Set on 27 lushly landscaped acres along the best beach on Antigua, Sandals Grande Antigua is a romantic and popular adult-only all-inclusive resort. It has 11 restaurants, 7 bars, 6 pools, and 6 whirlpools.
We loved the beach, pools, food, and service at Sandals Grande Antigua and will tell you all about the resort in this review.
Getting to Sandals Grande Antigua
Sandals Grande Antigua is located just 15 minutes from VC Bird International Airport. After you land, just head to the Sandals desk and they will put you on the complimentary transportation to the resort.
Rooms and Suites
Accommodations here are divided into two areas, the Caribbean Village and the Mediterranean Village. Both offer a variety of rooms and suites, including deluxe, premium, club, luxury, and butler levels with garden or ocean views. Some rooms here are a bit dated, but some have been renovated. Note that only club and butler rooms have room service.
A new room is the Caribbean Honeymoon Grande Luxe Poolside Walkout Room, which has a private patio with access to the gardens and pool. If you want a walkout with ocean views, consider the Caribbean Honeymoon Beachfront Grande Luxe Walkout Club Level Room.
We stayed in a Mediterranean Oceanview Penthouse with One Bedroom Butler Suite. This had nice resort and ocean views and was spacious, with a separate bedroom and living room plus a spa-like bathroom with a roman tub and walk-in rain shower. Like all butler suites, it came with 24-hour inroom dining and personal butler service.
Other luxurious choices are the Caribbean Beachfront Butler Rondoval suite, the Caribbean Honeymoon Butler Rondoval with Private Pool Sanctuary, and the Mediterranean One Bedroom Butler Villa with Private Pool Sanctuary.
Activities and Amenities
Sandals Grande Antigua features a range of complimentary activities including watersports such as scuba diving, snorkeling, paddleboarding, kayaking, windsurfing, and Hobie Cat sailing, and land activities such as day and night tennis, croquet, basketball, and beach volleyball. There is also nightly entertainment.
The beach here is really beautiful, with calm turquoise water that is perfect for swimming and the watersports. It is not a private beach, so there are vendors. We didn’t find them bothersome, however.
There are 6 pools on the resort, including the main pool which is centrally located and large, and has a swim-up bar, music, and activities. It also has plenty of lounge chairs. The other pools are quieter, and one also has a swim-up bar. There are 6 whirlpools as well.
Sandals Grande Antigua has a full fitness center, which is included, and a Red Lane Spa, which is not.
You can also book area excursions. Although they cost extra, we highly recommend this. We went to a local cooking class and rum tasting.
Food and Drink
Sandals Grande Antigua has 11 restaurants serving a variety of cuisines including Caribbean, seafood, Italian, Asian, international, Tex-Mex, pizza, sushi, pub fare, and Parisian-style pastries. Our favorite dinner restaurant here was Soy Sushi, but we found all the food to be delicious.
The resort offers 7 bars including swim-up bars, beach bars, and a British pub.