9 nights in heaven!
May 13, 2022 Matthew M London, United Kingdom
We visited Hammock Cove for 9 nights as part of our honeymoon. It was everything we had hoped for and more - a true 5 star resort and the best all inclusive we have ever visited (and we've visited a lot!).
The villas are lovely. We had a 'Waterview' room (as opposed to 'Waterfront') and it was gorgeous. The room itself was well appointed, the…
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We visited Hammock Cove for 9 nights as part of our honeymoon. It was everything we had hoped for and more - a true 5 star resort and the best all inclusive we have ever visited (and we've visited a lot!).
The villas are lovely. We had a 'Waterview' room (as opposed to 'Waterfront') and it was gorgeous. The room itself was well appointed, the bathroom was humungous (with the biggest double shower we've ever seen) and the outdoor area with private plunge pool was the icing on the cake. Every villa has its own bar area pre-stocked with spirits, wine and mixers which get replenished each day. We stayed in villa 34 which was completely private and had a gorgeous view of the ocean and Devil's Bridge, but we did notice that some of the 'Waterfront' villas closer to the beach lacked privacy - probably not a huge issue if you spend most of your time at the beach like we did, but one to flag. Each villa is given an old-school mobile phone to contact your dedicated 'villa host' whenever you need to - this was a nice touch but we didn't use it as much as we thought we might do.
The rest of the resort is quite small but incredibly well thought out. Most of our days were spent at the beach and we received exceptional service there. There are always staff members on hand to set up your towels, move your umbrella and bring you drinks (they even bring your drinks out into the sea!) and they struck the perfect balance between being attentive but not annoying. We always managed to bag sunbeds despite not being early risers. There is a variety of water sports available at the beach for whenever you fancy them - we particularly enjoyed paddle boarding and kayaking but sailing was also available. Particular shout out to Antonio at the beach for being downright amazing (but they were all great).
Food-wise, we can be quite snobby with food but this is easily the best food we have ever eaten at an all inclusive. You can have breakfast either in your villa or at Irena's restaurant, and we enjoyed breakfast such as steak and eggs, eggs benedict, omelettes, salmon and French toast, always served alongside a bloody Mary! The staff were very friendly and attentive (Tasschia in particular was a delight), always topping up water and replacing drinks. Lunch is also served at Irena's but you can also eat lunch on your sunbed on the beach. We found that the wait time for lunch to be delivered to the beach was quite long (often around 45 minutes from ordering) whereas service was much quicker at Irena's, but the food was good quality. There was also a daily beach special - oysters one day, a seafood BBQ the next - which added to the variety. Our only comment would be that the lunch menu is quite limited and remains largely the same each day. Dinner was at the Lighthouse restaurant and was excellent. Every Wednesday there is a six-course tasting menu (it is actually five dishes plus petit fours) which is a nice touch. Our only comment here would be to switch up the dishes on the tasting menu each week - we were lucky enough to be at Hammock Cove on two Wednesdays, but ended up having exactly the same tasting menu twice. Particular shout out to Desa for her lovely smile and brilliant service.
The drinks were just as good as the food. The cocktails down at the beach were delicious - the pina coladas in particular were great. Erick at Irena's makes a great bloody Mary and is a smiley presence throughout the day. Joel and Andre at the Lighthouse bar were the highlight of our entire trip - they remembered our drinks order after one day, made the best margheritas we have ever tasted, were great fun to be around and also introduced us to some new exciting cocktails to suit our preferences. We tended to stick to cocktails or red wine at dinner because we weren't huge fans of the rose and white wine options on the all inclusive menu, but the rose sparkling was nice (and included in the all inclusive package) and there were options to upgrade the wine for an additional cost. The bars closed quite early (around 10.30pm) but the 'Chairman's lounge' was open for drinks afterwards - this had spirits and mixers so you could self-serve, but on one night when we stayed in there till about 1.30am, the lovely staff member on the night shift brought us up beers, popcorn and fries to keep us going - he was amazing!
On trips, we did the Calypso Cat boat trip which is a 4-hour trip to Bird Island. It goes every Tuesday and Friday and we would highly recommend it to anyone visiting Hammock Cove. We travelled to several beautiful spots, drank lots of rum punch, danced to some great music and even got to snorkel with turtles! We didn't do the Pink Panther island tour but we heard great things from other guests.
In summary, don't hesitate to visit Hammock Cove if you're in Antigua! It is a beautiful resort with incredible employees and exceptional food and drink and we would come back in a heartbeat!
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