Kayaking in Antigua
I had a great session kayaking in Antigua today – lots of Jelly’s and interesting events – I blogged on CD so please read about it there. Link below.
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Posts by calvin crane:
Antigua Vs St Lucia
I have to say that both islands feel very different. The first thing you notice is that getting around St Lucia takes a lot longer! Especially for example the transfer from the airport. So bad is the 2 hour winding trek by minivan I am not looking to visit again soon. I think it really hits the islands repeat business. However it’s not the end of the story. Many will tell you that after this St Lucia is better in almost all respects. I disagree with that- apart from there may be a bunch more diverse tours to do as simply the size and topography of St Lucia offers a greater variety of tours. One example is the mountain biking in St Lucia which isn’t available in Antigua.
Halcyon Cove Resort Review by Rex Resorts
We are return visitors here (which tells you a lot) and are like many fed up to be told the lack of whatever it is is due to low levels of occupancy. I have made friends with a lot of staff members who do work hard to please. Let down by a poor infrastructure of service (poor selection of drinks due to low stocks) each day being told we expect it tomorrow.
A sunday at Millers to Fort James
I spent a few hours visiting the beach at Fort James and Millers bar and restaurant here. There is some good hiking to be had along the beach and back via the road. I took some photos along the way which will follow shortly. They have a few restaurants being built right close to the fort and the fort itself has a very nice place to get refreshment. I would love to see them spend some of the tourist tax on regenerating the area. It is in need of it however in its current state is quite charming, however could be really excellent and generating good island money.
Zipline in Antigua Tour
Along the scenic route (fig tree drive) up you will start to feel the excitement build as this is one of most exciting tours in Antigua. Ziplining! Save money by booking direct instead of through the cruise ship and we include transport. Please contact us.
Devils Bridge and Indian Town Point
Indian Town Point is an are of national parkland on the eastern side of Antigua. It is home to its more commonly know attraction which is called Devil’s Bridge Seen here..
- Devils Bridge – it doesn’t look like it but is above the water line about 4 feet and here the wave has come in. Rumour has it that it is where many slaves came and threw themselves off rather than face their daily existence any more. It certainly would be hard to survive a swim here so don’t get too close.
- Attractions in the area here are Long Bay a nice beach with a few resorts close by – The Verandah and Pineapple Grand Resort are a couple of them and one eatery that you shouldn’t miss mamas pasta house. In blue it sits middle of the beach – is very clean and well run. It offers local style food and pasta too and the price is great.
- Make sure to take a local Antigua Tour Guide for a better more factual history of the area. We had our inexperienced navigator showing us the way.
I chose not to walk across.
You might find some local sellers working the area and expect it to be quite touristic, like in season which is not to say that the area is bad at all. And for example a local hike would offer some fantastic photo opportunities and bracing air. I will come back and hike it when I have more time and am on my own one day perhaps.
Mama’s Pasta Restaurant at Long Bay
Restaurants nearby
Beautiful surroundings and lovely gardens offer some great photographic opportunities.
Antigua really has some amazing cacti. ‘Le monde entier est une Cactus..’- song by Jaque du Tronc.
If you do rent a car then a suggested itinerary are these two attractions the long bay beach and Indian Town Point, this makes for a good half day which is enough in this heat. Long bay beach is a lovely fine sanded affair with very gentle water- so don’t assume all east coast beaches are rough. It does get quite busy with locals on the weekend though so remember that.
Best Antigua Dive Site
Captain Don of Xtreme Scuba (sadly no longer running) tells us this is one of Antigua’s best dive sites. Above the water line it has an interesting limestone I think formation which resembles a bunch of pillars hence the name.
I took my rather old now cannon and housing and a basic compact as I have been practising my underwater photography and editing skills in photoshop.
The following results are coming through.
Here are some originals I may try and work on though they are not great in the first place I wanted to show what you can find here on a single dive..if you think diving in Antigua is not worth it then guess again and it is a fantastic pace to learn to dive no doubt.
VJ's in Liberta
A nice little bakery located in liberta – no pan au chocolate but some great sweet rolls (no photo) and these cinnamon rolls. Very inexpensive.
Find Vj’s in Liberta
Woods Mall Antigua
In fact 3 places of interest here and one being woods mall which really is a good pharmacy stocking things as wide out as toys and play doh – to the things you get in a pharmacy but otherwise a bit of a disapointment. Also here is a bank the scotia and LIME store where I got me hooked up to a pay as you go on my iphone4. But just up next mall has an awesome cafe that is a break from the caribbean and very much a san fran coffee shop experience and really good food at great price – swing on by. And then the final 3rd point of interest here is the big epicurean supermarket perhaps the best place to get groceries on the island albeit at a price that may be more than what you should be paying (meat from St Johns meat market for example…)
It is north east of St Johns in a kind of a suburb you can find it on the tourist map.
anyway gotta go rum punch taking hold….
Antigua's old casino
It must be the old casino – on runaway bay Antigua, the new one being kings casion in St Johns catering for the cruise ship crowd – as if they didn’t have enough of that onboard.
Still its a great overrun pace and so typical of Antigua that it deserves to be blogged at this point in time.
The storm passed by..
An update to the blog post below and accurate measure / report of the storm can be found in the Antigua Observer today
Original blog follows..I think it was tropical storm chantal and I saw a water shoot or tornado at sea on the front cover today.
A storm that plagued the islands of Barbados and St Lucia (so I was told by a local guy) missing us yesterday still brought a bit more rain and higher winds which made Dickenson Bay a bit less fun as the sand was whipping up. We still had some fun and it was cruise ship day and we got to spy on the developments for the Halcyon Rex – they are increasing the shade around the BBQ and entertainment areas (that much we can see).
Today we will swing around and skip the beach doing some shopping and enjoying other people’s AC like at woods mall. We did swap out our rental car yesterday as an upgrade as I was feeling flush for some unknown reason. We are now enjoying the extra space of the Suzuki Vitara and left the Hyundai Terios behind which grew on me but was a little small in some ways. I hope to pick up a small sim for the iphone today we shall see.
Sweet T's or Tees
A great little eatery found in Falmouth next to Baileys mini market on the main road all in pink. A great place to bring the kids.
A Sunday Drive | Antigua Cricket Stadium – Sir Vivian Richards Stadium
We took a drive out today and I wanted to get a couple of photos of the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium which is most magnificent if I may say seemingly out pf place. This is now the main Antigua Cricket Stadium and also operates to accommodate the Caribbean West Indies Team home events.
I did have an interest to make it up (northern shore) to see around Jabberwock beach (what origins did that name come from I wonder) for the kitesurfing and windsurfing. Apart from a couple of parked up trailers I saw nothing of interest. I am in need of more humble beginnings into these 2 sports. So if you know who and where to go please comment. Kite Surfing in Antigua Windsurfing Antigua
Pigeon Beach Falmouth Antigua
After searching for this beach and spotting it from across the bay hours before I set off in search of this recommended Antigua Beach. Its popular at weekends with locals because it has facilities and a restaurant and is close by a residential area (Falmouth).
But a bit earlier I took summer out for a hike and she fell asleep on me ! We found a few goats some locals and a great little private beach area though ungroomed you might like to just go visit Pigeon Beach.
Daddy Pig and Summer.
Pigeon Beach
Pigeon Beach Falmouth Antigua
It wasn’t at all busy today I will try and run there from Banana Tree Bungalows a U shape must be 2-3 miles there.
Ok so how can you find it ? If you look at the google map it is just past the yacht club and resort, but later found another way through – take a right past Stanley’s estate agents as you drive towards Nelsons dockyards and follow the road around. You can park up and take to the hills if your energetic.
Pigeon beach looks like the snorkelling could be good.
Happy Independence Day and Summer's 2nd birthday.
We got a birthday cake yesterday from Jolly Harbour Supermarket and splashed out at 59 ECD roughly 15 Pounds to mark Summers 2 years on planet earth and it was supposed to be a black forrest Gateaux.It looked good certainly and at the price we expected a good one given that food generally in Antigua is great ! It was a chocolate cake with some dark cherries on top and a bit dry at that so not really a black forrest and not all that great certainly not worth 59XCD. I needed to say that for in small hope that it reaches the right ears at some point.
Well we drove up to a beach called Dickenson Bay where there is the Halcyon Cove by Rex Resorts and The Sandals resort. We had to pass through St Johns Antigua’s capital its no drama that traffic moves slow as life unfolds here and there are stories on every face. It’s a place that I find intoxicating we will see if that lasts. We found the resort to be under renovations and so the beach was almost deserted by the Warri Pier Restaurant and yet we borrowed the shade of their wooden umbrellas. It is opening the 15th July all being well. We had a nice time and Summer really enjoyed making sand castles and messing around in the gentle surf. Summer got wiped out at one point but it was more shock than choking on salt water 🙂 the water here is the most lovely shade of turquoise and the only slight annoyance is the trade wind blowing the fine sand across you (its really not an issue) and you would probably rather this wind cooling you off. Sandals seem to have these beach shades like half tent thingy’s – wonder how they are. Sandals seemed to have some guests and one of the watersports bars was open between the two resorts. Some tourist boats were around and so was the very annoying jetskis passing too close (they are very dangerous – maybe I’m boring but they kill people yearly round the world and I like free swimming they are a major pain since the riders are not experienced and are not looking for swimmers generally.)
I think its time for some photos after a fantastic afternoon and one of the first we took as relaxation.
Mummy and Summer
Making sandcastles
Happy Birthday Summer
Make a wish
Arrival into VC Bird International
We arrived yesterday into VC Bird International and this time we were ushered into a fast track lane so no waiting with baby in arms for over an hour, good stuff. We had no evident baggage disasters but Summer had really by this time had enough of the plane and wanted out, we all arrived a bit warmly dressed and still had to pick up the rental car. I paid for one of the guys who transport your stuff out from the carousel we really needed it this time. We had seemingly everything and the potty !
Best Antigua Born Today
We have just been born on the www. We hope that we can find a spot and that you can help us by sharing things you find and like with your friends. Please let us know if you are interested to join us as we are much more than a website and we want to form a real group of real people interested in Antigua.
Calvin