This post is long overdue. In fact, we celebrated our four-year wedding anniversary this past December and went to Sandals Grande Antigua for our honeymoon back in January of 2018. With COVID always lingering, it seems like we’ll never get to travel again. We had planned on a short anniversary trip to New Orleans after Christmas, but Omicron messed that up; recapping this honeymoon trip is a nice reminder of “the good ‘ol days.”

This post is not sponsored nor did I receive anything in exchange for my opinions.

When trying to decide where to go for our honeymoon, we knew we wanted tropical and all-inclusive and chose beautiful Antigua! If you’ve ever planned a wedding you know how stressful that can be, so I knew I wanted to go to an all-inclusive where the only decision we’d have to make was which restaurant to go to each night. Sandals has resorts in Jamaica, the Bahamas, Saint Lucia, Grenada, Barbados, Antigua, and a brand new resort in Curaçao. They advertise the Antigua resort as “the world’s most romantic resort,” so that seemed like the perfect option for a honeymoon!

John made all the reservations, but I think we had a standard room. The above pic was the view from our room. It was perfect to wake up, open the curtains, and see this view every morning.

Above is the walkway to our section of rooms. To the left were some tennis courts, the spa, and a workout room. It was always nice and quiet through here! Below, you can see one of the many cats at the resort. I loved how angry this guy looked! There are so many cats wandering around — one day when we had our patio door open, a cat just casually strolled in!

The landscaping and flowers at the resort were gorgeous. If you go to a Sandals resort, you should definitely take some time to stroll around the many paths.

The above photo is the largest section of resort rooms and is built in a similar style to a hotel. We stayed in a smaller section of rooms to the left which I actually preferred (this section felt too close, populated, and resort-y for me). The main check-in area and several restaurants and bars were also to the left.

Eating is one of my favorite things to do, so it was always fun to pick out where we’d have dinner. Each morning, a newsletter would arrive at our room with the restaurants that were available that day, any themed meals or specials that were taking place, and activities throughout the day. We’re major introverts, but we did end up joining in some games and competitions.

But back to the food 🙂 It looks like the restaurants have changed a bit since we visited, but according to their website, there are eleven restaurants and seven bars. In addition to those, they also have special food carts that sometimes pop up — during one of our pool days they had a hot dog cart with six different gourmet hot dogs (this food was also included, yay!). Another day was dedicated to the history and culture of Antigua and Barbuda where they played special calypso and soca music and treated us to Antiguan cuisine! And one night they had a chocolate buffet!

Since we were on our honeymoon, they had rose petals on the bed when we arrived, and we were treated to breakfast “in bed” one morning (which I think is usually an upcharge?).

There’s so much going on at the resort that you couldn’t possibly get bored, but there are also excursions you can pay for. We only did one that took us on a boat ride around the island, to Hell’s Gate Island, Bird Island, and then snorkeling. It was a fabulous day and a great way to see parts of the island beyond the resort.

Our boat stopped a ways out from Hell’s Gate, and those of us who were feeling adventurous swam/walked to the island. There are some caves to explore once you’re there!

On our way to Bird Island we ate some lunch and our guides gave us a lot of wonderful ecological and historical information.

The only negative about the resort is that you could see a lot of cruise ships docking in the distance, and many of those people would end up at the beach at our resort. This resort was adults-only, but kids from the cruise ships were frequently on the beach because of the cruise ship excursions. Non-resort guests aren’t allowed beyond the gate separating the beach from the resort, but it’s still kind of a bummer to have to battle cruise ship people for a spot on the beach.

Overall, we had a really lovely honeymoon and keep talking about when we’re going to head back to a Sandals resort. I’d really love to visit the new Curaçao resort, and Barbados and Saint Lucia are also resorts we’d love to see one day!

Have you been to a Sandals resort? If so, let me know which one in the comments!