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Galley Bay Resort — 
Location: Beachfront - 20 minutes from the airport
All-inclusive - 69 rooms and cottages
Description from resort website: 2 Restaurants - Exotic freeform freshwater swimming pool with cascading waterfall - The Salon & Body Care at Galley Bay has been designed to renew your body and soothe your soul - Non-motorized water sports such as windsurfing, sailing, snorkelling, kayaking and 'Hobie' style catamarans - Air-conditioned fitness center - Daytime tennis court - Games room, table tennis, croquet lawn and horse shoes - Bicycles - Jogging trails around bird sanctuary lagoon - Library with Internet access - Beauty salon and massage room - Boutique selling logo items and sundries
 ~ Reviews posted on this page — 5
 ~ Antigua Resort Reviews Index
 ~ The Antigua Travel Forum
Have you stayed at this resort? Share your vacation experiences with others.
Don't forget to send your review to Debbie by using an easy form
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March 2004
Was a guest a Galley Bay late February. Staff very cordial and helpful. Older established repeat crowd. Mostly from the UK. Make sure to ask for the new section when making reservations. Lovely spot, the ocean can be a bit strong at times and not safe for swimming and you will have to use the pool. This is an all inclusive, the food quality is good but not great.
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March 2004
We visited Galley Bay with our two friends last October 2003. When we arrived after the long flight from the Uk we were greeted at the gatehouse & allocated our rooms. My husband & I were upgraded to one of the beach front rooms on the 2nd floor & were very happy with the wonderful view & the sound of the ocean to send you to sleep.
The beach is beautiful & is nearly always empty with everyone sitting in front of their rooms or by the pool. The food is excellent & couldn't be faulted, even though i am gluten free they had a special menu made up with what I could eat!
There was some sort of entertainment every night , although mainly steel bands & singers , we enjoyed dancing most nights. The drinks are very good & all the bar staff & indeed any of the hotel staff went out of their way to make sure that we enjoyed our holiday.
We enjoyed it so much that we are going back there, with another couple of friends, as well as the friends that came last year 7 we will be off there again next spring 2005!
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| Galley Bay Resort |
John and Natalie --- Toronto, Ontario, Canada |
October 2003
We honeymooned at Galley Bay from Sep. 27 to Oct. 4. While the 7-day stay was too short, we did make the most of it and loved every moment.
While the resort was not a 5-star Hilton type resort (not what we were looking for anyway), I would give this resort an overall 4.75 out of 5. The resort effective combines some luxury elements with a true Caribbean experience. It was intimate (only 70 rooms on 40 acres) and beautiful with all the necessary amenities for a great honeymoon. The pool was very nice. The beach was great although the slope was a little on the steep side and the depth dropped off quickly once in the water, making for some pretty strong undertows (no problem at all for good swimmers). The staff were great and the service was exceptional. The selections on the menus were excellent and offered lots of variety. Because this time was off-peak, the resort did have some maintenance work being done on the lovely Gauguin Cottage, which resulted in very little interference to the guests.
The other guests were very nice as well. Because there were many other honeymooners, the average age was probably younger than during other times of the year. I would say at least 60% of the guests were Brits and probably 30% American, with the remaining 10% being of various other nationalities.
As for Antigua itself, we saw most by sea as we took two sea excursions. The first was Eli's Eco Tour (very informative, fun and good value) and the second was Wadadli Cat's Cades Reef cruise (a lot of fun with great snorkeling). As Eli knows, my snorkeling skills (especially the use of flippers) leave much to be desired, but they were much better on the 2nd attempt. The Cades Reef tour was provided free of charge by the tour package because of our honeymoon status. What we saw of the island's interior was limited to the trips to and from VC Bird and our taxi ride to Shirley's Heights. The views at Shirley's Heights were great and so was the atmosphere. It was definitely worth experiencing. The mountains are mainly on the southwest, south and south-eastern side of the island and they seemed to create their own micro-climates. The mountainous (using the word loosely) areas were much more lush in vegetation. The weather at Galley Bay and during our tours was very cooperative with only a few localized showers here and there. If anything, the rain was much needed.
I would recommend Galley Bay to anyone looking for a very relaxing experience. If you’re looking for something a little more active and exciting, Antigua does have a few of those places as well, but most resorts seemed to be more laid back. All in all it was a great honeymoon experience and by far the best sun-vacation we have ever had.
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| Galley Bay Resort |
Ingrid and Joe --- Brantford Ontario |
October 2003
My husband and I went to galley bay in feb 2003 and loved it. We like many others prefer the smaller more intimate resorts. What I was looking for was met here.
the rooms were very close to the water, and the beach had beautiful sand outside and inside the water. Great for swimming. The pool was very beautiful, but i am a beach lover so stayed there. We also had abit of trouble adjusting to sleeping with the sound of the waves so close to our room. We stayed in room 2 in the one story units.
The people working at the resort are very friendly and accomodating.
there were alot of guests there from england, and most were older than us. We are 50, and 44yrs. It is a very quiet beach and not overly populated. because of the rock formations at each end of the beach there was only one respectful vendor on the beach. The island was not as lush or extravagant as Barbados...there are not many crops or farm land to look at. Mostly scrub land and goats loose, crossing the road. but overall we enjoyed this place very much. Our only beef was that we thought the food could be better. It is a great place to rest and enjoy the beach without being hassled. very beautiful place.
Ingrid and Joe Masters
Brantford Ontario
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| Galley Bay Resort |
Kevin & Susie ~
Ontario, Canada |
May 2003
My husband and I will be celebrating our 25th wedding anniversary and
our 50th birthday, in 2003 so decided for this eventful year we would
take a wonderful vacation. After going through the travel books and
researching on the internet we chose Galley Bay Resort in Antigua the
week of April 27 to May 3, 2003.
Antigua, the island of 365 beaches, one for each day of the year,
that's what we were told, and something I'll never forget. The island
is very beautiful, not very lush though because it has very, very dry
weather, not much rain. During our stay we had a light evening rain,
which lasted about 5 minutes, and that was it. If you love, sun, sun &
more sun, this is the island for you.
Galley Bay is an absolutely beautiful resort. We prefer the smaller
more intimate resorts, where you get to know the people working at the
resort and the vacationers. The grounds are beautifully kept, with
meandering, lighted pathways. Great for after dinner walks. Galley
Bay roughly has about 70 cottages. There are the Gaugin Cottages,
Deluxe - Beach Front and the Superior - Beach Front. The Gaugin
cottages are very cute with one cottage being your bedroom/sitting
area a small breezeway in between and another small cottage for your
bathroom/change room area. These are on the lagoon side. Yes, the
resort has a beach on one side and a bird sanctuary/lagoon on the
other side. The Gaugin cottages are great if you want a little more
privacy, away from the waves crashing on the beach, people walking by
and the fellas handling the kayaks, snorkelling equipment etc...The
people staying in those cottages seemed quite happy with them. My
husband and I stayed in the Deluxe Beachfront which was exactly what
we wanted. About 10 giant steps and you fall into the sea. At times
though it can be very, very noisy, the waves crashing on shore, kept
me up the first night, after that I got used to it. Don't know much
about the superior beach front rooms, but, can tell you they are very
beautiful, I'm sure you can go on Galley Bay website and view them for yourself.
Galley Bay has 2 restaurants, the Sea Grape Restaurant and the Gaugin
Restaurant. The Sea Grape is where we had the majority of our meals.
You have to make reservations for the Gaugin Restaurant as there is I
think just 8 tables. Each table is set up under its own little tiki
hut. Kevin & I dined here twice and chose table #5 as it is the
furthest away and closest to the water. It is very romantic. The
weddings are all held here. We made a point to come and see 2 couples
wed and it was very beautifully done. The meals were very good, we
especially enjoyed the chicken. Afternoon tea is also served, a
favorite of mine. On Thursday they held the barbeque buffet, with of
course your assortment of salads, vegetables, meat and pasta dishes,
as well as a dessert table.
Nightly entertainment was held, that started about 8:00 - 9:00 and
played while we had our dinner. They stayed usually till about 11:00.
After a big dinner we made sure we got up and stretched our legs, got
our exercise dancing. Not very many got up to dance, but, we made sure we did, how
could you not with that calypso beat.
There are a lot of things to do, if you chose to. For example:
snorkelling, windsurfing, sailing, Wadadli Cat (tour around the
island), surf jets, shopping in St. Johns, 4 x 4 tour of the island,
swimming with the dolphins, swimming with stingrays, tennis on the
resort, spa and library at the resort, a track if you want to walk or
run, a gym, and I'm sure lots more I'm not even aware of.. My husband
and I did the 4 x 4 tour of the highest points of the island. The views were breathtaking and
well worth it. Stopped for fresh pineapple & coconut as well as lunch
(prepared by a local) and a swim. Do have to warn you though, the
ride can be rough at times. As well we did the swim with the
stingrays. I was a little nervous at first, but, the owner Andrew
Moody-Stuart was very professional and explained things very carefully
so that we both felt comfortable entering the water with the
stingrays. This was really neat, loved the stingrays, found them very
affectionate. You can take your own pictures if you want, but, they
do have a professional photographer out with you as well that takes
photos and they are great, but, can run you quite a bit of money. I
will say this was a wonderful experience and glad we did it.
I could go on and on about everything we did and saw, but, will have
to let you all experience this beautiful island for yourselves.
Highly recommend Galley Bay Resort. The grounds are beautifully kept,
the most amazing turquoise blue sea, lots of things to do, wonderful
entertainment, the food is good and the staff are very personable and
friendly and yes I would most definitely return to this resort.
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Last updated: March 29, 2004
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