Heading down south for Christmas to the Caribbean is such a great way to escape the Canadian cold and the craziness of Christmas that usually involves lots of shopping, cooking, cleaning, hosting etc… We were lucky to be able to do that this year as well, and we chose Antigua.

Antigua is a small island, only 14 miles long and 11 miles wide but it has the most beautiful beaches I’ve ever seen and it has about 365 of them if you can believe that. I can’t believe we’ve only seen one. We stayed at the Sandals Grande Antigua. A great adults only resort with beautiful lush gardens, large pool and many restaurants to choose froom. The resort is situated off of the beautiful public beach of Dickenson’s Bay which is about a kilometer long if not longer.

After almost every meal we’d go on long walks and take in every moment.

Some local beach vendors were selling all kinds of things from beaded jewellery to shells and T-shirts.

This beach has many different resorts and cottages near by and it is a public beach so you would encounter many people enjoying the sun.

As well as boating excursions and ski-doo rentals.

Christmas Day at the resort was fun and festive, even Santa visited. With some local island music to dial-up the fun.

Food at the resort was varied and delicious, though not particularly local. Very North American. Christmas Day brunch was amazing with turkey and ham with all the fixings. The resort has a ‘Paris Café which serves amazing pastries and desserts as well as crêpes and waffles with homemade ice cream. After daily indulgences we needed those long walks to burn off the extra calories.