Honest review- Tim055 in West Sussex seems to have stayed in a different hotel to the one we have just returned from we stayed at the same time 2 to 25 April (extended due to the volcanic ash). Our room was excellent rustic as advertised with seaview too plenty of room for two. I agree there is no room for a 17 year old and two adults in a room maybe a separate room for the son should have been considered You get what you pay for). The hotel's website and I quote here says"We welcome you to one of the most romantic Antigua hotels you will ever discover" it does not mention families anywhere except to say that children under 12 will not be allowed except at Christmas. Indeed there are no facilities for children, a little basic research would show that mainly honeymoon couples stay there.
Yes water did splash into the rest of the bathroom but was by no means a flood. Yes you could hear crickets at night but it is the tropics and one would expect to stay in a saeled roomif you don't want the cricket noise. As for noise from the road about 750 metres away it was by no means continuous and I would say what with all the potholes in the road impossible for a car to generate enough speed to make a lot of noise.
The food was varied every day at dinner with 4 different choices for mains and about 3 for desert we were there for 3 weeks and only had the menu repeat twice! It was not necessary to pay the supplement unless you especially wanted lobster, prawns or steak.The wine was acceptable,if you didn't like the wine other drinks were available and we did not speak to one of other guest who had a complaint about the food.The breakfast selection was good with an egg chef available to prepare eggs anyway you wanted, sometimes we had to request that some things were restocked this was done quickly.The music was not usually played at mealtimes especially on Thursday, Saturday and Sunday when various low key local entertainment was playing. We didn't hear any Madonna music.We found all of the waiting staff were pleasant some slower than others in the usual Caribbean way. The whole staff were fantastic and helpful during our enforced 8 extra nights.
As with all beaches in Antigua it is a public beach and why would one choose to look at a swamp when The Caribbean was available? The pool area was good but could have included a few more umbrellas but why stay by the pool when there is The Caribbean and there were also sunbeds available on the grass by a small private beach which was lovely no rubbish etc.We have also stayed at other places on Antigua ie CoCos and Hermitage Bay and would say that Coo Bay was about the same as CoCos but not as good as Hermitage Bay but that was about twice the price.During our stay we got to know a lot of other people Americans,English, German and Italians and not one of them complained to us about anything. We would stay there again without hesitation. Trust the positive reviews on Trip Adviser after all the hotel has achieved 4 out 5 circle status pretty good I would say. By the way would recommend the Creole Lobster Lunch tour laid back with only 14 people on board and good snorkelling and lobster BBQ too.

Let me first say that this was a honeymoon trip and both my Wife and I's first resort vacation, so we have nothing to compare it to. We went for a week in August which is their off season and we loved it. If you want to relax on the beach or by a pool and spend some quality time with your loved one then this is the place for you.

There were 2 beaches. One was a public beach and we only went here once. It was windy and a bit crowded for our taste. There were chairs available and plenty of locals had plenty of adventures to offer. The second beach was a private beach that was always empty during our trip. They had about 6 chairs and the beach was about 200 ft long and about 10-15 ft of sand from grass to water (depending on tide). This was right outside our room and this is where we spent most of our time. Ugh I wish I was there now!
The room was basic, but you don't spend much time there. You had a bed with mosquito net, dresser, closet, safe, bathroom with an open shower. We then had a covered porch with 2 chairs and a hammock. Then there was the infinity plunge pool. Wow, this was amazing and not that much more expensive. We then had a rather large uncovered deck for catching some rays. This had 2 lay down type tanning chairs.

The food was great. Breakfast and Lunch was buffet style and similar day to day. Breakfast had eggs, bacon, bagels, toast and juice. They would also have different things day to day such as omelets or pancakes. Lunch always had some sort of fish and then plenty of side dishes. Dinner was amazing every night! I'm a tall athletic guy and I eat a lot and dinner filled me up without a problem. You'd pick an appetizer, soup or salad, entree and desert. They also offered there house wines (which were very good) at lunch and dinner. The only thing my wife complained of was lack of red meat. I love fish and that is what they mainly offered (Wahoo, Mahi Mahi, tuna etc...). Yes, it would have been nice to have some burgers for lunch or a steak here and there for diner, but I didn't miss them. She did not even notice the lack of red meat until our last few days. Oh, and they just happened to have burgers for lunch on our last day right before our flight;.

The bar was awesome! The staff was fun to talk to an it was never crowded for us. They had all kind of tropical drink options and their local beer was pretty damn good. My only complaint is that they did not serve you drinks to your room or to the beach (although I never asked). You would have to walk to the bar then walk them to your destination. This would be a small thing they could change that would make a huge difference.

There is nothing to do for night life, which was good for us. Every week they have one night with a local band (that was awesome!) and a party type event which was neat. We were here for a honeymoon and had no desire to be with anyone other than each other. The only time we had to be around others was for meals and the bar. Other than that it was just us which was amazing!!!

We only left the resort one day to hit the turisty type shops at St Johns. I wish we had done one of the adventures they offered (rain forest walk, boat trip, etc...), but I was being stingy.

I read some reviews about the staff being unfriendly, but I never noticed this. Some were a bit slow, but this was never an issue. The drinks were always full and the food was always on time. I had no issue...

Overall, this vacation was perfect for a romantic getaway! Our daily routine was as follows: Wake up, eat breakfast, hang at the beach, get some drinks, hang by the plunge pool, lunch with wine, drink some at the bar, hit the beach, get some drinks, hit the plunge pool, hit the bar for tea time (snacks and cookies), take some drinks back to the plunge pool, drinks at the bar, dinner with wine, take some drinks back to the plunge pool, sleep, repeat. The whole trip including airfare was about $2400. Wow! We plan on going back as soon as possible and cannot wait.

HONEST Review - Having read a number of previous Reviews this Hotel seemed a good option, and so we decided to book this for our 25th Wedding Anniversary - our 17 yr old son came with us on the "all-inclusive" holiday. We were due to stay at Cocobay for the last 5 nights (12/4/10 - 16/4/10) of our 14 day stay in Antigua, having previously spent 9 nights at another hotel on the island that we had enjoyed tremendously, totally relaxing with fantastic rooms/food etc... We'd paid extra for a room upgrade at Cocobay (i.e. described as a seafront cottage with an uninterrupted view of the bay) and so were looking forward to the experience.

The "seafront cottage" we were allocated to unfortunately did NOT have an uninterrupted view of the bay. We could just see the bay, but only by looking over the roofs of the cottages located directly in front of us - upon querying this with the hotel desk clerk we were informed that our room was indeed a "seafront cottage" but that it was pot luck as to whether you actually got one of the rooms that directly overlooked the bay? The rooms were VERY small, with a double bed and a single bed almost touching each other - although the hotel is described as a family hotel it most certainly is NOT as no family could surely feel comfortable is such a confined room space? The shower area was very basic and had no screen/cover at all, thus water flooded the bathroom whenever you took a shower!! You could hear traffic noise from a nearby road, and at night-time the crickets/wildlife etc.. were very loud, and with only wooden shutters/slats and netting to keep out any noise factor there is literally no chance at all of a peaceful nights sleep here!!

The food at Cocobay was to say the least extremely disappointing with very little choice - in fact, the evening meal was so poor that I actually ended up paying an extra US$22 for one of the choices on the additional menu! The house wine was also terrible, best described as vinegar! There was no atmosphere at all in the dining areas, and the music played through the sound system was bizarre (i.e. why play Madonna tracks when surely some caribbean music would have been better/more relaxing)??The breakfast option was also very poor, again with very little choice. Having stayed at other all inclusive resorts on the island, we were really disappointed with the distinct lack of choice and presentation of food offered here. With the exception of Jermaine (food waiter) all other staff seemed very aloof and quite miserable!

The beach was very nice if you looked out to sea, but on the adjoining land was a swamp area that contained 2 extremely large blue metal freight containers (these being located directly behind the beach), together with a large amount of rubbish/paper etc.. strewn all around the area - certainly not the picturesque resort that was thus described in the brochure! The view from the infinity pool (which overlooked the bay) was however amazing, but this single positive did not in any circumstances outweigh the negatives of this resport!

After staying here for 2 nights that was more than enough and we asked to be immediately transferred to another hotel - we were more than happy to pay the additional charge for this privilege but can honestly say that we enjoyed the remaining 3 nights of our stay and were so glad to be away from this terrible hotel.

I simply can't understand why this resort seems to get the positive feedback it does - I can only assume that visitors here have not stayed at other resorts on the island and therefore can't compare accordingly, as if this were the case Cocobay would come a poor second (or third) to the vast majority of other hotels on the island that are by far superior in every way to this hotel.

I strongly recommend you give this report a wide berth, as you WILL be disappointed.

This was our third holiday to Cocobay and it felt like going home. (Late March to 3rd April)

The staff are fantastic and some remembered us from our trip 2 years ago. Phyllis, Kerry, Jermaine, Denise and Kenroy (Mr Gore) are great to name a few! They are all excellent except for 1 very tall girl on reception, don't know her name as she never wore a name badge but she basically grunted if you asked her anything.

The food is very good and the 4 course evening meals are beautiful, just the right amount. Anyone that moans about the size of portions is greedy! Buffet breakfast and lunch where you can have as much as you want, afternoon tea and 4 course evening meals. We never had the afternoon tea as we were still full from lunch.

We were upgraded on arrival to a plantation house with lounge which was great to have the extra space.

If you normally get bitten, then you will do here no matter what you try and do to stop them. Think I may have being 1 of the people mentioned in the review 3 below as my legs were covered and I used Off spray all the time, day and night. If you go in the sea remember to spray again.

This resort is very quiet with really nothing to do apart from relax by the pool or beach and read. This is why we go there - peace and quiet! There is a TV in the library if you need to catch up on the news or watch some sport.

We went out on the local bus down to Carlisle Bay and walked up the hills for a fantastic view across to Falmouth Harbour in the distance and we also hired a car for a day, both are great ways to get about and see this beautiful island.

Recommend going to Betty's Hope sugar mill and also to Half Moon Bay, what a fantastic beach and the swimming on the left hand side of the bay was lovely.

We saw loads of beautiful wildlife in the resort, humming birds, mongoose (bottom of the lawn at Cocobay on Monserat view side), Banaquats and the finches that come and pinch your sugar sachets from your room. Tip - Give them some sugar on the balcony, but keep the sugar basket in the fridge or you will find holes in all the sachets.

Hope to go back again soon