Sandals Grande Antigua Resort and Spa

From start to finish, this was an amazing vacation. There was a group of six of us. The staff were super accommodating and above and beyond friendly. There was plenty of entertainment during the day and at night. Our room was spectacular. Quiet, clean and close to the beach. The food was fantastic. We never had any problem finding beach chairs and loved the beach. The scuba diving was spectacular.I highly recommend Sandals antigua. I would like to give a shout out to some outstanding staff members: Claudine at the Drunkin Duck. You made our nights so fun. Photographer Shadiael, thanks for getting great pictures and good luck with your music endeavors. Pool and bar staff: Sedona, Morika and Juliane thanks for always greeting up with smiles and a friendly demeanor. Elenor’s Johnathon and “Sour Patch” (jernesia) you kept us on our toes and made us laugh. Thanks for taking good care of us. Beach staff, Alexia so sweet and friendly. Loyalty discount Dillion, thanks for helping us book another vacation and chatting with us throughout the week. The staff is what makes this vacation one of the best I’ve been on. I’ll be back for sure. Read less

Let me start this review with two things... 1. My wife and I love Sandals and have a special connection. I asked her to marry me at Montego with friends on the trip (great atmosphere & the Playmakers know how to start a party) and had our honeymoon at Curacao which was perfect. 2. I'm going to write a second review for this resort as there are 3 employees that went above and beyond to SAVE our trip, and I don't want them to be lumped into this. They are the reasons this is a poor review as opposed to terrible. - The trip started with a concierge that could not care less. Said hello. No smiles or introductions. Asked our name and told us to wait on the couch. It was us and one other couple. 30 minutes passed and he asked us to follow him. No introductions or tour of the resort (we saw other groups getting tours throughout our stay). He took us to our room and showed us the difference between a bed and a bathroom and left. But hey, we've been on a plane all day and we're just happy to be there as weather was cancelling and delaying flights everywhere. We felt lucky to be there. And maybe he's having a bad day. Just move on and have a good time! - The reservations we made for dinner at OK Corral that night were not in the system. We made them on the app and confirmed them over the phone with the resort before arrival. The next day we went to the concierge desk to make sure the reservations for the rest of the trip were good. Nope. And everything for the week at that point was booked except for late night meals. THIS concierge acted like she couldn't believe we wanted to eat food. What's with the attitude? - The room we booked was a walkout room. Only the door did not lock. It's a latch that when left unlatched, the door swings wide open. We have had this same style of room at other resorts and you're able to lock the door and "walk out." So, it's not a walk out room. It's just a little deck you can sip coffee on and go back inside. The only view we had was of giant bushes with the backside of Mario's behind them and tractors to the right. But they pitch it on the website as "walk out" and it's more expensive of course! Additionally, the room had mold that was painted over and tiles falling out of the wall and tub. We found a roach in the bathroom floor one morning. AND my wife woke up to a SPIDER the size of her hand in the floor one morning! We flagged down a security lady, and she took care of it. Obviously, that's not necessarily the resorts’ fault. Animals live there too. But at that point, what else can go wrong? Maybe the back door that won't shut had something to do with that... - The general attitude of the staff was very subpar compared to our previous Sandals experiences. I've mentioned the 3 that I will review later and I won't name anyone other than ANDY. The main bar under OK Corral though, that place might as well just let you serve yourself. They don't want to be there, and they consistently made things wrong. It wasn't just us. We heard it from everyone around us throughout the week. - My wife's description of our waitress at Soy... "If she could have taken me out back and shot me, she would have." That was said 5 minutes after we sat down. That was beyond anything we've experienced at Sandals or anywhere else on vacation. - All of this leads up to this story. Management took the cake. - Andy, if you and/or your Director of Guest Services read this. Be better is the only advice I have for you and I understand why your staff isn't up to the level of the other resorts. Despite our issues, we love Sandals and we pay attention to the 777 deals offered on the website. We were looking to book our next future trip to another resort. We found a deal online that we wanted but had met a lady from the loyalty lounge earlier in the week that we really liked. She was amazing and she'll be in the second review. Maybe she could do even better but more importantly we wanted her to get the booking credit. And we had an appointment with her that day. So, we took screenshots and sat on them. 3 hours later at our appointment, the price had changed and went up by $3K per room. She asked us to come back later, and she would have her manager Andy talk to us. Long story short, Andy is useless. He was late to meet with us and then "politely" called us liars while constantly checking his phone and looking away from whomever was speaking to him at the time. He told us pricing was fixed (it's not, I've checked the website since then and the price for that room has changed twice since then) and that was that. And then we were walked to the Guest Services lady... I don't know her name because when she walked into the room (we're 3 hours into this at this point, in the middle of the day, DURING OUR VACATION) she asked our names and before one name was said she raised her voice and went into her pitch. "Sorry you're experiencing this blah blah blah, I'm here to offer you Sandals points, blah blah blah." She didn't care. She didn't want to make anything better. We were an inconvenience to her, and it was obvious. She didn't care about our previous concerns about the trip that we made known or the issue with the booking we wanted. She haggled against herself (we were barely able to speak) up from Sandals points to MORE Sandals points to a "free night" to the point that we had had enough and we walked out of the room. We had 4 more days of our stay, we were going to make the best of them, and we didn't hear anything from her or Andy for the rest of our stay. - We did see Andy again on our last day though! He was by the main pool personally locking down two chairs RIGHT NEXT TO US, fluffing the umbrella ever so perfectly, rolling and re-rolling the towels on the chairs. We thought royalty was showing up. No, just two diamond members that were having even worse issues than us. We made friends with them. lol The stories that were told! We made the best of it and had fun the remaining days of our trip. And we still had a good time. Who wouldn't when the alternative is -10* back at home? And we'll be at Sandals resorts again in the future I'm sure. You'll just never catch us at Grande Antigua again! Second review for those 3 that deserve it will be coming soon... Read less

What a wonderful time at Sandals yet again!! Antigua is a beautiful beach and the resort is amazing. Plenty of great food and fun, and some of the best bartenders around! Friendly service and unbeatable weather! Don’t miss the piano bar, so much fun and the piano man is top notch!! This review is late but I figured I’d get it in before our trip back in May! Read less

We stayed here for our honeymoon and wow- it did not disappoint! This was our first sandals holiday and we’ve decided it definitely won’t be our last. I know this hotel is not the most modern by sandals standards but we booked a room that had been recently renovated and it made the world of difference. The hotel felt modern and clean and the room was perfectly modern and cosy. The drinks were brilliant, nothing like your usual ‘all inclusive’ cheap tasting drinks. And the standard of food was even better, my husband couldn’t believe that the steak was included and actually tasted like good steak. We rinsed the room service, we didn’t know hotels excited where room service actually tasted as good as the restaurant food. Our main reason for booking a Sandals hotel was for the scuba diving. And that didn’t disappoint either! The watersports team were brilliant, great fun and helpful. One downside is every now-and-then you’d come into contact with a rude member of staff. And they really were rude! Eye rolling and ignoring you etc. We ate at the Italian restaurant and our server was constantly flemming in her mouth-so loudly she clearly knew we could all hear it- pretty off putting when you’re trying to eat. She was also pretty standoffish throughout the whole meal. Thankfully, these members of staff were few and far between but boy did that stand out against the brilliant members of staff. The other thing that disturbed us was the two macaws stuck in the cage at reception. They are there day and night, during samba performances and themed nights with a cover of the cage. It’s incredibly cruel and when I shared my concern I was told they’re there because it brings and inviting atmosphere and they’re checked my vets regularly. It just disturbs me these birds are stuck in a cage their whole lives and get no peace or ever fly. Back to positives, we were new to this level of all inclusive and didn’t realise we had to book certain restaurants. We turned up to a couple of these restaurants and the staff were so brilliant that they managed to seat us anyway. I know this was probably only possible because we came during low season but really appreciated staff going the extra mile to accommodate us. We’d absolutely recommend this hotel to everyone and hope to come back one day- as well as trying out other Sandals hotels. Read less