The Catamaran Hotel — Hotel in Antigua

I stayed here for 3 nights during my trip to Antigua in November 2023 (as my first time visiting the Caribbean!). We chose the Captain’s Cabin, which I would highly recommend! Taxes and fees included, our rate was about CA$300 per night, which sounds high in absolute terms for a mid-range, 3-star hotel, but relative to the price of other hotels in Antigua after adding taxes and fees (hint: not cheap at all!)I think the Catamaran Hotel delivered great value.

First, the hotel’s location is perfect for a relaxing getaway. It is tucked in a quiet corner near English Harbour, with an amazing small beach right in front of it. It’s not a private beach due to national laws, but because of its location it is pretty much used exclusively by hotel guests, and as the hotel is quite small, it is never crowded. It gives you a sense of intimacy and down-to-earth feeling that larger resorts (or high-end boutique resorts) simply do not have. The hotel has easy, free parking for those with car rentals. There are a few restaurants beside the hotel – I would recommend Sweet-Ts, a few minutes walk from the hotel, for an authentic and reasonably priced island experience (whereas the separately-run Captain's Quarter restaurant that is right beside the hotel is overpriced according to our neighbours, who ate there on their first night). The hotel is also a short drive away from the attractions and restaurants of English Harbour, or you could take a free boat ride across the harbour or simply walk there. The location makes it a great base for exploring the island’s attractions for those with a car.

We booked the Captain’s Quarter for its characteristic wood panelling and extra space (the standard rooms seem quite bare, small and outdated from the pictures) and I’m so glad we did! Our Captain’s Quarter cottage is set in a separate, colourful building in front of the hotel’s pool (which is really small, but not a problem at all as the ocean is literally steps away). It is not exactly a modern room (some might feel outdated), and not luxurious, but clean and well maintained with a nice vibe compared with a cookie cutter hotel room. I really liked the wood panellings and the triangular ceiling. The kitchen and bathroom are well equipped. There is a small table in the kitchen where you could work, although you would need to move the table to be closer to the plug. The AC worked very well, if not being too cold at times. The room has lots of windows allowing in plenty of natural light; however, the shades do not block the light very well and it gets bright quite early, so if that affects you, be sure to go to bed earlier at night or bring eye masks.

The Captain’s Quarter has two beds, one queen bed and one much smaller (single sized) daybed, which my friend and I actually used as a “night bed” as we took turns sleeping on the two beds. However, it turned out that the daybed doesn’t have full bedding. It only comes with a thin sheet and I woke up feeling cold in the early mornings. I should have asked for another set of bedding but I kept forgetting until it was too late and the office had closed for the evening, so I don’t blame the hotel for that.

The room rate comes with complimentary breakfast, which really adds to its value. Each morning, we had a plate (for each person) delivered to the porch outside the room, consisting of some pastries, bread, ham, cheese, yoghurt, fruit, and juice. It’s a good portion and it’s so nice to have breakfast outside on the porch, surrounded by serene tropical scenery and saying hi to your neighbours and the occasional gecko. The specific breakfast items also differed from day to day, which was very thoughtful of the hotel. You don’t see the hotel staff very often but when you do encounter them or ask them about something, they are very warm and friendly. Check-in and check-out were such a breeze! I’d also like to give a shoutout to Colin for being super friendly and helpful, especially in terms of looking into day tour options in Barbuda for me at the...

The hotel location is perfect for staying at Falmouth Harbour whilst being far enough out of town to avoid the nightly hustle and bustle in the centre. The rooms are reasonable size with decent, solid furniture. We had two family rooms, which contained two double beds, showers, kitchen facilities and large fridge/freeze units. Aircon worked fine, and there were ceiling fans too. ||Hotel facilities included kayaks and little sailing boats, which you could just take out whenever you fancied - there was no extra charge for this and in the time that we were there you could always get hold of them. About 750m away across the harbour you could go to Pigeon Point Beach, or there were other more secluded beaches towards the West... or you could paddle around the superyachts (there were a lot in mid January!) ||We were there to welcome back a cross-Atlantic rowing team, coming in to the Yacht Club - sadly they returned at night so we couldn't greet them by kayak. The rowing boats coming in for the Worlds Toughest Race (cross-Atlantic) alight at English Harbour, which is the next bay along, but it would not be safe to get round there in the small kayaks. It's great fun watching them come in, holding flares aloft while lots of the yachts and superyachts are blowing their horns and the support boats are racing round them, doing "doughnuts".||We hired a car from a local company, and there was always plenty of parking space at the rear of the hotel.||The staff were very friendly and helpful all the time. They gave good advice on local places to visit, eating locations, supermarkets and so on. There were a couple of eating places very close (Cloggys and Sweet Ts). Other guests used the local buses to get into town (only a mile or so away, but few people seemed to walk that far).||Our rooms faced onto a private(?) beach, and in the week that we stayed there we only saw other hotel guests and staff, with no pedlars hassling you to buy souvenirs.||Breakfasts were served each morning on the verandas in front of the rooms at 8:15am, give or take a 1/4 hour. This gave ample opportunity to chat with the neighbours, or studiously look the other way if you didn't like the look of them! We made some great new friends by chatting with other guests while waiting for breakfasts.||The island isn't particularly bad for mosquitos, and there were mesh screens on all doors anyway.||For things to do nearby, the music and food at Shirley Heights on a Thursday or Sunday is great and good value for money, and no trip to Antigua is complete without a visit to Stingray City. There are lots of restaurants in the area, and we never found a bad one.||Our favourite supermarket nearby was "Crab Hole Liquors" (not least because the name sounds like a pun). The Covent Garden supermarket in Falmouth Harbour may be the largest supermarket nearby but the range wasn't actually all that good and it seemed very expensive - clearly aiming at the superyacht crowd who didn't care what they...

A beautiful location at a great price. The owner, her family and all the staff are wonderful! They all work hard to keep the grounds pristine.

My son very much enjoyed the small pool, our room was right next to it so we could sit on the patio and watch him play when we didn’t join him.

The beach is very nice with beautiful white sand, unfortunately once you get out 10ft or so it’s a very muddy bottom. But there are so many great beaches nearby we only ended up in the ocean at the hotel twice.

There are some sailing dinghies and kayaks that the hotel provides and early in the day the water out front is like glass. We took the kayaks around the bay. If you do definitely head for Blake island. It seems like it was one of the oldest forts on the island and some of the foundation remains as well as a cannon on the beach rusting away.

We also enjoyed watching the sailboats and massive motor yachts cycle through the bay.

The included breakfast was always delicious!

There’s lots of food options nearby and the owner gave us a rundown of all the options as well as best prices when we checked in. Sweet T’s is a very short walk up the road and was a big hit they often have events in the evening that can bring in a lot of people, so we tended to eat early if we went there. We also stopped in almost daily for ice cream.

Whiskey (the adorable 3 legged cat) Likely needed a break from the love my son forced on him anytime we were at the hotel.

I’m sure we...