Amazing Antigua
Cricket In Antigua
Tour: Amazing Antigua
When: July | 7 nights
Hotel: Starfish Jolly Beach Resort All-Inclusive*
Per Person: Twin TBC / Single TBC
Visit: Visit Antigua & Barbuda
Book: Here
If it has been said once, it's been said 365 million times, so let's say it again; "Antigua & Barbuda has 365 beaches, one for each day of the year!" It's a great problem to negotiate with only 7 days on the island with 3 games of cricket! Of course, the cricket schedule is unknown and we are simply suggesting the Cricket Tour we will create should we play in Antigua. If cricket isn't played here, we will visit Antigua & Barbuda as a 4-day add-on to your West Indies Cricket Tour just as we will visit Beautiful Barbados if we don't play there.
Based on our 'sample itinerary' your flight to VC Bird International Airport from St Kitts is included in your Tour. On arrival, our coolest driver ever 'Big Earl' AKA 'Cool Ruler In Control' will cruise by, scoop us up, and deliver us to our much-revered Jolly Beach on the West Coast and the Starfish Jolly Beach Resort for 7 nights All-Inclusive*; we may have 8 nights pending the schedule.
*If we play 3 ODI's in Antigua we won't get the full benefit of 'All-Inclusive' knowing 3 afternoons & nights are at the cricket along with two Day Trips, so this hotel will be confirmed once the cricket is.
With 365 beaches, it is no surprise much adventure is had on the water. In keeping with the spirit of water life, we will cruise to Antigua's prestigious sister-island, Barbuda for lunch with Uncle Roddy and laze on exquisite Princess Diana Beach. On another day between games, we have an awesome all-inclusive circumnavigation of Antigua on a super-slick catamaran!
'Wadadli Cat' will sail onto Jolly Beach after breakfast to pick us up and sail around beautiful Antigua. If you want to prove Antigua Tourism wrong you can count all 365 beaches during this 7-hour cruise or just focus on Antigua's smooth Cavalier Rum Punch instead. This incredible day introduces you to open ocean racing along the North & rugged East Coast, where you will see famous Devil's Bridge, a rock formation gouged over centuries of violent Atlantic waters.
In smoother waters, we drop anchor to swim and snorkel, and after a smashing lunch on Green Island (Antigua's most easterly point), we will sail with rocking music, brilliant atmos, and rolling rum punch on the south coast past Falmouth & English Harbours and Pillars of Hercules before being dumped back onto Jolly Beach late afternoon.
Easy to reach on your own, plenty of buses pass the resort heading to the harbours that are home to historic Nelson's Dockyard, one of Antigua's premier cultural & heritage attractions. With a rich maritime history, it's no surprise Antigua is the Caribbean's #1 port for the finest yachts ever-seen, and which compete in the annual Antigua Sailing Week; one of the world's top regattas. Every April, 150-200 yachts compete in a series of races to signal the end the yachting season before sailing north for the Mediterranean summer. It's a huge week of celebration with thousands of people and boats descending on Antigua's beautiful waters.
There may not be the excitement and quality of yachts in June but there is always Shirley Heights Lookout from where you get a broad view of the harbours as the sun sets on another day in paradise. Each Sunday, seemingly half of Antigua ascends for the famous Shirley Heights Sunday Session filled with rum, barbeque, and live music until 10pm. It would be awesome for Antiguans if 2 games were played on the Friday and Sunday nights so as many people as possible could attend the game, and though that would ruin our Shirley Heights Session we'll worry about that once we know the fixture.
Whenever we play, Big Earl will take us to and from Sir Vivian Richards Cricket Stadium (SVRCS); sadly not the famous Antigua Recreation Ground in St John's. SVRCS was built for the 2007 World Cup and due to its unnecessary size & location ruptured the heart of cricket in Antigua. All buses on Antigua run to the stand opposite the Recreation Ground so everyone could get there. SVRCS in the middle of the island is served by one bus route requiring most spectators to first travel into St John's and then back out to SVRCS, which they just don't do. Besides SVRCS being rubbish, the last bus into St John's passes the ground at around 5pm. Not exactly convenient for the public but let's digress!
Antigua is one of the great Caribbean islands and well geared to tourism as proven in 'cruise season' when up to 4 impossibly large ships dock daily in tiny St John's. Cricket Tour or not, if you're West Indies bound, you must visit Amazing Antigua albeit to sit on one of a year's worth of beaches!
