St. James's Club - All Inclusive

Customer Ratings & Reviews

TripAdvisor Traveler Rating

4717 reviews

• 

  Relaxing week in sun with tennis, good food and great cocktails…

  Just leaving. Great stay in royal suites… really don’t understand bad reviews. We found food and service were largely great and certainly grounds can’t be faulted. Perhaps trick is to pay for royal suites- daily maid service/ pre book meals a week in advance so you always have a timed slot rather than the non book restaurants where the lines are long. Also this is Antigua, so head for your meal before you are ‘hangry’and expect yo wait longer than at home. Also depending on what you order, it could take longer. We found the piccolo mondo really woth the extra/ $37 for the most fabulous lobster or filet mignon in a lovely setting, was a small price to pay- get there early and have a cocktail… all included in your all inclusive. The docksider and 11-11 were good for light bites; the coffee shop and Joanne, are open 24 hours with a warm welcome, good coffee and delicious yoghurt pots/ other treats., We played tennis every day and never had to wait for a court- but the wind strength can be testing at times. The gym is really well equipped and underutilised… body pump class ( which is not that) was fun and only 5 of us showed up. All in all, we’d highly recommend for a relaxing indulgent week- English cricket team stay here when they come, so can’t be bad 😉

  Feb 21, 2025
• 

  Wonderful vacation in Antigua!

  We just returned from a three week stay and enjoyed everything about our stay. New Food and Beverage manager, Milton, has made many improvements. It was the best Superbowl party yet! Three different areas to view the game, including great food, games and prizes. The weekly manager's cocktail party hors d' oeuvres were delicious and the displays were amazing. The food was really good at each of the restaurants. The staff are very friendly and helpful. Shout out to Duane, Cresida, Keeta, Milton, Patrice for going above and beyond!

  Feb 21, 2025
• 

  Not going back...

  The people were lovely, for the most part. If we were in contact with 10 staff, 8 of them were friendly. No one above and beyond. The location is stunning... how bad could it be? The beach was lovely, the pool was very nice (and ours was no children allowed so perfect!) The general vibe was really lacking. No music, no dancing, no entertaining... no vibe. We are really fun and couldn't find anything on campus that was fun. There was a 20 minute "cocktail reception" at the pool at 6pm that had a dj. Same wine, same food and that was it... 20 mins. Hardly an effort. Our "Royal Suite" was adequate. Clean. Bed was comfortable. Water in the shower was tepid after a minute. Needed a little love but overall adequate. After reading some of these other reviews, I just can't imagine what food you're all used to eating! The food in any of the restaurants was awful. The coffee was good. The bartenders didn't know how to make a Martini, nor a Marguerita and even a basic vodka, soda was a challenge. Really? The wine was swill. We have been to many Island all inclusive properties before and have never had an experience like this.

  Feb 19, 2025
• 

  A solid and good value resort in a beautiful location

  What was great: - great value for week all inclusive - location is absolutely beautiful - activities and being able to go out into the bay on kayaks etc. Sadly most of the time we stayed the red flag was up and there were no Catamaran trips - would have been helpful to tell us that on check in next time instead of getting a list of lots of things to do but in reality we could only do a handful of them due to weather. We used the fitness centre and tennis courts which were excellent! - the beach bar van man (although didn’t see him two of the seven days we were there) coming to serve drinks on the beach - The fact that you get water bottles at the beginning of your trip and then you’re encouraged to fill up at their various water stations. Such a good way to reduce plastic. - The coffee shop was brill, could always get coffee / mint tea / slushies / cakes etc. But the waste concerned me - plastic cups for water / plastic cups for treats, disposable coffee/tea cups. I saw bags and bags of waste - presumably none of it even being recycled as everything went in the same bins? If waste could be reduced further that would be amazing - maybe people can put a deposit down for a reusable coffee cup at the beginning of the stay that they return at the end? - Caribbean night at Docksiders was a huge highlight - best food we had there by a mile. Would do more of the traditional Caribbean food instead of the various other themed nights (Italian, Bollywood etc) or always have a few Caribbean dishes available. The fish curry on Bollywood night was delicious as was the daal. Generally vegetarian and fish dishes were solid - Breakfast - omelette station and fresh juices / fruit were awesome. The pastries were dry and not great which made it easy to resist which is probs for the best! - Being able to get a sun lounger on the beach any time of day was fab - Taxis and car hire were super easy and good. Taxis are expensive but that’s life! What could have been better - majority of staff were great but there were a few who were really poor. When we checked out we weren’t even asked if we enjoyed our stay and the lady literally couldn’t raise a smile at all - felt like we had done something wrong! We also saw people being told off for sitting at certain tables for lunch at Docksiders- these tables were free and just closer to the gorgeous view so would be great to let guests enjoy that? - Not enough staff clearing tables at docksiders led to some big queues with no communication. Maybe once people finally do get to sit down the staff could say ‘thanks for waiting how are you today’? Felt like staff had very specific jobs and didn’t muck in to help others when things were busy - Weekends appeared to be lacking with staff but were the busiest guest-wise. We waited for 20 mins for some water at Mamora Bay Bar because there was one member of staff and the water canister hadn’t been filled up - On arrival no towels at the pools (4pm) and when we asked bar staff they said hmmm not sure and so we swam and had to dry off in our rooms. That happened another few times during the stay - We stayed in a junior suite and the room was fine - comfy bed and lovely view, but generally very outdated especially the bathroom. Water pressure and shower not great - Difficult to get booked into the restaurants that required booking (they only release bookings the day before so if you don’t book in the morning, you don’t get a space!) and when we did get into rainbow cafe, the food and ambience was very average. Didn’t manage to try Coco’s or Piccolo Mondo due to them being booked up. Feel like with a few tweaks (renovation of bathrooms, changes to menu, plastic reduction, training of staff to just be a bit more positive and communicative) this could be an amazing hotel. It’s great value and seems wonderful especially for families. Sadly don’t think we’d come back as a couple as there are so many wonderful hotels on the island. Thank you so much for our stay!

  Feb 19, 2025
• 

  Great family trip to St James

  Just finished a 6-night stay at St. James Club with my wife and 2 boys (ages 6 and 8). Wife and I came here 10 years ago, this was our first trip back since then. Some thoughts: Reading some of the previous reviews, I don’t quite understand a lot of the negative reviews. We loved it at St. James Club. But it probably helps if you manage your expectations. This is not a Ritz Carlton/Four Seasons level of resort where you are going to be pampered at every turn. Nor does it have all of the amenities of a resort like Sandals/Beaches, or some of the other ones with tons of bells and whistles, and no, there isn’t great nightlife (although its not non-existent). What St. James Club does have is a picture-perfect location, well-maintained grounds, very good food, and tons of value for an all-inclusive resort. There’s plenty to do – my kids enjoyed going back and forth from the bay beach to the Reef Deck pool. Always beach chairs available, even when it was crowded over the weekend. We also played tons of tennis and pickleball (rarely had to wait for a court), and even played some baseball on the astroturf tennis court. We liked that the resort was ours to do whatever we wanted. We arrived the week before President’s Weekend, and most of the guests were older adults at that time. Then more families/kids arrived on Friday/Saturday, and while it was a little more crowded at restaurants, it didn’t feel like the resort was overrun. Guests seemed to be professionals - people looking for a high-quality vacation without pretensiousness. Families, young couples, and older couples all enjoyed the resort simultaneously at their own speed. Restaurants are all very solid. Service can be slow at some of the sit down restaurants, but nothing that was notably poor. They went all-out for Valentines Day with a great buffet of valentines themed desserts in the lobby. We loved the buffet at the Rainbow Garden for breakfast (Oran making the omellettes to order), and the buffet at Docksider at night. Plenty of food and choices for everyone. We also took the kids to Piccolo Mondo and had a great meal there. Lots of great service at times from the staff – shoutout to Dorland, who seemed to be everywhere at once! I also saw some reviews that talked about super long waits at the coffee shop – didn’t experience anything like that, it seemed like your normal coffee shop experience. The star of the trip was Antigua itself, and St James Club gives you the best of it. You won’t find better beaches or weather. It never got below 80 degrees during our entire stay. One thing to note was the wind – it was quite windy during the first few days of the trip, certainly on the ocean side of the resort but also on the bay side as well – this prevented some of the boat activities and boat tours for the first few days of our trip. Since the resort is on the windward side of the island, I expect this is a regular thing in January/February. Again, wind is not a huge deal unless you’re the kind of person who likes to find things to make a huge deal over. An 80 degree breeze is pretty nice! We also took trips to Shirley Heights (always fun, kids enjoyed), Catherine’s Café (very fun, especially swimming on that nice beach and listening to music), and Half Moon Bay (wish we spent more time there, amazing beach). We did the Scooter Snorkel tour which was very fun – water wasn’t super clear, likely due to the time of year, but still had fun. 6-year-old was even able to do it. English Harbour looked really cool, taxi driver said there was good nightlife there. Wifi in our room worked fine, room quality was fine, Netflix available in room which was good for kids. Negatives: - Wind limited beach activities on several days - Some of the activities were disorganized (ex - pickleball tournament was advertised, but then no one there to organize & run it) - No ATM on site. You should bring cash for taxis, Shirley Heights and souveniers. You can get a cash advance at the front desk at the resort – but for a 10% fee (i.e. $200 cash will cost you $20). - Drink cart only came through the beach like once a day. Again, not a huge deal – you just walk 50 yards to the beach bar. - The restaurant reservation process is a bit annoying. We tried to get a reservation one morning for the following day, and found they were already booked. We also wanted to reserve Piccolo Mondo for Valentines, and were told you couldn’t book there until arrival. Then when we arrived, we were told they were already booked.

  Feb 18, 2025