Antigua
Antigua is a great British Island that my wife and I have been to twice. The first time we really liked the island and the second time was nice, but not quite as nice. The island boasts a different beach for every day in the year and without a doubt they do have some of the nicest beaches. My favorite was the clothing optional beach at the far end of Hawskbill Beach Resort. There are 4 consecutive beaches in this area and the last one requires a little bit of walking, but there was hardly anyone on the beach. It is quiet and large enough to enjoy a nice walk. Two of our other favorites were Darkwood Beach and Half Moon Bay. Halfmoon Bay is so large that you actually experience 3 different types of ocean currents from one end to the other. All the beaches on the island are open to the public, even the hotel beaches, so you do have the occasion where the locals that are not as well groomed as your average tourist showing up on your beach. Many restaurants along the ocean and one perched high on the cliffs by the Jolly Harbour area was our favorite from both trips. Antigua serves as a hub to many of the other islands so it is easy to get a relatively cheap flight into Antigua, spend a few nights and then get a direct hop to another island. Cruise ships make frequent stops at the island as well, making the downtown area a lot like other downtown islands with lots of little shops. Last but not least, the rum is a big bargain on this island. The only downside to the island is the quality of the roads. Poor lighting, lots of pot holes and for some reason, I could not get my bearings the second trip and got lost several times. A medium size island, but plenty of opportunities to make wrong turns. But even after all this, I am quite certain we would go back for a few days and combine it with another nearby island.
Grand Princess Casino is the big state of the art casino on the island. A really nice casino if you are looking for modern casinos on your island trip. The flip side of that is King's Casino which is located downtown right by the cruise ship dock. We found this casino to have plenty of locals and smoke filled.
On our first trip to the island I spotted a $5 and $25 NCV chip in King's Casino. I begged and begged for them to sell me one and they simply wouldn't do it. They said they were given out the Breeze's Hotel as part of some package and they had to keep track of them. Even after speaking to the manager I couldn't get one. We were staying right next to Breeze's so the next afternoon I walked down the beach to the hotel and asked to see the manager. I explained the whole chip collecting thing to him and asked if he had one that he could give me. He looked and looked and said he didn't have one, but in his desk he had a $5 chip that said Gabriela Casino. He told me the Riviera was the Gariela prior. I believe I had someone else confirm that the second time we were there. This was like the last day and I did not go back to the Riviera to talk to get more information and we had such horrible lights in our rental car the second time, I couldn't even find the Riviera Casino. I don't recall how I eventually got the $5 NCV chip from King's, but someone there must have gotten sick of me begging and gave me one.
This beach picture as well as the one at the top of the page were taken on the clothing optional beach at Hawksbill. As you can see there was litterally no one else on the beach when I took these pictures in both directions.
