Carlisle Bay

Guests who stayed here loved

“We had the best holiday ever at Carlisle Bay - I’ll come onto all the incredible things about this place which made it our favourite family holiday yet…. but…. be prepared for parts of the hotel to be not quite up to 5 star standards. Our collective initial impression (we’re a family of 4 with a 14 and 8 yr old) of the hotel was very underwhelming. We have stayed in some incredible hotels in the past but the Caribbean standards don’t seem to match those of the top hotels in Europe so do be prepared for this (we weren’t which was why our first reaction of the room was slight disappointment, particularly for the price we paid). However, the reasons I rated it 5 star and not a 4 was for the following; People: the staff and service here is most definitely the most friendly we have ever experienced in a hotel. Such lovely people who really did make our holiday so memorable and the main reason for the 5 star rating. Food: the quality and taste of food was beautiful in every restaurant. The Asian was amazing as was the jetty grill and Indigo was our kids favourite. The bbq on a Thursday was delicious. We also had the pleasure of a singer at the jetty on a Friday night who was out of this world. Honestly was better than any singer I’ve ever heard live. The breakfast was probably our least favourite meal of the day simply because of the options being more limited than I’ve had in the past. The only recommendation I would give for improvements here on food would be to offer a different menu in each restaurant between lunch and dinners as we were there for 10 days and the options after a while became very repetitive. The jetty has a separate menu for lunch and dinners and really think the other restaurants should do the same. Sports: we made full use of the gym along with the tennis and pickleball. What was great about these is that you didn’t have to book a time for the courts and you could just pick up a racket and ball whenever you felt like it. This was brilliant with kids as you could be more spur of the moment and that worked much better for us to get the use out of them. We also made good use of the watersports non motorised activities which were brilliant as, again, you could just go along and do it whenever you wanted. We also paid to do the inflatable sofa (sort of like a banana boat ride) on the sea a number of times which we all had a whale of a time on, particularly our kids and which was really reasonably priced. Location: the beach here is simply stunning- you could sit back and watch the turtles pop up and pelicans diving for fish daily. Snorkelling straight off the beach the visibility is poor however if you head to the rocks near the watersports area there is loads of sea life. I managed to see a couple of stingrays here as well as lots of lovely colourful fish and some barracudas. Main areas for improvement: as mentioned the rooms need better maintenance and updated decor, although my understanding is these have mostly all been updated now with the exception of the room we stayed in which was the 2 bedroom beach terrace and these are being updated this summer. Secondly, we really felt a little light entertainment in the evenings would have been good. We thoroughly enjoyed the singer at the jetty so if something similar to this happened every night it would have given something to do/see after dinner. We ended up just playing cards in the bar until around 10pm but most people seemed to have gone back to their rooms by then which was a shame. Lastly, we felt the cost was very overpriced for the standard of the hotel and its amenities. Other than this, we really did have a truly special memorable holiday and if we were to come back to Antigua we would definitely love to come back to Carlisle Bay.”

ericabG9771YW · Jun 2, 2026