My Best Day at St James’s Club Resort, Antigua

I woke up in this. This glorious bed that was so huge I could sleep and wriggle around without even disturbing the carefully made sheet on the other side. Lording it up at the St James’s Club Resort Antigua.

With jet lag meaning I was up at 5am every day (wish I was that awake in the UK) I could sit on the balcony and do a bit of work before the day really began, listening to the birds and feeling a bit Mary Poppins-esque as I did. Of course, no other holiday makers were doing that, people come to St James’s Club to RELAX.

– Map of the Caribbean | Map of Antigua 

St James’s Club is a 4-star all inclusive on the peninsula of Antigua. It’s part of Elite Island Resorts who have all inclusive Caribbean luxury beach resorts in Antigua, St. Lucia, Barbados, Tortola and The Grenadines. I stayed at the St James’ Club in St Lucia about two years ago. This time though, it’s all about Antigua…

My Best Day at St James’s Club Resort, Antigua

Breakfast feed

I was at the a la carte Coco Restaurant with Jayne from GirlTweetsWorld, and we’d been discussing what would actually fit in the toaster. This was definitely one of those day 5 conversations you have when it’s just been the two of you all week.

She told me to put the banana bread in and, as I always did when friends told me to do stupid stuff at school, obeyed. Cue the next few minutes trying to poke the sticky banana bread out with a salad server thing without firstly, getting electrocuted, secondly, it setting on fire, thirdly, letting staff or other diners see what we were doing. Go me, mission accomplished.

We followed this up with the a la carte Eggs Benedict you see above.

That wasn’t the best breakfast though…

Bacon and soft cheese bagels became our signature breakfast of the holiday, with a bit of the local Susie’s Hot Sauce for me. Eaten 2 days out of the 3 at the buffet Rainbow restaurant – it meant you could stuff it with as much bacon as you liked, yum.

Morning fun

They run a few day activities at St James’s Club Resort, the best of them though was the Float Fit class. The only place in the Caribbean to have the facilities, we were well up for the challenge at 9:30am. The goal, I think, was to have fun and stay on the board while doing a succession of balances and exercises.

Totally nailed it, until I started to show off…

It was a mix of yoga and HIIT exercise, on a board, on water. What could go wrong?

Check out Jayne’s post on our Float Fit class over at GirlTweetsWorld.com.

After all that excitement it was definitely time to relax on the sun beds. And lucky lucky, staff member Alfred comes round in his golf cart offering up soft drinks and rum punch to us sun bathers to get the Caribbean party started. All part of the St James’ Club Resort service.

Once it heats up St James’s Club has these awesome rings to cool off – can’t believe I’ve never seen them around before – and you can even take your drinks out and recline as they’re like mini paddling pools. Amazing!

What’s for lunch?

The best place to lunch at St James’s Club Resort Antigua, after much dedicated investigation, is right on the beach. There’s a BBQ shack serving up freshly burgers. I went two days running and got the mahi-mahi fish, with cheese, and a beer on the side.

We then scoffed this in the much needed shade of the Dockside Restaurant, below.

On the last day, we went up to the Coco Restaurant for lunch, where I ordered two portions – obviously really getting into the whole all-inclusive thing at this point – the Caesar Salad and a pulled pork pizza. Yum.

There are some really great restaurants in Antigua, but it was so nice to have such tasty food on site and within easy reach.

Afternoon activity

With six pools, the whole Mamora Bay and Coco Beach to relax by, the perfect afternoon at St James’s Club is spent chilling. Bars are dotted around the resort, so the drinks can flow as much as you like.

It’s tempting to not go out the resort, seeing as you have everything you need here, but I’d definitely recommend the Pink Jeep Island Tour and the Catamaran tour too. It’s easy to sign up at the front desk.

By 3/4pm you’ve probably had enough sun. It’s hawt in the Caribbean… but then that’s why you want to go, right?

So this is the optimum time to book yourself into the Tranquillity Spa, for a little treat. I had a pedicure – possibly the most careful nail polishing I’ve ever received (shame I then went on to stub it on a step as I walked out and splodged it) – and a massage.

Check out the location of the massage ^^. Outdoors, with a slight breeze and good, strong hands. Felt incredible. I need another one, now.

Sunset cocktails

Feeling dreamy and disorientated post massage we went and lay by the pool again to let those oils soak in and catch a bit of sun while it was cooler.

Thanks to the peninsula St James’s Club Resort is one of the best places for a sunset on the island. Although unfortunately I didn’t get to see a good one in my three nights there, so no photo I’m afraid. Shirley Heights is the ultimate sunset spot on the island though – make sure to pop up there one night for a different view.

Dinner time

The best meal I had on the entire island was at Docksider – St James’s Club Resort’s beach side restaurant. It was Bollywood night and they had the curries, naans and onion bhajis out in force. I don’t know if it was because it’d been so long since I had a curry, or what, but it was absolutely delicious.

Piccolo is a nice little restaurant overlooking the water at St James’s Club. Although unfortunately I think you have to book the best tables in advance, we were stuck at the back. I did enjoy my cajun squid starter, followed by Parmesan crusted snapper and finished with a Tiramisu, but that curry though.

Evening fun

Thanks to jetlag I was pretty much ready for bed at 9 every night in Antigua, but I did push through to 9:30 on a few occasions. There was this one night when we went to watch the evening entertainment – a fire breather.

He was terrifying.

We intentionally sat at the back, way back, not wanting to be part of his show, but he came and found us. He came right up to me, standing over me so I I couldn’t actually see what he was doing but I could feel the hot fire next to me.

“PLEASE DON’T SET FIRE TO MY HAIR!”

“Please!”

Jayne can attest to my screaming. My heart was racing. Did he know what he was doing bringing that hot stick anywhere near my sun frazzled barnet?

Well, yes, apparently he did. He didn’t set me on fire but we were so scared of him Jayne wouldn’t let me go to the toilet and leave her there by herself. Not exaggerating.

St James’s Club Resort

And so, to bed. In our huge Royal Suites rooms. I slept amazingly at St James’s Club Resort, ready for the fun to begin again the next day.

*I travelled to Antigua as a guest of Elite Island Resorts and Kuoni. All opinions are my own.*

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