SitgesDreams
Google
Long review alert! I am going to cover everything!||We had a wonderful, 2 week stay at the Ocean Point Resort, at the end of April 2025. After being back over a month now, that beautiful hotel is still in my head.||Our only other visit to Antigua was November 2023, when we stayed at the Jolly Beach Resort (also 3 star) and we would have gone back there, but the prices had gone up by £1,000.00 each! And although it was good, it wasn’t THAT good. So we decided to try somewhere new.||A very friendly and informative welcome meeting upon our arrival.||Reception is a nice, area, with comfortable seating and a coffee machine. We used to get a hot chocolate or a cappucino and sit in that little covered area next to the pool, after our day on the beach. Such a chill vibe.||Our ground floor room was perfectly adequate. A nice size, with a lovely terrace surrounded by pink flowers and some steps down to the pool. It was definitely something unique!||We didn’t mind that the hanging area for clothes wasn’t in a wardrobe, as it kept them aired nicely and made the entrance corridor to the room feel more spacious. We found the shelves to be enough for both of our clothes.||The bathroom, whilst compact, had enough space and the shower was great, as it didn’t leak (like so many hotel showers do!), due to the way it was structured, with that step. A little shelf for your soap would have been useful though.||The bed was very comfortable. My usually stiff back felt healed for 2 weeks!||The pool was a great size and you could always get a lounger, but we only used it a couple of times as we loved the beach a lot more. There are two. One much smaller than the other. The larger of the two does look small, initially, however it was always less than half empty (we were often the only ones on it, or just one or two other couples) and just had such a ‘chill’ vibe and no annoying music booming out. The pool also had that tranquil feel and no constant games, music etc. That’s the kind of resort you are at - and we love it! No need to be ‘constantly entertained’. They do have a singer/band in the bar, one evening per week and also karoake for those that love those sort of things (we retreated to our room both times!).||Just one criticism of the beach – and it’s a major one. The canopies over the sun loungers. They are old and wooden and degrading. Lots of sharp bits sticking out. They are also low. My partner unfortunately banged his head on the first day, on the corner and split it open and had blood pouring down his face! A pretty traumatic start to the holiday! Reception did give us some antiseptic wipes and I managed to stop the bleeding, but it meant for a week he couldn’t get his head wet in the sea/pool and I had to administer antiseptic care every night for a week. Reception seemed surprised, but we saw SO MANY people bang their heads on the canopies – and hard! One time an older man banged his head hard and was clutching his head and checking to see if it was bleeding. Another time, I heard an American woman (after she banged her head) cry out, "I've banged my head, like, six times this morning!" We tried to warn people, if we could. The hotel really ought to give you a clear warning. I actually thought our holiday was over on day one, when I saw the bloody pouring down my partner’s face! Awful. Please give this some attention on health and safety grounds. Smooth off the edges or put some kind of safety surround on them! They are dangerous.||Once a week, there is a party from one of the cruise ships, who use the beach for a couple of hours in the morning. It’s fine, as there is still plenty of room on the beach. However, we even heard their tour guide warn their guests about the canopies being low and to watch their heads on them! The hotel really must do the same for its guests!||Don’t let that stop you booking this hotel. Just be extra careful. Stoop down when you approach and leave your sun lounger and stay stooped down! You’ll have a safer holiday for it!||This is literally the only reason for my 4 star review, rather than 5 star, due to the reasons given above. A shame. But if you don’t injure your head on a canopy, then think of this as a 5 star review!||One other beach negative is only directed at certain hotel guests. We saw so many people just toss their cigarettes in the sand. We even watched one ‘old enough to know better’, English guy just drop his smelly cigar on the sand, by the water and just use his foot to cover it with sand. Like a dog does with…||It's totally unnacceptable! Where do these people think their litter goes? That’s right. Into the sea to pollute the ocean and endanger the sea life. | |Back to the numerous positives! ||No children! Definitely a plus for us. They are allowed in the sister hotel next door and on the smaller beach. ||The bar and bar staff were great! It also has a nice outdoor seating area, where you can watch the ocean.||ALL staff were so friendly, from receptionists, to maintenance to cleaners. It really helped to ‘make the holiday’, for us.||The restaurant, for us, was the jewel in the crown. Initially we were a little concerned that the à la carte menu might leave us struggling for choice and variety, especially as we are not meat eaters. However, we found the choice to be plentiful (apart from not eating meat, we like anything, so that helps!) and they always had lots of specials in the evening - the fish specials were great! Especially the ‘Ocean Fantasy’, which we looked forward to coming around again on our second week! We did feed back (Kerry Anne, the supervisor, took the time to ask us) that the lunchtime menu could use a few more, lighter options, but that was our only criticism.||One thing we found, with the food being ‘à la carte’, was that it tasted like it was ‘cooked with love, straight for your plate’, rather than mass-produced for those large food containers, lying there for long periods of time, in those ‘all you can eat buffet’, huge hotels. ||The restaurant staff were just fantastic. From the waiting staff: Mark, Markie and Selwyn and also Felicia (who always called us both ‘the twins’, which made us laugh!) to the supervisors: Spice and Kerry Anne, Emma and also the smiling Lannie on the door. It just made for such a welcoming and wonderful experience, whether you were at breakfast, lunch or dinner. The restaurant had a great view over the beach/sea and we also felt like it was ‘the hub’, as it made the hotel have a kind of ‘community’ feel, unlike the bigger hotels, where you almost never see the same guests twice in two weeks! Please pass on our thanks to all the staff in the restaurant. They were all just fantastic!||One hint to reception is to have a supply of the smaller ECD, as we always liked to leave a $5.00 after breakfast and lunch and a $10.00 note, after dinner, as a gesture/thank you to the serving staff. It’s not a fortune, but often we couldn’t get any smaller change (notes) and this meant we couldn’t tip (although usually we managed, as we saved any smaller notes we could, after venturing out of the hotel). Being an ex-waiter, I appreciate the importance of tipping for good service! Plus, it feeds money back into the hotel/local economy and keeps the staff who are working so hard for you, happy. We were really surprised how few people appeared to tip!||For the reviewers who say there isn’t much to do outside the hotel. Well… one day we walked west along the road (about 10 minutes, that’s all!), to a pretty business park (themed like a tropical village), set amongst palm trees (easy to find on google earth/maps), to ‘Dawne’s Soleil Café’, for lunch, where we had authentic Antiguan cuisine. Dawne comes out to chat to you and talk about the food and it’s such a good vibe there. There is also a coffee shack (‘Kaffeine’) on that business park, which we walked to on another day, but the service was painfully slow (we waited one hour for our iced coffees!) and it’s expensive. So, we didn’t go there again. There are also other businesses there and it looks like more would probably open in the evenings, although we only went in the morning/lunchtime.||Another day, we walked in the other direction, to a shrimp shack, ‘Casanova’, by Jabberwock Beach and had delicious shrimp wraps for lunch.||We were fascinated by a derelict hotel, just down from the Ocean Point Resort, on the other side of the road. ||One day we even walked back from Dickenson Bay, after being dropped off there after a trip! Pretty long walk, but we stopped at a smoothie shack, ‘Sunkiss Smoothies’, on the way, to break up the walk. A lovely, friendly lady serving there!||So yes. There is stuff to do and see outside the hotel. You just have use your legs, walk out of the hotel and get out and explore the local area in the country you are in! ||We had a couple of trips. The Barbuda Island tour (we got the ferry across), which was really interesting! And also the Extreme Circumnavigation day trip, which we also did last time. Not cheap, but worth it!||The bus to St John’s (the capital) goes from outside the hotel and is super cheap, taking only 20 minutes or so. The day we went there, we walked to the old Fort James. Built between 1706 and 1739 by the British, to repell any French invasion (which never materialised). It was a long walk, but worth it to see the huge array of cannons, facing out to sea, as they would have done, 300 years ago! There is a beach club next to it, where you can buy a much-needed drink and relax by the beach, before you walk back (most people drive, but we like to explore!). Also, such friendly, local people saying ‘good morning’ and ‘hello’, on the streets and waving from their houses, as we walked through the residential areas on the way/way back!||So, back to the Ocean Point Resort. Would we go back? Absolutely. We know about the sun lounger canopy dangers now! And now… so do you! ||We plan to return to this hotel in 2026 or 2027. Can’t wait!