Starfish Jolly Beach Resort & Spa - All Inclusive

Customer Ratings & Reviews

• 

  Best before date expired

  This place best before date expired a while ago. From the moment of arrival absolutly nothing welcomming about it. The room was clean and all amenities worked. No furntiture. All concrete. The staff was genersly friendly but lacked any enthusiasm. No staff actively cleaning the place. Staff always act like its a chore to serve you. They have no idea how to provide service and generate tips. The outdoor furniture is old grungy and dirty. Hard to find clean beach lounges. No bottled water provided Room service is an extra expense. Food was okay but due to lack of staff enthusiasm food bins were generally left empty long before being refilled. Beach was nice but again no maintenance. Water was magnificent and calm. Great for swimming. One week was almost to long of a stay here.

  Jan 26, 2026
• 

  Fabulous piece of paradise, great room, great food, great experience!

  We came after spending 3 days in cold snowy New York, from London, to relax in the sun…and that’s exactly what we got! The room was great lovely big comfortable bed and view of the gardens. Loved that you had so much space to walk and sit and even though the hotel was at full capacity we never struggled for a seat when dining or in the pool or beach areas. Clean and bright decor and plenty of food choices at meal time. The grill in daytime was great, lovely cooked chicken and quick bites. Staff lovely and friendly and always smiling with us. Great new years eve patty with fireworks & fizz on the beach!

  Jan 25, 2026
• 

  We loved our visit

  Just home after lovely week. Our views: Location: great beach, good base to visit sights, minutes from small harbour. Lots of renovation taking place in area. No noise. Room: bkd superior room. Big, had all things ie kettle/fridge. Shower old but powerful. Bed comfy. Aircon great. Bkd 2 cleans $10 @ at checkin- no issues. Took broom as per advice. No need for extension lead. Needed adapters. Could see the beach from room. Restaurants: Buffet ‘ok’. Very variable in options & often slow to refill. Breakfast best, lunch not great, dinner ‘ok’. All self service incl drinks (unbranded). Coconut grill in daytime small menu inc burgers/hot dogs, chips. Be prepared to queue. Pizza factory they queue from 6am to book for that night (starts bkg 7:30am)- we didn’t. Mangroves along beach reasonable price (US14 chicken Cesar salad). Sea dream by harbour - food/cocktails lovely but london prices. Island tour great. Bkd with Blacki Warner. Did tourist bits but also off track stuff to see real life. Brilliant time! (Bkd b4 we travelled) Jetski guys on beach (flag) great. Around US$70 -30 mins. Staff- mostly ok but spoke abt rudeness they get & mostly from English people! One older lady who does early morning restaurant bkgs was really upset. So wobble yr head if think that behaviour is ok! They respond to how u are. US dollars or card/apple pay everywhere. Overall we have had a totally fab week. Comfortable, chilled, great experience for MUCH less then other resorts. Come with realistic expectations & the want to just chill & enjoy. Find humor in the quirky parts of hotel & random rain fall 🤭 Try not to over plan before you travel- everything is there. Enjoy 🌟

  Jan 25, 2026
• 

  Paradise island

  This poor beautiful large resort should really be fixed up for its loyal long time returing customer. I wish people would just appreciate that we keep coming back hoping for a little better room or service than the last time we came to visit beautiful Antigua. The beach is the most beautiful beach large gorgeous plenty.of room to play The location is very great easy to get around the town from here. Im a little disappointed in the taxi stand in jolly beach you would think they would try to give you deals nope not a chance. The service at the resort immediately gets great when you have a American dollar. Which i think is quite sad. The food this trip was really good thank you for that. Drinks were good people on the beach super friendly not too much harassment for going on tours. The pizza factory was good too its a fine dining free with resort you just have to line up 7 am to reserve your seat for that evening. We also tried the mangrove restaurant on the resort but u have to pay in American $to eat there the food wasn't really anything special. We really love this resort been coming here since it was the starfish resort those I feel were better days for this resort.

  Jan 25, 2026
• 

  Good budget friendly resort, but..

  Ok I don't generally leave reviews for holiday resorts but felt the need to give travellers the heads up on this one. This is the second year we have stayed at Jolly Beach Resort, Antigua. The resort was built in 1979 and not really had any major update over the years, the room are dated with various loose fittings, dripping air con. Generally very tired. The beds are comfortable with very thick pillows and no option to replace with thinner ones, if that's what you are used to. Having said that the rooms are adequate for the purpose as you won't be spending your holiday in the room. The all inclusive restaurant is ok, not restaurant quality but not bad. On the whole we found the food good. Some of the staff are not so good with many hot trays of food running out and not replenished while diners wait patiently (some not!). When asked the huff, puff with eyes rolling follows, very frosty attitude here. Almost like diners are an inconvenience! This is not all staff just a few that seem "off". The reason we/others want everything immediately may be because island life runs at a slower pace so when we get away from our usual rat race we're not quite relaxed enough to except the slower pace! Tables are left after being use and not cleared away very quickly, so when we clear our own table, seeking out knives & forks etc, we get reprimanded by staff if we get caught. We found generally the lower the staff were down the food chain, the nicer they were. Diners are also 'supposed' to queue at the restaurant entrance where they take your room number, it's a mystery why they do this as all guests have a wrist band. If you walk around the pool side you can enter the food area and choose a table without issue. Tip: If you like english tea, take your own as the tea bags constantly run out. Note: there are 2 marquee type cover at the side with dining under. These have damaged top edges with many cable ties etc in an attempt to keep the roof cover on. There are saggy areas which fill with water after rain, sit under these at your peril as with a gust of wind the water is dumped down the back of your shirt! The beach is breathtaking and one of the best (if not the best) in Antigua. Usually plenty of sun beds with large solid built sun shades which are nicely spaced apart. The beach bar serves all the drinks you'll ever want with a BBQ snack bar serving burger, chicken, salad and fries from lunch time all afternoon. Long queues here if the resorts is busy but only a short walk to the main restaurant which is a lot quieter at this time of day.  There is a À la carte restaurant called the pizza factory which has table service, a reasonable menu and better quality food, (still all inclusive) when we were there is was pizza only on Thursday and Monday but may change. With a full menu other days. The staff here are very nice, quick and friendly. Unfortunately you need to book to get in (same day booking only), which involves getting in the 'booking queue' around 7am if you want and earlier time slot. Leave it until later and you may get a 9pm table slot. Next to the pizza factory is a 24hour coffee station (un-manned) which is usually surround by dirty cups and the milk is nearly always empty. 2 swimming pools are good, larger with loud bar music and a smaller quieter one on the restaurant side. Both clean and no noticeable chemical small, very nice pools. Advertised as "high speed" wifi... nope! Intermittent at best.  This is  a 'good' budget resort in Antigua which, when using a few tricks, can be a very enjoyable place to stay. We paid £3200 (for 2 of us from Heathrow) in mid January 2026 but could have been double that on earlier dates through Virgin. It's all about the flights, keep moving dates and big savings can be made. FYI the resort at the end of the same beach starts around £1000 per night ex flights so Jolly Beach Resort is a cheap deal. Would we go again? Yes probably if we wanted cheap winter sun. But other places and countries beckon next year.

  Jan 24, 2026