Sandals Grande Antigua Travel Review

Sharing my review of our recent 2nd anniversary/ babymoon to Sandals Grande Antigua. Ever since staying at a Sandals Barbados for our honeymoon we had been wanting to try out another one of Sandals resorts. You might wonder why we picked Antigua, and honestly it’s because we got a good deal. I had been to Antigua before on a cruise stop but Walt had never been.

I feel it’s necessary to disclose we booked this trip back in Feb 2020, before COVID and before we were pregnant. COVID hit hard in March and we became pregnant in June – leaving this trip way up in the air. I did have some anxiety about traveling internationally while pregnant but honestly I worried more about something happening with the baby more than I worried about getting COVID. I think when it comes to traveling during COVID or traveling while pregnant, it’s up to each individual to decide what they’re comfortable with. A negative COVID test was required for entry into the country so that made me feel better knowing everyone at the resort had been tested. Honestly, this trip was such a nice break from all the COVID mess and almost made you forget about the pandemic! Once at the resort, you were not required to wear masks. They had hand sanitizer stations throughout the resort and you were asked to sanitize upon entering restaurants. Other than that it was a normal vacation!

Getting There

This was honestly the most stressful part of the trip. We originally had flights booked on United out of EWR but then 2 days after we paid our final vacation payment… United cancelled our flights. They didn’t inform us at all… I just so happened to check my app and the flights were showing as being changed. Only once I called did they tell us the flights had been canceled. In all honesty, if we hadn’t just paid our final payment we probably would’ve canceled our trip and saved the money but that wasn’t an option at this point. Luckily we were able to get flights on Jet Blue out of JFK and only had to move our trip by one day, which Sandals was very helpful in doing.

There was also the stress of the entry requirements for Antigua, that seemed to be always changing. We had to be COVID tested within one week of our arrival date and it had to be a PCR test – not rapid. We ordered pixel tests through LabCorp and also did tests at CVS. Luckily we had our negative results within 48 hours for both.

Arrival into Antigua took over an hour to get through customs and the COVID check which was also nerve wrecking… what if for some reason they don’t accept our tests, what if my temperature registers too high. Of course none of these things happened and after an hour or so we were in the Sandals provided transportation on our way to the resort. The resort is only a 15 minute ride from the airport.

Our Room

If you’ve read any of my travel guides before, you know we do not care about the room. To us, you spend the least amount of time there and we typically take whatever is the cheapest. This particular time we had found a good deal on the Mediterranean Club Level Suite, so that’s where we stayed. This particular resort has two sides – the caribbean side and the mediterranean side. The mediterranean side consists of a larger high rise building with rooms and is where the main pool is located. The caribbean side is quieter with several smaller pools and more bungalow-style low rise accommodations.

Beach & Pool

Sandals Grande Antigua has six pools, with one big main pool on the mediterranean side. This is where we spent most of our time. We never really had any issues getting pool chairs, although it’s important to remember the resort was only at 40% occupancy. The pool has a swim up bar in the middle making it easy to get drinks.

The beach was very long and narrow – compared to Sandals Barbados which had a shorter but wider beach. I will say the water was some of the bluest I’ve seen and was blue for so far out! It reminded me of the water in the Bahamas. Chairs were more difficult to find on the beach if you weren’t up early. The beach is a public beach so you will have vendors coming up to you and many of them stake out along the beach. I found a simple no thank you was all it took for them to keep walking but some people find it to be very annoying. I’m typically a total beach person but with being pregnant on this trip I had little interest in the beach because it was so hot!

Food & Drinks

I don’t think I can give an accurate review of the food & drink experience for this trip as the resort was not running normal operations and therefore we had some not so great experiences. We LOVED the food in Barbados so I have a feeling if we had come to Antigua not during COVID we would’ve had a better experience.

Sandals Grande Antigua has 11 restaurants onsite. Typically at Sandals, there are restaurants you need reservations for and others where you do not. Due to COVID, you needed reservations at all but two restaurants for dinner – The Drunken Duck and Bayside (French). The restaurants were also running limited schedules so it made getting dinner reservations very difficult. This was the biggest problem we had and a problem we heard most guests complaining about. We didn’t get to eat at some restaurants that we wanted to try and almost all of our reservations were 8:30pm or later. This meant we ordered a lot of room service. As total foodies, the dining experience was lacking and not what you expect from Sandals, however we understood the limitations due to COVID.

I also can’t speak much for the drinks, since I was drinking virgin ones this trip. LOL I will say I was told they couldn’t make banana daiquiris or dirty bananas Virgin the first day which left me very disappointed… however the next day we found bartenders that would make them and they were delicious!

Red Lane Spa

If you read my Sandals Barbados review you know I have a bad history with massages. Lol So when we received a spa credit with our booking I was very anxious about getting another one. Being pregnant, I needed to have the prenatal massage, while Walt decided on the hot stone massage. They had us in the same room which was nice and overall we both really enjoyed our massages. We did have to wear masks during the massage and the people giving the massage wore masks and gloves.

Excursions

Being pregnant, I was very limited on what excursions I could do so ultimately we decided not to book anything. I was perfectly fine sitting at the pool all day every day just relaxing!

However, Sandals does offer free water sports including kayaking, sailing & paddle boarding. The guys went sailing one afternoon.

We also ventured over to the Kon Tiki Floating Bar, which is located a short walk down the beach from Sandals. You simply walk down the beach and there is a boat that will come get you and take you over to the floating bar (don’t forget to tip the boat people!) This was a nice break from our resort and the drinks were cheap!

If you’re looking to book an actual excursion while there, I have done the Adventure Antigua Eco Tour before and highly recommend it. You can book it directly at Sandals by visiting the excursion desk.

Would we go again?

Overall, we had a great time and I think our experience would’ve been even better if it wasn’t during COVID times. Sandals Barbados is still our favorite resort so far and we would probably try out another Sandals before returning to Antigua. However, I would still highly recommend Sandals Grande Antigua!

What I Wore