Jolly Beach Resort

This is our review and the opinions of the other guests (various ages) in our wedding party please note that This was our 2nd holiday here ( so it was good enough for us to return), we did a twin centre holiday in 2005 / 06, we spent xmas on barbados then flew over to antigua for new year, my hubby proposed to me here and we saw many weddings and later decided it would be a gorgous place to marry so dispite us being slightly disapointed upon our first arrival here, for the money we paid we did expect a little more of an upto date decor and a better suite as wed paid a £400 supplement for this, although it was basic, it was clean had a tv, air con & daily maid service and had a breattaking view so overall the holiday ie the fantastic beach, pool, staff & reasturants encouraged us to return.....
Good points:
the beach - the ocean is blue, shallow & calm & the beach is very clean
the staff are soooooo friendly & the wedding co-ordinators do an amazing job
the rooms are basic but clean, have tv, radio, air con & daily maid service
the reception 24 hour and very helpful
the reasturants - wine is constantly being topped up... lush !
the italian -Boccoloios our favourite!!! is gorgous and you can pre order spag bol its not on the menu but they will make it at no extra charge and its lovely.
the Indian - utsav offer a great starter platter it Lush! the warm bread and wine is contantly being offered... yummy!
the seafood - Lydias is on the beach and an evening meal here is so calm hearing the waves lapping & sunday brunch here was so tranquil we made our way along the beach around mid day and sipped cocktails whilst helping ourselves to a buffett of fresh salad, chicken and rice, beef strogonoff, seafood, and amazing desserts ! I really though i was dreaming & that i couldnt really be in such paradise on a sunday afternoon!!
the main buffett area - we only ate breakfast & lunch here as we like to enjoy a ralxing meal and be waited on for our evening meal, but it offers a great range of buffett food and steaks / chops cooked while you watch, and this is ideal for famailes as the enterianment is here !
The pool / grill bar offer toasties, steak or chicken baguetts, burgers, hotdogs and salad, its naughty but very nice!! and the pool / swim up bar here serves all drinks in plastic cups for safety!
The wedding co-ordinator organised everything for us, all we had to do was visit the courthouse via taxi with her and other couples, simply confirm our names & be congratulated on our forthcoming wedding by the licence officer! We set a date / time when booking the wedding but this can be changed due to weather but this is all very laid back. All i can say is that Isha the co - ordinator was amazing she called me on the morning of our wedding to ask if i wanted to view my flowers they were beatiful, she escorted my hubby and his best man to the arbour, she helped me to the waiting horse & carriage where my mum & my maid of honour came on a 10 minute journey and to pose for pics, the cerempony was wonderful, the champange and cake was gorgous, the photogrpaher every part of our wedding was fantastic ! I would reccomend a jolly beach wedding to anyone !
This is a 3 to 3 and a 1/2 star hotel and i would say that is about right, the location is 10 out of 10 and i would return here again ! Everyone of our wedding party would say the same, its value for money if you want sandles then you pay 4 x times more than what we paid our wedding cost us £2700 total for 2 weeks all inclusive with virgin atlantic flights, the wedding package was free and we spent £1000 on extras as in the photo, horse & carriage extra flowers, hair ect. Unfortunatly crime had increased on Antigua since our last holiday there, but its the same as anywhere else.. poverty = crime and it shouldnt put you off travelling there, We retruned home 4 days before the murders of the honeymoon couple at coco's which is in the backdrop of our wedding pics, it was a very easily accessable hotel and when we walked up to have a drink and take in the views from up there one afternoon we were shocked that no one stopped us to check we were guests there and my hubby & I both said we wouldnt fancy staying there it would be too dark and secluded for us to feel safe at night. RIP and our thoughts are with their famailes x x

We travelled to JBR on 4th Feb, 16 people with Virgin Holidays, ages from 15 to 64. Firstly the flight, I would not hesitate to go with Virgin again, it was the best flight I think I have been on.
Immigration at Antigua airport was no major problem, ok it takes a little while, we are not into rushing off the plane when it lands so we were at the back of the queue, our fault, it took about 45mins to get through. Once through we waited for our taxi/bus transfer, which Joy the virgin rep organised, probably took twenty minutes or so. I always like the journey to the hotel because it’s the first look at a new country, the taxi driver also gives you a bit of commentary along the way which was good.
Check in was a little bit messy, only because we needed certain amount of twins and the other rooms doubles, it wasn't a problem we had the right amount of each type of room just with the wrongs names down, you get a welcome rum cocktail while you are checking in.
This holiday had been booked for nearly a year so I had plenty of time to read up on the resort so I was actually surprised at the room, we had a standard room which was ample in size, we got all our clothes in the wardrobe and stored the cases on top, I had read on here that there was nowhere to store cases this was not the case in our room or any of the others in our party, all the party were located near each other, no coffee making facilties in the room so we took a travel kettle. The only complaints I have about the rooms are as follows.
1. There was nowhere to store my partners wedding dress other than in the rooms so we had to store in our sons room next door, the wardrobes are fine for your holiday clothes but you will not store a long dress in them so it was hung from the smoke alarm which meant people had to brush past it when they went into the room, it wasn't a problem as the dress was fine but be aware if you go for the standard room and are taking a wedding dress they do not have anywhere to store it.
2. The father in laws room had not light in the bathroom for about a week so he showered in the dark, he had rang reception several times but no joy, now my father in law is 64 and this was the first time he had been on holiday and I'm not sure how he was asking for the light to be sorted anyway my partner was passing the room when he said to her it still hadn't been sorted so she picked up the phone and asked if they could sort it and within ten minutes it was done.
Not big moans.
We were on the first floor and had a great view of the beach although we were not in the rooms much.
The first week we were there was great, just the right amount of people, the next week the cricket was on and it got very busy, I think somehow it took them by surprise as the buffet at night got very chaotic for a day or two but it settled down when people realised you had to book in and be allocated a table rather than just go and seat yourself, the buffet the first week was ok no complaints only that they seem to have only one section open so come the second week and they still only had one section open it was not that good but as time went on they opened up the other section, as I say it was as though it took them by surprise. Because of the increased amount of people the second week we had to sit on the chairs from outside which they had brought in to make extra tables up unfortunately one of our party sat down and the leg of the chair snapped off, it was an older member of the party and it shook her up a bit, the site medical lady made out a report and was not happy that people had to sit on these chairs, although it carried on.
The food in the buffet is what you expect from a 3* in the Caribbean, no one went hungry or got sick, we didn’t eat in the buffet at lunch times but ate at the grill by the pool, great jerk chicken.
We ate in three a’ la Cartes, the Indian was nice, Lydia’s was ok although I didn’t like my meal but that’s my own fault for trying something I had never had before, the best in my opinion was the Italian which we ate in on the night of our wedding. We booked Lydia’s for the second Sunday we were there for brunch unfortunately there was not a steel band and it was the same , I think, menu as when we had eaten there in the night, I’m not sure why this was as the Sunday before looked much better and the steel band were playing.
One thing I will say about the restaurants is that even when it was busy the second week they still only had them open a few nights a week which put added pressure on the buffet.
Drinks at the bar were fine, the bar staff were great although very busy still had a smile for you.
The beach, now it’s a lovely beach but not the best I have been to, one thing to look out for is the ever changing sea bed, one day you will enter the sea on a nice slope with no shells the next there would be shells where the sea starts and the next there would be a dip as you get into the sea which took one of our party by surprise and he ended up spraining his ankle, as long as you remember it probably wont be the same from one day to the next you will be fine. Come the second week we had the old sunbed hoggers who put their towels down real early, we were on the beach at 8.00 am in the nice quiet bit we liked all the palapas had beds with people on them but their was one with 4 beds with just towels, we watched them beds until lunch, had lunch, came back and still no one on the beds, at about 2.00 pm they cam sat there for 30 mins took towels and went, this family did this most days, IF ITS YOU DON’T DO IT, people with children could have made use of that shade.
The guys on the beach were absolutely fine, only one guy was persisitent and he didn’t get any of our business, plastic the guy selling jet skis is great he made friends with all our family and would come and chat even after we had paid to go on his jet skis he would still come and have a chat, he jokingly said to me he would be at our wedding, blow me if when we were having the pics taken he was there, great guy.
All in all we got what we paid for and thouroughly enjoyed ourselves, we had an exceptional deal with virgin how ever.
The wedding. Now we have been together for 27 years and just wanted a quiet do in the sun no fuss etc. we had our meeting with Beverly the wedding co-ordinater the day after we arrived, filled out the forms and confirmed date, time and location, we chose to have it at the little gazebo by the beach. She didn’t really tell us a great deal about what would happen on the day and it was all very relaxed. On the day all went well and you can see the pics here,
http://www.flickr.com/photos/24167131@N00/sets/72157614114897579/ I will upload a few on here at a later date, we opted not to have a reception just a few bottles of champagne then go to the bar, the bar staff were great and kept giving us bottles of champagne.
So to sum up, great place for the money, great people some say Antiguans can be a bit surly, everyone we met was friendly and chatty, great wedding, great wedding co-ordinater, room adequate, food adequate, Virgin holidays great.

My husband and I stayed in jbr for 2weeks if you book a supersaver room please note that it is a single room with a double bed, no room for anything else but the rooms are clean. I knew this before I went but was still shocked by the size and if you upgrade they are not much bigger.
We spent the first two days under the palm trees overlooking the wonderful blue sea on the 3rd we went to St John’s very disappointing try to find out what days the cruise ships are in and give it a miss.
Back on the beach for the 4th day UNDER THE SAME PALM TREE by 9am when at 11.15 along comes this woman trader and tell us to move as this is her pitch no please or could you, just move, so I said no after all I had not paid over 3 and a half grand to sit and fry in 85dg of sun with no shade.
The names that I was called was unbelievable anything from a witch to white racist and then two other traders joined in saying that we were not welcome as it was their beach so I called for the hotel security and they would do nothing so I had to go and get the management who then had to call the police she was asked to leave the beach after about half an hour I was still very upset so we decided to go back to our room as we got up to leave a man we now know was the beach thief( told to us by a member of staff)started shouting at me only his language was much worse and he was very threatening calling me the C word again I called for the hotel security who just stood there grinning and laughing so we went to the hotel manager who was is all fairness very upset for us and as we had quite a few things wrong with our room he arranged for us to be moved to the other side of the complex as it had better security but we had a very long walk over dinner each night as from day 6 all I wanted to do was come home I would not recommend this hotel to anyone but would say thank you to twister the bum for getting me upgraded.

Our first impression on arrival was that the resort was rather tired, needing more than paint! We stayed for 3 weeks and absolutely loved it! Staff were amazingly friendly and very helpful. Food was great, (other than the queues for breakfast omelettes which were worth the wait!) Lydias fish restaurant is a must, terrific menu. Utsavs, indian a la carte, excellent! Hemispheres is the general every day restaurant, cant fault it! Entertainment staff take every care to ensure lots of fun, tame but enjoyable!
Beach is huge and you can sit quietly or next to the swimming pool for activities, music, brilliant snack food and a bar. Sea is quite warm but not clear for snorkelling, not when we were there. Recommend cades reef trip or green island. We did stingray city, apprehensive but loved it! Well worth doing.
You do get pestered on the beach for jet skis, trips and jewellery sellers, but they are polite and not forceful. Would advise to haggle price for jewellery etc. as prices vary all over island.
Use local busses to go anywhere in antigua, number 20 or 22 just outside resort entrance or by supermarket for St Johns, ask the security guys. Really cheap and fun way to get round island. From st johns you can get a bus to anywhere, even to nelsons dockyard! Easy!
Hope you enjoy your holiday as much as we did!

Where do I start?? The staffs at the resort are not very helpful at all; all they seemed to do is watch you like a hawk. Reception is very unfriendly, they have never heard of customer service or satisfaction. The taxi service is a rip off. It is better for you if you just boarded the local bus to get to town, its soooooooooooooo much cheaper. For the amount of money i spent for seven days all inclusive I expected a lot better service and ambience. BE VERY CAREFUL of the vendors on the beach...... my partner and I paid for horse riding on the second day of our dream holiday. we were taken in by one of the vendors who arranged for us to go out of the complex to carry out horse riding (Joseph, old man missing a few teeth. well under the care of (Joseph and his Goons) my partners horse bolted on a main road throwing him from the horse onto the ground where her fracture his right hand in two places and torn a ligament in his left leg. (Did I mention we were given no helmets?? Third day in my partner is carrying out the remaining of his one week holiday with his hand in a cast and leg in a sling. Vendors (Joseph) did not want to take blame for the horse bolting and gave some cock and bull story about refunding our fee, he promised to return to the hotel with compensation in store (never saw him again). I suppose we are quite lucky we took out personal insurance cover .......DONT LEAVE HOME WITHOUT IT ;) CAUTION!! Be very careful half of the guys on the beach have no insurance to cover you if you have an accident. On from that the rooms where very poky, dirty and unkempt. The actual landscape and gardens of the resort is the only thing I cannot fault them for otherwise the place is a real shambles. WE WILL NOT BE RETURNING TO JOLLY HELL BEACH!!!

Just returned from 10 days at the Jolly Beach. Good things about the hotel were : friendly staff, lovely food at Utsav(Indian restaurant) and at Lydias (seafood) but food and service at the Italian restaurant was dreadful and in the main restaurant(Hemisphere) the food was often cold, uncovered and there were birds flying around all over the restaurant, sitting on the tables and chairs and pecking at leftover crumbs.
Swimming pools didnt seem to be cleaned properly and the rooms needed major updating. We booked a King superior room, and although a reasonable size it was very shabby with old mattresses, sheets that didnt fit the bed so you were lying on the mattress, and the bathroom was like that of a 2 star Spanish hotel in the 70s. The toilet frequently broke down or kept flushing for hours. The air conditioning was very noisy so you couldnt have it on if you wanted to sleep.
The people of Antigua are lovely and I would definitely return to the Island but not to Jolly beach.

Came here to get married, apart from the Wedding Co-ordinator and photographer which were provided I would not recommend this hotel at all.

After paying £3000 for 7 days we were told we would have a sea view room. We did NOT have the sea view room, the room cupboards were falling off and the bathroom was a shambles and falling apart.

Our Wedding meal was at our choice of the hotels resaurants with an upgraded table... much to the amusment of myself and my new husband our upgraded table consided of a table cloth where the other diners hadn't had one!!!! Luckily we were of high spirits and found it funny, most wouldn't!

Luckily the wedding co-ordinator was fantastic, her and her staff did everything they could to make my wedding day what I had hoped. Met a couple there who married the next day who also had a terrible room where their air conditioning was leaking!!!! NICE!!!

Would NEVER go back again, but would highly recommend the Wedding Co-Ordinator.

had a fantastic time cofie and terry made our children involed in all the activities everyone so warm would love to go back a life experience every thing i wanted it to be hope to be back . S ome said staff were rude i would say people on holiday expected to much xx Would recomend u do the sailing with on deck worth the money look it up get everuyone involved .I can not put it down maybe a little tired the rooms but the view makes up for that an un forgetable time had by us all

just come back from the jolly beach stayed there and really enjoyed it. the beach is private and is gorgeous, its a beautiful stretch, and the water is lovely and warm, has to be said it's the lovliest sea i have ever swam in. The staff are really nice, ever so friendly, can't do enough for you. I stayed in a superior room it was adequate, clean enough. The main pool was great, great atmosphre, food was good, especially the indian and lydias was nice with the steel band playing on a sunday afternoon. For great value for money you can't go wrong.Great facilities and lovely with the kids. and recommend michelle from the spa, who does a wonderful palms massage.

Staff generally friendly but apart from that, wouldn't recommend this hotel AT ALL.

Food in the restaurant varied, but uncovered / very unhygienic conditions for the buffet.(food spoons left in the actual food trough - no where to put them).

Birds flying around the Hemisphere restaurant landing on food & tables and pooing everywhere. Cheeses left uncovered at ROOM TEMPERATURE i.e 30 degrees!

SuperSaver Rooms REALLY tiny -(the room wasn't even big enough to hold 2 large suitcases - and my partner had to put their suitcase OUTSIDE on the veranda to open it!). NOT NICE AT ALL - and certainly not big enough for two people - and then we had to PAY for an UPGRADE to a room that was only MARGINALLY bigger than the tiny room we were given in the first place!

Hotel is VERY basic - could do with some refubishment (showers in bathrooms not great and very small).

There are not five restaurants open every day/night - the Indian was only open every other day. Italian was shut most of the time we were there. Hemispheres was the only one really open every day/night.

Hotel is not really near anything - nothing much to do in the area (also heard rumours from the locals, it was a bit unsafe to venture out)

Vendors selling trips on the beach were at RIP-OFF PRICES!

Despite that fact that we paid £1,200 each for this holiday - and then had to PAY for an upgrade for a larger room, the unhelpful guy on reception still wanted to charge us to stay on for a late check-out as our pick up was not until 6pm. We did manage to stay on but only after complaining to another member of staff who put a "good word in".

CONCLUSION: VERY EXPENSIVE FOR WHAT IT IS - You could go to other parts of the Carribean/ world for much cheaper and got HIGHER STANDARDS. (ie the Far East). Don't waste your money!

We had a supersavers room which was dreadful - doors falling off and tiny - tried to upgrade but couldn't be arranged for 4 days. Eventually upgraded to a standard room which was a bit bigger but still had a problem with bathroom sliding door, which wouldn't slide and wardrobe doors - one fell off and my husband removed the other in frustration. It was a poor quality holiday camp atmosphire. Had to wait to be sitted at meal times - always at the end of a queue. Then a very slow person would take us to our table. Food was adequate but not good. If we both left the table together to find food, the birds descended on to the table and either ate any crumbs etc or left droppings on the table. Not very hygienic. We both ended up with tummy problems. This place needs someone to move in and improve it. I would not recommend visiting it. We have stayed in accomodation all over the word and this was at the bottom of the list. We spoke to other people who agreed. We became quite depressed by the end of 2 weeks and couldn't wait to go home! We then had to negotiate the airport where everyone took far longer then necessary to check documents etc.

Having just arrived back from a wonderful holiday I feel that there are things I would like to share with prospective holidaymakers who plan to visit this location.

We took our 17 year old granddaughter with us timed to include her 18th birthday, we opted for the suites and self catering to provide more space and privacy for us all.

The flight although long was OK and we were welcomed at the airport with fruit punches. Transfer to the resort was typical Antiguan, driving on a smooth bit of the road rather than on the left. Another fruit punch greeted us on arrival at the resort.

The standard suites were far better than we had expected 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, kitchen, lounge area, utility room and a huge balcony. All of the appliances were already in place including, coffee maker, grill, hotplate, microwave, fridge freezer, blender, hairdryers etc. Daily service for the rooms was included as was full air conditioning and ceiling fans.

The resort was very well maintained and the staff were all welcoming and polite, all will chat to you given the chance, free internet access is available at the reception area and the self catering option includes use of all of the facilities at the resort apart from food and drinks.

As we were self catering we ate mostly at Jolly Harbour which is a very leisurely 10 minute stroll from the resort. At the harbour is a selection of good restaurants, our favourite was Peters BBQ and Grill. All of the food was delicious; I can recommend the Tenderloin Steak but work up an appetite first.

Next some tips:
The beach is split into the resort beach and the public beach. The public beach is over a wooden bridge to the right of the resort if facing the sea. On this beach are a restaurant and various traders’ stalls. You will find sun beds in various colours, at the time of our visit the free beds are coloured with white and blue plastic straps. You may be told that these beds are reserved and that they can hire beds and umbrellas for between 15 – 20 US Dollars per day. Stick to your guns and use the free beds if you choose to. To be fair they did not look too comfortable but could be a big saving over a period for a large party.

Trips: if going to St Johns (almost obligatory) there is a bus stop right outside the resort with buses every 10 minutes or so (Caribbean time) and will cost around 3 cents per person, the shuttle from the resort will cost 40 US Dollars.

If you fancy a thrill, hire a jet ski, these are fun and usually very safe. Don’t bother haggling over the price. Unless you are an American tourist the cost will be 40 US Dollars for 30 minutes. If you manage to reduce the price they will bring you in after 25 minutes, so if you want the full 30 minutes, pay the full amount.

My only gripe with the resort is that because we were self catering we were unable to purchase snacks or drinks from any of the resort catering establishments as we would have needed to purchase a food pass. These seem to have been either for breakfast and lunch plus all drinks, or lunch and evening meal plus all drinks. Neither of these options suited our needs so we had to take drinks to the beach, only after a few days did we realise that the beach bar on the public beach was not in fact part of the resort so were able to purchase refreshments there.

To conclude, a brilliant holiday, this was our second time in Antigua and am very much looking forward to the third. I would definitely book the Jolly Beach Suites again.

The hotel is very well organised with a number of bars and restaurants. There is entertainment every night. The food is excellent and all drinks are free too on the all inclusive, this is definitely value for money.

The beach is clean and well protected. I was a little disappointed with the 1st room I was allocated but with very little fuss was relocated to a superior room with sea view.

You are a little confined to the resort; if you want to wander further you would need to get an organised trip (which there are plenty of) at approximately £10 - £20.

There are traders on the beach selling gifts etc but be aware they will try to rip you off.

Haggle and stick to your guns! There are plenty of market stalls etc in the town which is a bus trip away.

The Jolly Beach Resort is quite basic in its appearance but we chose to upgrade to a superior room and it was well worth it.

The 3 restaurants (fish, Indian and Italian) are absolutely fabulous. My husband and I both agreed that to dine in the same standard in the UK we would pay at least £35.00 per head.

The beach was superb and very clean and the sea was lovely and calm. We would recommend this resort to anyone wanting a very pleasant holiday with fantastic people....the Antiguans are always smiling and who can blame them living on such a beautiful island!

Went to Jolly Beach for our wedding for 2 weeks with a party of 19!

I cannot pick up on anything I would give negative comments on. The staff are very friendly.

The rooms are big enough and very clean. Everything in the room worked! The food was lovely with a nice choice of restaurants so we didn’t keep eating the same meals.

The beach was lovely and quiet, the locals who sell didn’t pressure us and left us alone at our polite requests.

The only thing we missed was the sea was very murky in this area (due to the new harbour being built) therefore it’s not a great spot for snorkelling. The evening entertainment became a bit samey, but you can make your own entertainment!

The wedding day went perfect with Beverly, the wedding co-ordinator, sorting everything out and making sure it was perfect.

Would definitely love to go back and will definitely go to Jolly Beach again!