Carlisle Bay Antigua

This was the first time we stayed at Carlisle Bay, and what an amazing experience.

The staff could not do enough for us, the Manager Brian was extremely professional yet very warm and friendly.

I have read the last review regarding COVID, i cannot disagree enough!

Every staff had masks on, there were sanitiser stations everywhere, you wasn’t allowed in the restaurants until you sanitised, so I’m unsure that this traveller was staying at the same hotel as myself.

The East restaurant was of high quality and a pleasant surprise to be eating Asian food in the middle of the Caribbean, and with the views in the "Jetty" restaurant being so beautiful, we were spoilt for choice.

With the help of the children’s club, ( which was free) my children had the best holiday.

My only small criticism was that the pool was not heated.

This was our first time in Antigua, but certainly not our last, and it will not be our one and only stay at Carlisle Bay

Thank you Brian & all your staff

I have been staying at this hotel after spending a few weeks on the island and sailing around Antigua and Barbuda. The hotel is nice—the rooms are spacious and they face the beach, so it’s lovely to be able to walk right out onto the sand from your room. The pool area is also great.

My main concern is the total disregard that staff have shown for COVID protocols. Wherever you go at this hotel—the restaurants, the pool, the check-in area, the beach or the gym, staff are either not wearing masks or wearing them around their chins or under their noses. Even when multiple staff come to your room for room service or maintenance reasons, they don’t wear masks, and typically take offense if you ask them to put on masks. This morning at the gym, an instructor told a guest to remove her mask while exercising to make their workout session more enjoyable, even though there were other guests in the gym, all wearing masks—and all quite concerned about what the instructor was doing.

Antigua was doing so well in handling the pandemic, and my experience on the island has been great so far, with most people taking great care to socially distance and observe mask protocols. But I see that case numbers have almost quadrupled In the last few weeks, and it’s really sad to see.

We stayed in an Ocean Suite for 7 nights on a half board basis in December. We were distinctly underwhelmed by Carlisle Bay and struggle to reconcile our experience with comments received in some of the more favourable reviews here of the hotel.

Considering the positives, Carlisle Bay has a glorious setting with tremendous views over a beautiful cove. Rooms are comfortable (but not exciting) and there are some nice touches, like the cool boxes with water delivered each day to the beach.

In spite of the number of restaurants at the hotel, the standard of food was pretty low across the board. Indigo was particularly hit and miss. Menus didn't change or reflect seasonality and often focused on number of dishes offered rather than quality of execution. Do not come here expecting food akin to what is offered by the better establishments in Barbados - you will be sorely disappointed.

But worse than the food was the service. Indifferent and slow seemed to be the order of the day - this was evidenced on issues ranigng from ordering an ice bucket or asking for a breakdown of the room charges to clearing an ant infestation in our room or asking for a replacement hairdryer. The addition of 24% combined for tax and service becomes rather irritating when there is simply no standard of service. Additionally, it was irritating to be reminded on several occasions that we needed to pay for our drinks when we placed orders - as if we would abscond when presented with the bill!

Regrettably the hotel seems to be suffering from chronic underinvestment with much of the decor and many of the services now looking rather tired. As an example, almost all of the tennis courts are in very poor state of repair and there was no AC working when we visited the gym. Our room was comfortable, but certainly in need of some smartening up to bring it to the standard expected for a hotel of this class.

So many better options in the Caribbean!