rated the St James Club as follows:| Cleanliness |  | | Location |  | | Staff | | | Food |  | |
| Entertainment | |
| said: I have included a lot of information below, and know that some people just want a recommendation so I have put this first. If you want a quiet holiday, and don’t mind not having the Caribbean beach and clear sea, AND you can get this at discount prices, then this is worth it. If however you are looking at Virgin’s standard rate, are less than 65 with a pulse and yearn for clear seas and soft white beaches, then choose somewhere else. This is an OK place, but vastly overpriced and with an inflated view of its quality rating.
St James Club is located on a 100-acre peninsula on the south-east coast of Antigua. Once there you need either a car or taxi ($70 standard return fare to anywhere on the island) to go anywhere else. The accommodation consists of a total of 132 guest rooms and suites in The Club - 30 Club Rooms, 70 Premium Rooms, 20 Beachfront Rooms, 10 Bay Suites & 2 Club Suites. Also 25 two-bedroom villas in The Village. Overall it’s a little tired in places, but they do appear to be building more and updating everything so it is improving. That said, there is too much on the relatively small land area – particularly the Village feels cramped and overcrowded. They have a dress code for the evenings, which is inconsistently applied, and isn’t really justified for sitting on plastic garden furniture in the restaurants.
There are 2 beaches at St James Club, but if you are expecting gentle white beaches, calm clear Caribbean sea as most brochures depict for Antigua, then you will be very disappointed. St James club is on the Atlantic – which is neither calm nor clear. Coco beach is steep, rough and the sea pounds the sea weed onto the beach morning noon and night, and the sea breeze is bracing to put it mildly. The other (Mamora Bay) is in a cove and conforms more to the Antigua stereotype, but don’t be fooled as all is not what it seems. This is still the Atlantic and the entry into the water is pretty steep, full of sea weed and slimy under foot. You wont see any of that of course as the sea is sludge coloured and visibility is approx 6 inches in the water. Don’t mis-understand, it’s not a bad beach or place to swim, but if you have paid a lot of money and travelled a long way for the Caribbean dream, then a beach no better than Blackpool and sea cloudier than Brighton is not what you expect.
Four pools are claimed, but 1 is a children’s pool, 1 is an adult plunge pool and 1 is the size of a handkerchief by Cocos. That leaves the main pool which is a pretty basic rectangle, clean and reasonably sized, but does get busy. The kids pool is well set out, but a hike up to the village. The adult ‘Tiered pool’ is just below Piccolo Mondo, quite romantic, but a little tired and worn and getting in and out is not easy.
The tennis courts looked well maintained and did not seem very busy. The free non-motorised water sports were always busy with booking hours in advance required, but the boats are well looked after and the staff were very helpful.
There are 4 restaurants on the site, but each one closes for one night so for some of the week the choice is really 3. Add to that that one of the restaurants is not part of the all inclusive – you need to pay extra and you are down to a choice of 2 for some nights. If you can afford the extra, though go to Piccolo Mondo as the food is a massive step up from the other restaurants, the choice is wider and the view over the bay is pretty good. You do need to book a place at your chosen restaurant usually by about 09:00 if you want to eat at your first choice and at a time of your choosing. Breakfast for The Club is in Coco’s and for the rest the Rainbow Garden. Rainbow garden I found a little uncomfortable as it appears to be decorated and set out to remind you of the days when ignorant Americans and Empire building Brits sat around and ordered the slaves to bring them drinks on the veranda. Service was a bit slow here as well. The Docksider was the main restaurant and overlooks Mamora Bay. Food was OK, but choice a bit limited. Lunch was by far and away the best, with the hot and cold buffet being extensive, fresh and very tasty - best taken at Cocos for the view and service.
Bars are available in Cocos, Docksider and Piccolo Mondo. During the day there are also bars by the main pool and by the adult pool, and at night the Jarcaranda Bar and Casino. The restaurant bars close pretty early so the only entertainment at night is in the Jarcaranda bar – and that is really cheesy. If you are looking for excitement, bring it with you or hope that the Virgin cabin crew are staying over to liven the evening up. There really is nothing to do in the evening except drink, read, watch telly, make love or play scrabble. On the inclusive the brochure states “Unlimited drinks by the glass, including premium brand liquor, Caribbean beer, house wine, tropical coolers and champagne by the glass.” Well we NEVER saw branded liquor, and we certainly asked as the rum aside, the generics for everything else were pretty awful. Wine and beer however were pretty good and it was certainly freely available if you wanted it.
The accommodation is pretty good. The rooms – at least those outside the Village – are large and reasonably well appointed. The ones we were in had been recently painted and were in a good state of repair. We had a king size bed which was very comfortable and there was plenty of space for the table, chairs and other furniture in the room. The cubby hole which was the wardrobe was however not up to scratch – or rather that’s exactly what it did do. The recess was not quite big enough for the rails and clothes rubbed against the rough walls and got caught on the door. You had to keep the door shut as it was in front of the main entrance so this was not ideal. We were glad we had brought dress and jacket covers to help protect them. No fridge in the room and ice was supposed to be delivered daily, though this was inconsistent. Rooms were cleaned daily and to a high standard. We were on the ground floor and that meant the balcony was unusable. It was generally flooded after the expected rainstorms, and the upper floors balconies water emptied into it. In addition the aircon heat diffuser units were in the garden outside so the balcony was a good 10 degrees hotter than anywhere else. This was true of most of the ground floor rooms. The floors are not very well soundproofed and the movement of the people above was intrusive
In general the staff were polite, friendly and very helpful. This is a pretty well run operation, mainly let down by its location, age, and overdevelopment. Although it may not seem it from my descriptions above, I liked the place, but felt the 5* claims are vastly over-rated and the price Virgin are charging beggars belief. On the whole you could go to a Greek island have a better beach, clear water, all the 5* accompaniments, better day and night time entertainment all for a quarter the price. The only reason for paying the extra is the Caribbean dream beaches and sea, and that’s the one thing that St James can never offer even if it ups the quality of everything else. Nice place to stay if you can get it at the right price and cope with the Atlantic beach compromises.
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rated the St James Club as follows:| Cleanliness |  | | Location | | | Staff | | | Food | | |
| Entertainment |  |
| said: Having stayed at their sister property in St.Lucia last year and enjoyed it so much - the kids picked this one from the brochure as soon as we got back.
Booked 11 nights on AI and stayed in a lovely beach front two-bedroom villa. One of the best holidays we have had!
Accommodation either in the hotel blocks or in villas. We chose a villa as with a family including two kids we thought the extra space would be nice. The villa we were allocated was right on the beach. Fully air conditioned,two bedrooms each with en-suite bathroom, kitchen, lounge/dining room, very large terrace with comfy sun beds. Villas was kept very clean throughtout our stay by the maid. Even had turn down service at night.
Kids enjoyed the kids club so much it was hard to get them to leave it. Operates 9.30am to 10.00pm. The kids used to go after breakfast, we would collect them for lunch at 12.30pm, then they would go back at 1.30pm. On a few days they stayed until 9.30pm at night! - allowing us to enjoy Mum & Dad dinners without the kids bickering at the table. Kids fed at the club at 5.30pm with their own Children's Buffet!.
AI allowed us to use the four restaurants and bars. One of the restaurants does incur a $35pp supplement but it was well worth it. Restaurants took table reservations 24hrs before the meal. They also allocated timed settings. This confused us somewhat but at least there was limited queueing for a table and service was quick. I guess they do this to avoid 200 people trying to dine at 8pm!
Difficult to fault anything at this hotel. Staff friendly and hotel professionally run.
Would we return? - Like a shot!
Would we recommend this hotel to a friend? - Oh yes!
(one final tip - if you book with Virgin you get to use their on site "Check-in and Chill-out" service. Airport staff come to the hotel on your last day, give you your seat allocation, boarding card, collect the departure tax ($20per adult) and take your luggage. You then get the rest of the day to chill out and only need to get the the airport 50minutes before departure - what a great service. Passengers with BA looked rather jelious)
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sam from belfast travelled to St James Club with
virgin
on a couples holiday.