And this was it……our first visit to Sandals Grande Antigua.
Now this was still in the aftermath of bat soup time so there were a lot of travel experiences which we didn’t have to deal with before.
We had the pre-holiday show sticks in your throat and up your nose experience (the dreaded PCR test) and the nervousness that followed with that as that was the deciding factor even before the holiday began.
There was the upload of all the documents for this cause without this you weren’t getting on that plane, plus all the usual thing of buying suitable sized suitcases (we didn’t have them), making sure we had the right kit, clothes etc – You know something was bound to be forgotten!
At the time Gatwick were only using 1 of their 2 terminals, so we booked parking and a hotel and travelled down the night before.
We were flying from the North Terminal, the Hilton was in the South but that was fine as the terminal train was running – and yes everyone was in masks, everywhere.
We checked into the Hilton and went upstairs to a room that really needed AC but didn’t have any, so we ordered some room service….not great. The food arrived pretty quickly but was lukewarm but more importantly was served on chipped plates and bowls which was odd. But hey ho.
The following morning we headed back to the North terminal and to the check-in desk, no luckily we used Verifly so were able to go straight to an empty desk designed for that app use – oddly nearly everyone didn’t use the app, less than 2 minutes and we had checked in and bag dropped! Now I had ‘checked-in’ online and was offered a class upgrade from Economy to Premium Economy and I’m glad I did.
Anyway, one lounge later, one 8.5 hour flight later and we were in Antigua. We didn’t know what to expect, our first flight in 7 years and Covid was still a thing. Let’s just say it took a while in the airport, rightly so they were checking everything, documents, tests and even had mobile temperature readers setup. It took so long until we go to the front of the queue, luckily I had everything printed and ready so apart from answering where we were going, our process took about 1 minute – Here is a tip, fill the damn customs form in on the plane, not at the desk!! Because of the amount of time we spent, bag collection was easy – all the bags had been taken off the belt by airport staff and neatly stood up waiting for collection!
Outside we went trying to find the Sandals desk, our first time and it just looked like tons of desks for miles…..it wasn’t, but it felt like it. 30 seconds later we were at the Sandals desk where they took our name, and labelled our luggage. Then just a short wait for another couple so they could pile us into a mini bus for the transfer.
Only a short 15 minute transfer, which compared to other holidays was bliss – nothing more frustrating than an 1 1/2 hour transfer with multiple hotel stops and somehow we’re always the last drop-off! There other couple in the mini-bus were from the US, she asked for the AC to be put on so the driver obliged…….by opening the windows on the side of the mini bus! Then the strangest thing, we’re there having a chat with complete strangers after travelling over 4000 miles only to find he was a musician who had played literally next door to where I work!
Now we were new to the whole Sandals thing, didn’t really know what to expect from anything so it was all a learning experience for us. We got to the resort and given a temperature check before being allowed in, then given a cooling towelette! I was then promptly told off for attempting to handle my own luggage, we’re on holiday I was told!
Our room wasn’t ready so they sent us to grab something to eat from ‘Barefoot’, now we’d of course had spent a lot of time looking at the website and menus etc so had an idea of what to expect, only it didn’t meet our expectations, it blew them out of the water and this was our first meal on our first day! It also was the meal that raised an eyebrow from Mrs BtG (that is shorthand for my princess Fiona) as I ordered a salad, yeah a salad!
Back up to reception we headed after eating our first delicious meal here, our room was ready so our butler was called (yes at the time it felt odd having a butler), she took us to our room and explained some basics including her guess of which side of the bathroom each of us would use – to be honest it’s kinda obvious when one side has a shaving plug and the other side has all the Red Lane Spa amenities!
The next 7 days were amazing, even though we didn’t know what to expect from the butlers there were small touches such as a bath being drawn, loungers reserved by the pool or the beach depending on our choice. Being escorted to dinner and generally looking after us. You actually have a team of butlers covering shifts for your stay, it works out normally a team of 3 and a 2 shift a day split so 2 covering each day.
We did learn some valuable things on this trip, such as the butlers look after multiple couples so they can be busy doing a million things. We did experience how rude another couple spoke to one of our butlers because they didn’t get what they wanted as soon as they wanted it! You’re on holiday, you’re being looked after, just calm yourself down, have a cocktail and relax……but please treat people with respect, it’s not hard!
What did we love? Well the cocktails for one, I discovered ‘Love in a Cup’ which is probably the best cocktail I’ve had and I had a number of these, Mrs BtG discovered ‘BBC’ (and no, get your mind out of the gutter!) amongst the many we had. We also loved the a la carte dining as buffet meals aren’t always a great experience.
The beach – so sandy, so long and the water was so calm. Not to mention some of the friendly locals there including ‘Antigua Tony’ – a guy on the beach who sells tours. I’d read reviews about people being pushy and rude to Sandals guests and I have to say this was not the case, we had a few chats with them and a simple ‘No thank you’ was enough.
Now this is only a snippet of our experience, this is in part to it being written 4 years after it happened and whilst I’m lucky enough to remember everything that happened, plus have the photos to back it all up, it’s a lot to put down in a blog post.
Was it perfection? No, but it was damn close but it was also a time of Covid so things weren’t as expected. For instance the return stick up your nose test wasn’t great, but it was required and luckily it was free. The odd thing, during this time we actually felt safer in Sandals than we did in our local supermarket – because people were following the rules, they were keeping distance.
There were a couple of small issues but these were dealt with or we laughed them off because in the grand scheme of things they weren’t important. We’d pre-booked a romantic beach candle-lit dinner for our anniversary but had been requested to move the date, when the butler found out she was not impressed and moved it back! There was also a lunch time incident where our lunch took over an hour to arrive but it was all down to staffing levels and the butler pulling in favours all cause I was after a hotdog – it was a good hotdog and I did appreciate the effort.
How much did we enjoy it? Well we said we’d happily go back there even after a couple of days into the holiday, so much so that as a surprise I did book a return trip for the October but the day before I fell ill (not Covid), after a few emails (and sadly me having to complain) we were able to re-arrange that holiday (and upgrade) to return in 2023 as we’d booked Sandals Grenada for 2022!
Did we miss out on things? Yes, but that was partly down to our understanding of what the butlers could do for us, our trip to Grenada in 2022 showed us this. This is not a complaint in anyway, we just simply didn’t know so didn’t ask.
We stayed in a Romeo And Juliet Honeymoon Suite – PO category for the week, flying from Gatwick with British Airways. Used the Long Stay carpark at Gatwick and The Hilton Hotel in the South Terminal.
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