We spent 18 days all up in Antigua, arriving the 31st of March and spent our first night at The Lodge, part of the National Sailing Academy, the accommodation was clean and simple and the lovely owner Elizabeth kindly stored our kite equipment for free all week.
After that we went onto our sailing course with Onboard Antigua, which we enjoyed and we slept on-board in the forward cabin (we had the main space as the only couple on-board but it wasn’t glamorous – but it was fun as we slept top to tail and got rained on a few times due to tropical storms).
Then it was over to Airbnb – Coral Villa Vista near Jabberwock where all the kiteboarding action takes place.
On our first night there we enjoyed a lovely celebratory dinner at La Bistro, a French restaurant nearby, and highly recommend a visit.
We enjoyed our time in Antigua very much due to the gorgeous beaches (365 of them) however we found it was expensive, due in part to being a small island where almost everything is imported and being a tourist – there are definitely different prices for locals. They accept US and EC (East Caribbean) dollars.
Many tourists here are short term, either on cruise ships or super yachts and so locals try to maximise their profits quickly, not very helpful if staying longer. That said there were some great local street food vendors and excellent happy hours like ‘The Bar on the Corner’ where house drinks were 6 EC or about $3AUD.
Taxis have a set rate, and your vehicle may be shared with other guests but that does not reduce the cost. We did up renting a car but also had a great driver – Craig (Get There) who was fabulous and you can find him on Facebook.
We made our way to the top of Shirley Heights to admire the views over the clifftops and back over English harbour as well, the land has an odd mix of desert and rainforest plants.
And we saw sea turtles nearly every day while we were sailing and occasionally while kiteboarding as well which was a huge highlight, we also saw manta rays and flying fish!
Then we flew out to America with two local puppies but thats another story to come.
Our Awesome Adventures 