Gadling

The final place we stayed on my recent trip to Antigua, and the place where we celebrated New Year’s Eve, was the Hawksbill Resort just four miles from the capital of St John’s.

Four miles makes a huge difference, however. St John’s is a loud, chaotic place but along the Five Island area of the west coast where the resort is located, civilization sort of drops off and disappears.

The resort is named after a small island just off the coast (above) that looks like, you guessed it, a hawk’s bill. This rocky outcrop is the main focal point of a resort that sits nestled amongst 37 acres of lush greenery and boasts four beaches. This sounds impressive until you actually get there. The main beach has only about ten feet of sand between the water’s edge and a concrete retaining wall. To make matters worse, the sand is at a 45 degree angle and not possible to rest a lounge chair upon. Two of the other beaches are also small and quaint. The fourth beach, at the far end of the property, is clothing-optional. This one actually has more sand but far too many rocky sections in the water, making it nearly impossible to swim.

Now don’t get me wrong. The beaches are still very nice and there were certainly no tears spilled in paradise. But after having come from Jolly Bay with its wide expanse of white sand and its intoxicating blue waters, Hawksbill was a slight disappointment. I suppose it’s all a matter of perspective, however. Had we come here first, the beaches would have been far more breathtaking.

There was something else odd about the resort as well and it took a little while for me to figure it out; the resort looked a bit like a retirement home. Most of the accommodations were located on a grassy field in one-story, trailer-like buildings (see above) that entirely lacked charm.

It was a strange decision to build like this and I feel the investors squandered the unlimited possibilities this beautiful stretch of coastline presented. That being said, they did do an outstanding job with the main building where the restaurant and bar are located and where we spent most of out time when not on the beach/sloping sand hill. The main building is open to the elements and sits perched on a slight bluff overlooking a massive expanse of ocean. It is another one of those very great places where one can sit for hours staring out into the Caribbean void.

Like the other resorts visited on this trip, Hawksbill was also full of British tourists. But, there was a difference. Whereas Jolly Beach attracted more families and Cocos more couples, Hawksbill catered to a much older crowd. And, the resort reflected this. There really weren’t much organized sports, evening shows, or other bells and whistles–just a well-manicured, nicely run, clean-and-efficient resort in which to lay about and count your days toward retirement.

It wasn’t my favorite place on the island, but it just might be in 20 years.

Yesterday: Cocos Resort

After staying at the Jolly Beach Resort in Antigua a few days, my girlfriend and I moved just down the beach to Cocos Resort.

The two resorts are close enough that I could simply walk along the sand with my luggage to get there. They are, however, a world apart. Both overlook the same majestic bay, but Cocos is located on a hill and has only 19 suites (compared to the hundreds found at Jolly Beach Resort). This creates an entirely different atmosphere.

Rooms at Cocos are actually private hillside bungalow. Each is quaint, small and seems to have been carpentered together by a low bidder–although I was told that the Premium suites were far superior to the Standard one in which we stayed. Nonetheless, the view, privacy, and the way the suites are individually nestled into a jungle-covered hillside more than make up for it. In fact, I still loved the place after discovering it didn’t have air-conditioning (fans only); I still enjoyed it when the water turned off one night; and I still highly recommend it despite the loud, chirping tree frogs (which initially bothered me but eventually became a soothing sound to which to fall asleep).

The bungalows hark back to another era. They have no telephone or TVs (great!) and each bed has a gigantic mosquito net hanging over it. And yes, there is a good reason for that net.

In addition to the fantastic view, each balcony also has a hammock as well as an outside shower. Yep, you can shower naked on your balcony while looking out over the intoxicating blues of Jolly Bay.

Cocos is blessed with one of the best restaurants on the island. I usually opted for some tasty fish and my girlfriend enjoyed the red meat selections, such as bacon-wrapped pork loin. Even if the food was bad, however, which it isn’t, the view would still be worth a visit. Simply sitting on the veranda and watching the sun play across the waters of the bay would still make me happy even if all they served was water and crackers. If you happen to be staying next door at Jolly Beach, be sure to stop by and eat at least one meal here.

Cocos, being such a small resort, has limited amenities but the ones they do have, are more upscale and classy than those found up the sand at Jolly Beach Resort. Coco’s, for example has a much smaller beach but the lounge chairs are made of rich, dark-grained wood and each has a very comfortable cushion atop it. A little cocktail shack at the edge of the beach is staffed by an extremely amicable bartender who would wander amongst the dozen or so people on the beach taking drink orders and then would personally deliver them to the recumbent guests.

There are also a couple of kayaks that can be taken out as well as a fresh water pool just off the beach. Unfortunately, the pool is ensconced in shrubbery and coconut trees and, albeit beautiful, doesn’t offer enough sun to truly enjoy. But who cares? You don’t travel this far to lay poolside when a world class beach is just ten steps away.

I quite liked Cocos. It is a very unique resort and very different than Jolly Beach. It is much more of a couples/honeymoon place, devoid of screaming kids and drunken Brit teenagers. Cocos is quiet, relaxed, romantic, classy, and blessed with a mellowness and character to which all tropical resorts should aspire.

Yesterday’s Post: The Jolly Beach Resort
Tomorrow’s Post: Hawksbill Resort

Jolly Beach Resort was the first of three resorts my girlfriend and I stayed at during our recent trip to Antigua.

This all-inclusive resort is located right on the edge of the beach and looks out over majestic Jolly Bay, a bay of such turquoise waters that train-of-thoughts are inevitably derailed with a single, mesmerizing glance. I spent long afternoons here, reclining on the beach and staring out at the water, occasionally jumping in to cool down. Unfortunately, despite the wonderful blue color of the water, the bay is sadly lacking in the snorkeling department. It does, however, more than make up for this letdown in the float-atop-the-water-and-simply-do-nothing department.

For those looking for a bit more excitement, Jet Ski cowboys tool up and down the coast renting out their rides. In addition, the resort also provides kayaks, windsurfing, and sailing for those more inclined towards non-motorized water sports. Not interested in getting all salty when you swim? Jolly Beach has two fresh water pools on the grounds as well.

I was quite pleased with our accommodations at the resort. We opted for the air-conditioned junior suite which included a spacious bedroom (as you can see above), a living room and even a kitchen–a rather useless amenity at an all-inclusive resort.

The best thing about the room was undoubtedly the view. Just check out the above photograph to see what I awoke to every morning. When it rained in the afternoons, I simply sat on the balcony and took in the brief thundershowers. It could have used a hammock out there, but otherwise it was perfect.

One of the most important ingredients of an all-inclusive is the food. I was a bit disappointed to arrive at 11 p.m. after a long flight from Los Angeles only to discover there was no way to get a meal at that time. The front desk rounded up some sandwich meat and bread, but after the kitchen closes at 10 p.m., guests are SOL. So I went to bed hungry on my first night.

I ate mostly at Hemispheres, the resort’s buffet restaurant. Like most buffets, the majority of the food was simply average. There was always, however, one or two tasty items which made the meal worthwhile–usually some locally caught fish. The salad bar was pretty good but the dessert table, although seductively tantalizing, was a big disappointment; none of the food tasted as good as it looked.

Jolly Beach Resort also has three restaurants. These are proper sit-down restaurants with a wait staff and menus. The selection includes Italian (Bocciolo), Seafood (Lydia’s), and Indian (Ustav). I would like to write that the food was all wonderful but we were turned away from Bocciolo for wearing jeans (it’s the only restaurant with a dress code) and the others were booked up (reservations are indeed necessary). So, sorry but I have nothing to report about the restaurant food at Jolly Beach.

The Coconut Grill, located between the beach and pool, is the most causal place to grab a bite. Open from noon to 4 p.m., the grill serves exactly the type of fare you’d expect from a grill; burgers, hot dogs, and fried chicken. The food was okay, but vaguely high school cafeteria-like.

Something I was very disappointed about, having read so much about it in various guidebooks, was the fruit and juice scene. Jolly Beach, as well as the two other resorts we stayed at, had just average juice selections and very little fruit to speak of. Antigua is supposedly blessed with a bounty of wonderful fruit but it rarely made an appearance. Perhaps they export it, I don’t know. It was disappointing nonetheless.

Fruit juice aside, I was impressed with the bar. All-inclusive also includes drinks and the bar, open until midnight, is happy to oblige. We kept asking the bartenders for their specialty and kept getting these wonderfully mixed drinks, usually filled with rum. Tasty blended drinks, such as the hurricane and the hummingbird also came our way. In addition, the poolside bar also has a serve-yourself daiquiri machine with a bottle of rum next to regulate the amount of alcohol you might want dumped into your drink.

With so much alcohol at hand, one might expect a drunken bacchanalia, but this wasn’t the case. The guests, the vast majority of which were British, were relatively well behaved. This was probably due to the fact that they were mostly families. There were a couple of drunk teenagers running around, and a few bratty kids, but otherwise the crowd was tolerable.

Overall, I was impressed with Jolly Beach Resort. It is a three-star resort and has a few shortcomings (occasionally slow staff, charging to use the room safe, average food) but otherwise I’d highly recommend it–of course, with such a beautiful beach at hand, even a hole in the sand would be a lovely place to stay.

Yesterday: St. John’s
Tomorrow: Cocos Resort