St James Club and Villas

This a brilliant site for an hotel/resort, nestled on a promontory between two bays. It's a shame that our holiday was spoiled by the air conditioning in rooms. It sounded good when we were told at reception on arrival that we had been upgraded to a Junior Suite, top floor and quite near all the main restaurants, pool and bars. However the first room we were given had no functioning air con unit. After two sweltering nights we were moved to an identical room four doors along the balcony. The room was freezing that morning so we turned off the air con. That evening the walls were covered in condensation and pools had formed on the floors. After many "discussions" and two engineer visits a balance was struck with the air con temperature which had to remain on constantly. We couldn't turn it off during the day when we were out otherwise condensation reformed. A waste of electricity. The room nevertheless smelt musty and so did clothes in drawers. It was interesting talking to other guests, some of whom had moved rooms twice. The other criticism is that the pools didn't appear to be cleaned every day judging by the sand and other detritus on the bottom. The Rainbow Restaurant was fine for buffet breakfast with a range of choice, albeit the choice was the same for all 11 days we stayed. The lunch and dinner choices there were limited and disappointing. The Docksider was only open 5 days a week for dinner but the buffet was pretty good for choice and quality. We ate at Eleven-11 a couple of times from a rather limited "a la carte" menu but the catch of the day was very good. The only starters were soup. Coco's restaurant was closed during our visit. To get a drink from any bar one had to queue at the bar. There was no waiter service at the bars or pools. There was an obvious shortage of staff and the barmen were under a lot of pressure at meal times. The only bars open in the evening were the main bar by reception (air con and noisy) and the bar at Eleven -11, where you could actually sit outside. Special mention amongst the bar staff for Elvis. Exceptional guy. Staff at the restaurants were great, even though they had to spend a lot of time queueing at bars getting drinks for diners, instead of being able to tend to seating people and clearing tables. Had two really good boat trips. One with the resort boat, half day, to Green Island and one full day circumnavigation of Antigua with Excellence, which was very good. Make sure you visit English Harbour and the Donkey sanctuary. We did that with a hire car from the guy in the resort car park.

This was our 5th visit to St James to once again stay in one of the Jr Suites on the bay side of the resort. We appreciate the spaciousness of the rooms, especially the large bathroom with double vanity. The shower is large with a shower spray nozzle on both ends. You'll have adequate towels which is nice. Rooms are not serviced daily anymore even though there remains a $24/day resort fee. The closet has plenty of hangars which can be taken off the rod. There is a safe.

The property has plenty of space to walk around, hills and stairs among the on-property villas for extra exercise. There is a gym.

Our arrival was rather difficult as we ended up, after a full day of travel, carrying our own bags to our room after waiting 20 mins for a Porter.
Thank you to Khadija for sorting out and honoring a discount at the spa which had actually expired, but the ad was still being displayed at the concierge's desk 2 weeks after it had expired. If you wish, there is a beauty shop.

A shout-out to Elvis, the bartender in the Docksider; he knows his drinks and has top drawer liquors, but you must ask for them. He will mix cocktails to your recipe. Note that you'll need to make reservations in the Rainbow Restaurant for their themed dinner evenings soon after you arrive. Piccolo Mondo is up the hillside among the villas and is a lovely setting; extra charge and make reservations at the start of your stay.

One thought: maybe the $24 per day resort fee could purchase some bar snacks? I bet everyone would appreciate that!

We reserved a Villa at the St. James Club for Nov.19 to 29 and have never made such an awesome decision before for accommodations. The Villa has 2 bedrooms, each with a private bathroom with shower , king size bed with fantastic fluffy pillows and plenty of them, an extra blanket if needed as well as their own temp control air conditioner which were on the lower level with a walkout patio accessible from the patio doors in each bedroom. There are TVs in each of the rooms as well. Upstairs has a lovely living room area with 2 chairs, a leather couch and a coffee table as well as a TV. The kitchen and dining area are very usable The living room has it's own patio door as well as the dining room area. The patio stretches in front of each patio door upstairs. We had so much room and were very impressed with these accommodations. Our Villa number was414.I would certainly recommend going with a Villa over the individual rooms if you are going with another couple.

The breakfast buffet was in the Rainbow Garden room and was delicious every morning The food in the buffet , weather breakfast or in the Dockside for dinner was wonderful and the staff, every single one of them were fantastic . Some who were over and above helpful and friendly were: Aimee and Shrrian in the Rainbow Garden . Luella in the Dockside and the MOST memorable of all was Dane in the Jacaranda Bar. We had so much fun almost every evening with this young man! He is amazing at his job , handles any situation with ease and is a pleasure to be greeted from when entering his domain. Chad and Dane make a great duo on busy nights. Chad is equally capable however we did not see him as much as Dane.

We went to the Piccolo Mondo al a carte one night . The food quantity we found small portioned. This restaurant was an extra expense to go to. The surcharge was $37.50 per person . We had rack of lamb and Caribbean Lobster (steamed not grilled) The lobster was a little dry but the rest of the meal was good. The rack of lamb was very good. We went to Eleven-11 restaurant for lunch which was very good but never went for dinner there. There was no reservation needed for dinners there, There was a Docksider Beach Grill open from 10 to 6pm which didn't require a reservation as well. The hamburgers and chicken wings were great there. As I said, the food in all the restaurants was very ,very good.

For excursions we did the Sunset cruise on the Mystic. We left from the St. James Harbor and toured English Bay then Falmouth Bay then out of the Bays to catch the sunset. The captain and his crew were wonderful. What a beautiful relaxing sight to behold. The captain had the catamaran positioned perfectly to catch an amazing sunset. This tour was $65.00 per person US

We also went on the Excellence Circumnav which was a full day of travelling around the island, stopping at Green Island where you could swim or go on a snorkeling guided tour which 2 of us did. We didn't see anything but 2 Conch shells on the snorkeling tour . This I found not worth the money, the sights on the boat trip were beautiful and seeing the smaller islands was very pretty but not so much for the snorkeling. There no colorful fish or coral to be seen. The lunch was very good on board. The bartender was a tad grumpy and could possibly use a holiday. This tor left from the harbour in St. Johns. The Calypso Cat was right beside us on Green Island. We found out it left from the harbour at St. James . I believe you would get more bang from your buck if you took the Calypso Cat Green Island Tour instead of the Excellence Circumnav. The Cat is smaller but there is much less time travelling to see the same sites.

The beach at the St. James is fantastic with lots of chairs and palapas. They have "donuts" in the water you can lay in or sit on the sides and visit. They hold a few people dep[ending on your size. The water is clear and blue. Overall a favorite resort for us.