Cocobay Resort (Antigua) — Hotel in Antigua

We had an amazing and incredibly relaxing 4 night stay at Cocobay Resort. It is a great place to unwind by the pool or beach, as long as you know exactly where you are going. Cocobay is not a typical luxury 5-star beach resort. Instead it is a boutique hotel with a more quiet demeanor where you run into the same people throughout your days and are able to relax on the public beach or by the pool with little worry. I’ll go into each aspect in depth and try to offer some tips where I can!|Beach/Pool: we spent most of our time on the small, mostly quiet, yet public beach. We had no problem getting a cabana as long as we got to the beach by 8 or so. Cocobay employees start coming directly to the beach cabanas for drink orders around 10-10:30, and they come regularly enough. Drinks are provided in paper cups, which was fine, but we’d recommend bringing an insulated tumbler, so the ice doesn’t melt as quickly! The beach itself was gorgeous. A little seaweedy which we were told happens in January. There were some flies on the beach too, so I’d suggest bringing bug spray with you. We spent some afternoons at the sunset pool right next to the beach. There’s a bar here that also makes a panini of the day until 4pm along with comfortable chairs and we had no trouble getting a spot when we were done with the beach between 3 and 4. |Food: Overall, the food was good, not spectacular. Everything was made to order and we were never hungry. It was nice to experience an all-inclusive where you sit down for each meal and order your food instead of getting up and down for a buffet. For breakfast, you can basically get whatever you want from the menu, so no need to hold back. For lunch and dinner you select an appetizer and entrée (as well as an additional pasta or soup for dinner). The food is presented incredibly well, and most things tasted good. Some meal options include shrimp skewers, spare ribs in a jerk sauce, seafood curry, wahoo steak, ahi tuna steak, NY strip steak, etc. We were very disappointed by the desserts. Fudge cakes and cookies were very dry and not worth eating. The ice cream and strawberry mousse were good though. It is definitely worth it to book your trip directly with the resort, as this gives you additional dinner options each night – worth noting that there is one additional appetizer and 3 additional entrees that stay the same each night, so don’t think that you have to always go for these “extra priced” options as we did the first night. As I mentioned, there is a daily panini available at the sunset pool and bar bites at the main bar from 3-4:30, although we were not informed about the bar bites until our last day and it was by another couple, not the resort. Flies were sometimes very annoying at lunch and dinner, so it would be great if the resort could offer a fly repellent fan for each table – this also would’ve helped on the beach. We didn’t pay extra for Sheer Rocks, but it is probably a must to do something different if you are staying more than the 4 nights we did. |Drinks: We loved all of the drinks. You could tell there was adequate alcohol as drinks were made right in front of you and there are a large selection of listed drinks to choose from. If there’s something not on the menu, the bartenders are more than happy to make it for you. Understandably, drinks are served in paper cups at the sunset bar and beach, and in nicer glasses up at the main bar. Almost every day there was a “cocktail hour” up by the main bar which was always fun. The coffee cafe opens at 7am and is included in the all-inclusive. Sometimes the line is a bit long, so it would have been nice to have drip coffee available outside the shop to pour yourself if you didn’t want a specialty espresso drink. There are also smoothies from 10:30 to when the cafe closes at 3, but I thought they were a little bland and only got it once.|Service: all of the workers are very nice but the service doesn’t scream 5-star resort service. Derrick stood out as the best bartender as he remembered everyone’s name and went above and beyond to make sure you were enjoying yourself time and time again. Besides wine, drinks at dinner would sometimes take 30 minutes to come, so we’d suggest either drinking wine with dinner or brining a drink from the bar with you, which we ended up doing. We arrived at the hotel around 2:30, and were sent directly to lunch, which we thought was super nice since we were hungry off the plane and weren’t expecting anything before the 3pm check in time.|After dinner activities: after eating dinner, we mostly headed to the main bar right next to the restaurant. There was a DJ/band every night we were there, where many people including us would dance! This slowed down by 10pm or so. We are sports fans and every night we were there was either a college football or NFL playoff game. There are no tvs in the room, which we were definitely fine with, and only one (maybe 50 inch?) tv in the bar’s room. This wasn’t a big issue because we knew this going in, but it is different from other 5-star type resorts.|Room: We paid up for a bungalow with its own pool and partial ocean views, and even though we only went in a couple times, was definitely worth it considering how beautiful it was. We were told we were upgraded to a premium room for booking direct (Ginger Lilly), and although it wasn’t the best ocean view compared to others we saw, it was still breathtaking and in close proximity to the rest of the resort which we loved. We could easily return to our room from the beach in about 3 minutes.|Bottom line: my wife and I really enjoyed ourselves! If you want to get away for a few days to have a quiet, relaxing, and romantic trip with your partner, Cocobay is definitely...

*Immigration: everyone 18 and over must fill out their OWN form when arriving (do not listen to your airline, they are wrong). Some reviews are crazy (if a hotel not having bottled water would make you leave a bad review, then you have bigger issues when it comes to travel). Is this the best hotel ever? No. Is it the worst hotel ever? Far from it! We had a good time in paradise (reading some of these reviews, some people can be miserable anywhere). 4 out of 5 stars. Before you book: check what room you are going to get. It is a bit confusing. We did not realize we would be getting a room with neighbors (we thought all the rooms were standalone cabins, this is not the case). The following 8 rooms have neighbors (you can find this on the ‘resort map’, but it’s not mentioned on the ‘cottages’ page – or we totally missed it): R1/R2, N1/N2, F1/F2, & M1/M2. We had neighbors, didn’t want to ruin their time (or vice versa), politely asked the front desk if we would have neighbors the whole time, and no questions asked, they moved us (thank you, saved the trip!). Went from R1 to 5. Pros: location – no sea weed or choppy water here (we went to East side of the island and not the case over there), concierge scheduled a 1 on 1 meeting with us before arrival (never had that before!), I did not see a single mosquito (and they bite me all the time in Texas), in room plunge pool was awesome (we used it in the hot afternoons), beds and pillows were comfortable, multiple pools (the pool by the beach has a different panini sandwich each day), bar service near both pools (walk up to the bar or catch them when they come around), in room water bottles, and a large water machine with ice by reception (you walk that way every day), coffee shop was a really good addition (different snacks in there each day as well), we had no issues with the food or portions (reading the reviews looks like some were expecting ‘Applebee’s’ or something?), we never had the same food, and the night we got the steak it was too much to eat (we actually had x2 different people ask us after dinner while watching the live music if the steak was ‘OK’ because we did not finish it – never had that happen before, very impressed they came and asked!). The steak was very good, just too much to eat. Thank you for checking! Other stuff: couples massage was great, ‘Cruise and Chill’ boat trip via the hotel with Christian and Jess was awesome (get out on the water if you can – we had a BLAST), & we did book a whole island tour via ‘Viator’ – a great way to see the whole island if you want to get out and about. Lots of history and things to see. Cons: tree frogs (you will hear them sunset to sunrise – pack ear plugs if you are a light sleeper, ear plugs did the trick for me, my wife is a heavy sleeper and did not need them), room R1 (mentioned above) the bathroom was not great – the reason was because there was no ventilation in there – hot and sticky (room 5 you can open the doors to your patio and create a breeze, way better) - I don’t know why R1 was different, sand fly’s got my wife pretty good (didn’t bite me though – not sure), the public beach with direct access leaves a bit to be desired (we were asked about ‘renting a jet ski’ or ‘buying souvenirs’ the second we walked out there – good if you want a jet ski or souvenirs, but not so great if you want peace and quiet), and lastly, some of the staff (not the majority) seemed almost annoyed when you ask for something (example: a second cup of coffee) – we had that general reaction several times (kind of a bummer). All in all, we had a good time. If you are looking for the ‘4 Seasons’ you should probably go stay there. This is a low key, on island time pace/go with the flow type place. We did all-inclusive and it was totally worth it. I think the resort has the potential to be great, but for now we’ll just say it’s ‘good’. 4 out of 5. Thank you for a nice relaxing vacation in paradise. Shout out/thank you to: Ariell (Concierge), Sandy, Ashley, Derrick, Kharelle, Yocasta, Sabrina, Jahsiba,...

My husband and I just got back from the wonderful Cocobay Resort for our honeymoon. We spent 6 amazing days there and will definitely be back. We booked our reservation directly through the hotel so they provided a complimentary taxi from the airport to the hotel. Once we arrived at the hotel we were greeted by various staff members including the Resort Manager O’Neal. The staffers provided delicious rum punch (my go to drink for the rest of the trip) and a cold hand towel. On our first night of arrival the hotel signed us up for dinner at 6:30pm, during the rest of our stay we had to sign up for a dinner time (in 30 minute intervals) in the morning. There is a clipboard and sign up sheet at the front desk.

The room itself had a simple, yet beautiful rustic elegance. We booked the Deluxe Cottage with the pool. The BEST part of the room was the killer view! Although the cottage had a personal pool, we didn’t really use it. My husband jumped in twice, but the water was a bit too cold for me.

Regarding the food, the resort has one included restaurant and one restaurant (Sheer Rocks) that you can pay to dine there. At the restaurant included at the hotel, breakfast and lunch is buffet style. Sonia who managed the omelette station during breakfast and fish station during lunch was absolutely-phenomenal. Jermain one of the waiters was also really nice and made sure to always take care of us! The rest of the staff was also extremely nice. Dinner was restaurant style, appetizer, entree and dessert. If you booked through the hotel the entire menu was available without any additional charges. If you booked through a third party there was an appetizer and three entrees that cost extra, $15 and $30 respectively. The menu, not including the items at additional cost, changed every night. Overall we enjoyed the food. The one major negative for me was that the resort had about 4-5 cats that live on the premises. They are at the restaurant while everyone is eating. We did see a lot of guests petting and feeding the cats, so not everyone was bothered by it. Outside of the standard breakfast, lunch, and dinner, the resort also offered paninis and bar bites in the early morning and afternoon, respectively. The paninis were delicious and the bartenders that served them were very outgoing! I would also note that after 9:30/10pm if you got hungry there was nothing open for you to eat. This wasn’t a big deal for us, after a day in the sun we were exhausted and in bed by 9pm. The one night we did feel pretty hungry we just asked for a extra plate to go and the staff was able to accommodate.

While the hotel doesn’t have a gym, the resort offers a fitness class (cardio) and yoga class twice a week. My husband attended the fitness class, which he thought would be an easy and simple workout, but were pleasantly surprised with how rigorous it was.

The two pools of the resort were beautiful with great views. Given that it was January, the water was again a bit cold for my liking (even in 80 degree weather), but it definitely helped cool me down quickly. Unfortunately, the resort didn’t have a hot tub or heated pool, which really would have been great. The beach is a few steps from the resort. While the beach was beautiful the sand varied depending on the location. In certain areas it was very rocky (small shell parts), but then a few feet away the sand became much smoother. There’s another beach walking distance from the resort where the sand was much more consistent and smooth.

Two nights before our departure we went to the front desk to book our taxi to the airport. It was a $30 taxi ride since it was at 10:30am, but could be more depending on your departure time (I.e some companies may charge $45 for an early pick up like 4:30am).

Overall, we had an amazing honeymoon thanks to everyone at Cocobay and we will definitely be back to celebrate future...