Sandals Grande Antigua - All-Inclusive Resort & Spa

Pleaseeeeeeee people ! Curacao and Montego Bay Beats every Sandals! Been to all of them and this one is the most tired one I’m stuck in a 1960 room smelling like a run down motel

Really outdated rooms. Cats are all over the resort, some not as friendly as others. Definitely bring bug spray, there’s bugs everywhere (rooms and restaurants included). The service was okay but not the best we’ve had. The location is nice but everyone on the beach is trying to sell you something. It was alright but we probably wouldn’t come back to this Sandals.

My wife and I stayed at Sandals Grande Antigua for a 6 day honeymoon.

We lived in a Mediterranean room which had some nice amenities. The bed was comfortable, our room was quiet, and we had a cool rain style shower.

The staff was generally friendly and attentive within reason. We found if we were polite it was reciprocated, which may be the missing ingredient in the context of some of the negative reviews.

The pool was very enjoyable with the beautiful weather, swim up bar, and nearby snack options. The music was nice and varied, and the cheesy pool games had some charm. We did go to the beach one day which was fun, but did validate the issues with salespeople interrupting our peace. If the beach is public, that’s fine in a vacuum, but does not play well with being integrated to the resort.

I particularly enjoyed our snorkeling session, which seems to be the best expedition that doesn’t cost extra. My wife and I used the gym twice and were pleasantly surprised with the equipment quality.

Nighttime entertainment was good in the context of relaxation. There were some more festive highlights including a cool Independence Day celebration, but generally they had some chill live music which was just fine with us. We enjoyed the ambiance of the pub and shot a fair amount of pool in the evenings before and after dinner.

The food/drinks were just about right for the price point. Portions are spot on for most entrees (not American sized) although you can tell there is a cost cutting effort present. For example, I ordered the surf and turf from OK corral and got two shrimp. Quality was variable, and ranged from Good-Excellent. We made a choice to try each restaurant at least once and enjoyed each of them. Some are better or more of an experience than others and those are typically locked behind a “reservation” platform. This made sense to control the flow of people to different areas of the resort, but led to a questionable 8: 30 reservation as the only time slot for Eleanor’s.

Wife loved OK Corral. Sushi was a home run and by far my favorite meal.

There are some lunch/breakfast buffets which serve decent food. The most popular lunch spot seemed to be the pizza stand near Mario’s and that was excellent.

I enjoyed the subtle smaller serving sizes for the adult beverages in the pool as it allowed us to try the more exotic stuff out without getting housed. There were some exceptions, but the poolside drink specials were on point. The beer options are highly limited to Carib draft (similar to a corona) at most places, canned Carib available at the pizza joint and the room mini fridge, three “premium” options at the duck, and a Japanese beer at sushi. I’m primarily a beer guy, so the Duck was a great hangout spot.

The coffee was nothing special.

Finally, the views were lovely. We got some great pictures and the water is crystal clear in some parts.

In summary, we enjoyed a relaxing honeymoon/1 year anniversary celebration at Sandals Grande Antigua.

We visited Sandals Antigua for our honeymoon while a tropical storm/Category 1 Hurricane passed. We live in an area that is known for hurricanes so we are used to weather not always cooperating. However, we were completely unsatisfied with how the resort handled the upcoming weather. We paid for an all inclusive experience and did not get to utilize it. All but 1 restaurant closed for days and we ate from the same buffet (although foods were usually rotated) which was situated in a ballroom for many meals in a row. This occurred 2 days in advance of the storm, and we did not get to enjoy any other restaurants except for 1. For several meals, one restaurant (buffet again) was open for the entire resort and it was 45 minutes late to even open to everyone. We were given “breakfast boxes” for 2 days in a row that had a yogurt, a piece of fruit, and a pastry. The worst incident is that on our last day at the resort, we were instructed to stay in our room until the storm passed and were given the “all clear” from Sandals. We adhered to these instructions to be respectful as guests, until 3: 00 PM the next day! We did not recieve any communcation from the resort that lunch was open, and the resort was back to normal operations. When we asked for an update (that we had to walk to the front desk to recieve), it was stated to us that “Someone was handing out papers with the information for the day, but the papers were getting wet so they stopped handing them out. ” We were BAFFLED that we didn’t get a phone call to our room or a knock on the door from staff earlier in the day and ultimately wasted our final day cooped up in our room due to the resort’s severe lack of communication. We are upset that we spent thousands of dollars to eat from a buffet and sit in a hotel room for the majority of our stay. We completely understand that weather events happened but given the age of this resort we expected the organization to be much better. Unfortunately we had high hopes as this was our first Sandals experience, needless to say we will NOT be back.

* Same generic response "from the owner" I have contacted customer support with no response.
I forgot to mention in the review that I saw multiple cockroaches. Informed an employee that didn't seem to care as they stayed sitting and didn't get up to do anything to get rid of the cockroaches.

Went to Sandals Grande Antigua for our honeymoon. There are many reasons why I rate it a 1 star.
For Sandals they pride themselves in a "5 star resort" This is far from 5 stars. The staff are extremely unfriendly, our room was so out dated, the linens were terrible. The food was subpar. You could never get in touch with staff if you needed something. Yet they use an app but any time we requested water, towels, information they never brought it but always told us it was on the way. No bathrooms had paper towel, you could never find towels for the pool.
The hurricane was expected to hit while we were at the resort. They shut down the entire resort because of this. Pools were closed, bars were closed, beach chairs were taken away. They sent the staff home so when the hurricane was not near the island, they couldn't reopen because they didn't have the staff. The sun was shining and we weren't allowed in the pool? How does this make sense. It was a beautiful evening but our dinner reservations were cancelled and we were being herd into a ballroom for a buffet. The resort does not have the proper contingency plans. If you can't function in these conditions do us a favour and close down for hurricane season so no one ever has to experience this. We were told to stay in our room until they said it was safe to come out. Yet, they forgot to tell us it's okay to come out. But the sun was shining outside?
For the money you spend to go to a Sandals, you expect the "5 star" treatment they flaunt.
We read reviews before booking our trip and saw some people had similar experiences, I wish we didn't blow them off thinking it was a one off. Just want to give everyone a warning. Don't waste your money.
I have emailed Sandals customer support multiple times, with no response it leads me to write this review.

It was beautiful. Our room was a little outdated. This is one of the older Sandals resorts. We had a little trouble with our air conditioner the last two days there. The service man came right away to fix air conditioner. All the restaurants were excellent. We really enjoyed Mario's.

This place has been so mentally draining for my wife and I on our honeymoon. I don't even want to describe the absolute (I can't use cursewords but add it in at your own discretion) failure of a service we have been provided. Don't even give excuses Antigua and Sandal's, I know you know exactly what is going on here. You don't deserve another cent from me after my experience here.

I was not impressed with this resort at all and the service was mediocre. This is our last night here and it's been one thing after another. We were picked up from the hotel in a van that was at minimum 15 years old and dirty. Then we caught a flat in route to the resort. The driver and one of the guest changed the flat tire. The driver didn't at anytime take into consideration that we were standing on the side of the road in a neighborhood unfamiliar to us. He should have radioed for assistance and have someone pick us up.

We had butler service because it came highly recommended and we were told that the service with butler service was above and beyond. Unfortunately this was not the case. With the exception of Sefra, our butlers were just not great in our opinion. And with talking to other guests, they agreed that their butler service was not good. We asked for a cabana and was told that they will see if one was available. We arrived to the pool and did not get a cabana, yet ALL but one were empty and not reserved or being used. We were told that they cost extra but that option was not even presented to us. Another night we wanted room service, and was told it was after 10 and the butlers were gone.
Our dinner reservations were made for us without discussing if it was what we wanted to do or if the times were good. The dinner reservations all were too early.
We were given a phone to contact the butlers but that didn't work most of the time.

We booked a couple massage, the scented couple massage. We had this same massage at another Beaches resort so we were familiar with it and what to expect. There was no candles, no scents, and my husband was told if he wanted a firm massage, that it was an upgrade.

Our room location was great. Just steps from the beach but it was also a main walkway. And it is definitely time to upgrade these accommodations.

I had to ask for face clothes because on the first 2 nights, only one face cloth was left each night.

The staff was friendly everywhere which definitely helped but the effort made for butler service or spa service was disappointing.

The beach is beautiful. The pool was great. Food was ok but definitely need better desserts. And can we get some ice cream here and not from the coffee shop with a coffee flavor.

Recently stayed at the Sandals Grande Antigua resort in Room 7605, a Mediterranean Honeymoon Romeo and Juliet Oceanview Penthouse One Bedroom Butler Suite (Code PO).

Positives:
Grounds: The resort grounds are immaculate with lush tropical foliage, winding palm lined walkways, gurgling fountains, and numerous, comfortable seating areas with fire pits.

Beach: The beach is simply stunning w/ white sands and clean clear turquoise water free of seaweed.

Chairs: There were ALWAYS open chairs at the pools and beach.
Butlers: We had a 3-person rotating butler team assigned to us whom we were highly impressed with. They were quite simply just awesome, each was very attentive, and our interactions with them were always a pleasure.

Problems:

Air Conditioning (AC) - The bedroom though was not as “functional” as the living room unit so we would wake up to a warm humid room as a result. Plus, the bedroom unit would drip water down the wall.

Resort condition – Though everything was always clean however some sections of the resort were definitely a bit dated and due for renovation. The room jacuzzi tub had patches at the bottom where it had cracked and was repaired. One of the elevators in our building was finicky, sometimes nothing happened when the button was pushed and the door would just open & close. Tile was missing from one of the elevator floors and some fountain jets weren’t working. The biggest issue was at the swim-up bar at the quiet pool in the Caribbean village where a large section of the concrete counter had broken off under the corner and I witnessed people scraping themselves on the rough concrete edge.

Pot Smell –We experienced multiple instances of smelling marijuana being smoked, including at the beach, on our balcony, and at the pool. In fact, we even smelled it in the resort lobby waiting for the shuttle bus to bring us to the airport. Also, on one occasion we briefly interacted with a staff member who reeked of marijuana.

Staff – While the overwhelming majority of staff we met were excellent a few of them were not. The front desk guy I asked about more coffee packets never wrote down my room number and nothing ever showed. One of the cabana attendants we rarely saw and seemed to be slightly annoyed the entire time. A few restaurant staff were phoning it in and didn’t come back to check on us after being seated. A few times had to bring my coffee cup to the urn to refill or went to the closest bar to get more diet coke.

Beach Venders -When you enter or leave the beach you are asked to look at vender wares, get reminded that you haven’t bought anything, etc. Also, multiple people each day coming up to you at your chair with briefcases of homemade jewelry, and t-shirts along with the guys trying to sell you catamaran tours, jet ski rentals, etc.

So, would we stay there again? Absolutely, and for even longer than the 6 nights we were there as it is a great place to just throw your wallet in safe for the duration then relax and unwind.

Finally got the chance to go there for my honeymoon and was never let down from how amazingly beautiful it is there. The beach is baby powder soft and the water is so idealistic in temp and waves. Did a couple of excursions and had a wonderful lobster lunch after snorkeling an absolutely bustling coral reef. The pool and food amenities are top notch and the staff really do go out of there way to make every detail exactly as you imagined. Already booked another week with Sandals and sure there will be more in the future.

This was BY FAR our favorite vacation. I am glad we celebrated our honeymoon at this location. For starter, they have the nicest and friendliest staffs. Second, the food was amazing! From breakfast to dinner, it was absolutely delicious. Lastly, this was probably the best beach we have ever set our foot on, not a single seaweed in the water, clear water, soft powdery sand. I just wish it was a private because the vendors that try to sell you excursions are extremely annoying, couldn't relax in peace.
We had some troubles with the check-in, and our honeymoon package wasn't done. But in this case, good definitely offset the bad.

All and all, I am now a fan of Sandals, we hope to try other Sandals in near future.

Beware of this sandals resort. I've been to others before that were amazing, however it is obvious that sandals is skimping on things because of covid. They were consistently out of food, power went out a couple of times, the food quality was pretty bad overall too with what they did have. I would describe the food as a step below TGI Fridays. I got sick from the OK Corral restaurant. So if you are going to this resort, absolutely avoid that restaurant. This location is no where near 5 star. The only seafood they seemed to have was white fish and shrimp, though they ran out of that here and there. The staff also kept you from ordering multiple things on the menu, which I was confused about since thats the point of all inclusive? The portions can be crazy small depending on what you're getting so it makes sense to order multiple things on the menu, but you were always made to feel bad about doing it. One example, a waiter at Soy gave me a hard time about my husband and I ordering 4 sushi rolls to share. Most days when we had breakfast we'd wait almost an hour for our food to come to then be told that they ran out of the things you ordered. This happened to other couples as well. Also, no exotic/tropical fruit which I was looking forward to. No passion fruit, dragon fruit, starfruit, mango, etc. They did have pineapple, cantaloupe and honeydew at breakfast though. It felt like fyre festival resort edition. I was expecting to gain weight at this all inclusive but actually lost wait cause there was barely anything I wanted to eat or that looked fresh. They were also limited on drinks that they could make. Staff were rude too.like strangely rude. I always felt like a burden when I ordered a drink at the bar. However there were a couple waitresses that we LOVED (Kimberly and Patrice) and the photographers were awesome as well. Very disappointed as it wasn't 5 star as advertised. Though Antigua was absolutely beautiful and had one of the best beaches I've ever been to, unfortunately the food and service were so embarrassingly bad that I am advising family members and friends who are planning honeymoons to avoid this sandals resort. Won't be going back.

We decided on Sandals for our 15th wedding anniversary. The online booking process was outstanding. Since it was our first stay at Sandals the online support (use the chat feature on the website) made an amazing impression and raised our expectations of the resort itself. Unfortunately, upon arrival, the reception was less than stellar. The concierge desk on the Caribbean side of the resort was truly disappointing. That, coupled with the tired room we were assigned, which had a view of a depressed volleyball court, raised concerns as to how enjoyable this anniversary was going to be. I pulled myself together and went back to the concierge desk and spoke to an awesome gentleman by the name of Rondel. I explained our disappointment and he immediate "Ran" to fix the issues. And fix he did. I did have to pay a few hundred dollars for a better room, but at that point I didn't care. Rondel personally assisted in getting us moved and settled intYouo our new room. His warmth, attention to detail and speed in which he made things happen, gave us the reassurance that this was now going to be a memorable anniversary. While the landscaping on the Caribbean side of the property is soothing. We found the rooms on the Mediterranean side to be the best. They too were a bit dated, but were definitely more comfortable and with spectacular ocean views.

The day we arrived was our anniversary so we had booked a candlelight dinner on the beach. Unfortunately, upon arrival for dinner, we were told due to beach closures at 7p we were going to have to have a garden dinner. While disappointing, the location we were placed, was ok. It was secluded with a romantic ambiance. Our server Alex also made the night one to remember. Our photographer, Delmore, did a great job of capturing the evening.

The balance of our stay we took time to just enjoy the property. Persons that continued to make memorable impressions where Leon (Mediterranean concierge desk), Tammica (Bayside restaurant) and Kerron (photographer).

I would recommend going early to reserve a covered seating area on the beach. The entire stretch of beach is amazing, so it didn't really matter where we sat. Persons did occasionally come to take your drink order, which was convenient.

There are 11 restaurants around the property. I would suggest taking some time immediately upon arrival to decide which ones you will visit. Some are not always open. The food at most is generally good. If you want to skip dinner and head to dessert, you must have the chocolate LAVA cake from Marios.omg!

While we did face some initial challenges, I would return, with a renewed perspective and expectation. Not sure if I would refer to this as a 5 star stay, but rather a weak 4 star. Although, the persons mentioned above gave 5 star service.

It was an absolutely gorgeous vacation and resort. The food was incredible, and there is something for anyone to eat. They also can take into account dietary restrictions for you easily. The room was really nice, there were events every night you could be a part of. The pool had a swim up bar and everything was really relaxing. The ocean was beautiful and warm and we spent a lot of our time on the beach. We didn't have a hard time finding a seat for the most part. The beach is not private and that is the only thing you need to be aware of but it didn't affect how much time we spent at the beach or impact how much we loved the resort. The staff worked really hard to make sure we had everything we needed and everyone was really friendly.

I had the best time staying at sandal grande Antigua, Everything was very nice I loved the staff especially big John and Keisha at the reception. The food was amazing and the entertainment was good as well.
However the room was very basic and old for the amount of money we spent on this trip, We tried every single morning to get a room upgrade but it was impossible they wanted an extra 2000 pounds just for room upgrade and thats ridiculous so we decided to stay at our room and enjoy the rest of the holiday. We came to celebrate our anniversary because we got married during the pandemic and we didn’t get to have a proper wedding and it was also my birthday.
Overall the trip was amazing, the food was nice apart from the Mexican restaurant bad customer services, cold food.

We visited this resort 20 years ago for our honeymoon. And decided we would revisit it again.

Although we enjoyed the sun, pool, beach and drinks, the deal breaker was the plethora of cats running around in the restaurants during dinner. What was worse was because the cats' literally approached diners while they were dining.
If you have allergies to cats, or just don't want to be around animals, your left fearfully hoping they don't come near you or that your allergies aren't triggered as to nothing was done to chase them away or prevent their annoying presence.
Of the restaurants we dined at, the only eateries we did not see any felines were: "OK Corral", "Cafe de Paris", and "Bella Napoli".
The cats roaming in 'Bayside Restaurant' were shooed away, when I complained about their presence, due to allergies. However, the cats freely roamed around at Eleanors Caribbean Cuisine.

Overall, the hospitality of the staff was infectiously pleasant.

Especially Latisha Jacobs, Loyalty and Travel Agent. Latisha knows what Sandals has to offer and was extremely helpful and knowledgeable without being pushy like a salesperson. Because of her ready knowledge of what Sandals resorts offers, we booked our next anniversary trip at Sandals Curacao.

In conclusion, due to this horrific experience with the cats, we will never visit Sandals Grande Antigua again, nor would we recommend this resort.

This was our third time at a sandals resort, but the first time since the pandemic started. Antigua is a beautiful island with gorgeous beaches. The resort looked very nice and they did do a good job keeping it looking nice! We love sandals because the food and drinks and activities are always so good and fun. They cut back on several of the usual evening activities though, and the service was very slow at the restaurants some of the days (I imagine both due to understaffing from the pandemic and trying to cut back on things due to the pandemic). Antigua in itself was doing a lot of things “because of COVID” that truly did not make any sense. Like the beaches were closed after a certain time, and the resort took away self serve at buffets and the evening dinner buffets altogether, but yet it was still safe enough to have karaoke and dance parties every night. Everyone was required a negative COVID PCR on entry and at least one vaccine, but we still had to wear masks indoors and sometimes ridiculous ppe that didn’t make sense (like rubber gloves under the leather gloves and masks while zip lining…. But yet we could borrow snorkel masks and tubes?). It also didn’t feel really good that the first person you greet after getting off the plane was in full gown, glove, n95 and face shields. Sandals also seemed to really pride themselves on their cleanliness, but we had to ask the front desk 3 times, and then actually physically grab a housekeeper to clean hair from a previous guest off the wall of our shower. Although the food was still good, it seems like the quality and portion sizes of all the food at the resort had decreased. We also got massages, which the massage in itself was pretty good, but the therapists had to wear rubber gloves and gowns during the massage, which sort of took away from the relaxation and also the rubber gloves felt weird on our skin. It was also sort of disappointing that they were not able to get the supplies as they used to, as they used to have top shelf liquors like Glen Fiddich and Jameson, but we heard they can’t supply those anymore because their suppliers won’t give it to them anymore. We just paid a lot of money for some sort of mediocre services. I would consider going back but I might give it 5-10 years to let them figure out how to live with COVID a bit better. Aside from COVID setbacks, there were a lot of vendors on the beach since the beach in front of the resort was public, so we were constantly hassled to purchase items and off resort excursions. We also went scuba diving. The diving was pretty good once you got under the water, but the waters were so choppy everyone on the boat felt sea sick on the way out to the dive site and in between the dives on the 2 tank days. We only went diving 2 days because of this. All the staff was very friendly and accommodating on the resort and the activities they did have were super fun. It was very evident the staff was working hard to give us the best time despite any COVID setbacks.

The attitude of the staff that have been on bar service or table service has been something like they were annoyed that we were there or asking for something. It’s has been 2 days now and I thought it unique but after having experienced it throughout the resort I find it to be the norm. There have been a couple of staff (spa, concierge desk) that have been helpful and nice greeting with a smile and not a scowl.

I called our concierge twice to get our bar restocked with juices over the last 2 days and it hadn’t been done so I went to the desk to ask and was told “I would get what she had” -ok. Not!

We have 4 rooms here. All concierge or butler service and none have restocked rooms. Again the worst is the norm.

The waitstaff- I’ve been drinking sodas and water and juice. I am allergic to dairy. I have been ignored at the bars. I’ve waited several minutes for a soda while I watch them mix and pour someone else’s drink that was ordered after mine. At lunch it took an hour to get a romaine salad, soup and sandwich. Forget getting water refills after the plates came. (We asked- just never got the refills) Dinner- I waited 20 minutes for a bowl of fruit while the rest of the table was served and I got mine well after they finished their desserts. CLUE- serve everyone at the same time. We went into the drunken duck pub. We went in through the open doors. No one was around so we started to go “up” to the tables and a server (male) appeared and said “you can’t go there” (?) that’s for eating. If you’re drinking only sit “down” here. Ok. So we grabbed a booth and no one came over for our order. So the guys went to the bar and ordered coming back with odd expressions and more examples of how the bartender was put out that they ordered a beer. We eventually wanted something to snack on. Like chips or fries or pretzels. The hostess came over and asked if we were ordering food. There were no menus given to us so I opened the Sandals app.and began reading the menu that was online. She came back over and actually thrust the menus at me saying that was a year out of date. (I’m sorry?). We could only get fries if we ordered wings. And after we ordered she asked us how we got to be seated where we were “down” we said we came in and were told to grab a seat. She scolded us for coming in the wrong door. (SMH) The wings were not great. The fries were great. We wanted to get more fries and again it came with more wings.

A brilliant resort with everything you need! It's separated into 2 sections - the Caribbean side and the Mediterranean side which both have lots of restaurants but they also share the entertainment. If you check in early or have a bit time after you check out, they still allow you to have access to all the resort things on offer. The staff are so friendly and lovely all the time and will do anything to help you. There is a lot of variety with the restaurant choices! Including for vegetarians and vegans.

It started at the airport, the driver wouldn't turn on the ac and then he almost killed us en-route. We did pre-checkin before we came so that didn't take long. We ordered room service when we got there and the food was not good. You could order ice all day long and never get it. Ice is a prized possession evidently. No ice machine to be found to go get your own. Water was also hard to get. They give you 10oz bottles so you need 20 a day to not get dehydrated but, no matter how many we asked for they always only gave us 4. They told us to leave a note on the counter if we had any requests and we did but they were never answered. The service desk never had any answers to questions. I called several times and no one ever answered the phone. It was hard to make reservations to the restaurants because they say you will be called back but they don't call back. The absolute worst part though had to be the constant harassment to buy things. Sandals had workers wading into the surf to try to sell you pictures. We paid thousands of dollars for this 5 day trip $5,700. We wanted to relax and enjoy ourselves but you can't there are locals selling their wares all over the beach and when you say no thank you they get angry and say It doesn't hurt to look. Why do i have to look if I'm not buying? Why did I pay all this money to be constantly harassed to buy things? They even had the spa workers walking through the resort trying to get you to book a spa day. They send you 500 emails before you get there trying to sell you packages and additions. There was no where outside of your room safe from being pitched something to buy. It was constant and never ending. The beaches closed at 5p.m. Supposedly due to covid but you had to be vaccinated and have covid tests to even get there. What does covid have to do with closing the beach early? The doors inside the room were dusty, the room smelled of mildew, and the hot water was spotty at best. I expected way more from sandals. I was thoroughly disappointed with this trip. This was my first time staying at a sandals and I would never stay at another sandals again. They do not live up to their name. I feel like i need a vacation from my vacation. You couldn't simply relax at the beach or the pool without getting multiple sales pitches. People come to relax and enjoy but there is no relaxing here at sandals. Do not book this place unless you enjoy sales pitches and poor service.