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Let me make it clear that this was a medium
to low budget trip for me. It was not a honeymoon or 'once in a
lifetime' dream vacation. In fact it was my third trip to the Caribbean
in the past three years. My airfare for all three trips was zero
courtesy of the American Airlines Frequent Flyer Program. I gather
from reading the Antigua Newsgroup that many travelers to the island are
willing to spend much more money than I am. The average rate I paid
for lodging was $85/night, plus I rented a car for about $40/day. I
was interested in seeing the island, lying on the beach, and meeting the
locals. All of my research for this trip was done via the world wide web and email. When I was ready to put a deposit down on a room or rental car, I called directly. This takes more time than using a travel agent, but I enjoyed the whole process quite a bit. I'd like to thank all those people who emailed me with suggestions. They were from all over the world and they were very helpful. |
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My first three nights on the island were spent
at The Catamaran Inn in Falmouth Harbor.
The room rate was $55/night, which got me the smallest of the rooms they
offer. This is a very small, very quiet place. It's right on the
water, about five minutes (by car) from English Harbor. They have a
small beach next to a marina. There was no boating activity in the
marina the three days I used the beach. The Catamaran was exactly what
I was looking for my first few days on the island. Service was excellent.
They went out of their way to make me happy. There's a pretty good
restaurant about a block away in the marina. My last four nights on the island were spent at The Barrymore Beach Club in Runaway Bay. I was also quite pleased with this property. The location is excellent, being only a 10 minute drive north of St. John's and across the street from the nicest casino on the island (The Riviera). The accommodations were nicer than I expected. The BBC proprietors gave me the impression that they wanted and appreciated my business. It might sound strange for me to make that statement, but if you read the complaints about lodging on the Antigua/Barbuda Newsgroup, you'll find that many people come away from Antigua feeling that their business was not appreciated. The BBC is on a small, private beach, which is very good for swimming. There are NO solicitors. There's a Mexican restaurant called 'Amigos' right on the property. I never ate there, but found the bar to be very handy, being situated about 50 feet from the beach! The BBC and Amigos both proved to me that they would go out of their way to make me happy even if it meant they might make a little less money. |
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I rented a car at the airport which I used for
my entire stay on the island. It was a compact from Thrifty costing
about $40/day. I had no problems with the car or the service from
Thrifty. They charged me exactly what they said they would when I made
the reservation (some concessions in the U.S. aren't quite as scrupulous).
There were two little surprises with the car: 1) it was quite banged
up and scratched on the doors, and 2) it was an automatic - which was good
news to me, because they told me I'd be getting a manual transmission when
I made the reservation. The prospect of learning to drive on the left
with a stick shift had me worried. It turns out that driving on the left was no problem at all. The first time I passed an oncoming car, I gripped the steering wheel very tightly and just hoped this guy knew about this driving on the left thing! Of course he did, and after that it was a breeze. A big reason for this is that traffic is very light on the island You simply don't pass cars that often on the road. The only times I encountered any traffic were when I visited St. John's and when I drove up to Shirley Heights for a Sunday night BBQ. Driving in Antiguan traffic is not like driving in traffic in Los Angeles. The people there are much more courteous and helpful. Instead of losing their tempers and blowing their horns at you, they roll down their windows and talk you out of an awkward situation. I found that to be quite refreshing. There is no road rage in Antigua. You will hear people lightly tapping on their horns quite often, which I found distracting at first. Turns out they're saying hello to a friend walking by or driving by. It's a small island - everyone knows everyone else, so there's alot of horn tapping going on. Eventually, I found out why my rental car was so scatched and bruised on the doors. The roads on the island are very narrow. In fact, in St. John's the streets are so narrow that when people park they fold the outside rear-view mirrors in towards the body of the car so cars 'squeezing' by won't tear them off! Under those circumstances, it's not surprising to see rental cars with scratches on the doors. In the end I found the whole experience of renting and driving a car (on the left) to be surprisingly stress free. If you think you'll be taking a cab more than once a day during your stay on the island, I would recommend renting a car instead. You have so much more freedom to go anywhere, anytime you want, with a rental car. |
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If you're like me you worry (too much) about
things that might go wrong on a trip. And, you overplan to make sure
you don't miss anything and nothing goes wrong. I know from reading the
Antigua/Barbuda
Newsgroup that many travelers worry about the same things I do when
planning a Caribbean vacation. Two of my beach-related worries were bugs and panhandlers. Turns out that neither of these were a problem. The beaches I used were small. The only people on the beach were other guests at my hotel, which was very small. Half the time, I was the only person on the beach. Went to the beach many times and encountered bugs only once, late in the afternoon, when clouds covered up the sun. On a typical hot afternoon, bugs did not bother me at the beach. I did not use, or even bring, insect repellant with me. There were some mosquitos in my rooms at night, but the use of a coil (supplied by the hotel) totally solved that problem. Another thing I worry about, particularly when traveling in another country are billing and reservations mixups with hotels, rental car agencies, or airlines. To minimize the chances of these types of 'surprises', I keep my travel planning as simple as possible by making all of my arrangements directly with the airlines, hotels, and rental car agencies. That way, if there's a mistake, I only have myself to blame. It takes more time, but I enjoy the whole process of doing the research, making the calls, etc. On this trip, I had NO problems with my rental car agency (Thrifty), or my hotels. In fact, both hotels surprised me by giving me MORE than I expected at no additional charge. Thrifty also gave me a better car than they promised when I made the reservation. All billing with these businesses was accurate. There were no unexpected, extra charges. Though I made my airline reservations more than 6 months in advance, I did run into some unexpected difficulties with American Airlines. Fog in Los Angeles the morning of my departure delayed my flight long enough to miss a connecting flight in Miami. Then some kind of stomach illness, combined with difficulty getting a new flight to Antigua caused me several more days delay. I eventually got to Antigua, but it was several days later than I had originally planned. The Catamaran Inn was very nice about not charging me for the days I missed, even though they have a 30 day cancellation policy. On my return trip to Los Angeles, I also ran into a 2 hour flight delay in Miami. This was caused by bad weather in the midwest, which delayed an American flight coming into Miami. No matter how carefully and how far in advance you plan a trip, things can still go wrong which are out of your control. One small nuisance I ran into in Antigua was money. American currency is used in the casinos. But no ATM machines I found, even IN THE CASINOS, dispensed American dollars. Therfore to get U.S. dollars, I had to go to an ATM machine, get Eastern Caribbean dollars, then convert them into American dollars at a bank or a casino cashier. You DO NOT want to do any business in Antiguan banks. The lines are very long. Nothing will make you feel LESS like you are on vacation, than standing in one of those lines. Also, every time you convert currency, a service charge is taken out of the transaction. They also take a healthy service charge if you use a credit card to get a cash advance. The best way to go seems to be traveler's checks, which is very old fashioned and inconvenient. St. Martin, in comparison, has ATM machines which dispense several different types of currency, including U.S. dollars. |
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The first thing to remember about Antigua is
that it is a small place. People in small places, whether those places
are towns or countries, are simply more relaxed than people from crowded
places. Being from Los Angeles, it is quite refreshing to go anywhere
that isn't crowded, including Antigua. You feel the qualities of
peacefulness and patience in the people of Antigua. I felt very safe
there. People I met on the road, in shops, or on the sidewalks of St.
John's were very helpful. The proprietors and employees of the hotels
I stayed at went out of their way to be helpful.
There is often talk on the Antigua/Barbuda Newsgroup about being treated coldly by the locals working at some of the larger resorts. I didn't stay at a large resort, but I did see some of this behavior in the casinos. The employees acted as if either they disliked me, or they hated their jobs. They were never rude. It just seemed like they were in a bad mood. They did their jobs in a cold, mechanical way, with no smiling. I can only surmise that a lot of exposure to tourists makes them resent us. Everyone else I met was quite nice, particularly the older people. If you are ever in Antigua and need to ask for directions, wait for an older person to come around. (Is that a basic truism for people of any country? I never noticed it before going to Antigua.) |
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One thing I will do on my next trip to Antigua
is explore more of St. John's. It's small enough so that the whole
town can be seen on foot. On this trip I stuck to the two main shopping
blocks, called Redcliffe and Heritage Quay (see my
St. John's pictures).
They are both about half a block away from where the cruise ships dock.
One wonders what would happen to St. John's and to Antigua in general without
the tourism trade. Tourism seems to be what the town is all about.
Besides the more expensive shops in the Quays, there are locals selling
all kinds of things in temporary shelters set up on the streets and sidewalks.
It reminds me of Venice Beach, California or a typical American swap
meet. The buildings of St. John's look old, like they were all built
in the 60's. They are kept up just well enough to look cheerful.
However, roads in St. John's and all over the island are not kept up as well
as they are in the U.S. The streets are very narrow and mostly one way.
The town is small enough to be easy to find your way around on foot or
by car (even if you're not used to driving on the left). I always found
free parking within a quarter mile of the Quays. In general I felt safe
walking around in St. John's. I was always there in the morning, which
is what I'd recommend other tourists do. Save the hotter afternoons for
laying out at the beach.
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I shot two rolls of Kodacolor print film on
this trip, using an old Nikon FM2 camera. The only accessories I used
were a zoom lens and a polarizing filter. I am NOT a professional
photographer. Compare my shots to images in travel magazines or web
sites, and you will quickly see that the pros are quite a bit better than I
am. But sometimes it's better to see pictures taken by amateurs, because
the pros can make any destination look prettier, bigger, cleaner, more modern,
etc., than it really is. You're getting a more, shall we say, objective
visual presentation by an amatuer photographer. I had my pictures
printed and scanned onto Photo CDs. The digital images were brought
into Photoshop for scaling, cropping, sharpening, contrast adjustments, and
touching up of flaws introduced by the scanning process. This took
quite a bit of time, particularly touching up the scanning flaws.
Before I go on my next trip, I will purchase a digital camera. I have
no use for prints and resented the fact that I had to pay for them.
Plus, I was disappointed with the quality of the digital scans. These
are two problems that will be eliminated with the use of a digital camera.
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Gambling is legal in Antigua - but that
doesn't make it another Las Vegas. The casinos are small and quiet.
The two largest are King's Casino in St.
John's and The Riviera in Runaway Bay.
Both of these are TINY compared a to major Las Vegas casino. The
Riviera, the nicer of the two, is cleaner and better maintained.
The Riviera also has decent live entertainment in the evening and
pretty good food. For you blackjack players, the games in those two
casinos were all 6-deck, double-down on any two cards, dealer stands on soft
17, with no surrender allowed. I didn't see a single player who knew
basic strategy. Tipping a blackjack dealer or a cocktail waitress is
a rarity in Antigua. I believe I only saw one other player tip a
dealer besides myself. And most players were betting MORE than me.
Players betting hundreds of dollars at a time would not tip the
dealer even a dollar. I never saw anyone tip a cocktail waitress
besides myself. Maybe that's why they act coldly towards the tourists?
American currency is used in the larger Antiguan casinos. This
is a bit surprising since the currency of Antigua is based on the Eastern
Caribbean system. All the blackjack games I saw were either $5 or
$10 minimum bet games. |