If you haven’t entered any dates, the rate shown is provided directly by the hotel and represents the cheapest double room (including tax) available in the next 60 days.
Prices have been converted from the hotel’s local currency (USD1,760.00), via openexchangerates.org, using today’s exchange rate.
A short sail from Antigua, Jumby Bay Island is a private beachy playground that dreams are made of (especially if your reveries consist of starfish on the sand, watching baby turtles hatch and sitting in a verandah with palm fronds swaying in every direction). It’s minutes by boat to Antigua, but we’d wager you won’t want to be away for long. The high-end haven is part of the Oetker Collection, which likes to describe its portfolio as ‘masterpiece hotels’. They’re not wrong – Dr Oetker has moved on from baking powder to master fine white sands instead.
Double rooms from £1789.88 ($2,235), including tax at 27 per cent. Please note the hotel charges an additional government tax of $5.00 per person per night on check-out.
More details
Rates at Jumby Bay Island are usually all-inclusive (this covers all meals including afternoon tea, soft drinks, beers and wines by the glass, some watersports and twice-weekly snorkel trips). A 10-night minimum stay applies for festive-season bookings.
Also
All of the restaurants at the resort are accessible for guests with mobility issues and there are some rooms and suites that have been adapted.
Hotel closed
The hotel shutters up for six weeks of the year, usually from late August until early October.
At the hotel
Free WiFi throughout, bicycles to borrow (plus golf buggies in villas and private residences), two beaches, gym and fitness classes, three tennis courts. In rooms: beach bags, adaptor plugs to borrow, tea- and coffee-making kit, smart TV, sound-system, and Maison Caulières bath products.
Our favourite rooms
There are rooms, suites and residences of varying sizes across the island, so the main question is: how big is your entourage? If you’re planning on sticking around (it’s hard not to), book one of the palatial, privately owned houses and stretch out in style. It’s also advisable to select a suite that’s just steps from the sand, as several are. Some have egg-shaped bath tubs outside for alfresco ablutions.
Poolside
As well as the entire shoreline of a private island, you’ll be able to cool off in three pools, one at the Veranda, another (unsurprisingly) at the Pool Grille and a third by the sand.
Spa
The Jumby Bay Spa is a haven within a haven, doling out Tata Harper treatments to anyone somehow managing to resist the spaced-out sensations that set in the moment you step off the boat from Antigua. Furthering relaxation along even more is an open-air lounge for post-massage snoozes and a plunge pool.
Packing tips
The hotel’s official guidance is that guests can, if they wish, arrive with nothing but their swimsuits, such is the nature of the schedule here on Jumby Bay Island. You might want something smarter for the evenings, though. And there are also frequent all-white nights at the Veranda by the beach, so perhaps pack something casual and pure-looking for those.
Also
If holidays aren’t all about being idle for you, there’s a tennis clinic once a week, a schedule of classes (including Pilates and sound therapy) and personal trainers on hand with whistles.
Pet‐friendly
Dogs and cats can come along, if they weigh less than 20lbs. If you’re staying in one of the villas or privately owned homes, you’ll need the owner’s approval first. Pets must be kept on a leash and are not allowed in communal areas. See more pet-friendly hotels in Antigua & Barbuda.
Children
All ages are welcome and little Smiths will love this holiday playground as much as the grown-ups. The kids’ club is free for (potty-trained) children aged between three and 12. Under-threes must be accompanied by a babysitter (from US$25 an hour).
Sustainability efforts
The bath products in the rooms are in refillable glass bottles instead of disposable plastic, solar energy is used and water is recycled. The island has its own conservation project, helping endangered hawksbill turtles to thrive.
Book one of the private-dining rooms in the Estate House (choose from a blush pink, navy or deep-red backdrop). Or sit out on verandah enjoying the greenery (and the breeze).
Dress Code
The Estate House is the most formal (Mr Smiths should wear a collared shirt, long trousers and closed shoes). During the day, it’s swimwear with cover-ups for Mrs Smith and polo- or T-shirts and shorts for Mr Smith.
Hotel restaurant
There are three, all of which guests can enjoy on an all-inclusive basis: the breezy, beach-side Veranda, the Pool Grille and the Estate House. The Veranda is a holiday hub with rum punch, sea views and good times on tap. The Pool Grille options mostly during the day for post-swim sustenance (in the form of fish tacos) and cooling cocktails, but it hosts a themed night in celebration of all things Caribbean once a week too. For fine-dining, the Estate House has all the Dover sole you’re looking for. There are also special dining experiences available on the beach, at the island’s farm and beneath the Estate House’s tamarind tree.
Hotel bar
Cocktails, fine wines and Tattinger champagne flow freely under the all-inclusive umbrella. Drinks are dispensed all over the island, including at the Estate House’s 1830 Bar, at the breezy Jumby Bay Bar (the resort’s social centre) and at the Pool Grille Bar.
Last orders
The Estate House serves dinner (closed Wednesdays and Thursdays, depending on occupancy) from 6.30pm to 9.30pm. The Pool Grille opens from 10am to 5pm. Breakfast at the Veranda is 7am to 10.30am; lunch is 12.30pm to 4pm; and dinner is 6.30pm to 9.30pm.
Room service
Food can be delivered to your dwelling, but there’s a delivery charge on top of the all-inclusive package.
Jumby Bay Island is just off the coast of Antigua, on its own petite private landmass.
Planes
It’s a swift onwards journey from the airport in Antigua to Jumby Bay Island – journey time to the dock is five minutes, then the ferry across takes seven minutes.
Automobiles
You won’t be able to bring your wheels onto the island, but there’s a free car park over in Antigua.
Other
The island can only be reached by boat – the hotel has its own dock close to Antigua’s airport.
Worth getting out of bed for
As is to be expected in such a perfect confection of a sun, sand and sea setting, watersports are high on the Jumby Bay Island agenda. Included in your stay will be rum tastings and Caribbean-cooking demonstrations, snorkelling, boat trips around the island, watersports such as hobie-cat hire and wakeboarding, and rounds of tennis on the three courts. Children can pretend to be pirates at the creative kids’ club, and guests of any age will enjoy being a part of the turtle programme between June and November, when the turtle team patrols the beach every night from sunset to sun up in search of signs of reptilian activity (nest-building, egg-laying) and will come to fetch guests so they can join in. The 300-acre island has two beaches.
Local restaurants
Most guests tend to stay put on this private-island playground, but if you do fancy chartering a boat and sailing over to the mainland (in the Caribbean sense), restaurants to try include Cecilia’s High Point Café, where the name can be taken literally; Le Bistro, proudly serving Antigua’s finest French food since 1996; and Casa Roots for yet more breezy beachfront dining. Francophile flavours can also be located at Catherine’s Café, which helpfully has day-beds set up on the sand for after-lunch siestas.
Every hotel featured is visited personally by members of our team, given the Smith seal of approval, and then anonymously reviewed. As soon as our reviewers have returned from this resort hotel in the Caribbean and unpacked their snorkels and sunglasses, a full account of their beach break will be with you. In the meantime, to whet your wanderlust, here's a quick peek inside Jumby Bay Island in Antigua…
The turtles here at Jumby Bay Island just off Antigua may not be mutant (nor teenage, nor ninja), but they sure are glad to be residents of this private patch of paradise in the Caribbean. Guests can sign up to the hawksbill-helping programme: you can designate the latest time that staff are allowed to come and fetch you should there be some hatching activity down on the beach during the night. Needless to say, we advise permitting wee-hours wake-up calls.
It’s all-inclusive in the best possible way (that is, you’re given a rum punch on arrival and it keeps flowing throughout your stay). In addition to turtles, other wildlife wonders you can expect to encounter include starfish along the shore. The 300-acre island has an open-air yoga deck with palm fronds stepping in as fans, a herb farm with ducks, chicken and sheep, a pond and more free-roaming sheep. This Caribbean haven is not just for Christmas – but count yourself lucky if you can get a booking during the festive season. Cowabunga!
