Galley Bay Resort & Spa reviews
4567 TripAdvisor reviews
Fantastic Vacation at Galley Bay
Shane B (Ottawa, Canada) on Mar 20, 2024
First time to Galley Bay Resort ( and to Antigua) and will not be our last! We arrived after a trouble free experience at the airport and were greeted with a cold drink at reception. We were two couples and had requested the upper rooms on the beach front premium rooms and they delivered. The rooms were updated, bright, clean and with high ceilings and a spacious bathroom. Nice large patio a stones throw to the ocean...could listen to the waves all night! One of the nicest rooms I have had at a resort! The fridge was stocked daily and house keeping was 10 out of 10! Beach was spectacular and we had assigned palapa and loungers which was very nice. Never had to worry about a spot on the beach. We did have a couple of red flag days but still swimmable. The guys at watersports were very informative friendly and a pleasure to deal with...and they were funny! The food was great, most produce coming from their own gardens and meals always felt fresh. We tried all the restaurants including Ismay's which is a $50 upcharge. Meal and setting were nice but not sure it was worth the money. Sea Grape restaurant for breakfast was always delicious and always had a pancake of the day...coconut was my fav! Staff in the restaurants not always the friendliest but always great service. To be honest my favorite meals were at the barefoot grill! Women behind the grill always extremely friendly and the food was soooo good. Curry Chicken Quesada with a fresh garden salad was tough to beat and also loved the burgers !! Guest services was always available and rarely a line up and have to say Bri was so friendly and so helpful, she was the start of the resort in my opinion. The gym was ok...nice size but could use another treadmill. Yoga was offered Monday to Friday in the nicest Yoga studio ever! a raised platform on the ocean. Mackenzie offered a great class and was gentle on the not so flexible. She is so nice and just had a chill vibe... we did the Captain Sean excursion which was informative, relaxing and the food was better than the Keg in Winnipeg!! Always felt safe and he gave us the lowdown on other resorts and we passed by them and enjoyed snorkeling and the sailing! All in all I would highly recommend this resort and will definitely be back!!
De-stress and unwind at this amazing resort
Alex_k900r (Enderby, United Kingdom) on Mar 05, 2024
From the moment we arrived to be greeted with a rum punch and checked in, until the sad day we checked out we had a wonderful time here. Staying here we were completely relaxed and de-stressed so quickly after a challenging year for us. We had a premium beach front suite, it was beautiful, spacious and well equipped. Apparently these had been refurbished relatively recently, the bathroom particularly was great with a large walk in shower area. The rest of the suite was really nice. The view from the suite across the beach and listening to the sound of the waves at night was so relaxing. The regularly re-stocked mini bar was a bonus and we were never lacking for a drink. There was the one time that the re-stock of beer never arrived, but it led to a laugh with our neighbours on the sunbeds when he shared a couple of beers with me, he said he hadn't ordered any but they had arrived at his suite! It turns out they were mine. All the staff were friendly and worked really hard to ensure we had a great stay. They ranged from the ultra friendly/can't do enough type of people (which were the majority) down to a few who weren't quite so friendly, but even these few were never rude and worked hard. There were some stand out staff who made the stay so easy for us. Even staff who weren't usually customer facing, like the housekeeping team and the many gardeners were all keen to greet you with a smile and a good morning. There was a manager's cocktail hour where we got to meet the team which was a nice touch. One of the staff we accidentally bumped into whilst cycling round the resort was the gardener in charge of the fruit and veg growing on site - we thought we had ventured into a staff only area by mistake, but he quickly waved us over, welcoming us and started a conversation, proudly showing us the produce growing in his fields. He was clearly passionate about his job and was rightly proud to show us, also educating us along the way. We had a pleasant time walking round learning about the gardens and he even helped my wife's bug bites with some fresh Aloe Vera. Guest services were always really helpful. We managed yoga every weekday, except the one day we couldn't book on because it was so full but 7 out of a possible 8 weekdays wasn't bad. Both my wife and I really enjoyed it as a start to the day, the classes were very beginner friendly (good for me) and Mackenzie was mindful of the range of abilities/experience in the class. She gave us an energising yet relaxing way to start our days. The food here was really good. Let's start with Ismay's, the special restaurant which needs booking and a small extra fee of $50 pp. The food here was AMAZING, it was a really special night and worth the extra fee. We really liked the staff recommendations to accompany our meals. The next up is the Gauguin restaurant, this also needs booking for evening meals but not for lunch and there's no extra fee. The setting is wonderful whether it's an evening meal by candlelight or a lunchtime meal with views over the beach and bay. The food was great, everything we ate we loved. 3 times we paid a small extra fee for lobster - this was well worth it, it was some of the biggest and best tasting lobster I have had. Barefoot grill - we didn't think we'd use a 'fast food' type grill, but we did and we were glad we did. A couple of times we just wanted a simple snack, not a full blown meal. We loved the catch of the day grills, they were so tasty, fresh and easy along with the tuna press. The coffee shop had great opening hours, it was popular not just for the coffee but also for a regularly changing variety of really good ice cream and fresh cookies! Seagrape was the 'standard' restaurant, no booking required and where breakfast, lunch and evening meals were served. But there was nothing standard here, the staff were friendly and the food was all freshly cooked to order and we never had a bad meal. No buffet here, except the fruit, pastries and similar for breakfast. Either pancakes or freshly cooked omelettes were our favourites. Lunch and dinner had regularly changing menus and everything we tried was tasty. On the Thursday there was the Caribbean barbeque - which was wonderful. Again the only buffet was the salad, vegetables, rice etc. The suckling pig and the freshly grilled fish, ribs, chicken and steak were all really nice. It's a shame that our 10 day stay meant we only got to have it once! Bars - we never waited long for a drink, it's such a small resort and the bar staff were friendly and efficient. We must have tried every type of cocktail on the list, but often we were happy with a simple rum punch or a beer (and the odd bucks fizz in the morning!). The rum shack was a cool way to sample a range of rums for me. Staff did come along the beach a couple of times a day offering drinks, it wasn't a lot but it did save us the few minutes walk along the beach to the bar a few times. It really was no drama to stroll along and get a drink. Dress code was very relaxed through the day, whether in the bar or the restaurants. After 6.30 it was a smart casual affair, simply long trousers and collared shirts for men and dresses for the ladies, but we liked this, making a proper evening of it. Entertainment was good every night, often quite easy listening but the acts were all very talented with some guest dancing most nights. The resort as a whole was very tidy, well maintained and looked after. Work on keeping the gardens beautiful seemed constant and the resort clearly puts lots of effort into the beautiful surroundings. We never used the pool, preferring the beach right outside our room - it looked like a lovely area but sheltered from the breeze of the beach. We had a lovely couples massage together in the spa. My wife, who is a beauty therapist who does massages herself, said her male therapist gave one of the best massages she's ever had. Having cycles available free to use was a nice touch. We only used them once and to be honest don't expect new bikes, they were simple, free and easy to use to tour around the resort. There were some days when the red flag prevented use of the watersport equipment, probably half our 10 day stay but this really didn't cause us any drama. We made use of the free beach shuttle one day, with one of the watersports team accompanying us to Deep Water Bay. We did try both the SUP and a double kayak on blue flag days and these were fun. There was some good snorkelling with masks and snorkles provided in our room. Even when there was a red flag the sea was ok for dipping into when hot from the sun, with the average see temp being 26 Celsius! Perhaps if your main aim is using the watersports equipment or swimming then the fairly regular red flag conditions might cause you a problem, but honestly it had little or no impact on our stay, I was still in the water every single day and my wife most days. Our only criticisms - and these are very minor - are as follows: The Gauguin restaurant had 2 sittings, an early and a late. Having a late meal meant missing most of the entertainment, but trying to book in for an early sitting was impossible for us, with all the slots apparently booked by 7.30am! It could only be booked a day in advance so we never got the chance for anything but the later slots. Perhaps they should consider a slight change to allow people who haven't been able to get an early slot to book farther ahead as it seemed to be the same people getting the early slot every time. I know we could have tried earlier but we were on holiday and getting up in time for 8am yoga was hard enough work! The housekeeping staff did a really good job of cleaning the suite, including sweeping the patio, but we would have welcomed some sort of brush to be able to sweep it ourselves again later in the day after we had dragged more sand onto it. Bugs. We hadn't noticed them particularly at the time but both of us suffered bad bug bites in the first 24 hours - our fault really as we hadn't applied the bug repellent we had brought, not noticing the sand flies until after they had done the damage. Once we started using the repellent we were ok, but make sure you take it and use it. That's about all we can think of, none of that spoiled our trip. In summary we had an amazing holiday trip, we will absolutely return again. We had been to Antigua 6 years previously in a different hotel, we love the island but Galley Bay is hands down one of the best experiences we have had, having travelled far and wide. I can see why they have so many return guests, whilst we like to explore different places and can't see us being one of the guests they get returning for a tenth or fifteenth time - we will certainly return and can see us returning more than once! We are a well-travelled married couple in our fifties!
Another Great Visit
V234KIjanets (Centerport, New York) on Mar 02, 2024
Once again, Galley Bay delivers. This was our 8th winter getaway from LI, and they were better than ever. We noticed the food variety and quality was fantastic this year. Kudos to the Chief Chef. The grounds looked absolutely beautiful from recovering from the hurricane from a few years back, amazing job by the landscaping team. If you just want to relax from life for a week, go to Galley Bay
Awesome Food, Location, and People!
brucefN5699VG on Mar 02, 2024
This may be a lengthy review as I attempt to adequately convey how wonderful everything about this resort was. If you are just going to skim through the review PLEASE read about the people. To me they are what truly made this a "must return" destination. The actual resort is set on a 1/2-mile-long white sand beach with the prettiest blue water you could ever hope to see. Everyone staying here is a couple and seemed to enjoy their days lolling in the sun or shade reading a book or napping. There are activities to do, but unless you plan on doing them with your SO then I wouldn't plan on doing most of them. For example, unless a random volleyball team is staying at the resort you probably won't be playing on the sand court. The food was outstanding. Every meal was one of those "clean the entire plate" affairs with adequate portion sizes you don't get at other all-inclusives. No forced portion control here. I estimate abut 50/50 Americans/Brits. Most of the guests were a bit on the older side (us included) with many honeymooners as well. Lovely conversations around the Teepee bar and elsewhere. Everyone was really friendly, but as mentioned it appeared most couples were content with a bit of chit chat and then off to enjoy dinner and the evening with their SO. Very chill. No DJ. Just a bit of background music at the bar and different music nightly by the Seagrape restaurant. The people: Thank you for reading this! To me the people are what made Galley Bay over the top. I may mention a few folks here, but the cool part is that when you go you will find your own group of wonderful people. We did not come across one person that was less than great! Some of the folks move around, but here are few of our all-stars. Venier (what a cool name!) at Seagrape. Pearl at Gaugin's with her lovely green glasses and huge smile. Joan at guest services with her smile and ready laugh-what a great attitude! Dayton, Tarik, Caryl, Natasha, and Sandy G. in the Teepee bar. Yes, we spent a good amount of time there! Don't blame me, blame it on the fantastic people that worked the bar and kept a smile on our faces. I'd like to mention a few other folks that may not get a ton of recognition but were awesome! Curt who takes care of the grounds. He took us on a tour and showed us all the different plants and discussed their care. The other gentleman is Dave who runs the farm where the plants and vegetables that you will eat at your meals are grown. We happened upon him during a bike ride, and he took us on a tour of his kingdom. it gave us a greater appreciation of the farm to table quality of food that we were eating at the resort...much like visiting a vineyard and then having the wine. I love people that are passionate about what they do and both Curt and Dave had passion in spades. Lastly, I must mention a manager, Nathaniel, who is the head of the resort cuisine (not sure of actual title). This guy does an amazing job. Every meal was just so, so good. I can't even begin to imagine what it must take to keep 4 restaurants running with such fresh seasonal food-just crazy good! If you are still with me, I recommend Captain Sean if you want to sail and see some of the island from the sea. Great guy and a smaller sightseeing tour is miles better than one of the 80-100-person catamaran boats you see. Nice kid as his co-pilot too. Oh, and his wife makes some killer chicken and potato salad. Lastly, a comment on Antigua. We have been a bunch of places in the Caribbean and the people we met on Antigua were the happiest and nicest folks we have come across. Many had lived elsewhere and come back to live in Antigua. What a happy, kind island! That's it folks. We're going back next year. Over 50% of the clientele has been there before...I think that speaks volumes.
Just something to be aware of ....
hbshbs (Reading) on Mar 01, 2024
The location of the resort is picturesque, our room was lovely, the food was fine, sunbeds are plentiful, and the staff helpful and friendly - but ..... We stayed there for 11 days and on 10 of those days we had a Red Flag on the beach - meaning no swimming or watersports, and strong waves crashing on to the beach. Of course this is something outside the control of the resort but it may be relevant to your enjoyment. Perhaps climate change has become a factor in recent years, or maybe the hotel will say that I was very unlucky - but other reviewers do also mention Red Flags. Certainly the fact that the resort runs a bus service to a calmer beach on such days might suggest that this happens more than occasionally. Anyway, if you like to relax by the pool then I think you will have a great time - and perhaps become one of the many returners at Galley Bay. I don't think I have ever stayed at a resort where so many fellow guests had been there before, which would reinforce my opening comments. However, if you like walking along the beach, swimming in the sea, and paddle boarding/canoeing/sailing then you might wish to consider another resort. With no disrespect intended to the resort and lovely staff, I definitely wish I had.