Antigua ~ Part 2

Click here to read Antigua ~ Part 1.

In Antigua, we had our five day adventure on the sailboat then went to Blue Waters Resort for a few days.  The reason for this was we weren't sure how well we were going to sleep on the boat and it gave us some time to do nothing.  Sailing can be hard on the body.  In part 1, I included a map of where we ventured so you can see how busy we were.  The resort was to give us a few days to recover and actually vacation.  :)

Our accommodations in the past have always been simple.  A small house on the beach, a hut on the beach, a simple hotel on the beach.  Blue Waters Resort was none of those things.  It was huge.  And gorgeous.  Seriously.  The grounds had lush landscaping and so many blooming flowers.  Several buildings, separate homes, 7 pools and a few restaurants made up the complex but it is spaced out enough that it never felt crowded.  The service was amazing.  Many of them remembered our names even though we were only there for a few days. The beaches were small but breathtaking.  Servers would come by with plates of fruit offering snacks and there was a waitress that served people on the beach while at their chairs.  One could get spoiled at this place.

The main desk area.

This is our room when we were leaving.  I forgot to take pictures of it when we first go there (typical).  Also, I didn't get pictures of the bathroom but they were nice!  A walk in shower with a rain shower head.  There was a claw foot soaking tub, pedestal sink, and toilet.

The Palm's restaurant.  This is where we ate breakfast and lunch.  The first night we ordered room service from their dinner menu.  The food was good but not great.  The view from the dining area was beautiful.

We made reservations for The Cove restaurant one night.  My only complaint about the entire resort is dress code at dinner.  For most people this wouldn't be a problem but for us, staying on a sailboat for most of the week limited our packing.  We only brought a few small bags and dress clothes didn't make the cut.  There are good reasons to have a dress code but I feel they were a bit extreme.  I had to buy a dress at the gift shop where there were not a lot of options. Blittle had brought a Perry Ellis tailored, fitted shirt with khaki pants.  When we were leaving the restaurant the manager stopped us and said that his shirt was not to dress code since it was not collared but they decided to serve us anyway.  Next time we needed to be within dress code to get service.  Really?  Here are the outfits.

Anyway, the food was delicious and sunset view from our table was perfect.

I went running on a path around the resort.  There is an old sugar mill they built around, a peninsula that has a gazebo with a great view, and lots of hills.  This Texas girl is used to flat roads so those hills were challenging.

Sunrise.

Looking at the resort from the peninsula.  Our room was in the building right off the beach.

The sugar mill.

The beach!  There were several small beaches at the resort but this was the one right outside our room so we stayed on it.  Two pools were really close, too, so we hung out around them as well.

 This is Hugo the palm tree.  Story is, Hurricane Hugo pushed the tree over but it kept growing.  Several more hurricanes came through and pushed it over a little more.  Hugo the palm persevered and survived.  Now he looks like this and I am obsessed.

Overall, we had a great experience at Blue Waters and would go back.  I will say that I got the best price through TripAdvisor.  They had a deal on a deluxe beachfront room with breakfast included.  The resort can be all inclusive but for us, all inclusive isn't worth it.  We are not going to eat and drink enough to make up for the price.  For lunch and dinner we ate and drank what we wanted, even ordered room service one night which has a fee and we still came out less than one persons all inclusive price per day!!!!!  

I am so thankful we had the opportunity to take such an amazing vacation.  There is no denying we needed it!  Now we are looking forward to getting some house projects done and planning for our next adventure.  :)

I hope everyone has a great week!