Guest reviews St James's Club & Villas

by 868regm Ajax, Canada

The good and bad

The Good -grounds are lovely, great to just walk around the resort - food is good -the staff is great. Always greet you with a smile and always courteous. -rooms are large and well kept The Bad -this resort is far away and secluded from everything. To leave and visit anything requires that you have a rental car or take a "Tourist Taxi" for some exhorbant cost in USD to get out. - if your room is on the Atlantic side, get ready for constant seaweed and the stench that comes with it. -you get to share your fruits and smoothies with all the flies that hang out at the fruit bar every morning. - lack of local fruits and dishes. Mangoes all over the Island, but none at the resort. Never saw plantains, yams, etc. Imagine being at a resort in the Carribean and not seeing pawpaw. Tons of Coconuts on the resort but not one day you could find Coconut water. - the fact that you get dinged with extra fees on checkout. Fifteen USD dollars per day for enhanced cleaning, but your room is only cleaned every two days. - staff available to serve you your meal except at night you could serve yourself salad. I suppose Covid does not spread around salad. All in all, would I return to St. James...not sure. In fact not sure if I would return to Antigua. Other than some nice beaches there is not much there and other Islands offer a better bang for the buck.

by O6234TOmartint

Waited Two years for THIS.

Having this Anniversary Holiday cancelled twice we really needed it to be so special . Unfortunately it was not so . Restaurants opening not as advertised , room in need of renovation and modernising it proved to be a disappointment . That's the negatives now the positives : Weather was fab. The bay side beach was great (especially when the drinks cart came along ) and the staff mostly were great . Need to mention a few who went the extra mile or two : Cora (smiler) Samantha , who greeted us at breakfast most days with such a warm welcome ,and Vellie who like us also had aa anniversary during our stay and greeted us at the Dockside Restaurant. We were also looked after by fab waiting staff who made our stay easy for food and drink with their warm welcome and good wishes for " have the best day " . Also we hope Karen nets that big fish she so wants to catch !!!! I don't think we will return to St.James but must say many do .

by Ihaterugby Worcester, United Kingdom

Great holiday destination

We had a brilliant 2 week’s at St James’. The hotel itself could benefit from a refurbish but the rooms are spotlessly clean and our room ( in the Royal Suite) was spacious and the balcony had lovely views. The food is fine, with plenty of choice and there quite a few restaurants to choose from. What really makes St James deserve the 5 star rating is the staff! Almost without exception, they are lovely - friendly, helpful and eager to make your holiday enjoyable. Bennett, the tennis coach, is especially wonderful (coaching is extra but well worth it!). Vincent, who manned the pool bar for the Royal Suites) is fabulous - great fun and a dab hand at cocktails! We also loved the little beach bar/cafe beside the watersports beach which was great for a relaxed lunch. For a more formal dining experience there is an a la Carter restaurant, with a small surcharge, which is excellent ; delicious food and wonderful wines and cocktails. The Dockside Restaurant has a different theme every night (Caribbean, Italian etc) & has a great salad bar at lunchtime. The Rainbow Restaurant is a la carte and is really good. For a relaxed coffee & pastry the little treetops cafe is very special. All in all, we had a fantastic and very memorable holiday at St James’ and would definitely recommend it.

by zandreiak Laurel, Maryland

It's the Lies for me!

It's the lies for me!  After a long-awaited two-year hiatus, we finally resumed our annual family vacation. Today is our second day at St.James Club Antigua, and let me tell you, I'm over it already. It's a group of 21 of us, and we paid $500.00 per night for beachfront rooms, which in the description offer beach access from your patio. When we arrived, the beach was COVERED with seaweed. We were told multiple versions of why one side of the beach was covered with seaweed. "oh, they clean it every morning, and it comes back, and there is nothing they can do because it's mother nature." We were also told that a storm brought the seaweed. Regardless of the reason, they were all unacceptable answers. The manager on duty, Khadija, said that she would email cooperate and have it cleaned up in the morning.  The cleanup crew arrived around 6 a.m. and began cleaning up the mounting of seaweed. First forward to 2:00 p.m. we were told that they would move our room to an ocean view and it's an upgrade. As the oceanview rooms were not beach accessible, I asked if we could stay on the other side of beachfront resort that was beach accessible and no seaweed. Ms.No name tag and a bad attitude at the counter said that the villa was in a different category and they were completely sold out. - mind you, it's the resort's slow season and empty. We also offered to double up in the villas—still nothing. Fast forward to 5:00 p.m. My niece's bathtub in her room was leaking. Ms. Monique came and found us on the other side of the resort with no seaweed, a good ways from our beachfront rooms, and informed my niece that they could not fix her tub and that they would be moving her to a two-bedroom villa. Let's back up; just three hours ago, all the villas were sold out. Now suddenly, a villa is open. How sway? All of this could have been avoided. Apparently, this is seaweed season. It would have been helpful had we been informed of the seaweed and the inaccessibility of the beach. At that point, we could have decided to change resorts and or upgrade to the villas before arriving.  Even today, instead of lying in our damn face, they could have offered us villas at an additional cost, but instead, we got a suck-it-up buttercup! It's the lies for me!

by jwils339 Oxford, Connecticut

Will not return

I gave this resort a 2 star rating for a variety of reasons. My husband and I have been vacationing at all inclusive’s twice a year ( except 2 years during the pandemic) for the past 20 years. Many of them we return to. Because we had not traveled for 2 years due to the pandemic we wanted to make this a special vacation. We picked this resort despite the higher price than our normal budget for that reason. We booked a beach front room. Having the beach right off our deck was amazing however we did not go in that water due to the excessive amount is seaweed. We were very disappointed in the room itself. It was old and tired and we could hear the people in the room above us walking. When we noticed our in room fridge only had 2 waters, no soda, beer, the normal beverages stocked in an all Inclusive fridge we inquired about getting it stocked. We were told we get 2 waters and can buy more in the gift shop, The beach on the Caribbean side was nice and calm but very murky water. We did not do any excursions but people told us they had to get a taxi to the point of excursion pick up which was costly, in one case $80.00. The resort is small with just 1 lounge. Our first full day there it poured all day long. The lounge does not open during the day so while looking for something to do, cocktails was not an option. The main pool was a disappointment. It was a relatively small, plain rectangular pool, no kind of ambiance, with shape, lush foliage, palm trees spread throughout. The worst came at checkout (we were told about this at check in but what do you do at that point?) are taxes for….not sure what. We spent $20.00 in the gift shop so we expected that on our bill but due to their “taxes” our “all “inclusive” was an additional $450.00 for 9 days. This will be one resort we will not be returning to. Judy and Bob Oxford Ct