautiful, the Gardens and Flora beautifully tended to everywhere you went. The colors of the Ocean and Sky...like one big beautiful watercolor. Enjoy!.

This was our second sandals experience-the first one being the Beaches Negril in Jamacia. We stayed in the Mediteranian Village in the Almond Tower. The view was excellent and the 'entry' level concierge suite did not disappoint. The staff was amazing, the only complaint is the concierge staff. They seemed less then enthusiastic or perhaps they are simply overworked. We usually book our own tours etc. And this maybe why:since we weren't using the Island Routes trips we may have been down the priority list. Our highlight of the trip was the hike up to Shirley Heights. If you go to Antiguanice.com and search things to do this is the hike from Galleon Beach up the mountain. It's not an easy climb but well worth it. You can take a taxi to the Beach resort, our driver waited for us, and do the hike. It was about 1 hour up and less to come down. You can take the same way down or go down through the forest on the other side of the road-you will know what I mean once you get there. The route is marked out with white dots spray painted on various spots. Only costed 40$ for the cab and the view was priceless! All in all a great trip and we will go back.

I know there are various opinions on here however this is my view. The staff are all lovely and friendly and you are nearly always greeted as you walk around the resort. I can understand why people may say the staff are rude however I believe this is a lot to do with the way they are spoken to by guests - there are some very rude people!!

Claudine did an amazing job for my Dad's 60th birthday breakfast, she got the whole restaurant to clap and cheer when he came in for breakfast and she sang to him - what a wonderful lady - always had a smile!

Our room was amazing, honeymoon concierge in the Carribean side, 4 poster bed and a fully stocked fridge and lots of room! So much choice in terms of restaurants and the food was great no matter where we ate. The issue with reserving sunbeds around the large pool was addressed while we were there - there was a guy around the pool and if you needed a bed he moved the towels of those which had been reserved since very early and by 10am were still unoccupied - sometimes they are reserved all day ands no one uses them so this is a great idea. He is very good at knowing if you have simply gone to breakfast or if you had not been to the bed at all.

Marios the Italian restaurant was my personal favourtie however all the restaurants are great. The beach is beautiful and I recommend going to Shirley Heights on a Sunday, amazing view of the sunset and a great atmosphere.

I honestly can't wait to go back - Sandals has me hooked! I must say a huge thank you to Donavon as always - such a great man and made the holiday for us all.

This was our 6th Sandals vacation, the first to Antigua. I've read many reviews and the common theme amongst the less-than-favorable reviews tends to focus on the service, room issues, and/or food. So, let me address those first (my opinion only of course):

Service: we had great service all week. Rarely were we not greeted when walking around the property or did our servers not have a smile. My wife an I are not very picky, and we used to live on an island so we are used to the laid-back style/way of doing things. Some folks may think the service is too slow, but we were fine with it. We also did not have any issues, may it be ordering a meal, drinks, or anything else. Hats off to the team...especially Hersilla in the piano bar!

Room: I can certainly understand that some folks have experienced problems with their rooms. We had no issues; we received the room we requested (which was ready upon arrival) and the maids even stocked the mini-bar with extra items we asked for via written request.

Food: Having been to Sandals for 6 years straight, I can understand why some folks may not have the most favorable review of the food. It's good...not great, not bad. Don't expect 5-star dining/food and you will be fine. :-). We had our favorites and no so favorites, as listed below:

- Marios: Italian cuisine. In our opinion, the best restaurant on the resort! It doesn't require reservations (surprisingly). The anti-pasta bar alone is a meal! Recommend the lasagna, 4-cheese Penne, and the chocolate lava cake (best dessert on the resort!). They also do a great b-fast buffet in the mornings (we went every morning).

- Cricketers Arms Pub: pub food. The pub food here was actually quite nice. And Cricketers was open from noon till 2AM. The menu was the same all day/night. Try the Curry Shrimp, hamburger, pulled pork sliders, and the chili cheese nachos. Great late night drinking food or quick lunch/dinner when all other places are crowded. No reservations required.

- Bayside: various themed cuisine buffet: b-fast and lunch buffet, plus themed dinner each night. We never did b-fast here, but the lunches were good. The best themed lunches were Southwest (aka Mexican), Indian (with many different curry options) and Italian. The best dinner themed nights were steaknight (Thursdays...don't miss!) and fish market night (Sundays). Every Monday night they do a resort BBQ at Bayside. We also went to Marios instead and avoided the chaos/masses. No reservations required.

- Eleanors: Caribbean cuisine. We actually ate here three times. It's considered the "fine" dining establishment on the resort. It was quite nice, but not our favorite. You can get a huge lobster dinner here, but mine was very overcooked. The second time we went I had the land and sea, which was very nice. The Lamb Curry is the best, however...probably our favorite dish on the island. Reservations required.

- OK Corral: Tex/Mex. I use this term (Tex/Mex) lightly, especially since I'm from Texas. The food was pretty good, however. I enjoyed the chili and the chix fajitas. The steak (my wife had) was OK. It's worth a try but wasn't worth a repeat. Reservations required.

- Kimonos: Teppanyaki. About the only thing good here was the, facility itself (very nice!), the steak and the entertainment of having the food cooked in front of you. The overall experience felt very rushed. We were not impressed. Reservations required.

- Sushi Bar next to Kimonos: didn't visit.

- Barefoots: didn't visit.

- Napoli Pizza next to Marios: great pizza you could get from noon till 5 or 6PM. Never a long wait (20 mins tops) and you could get it to go to bring to your room or to the pool/beach. We had a pizza almost daily. No reservations required.

Reservations: This is always a tricky thing to deal with but I understand why Sandals does it...there's just no other way around it, as the restaurants that require reservations have limited seating. Booking reservations start at 8:30AM each morning for 48 hrs out. So if you want to eat at a certain place on Sunday, you have to be in line Friday morning to book your reservation. I was the first in line 3 days in a row (getting up around 7:30 and starting the line at 8:00 on my own). This was not ideal, but allowed us to get into all the restaurants we wanted on the days/times we wanted. A few other times we just popped into the reservations desk in the afternoon to see what was still available (usually the 9 or later seatings) and took those. Could have been better/could have been worse.

Scuba diving: Great dives on the south end of the island! But know that going in 1) you MUST bring your dive certification card, 2) there is a diver orientation/skills test in the dive pool for all divers, regardless of experience level, and 3) they make you do a "shallow" dive before you can go on the deeper dives. If not planned properly, these things (skills test and shallow dive) can waste 2 of your dive days, so try to do them on the same day. Reservations for the dive boat are also 48 hrs out, but they were pretty flexible about it. The deep, 2-tank dives are in the morning (8:30 departure) and the 1-tank shallow dive is in the afternoon (~1PM departure). The trip to the south end of the island for the deeper dives is a 1 hour trip, so be prepared.

- Cabanas at the main pool: available for rental for $99/day. We got one on our last day and it was well worth it...you get a cooler with beer/soda/water, a waitress, b-fast, and lunch (from Barefoots). It beats dealing with the rush to grab pool/beach chairs (which is a whole other story I don't have time to write here!).

Overall, we had a great trip and had no major complaints. Be sure to say hi to all the cats running around the property...they are quite friendly. We would certainly return here again...great times!