Two islands, 365 beaches, one week.
Which boat actually reaches Bird Island. Where the rays stand chest-deep. Whether Shirley Heights is worth giving up a Sunday. Every tour on Antigua and Barbuda, reviewed and priced.
The tours Antigua fills first.
Every review →The stingray sandbar, the round-island run, the reef boats out of Jolly Harbour. These are the days more visitors take than anything else on the island.
1
Turtle Beach Power Snorkeling Adventure
Review the Antigua Turtle Beach Power Snorkeling Adventure, with sea scooters, turtles, shipwrecks, photos, pricing, pickup tips, and honest advice.
From · $132
Read our review →
2
Scenic Full Day Tour of Antigua
from $142
3
Snorkel – Lobster Lunch Cruise to Bird Island and Paradise Reef
from $185
4
Adventure Antigua – Eli’s Original Eco Tour
from $142
5
Antigua Round Island Tour
from $93
6
Antigua VIP Tours – Private Platinum Tour
from $170
7
Private Snorkeling and Sightseeing Tour of Antigua
from $125
8
Nicole’s Table – All about Jerk
from $145
The days an Antigua week is built around.
A beach a day, a boat to the reef, the rays on the east coast, the Georgian dockyard and the forts above it. The handful of days most trips are planned around, and the best way to book each.
Antigua has 365 beaches. You get about six.
All beach days →
The west coast is the flat one: Dickenson, Ffryes and Darkwood, calm all afternoon and facing the sunset. The Atlantic side is the dramatic one. And the best sand on the island is on Barbuda, which needs a boat. These three runs carry the most people.
Dickenson Bay and the west coast
Ten minutes north of St John’s the sea goes flat, the sand runs for a mile and there is a bar every hundred paces. This is the beach day you can decide on over breakfast.
Half Moon Bay on the Atlantic side
An hour east the trade winds land properly: a mile-long crescent with surf at one end, calm water at the other and almost nothing built on it. Take what you need with you.
Mangrove channels and Bird Island
Paddle the mangrove channels on the north-east coast, snorkel the reef flats, then land on Bird Island and climb the cliff path for the view back over the whole north shore.
Antigua’s Georgian dockyard, and the forts above it.
Nelson’s Dockyard has been working since the 1700s and is still full of masts. Above it, Shirley Heights looks the length of the south coast, and Fort Berkeley guards the harbour mouth on a footpath most people miss.
What a day out on Antigua costs.
Every tour on the islands, by price. The cheapest good day here is a van, a beach and a lobster lunch; the dearest is a boat with your name on it.
Beach runs, the Shirley Heights shuttle, airport transfers and half-day town tours.
The standard Antiguan day out: round-island tours, the stingray sandbar, reef boats with lunch aboard.
- 1Turtle Beach Power Snorkeling Adventurefrom $132
- 2Scenic Full Day Tour of Antiguafrom $142
- 3Adventure Antigua – Eli’s Original Eco Tourfrom $142
Private drivers, chartered boats and the long east-coast days that take the whole island in.
St John’s is where the ships dock and the island starts.
Two white cathedral towers over a grid of clapboard streets, the market at its best on a Saturday morning, and Redcliffe and Heritage Quay a few minutes’ walk from the pier. Nearly every tour on the island picks up here.
Things you can only do on Antigua and Barbuda.
Beaches and catamarans exist all over the Caribbean. A sandbar full of wild rays, a Sunday evening on a signal station and a jerk lesson in a hillside kitchen belong to these two islands.
Stingray City
Off the north-east coast the reef closes into a shallow sandbar where southern stingrays have gathered for years. The boat moors, you walk in waist-deep, and the rays come to you: flat, heavy, curious and entirely used to people. Trips leave from Seatons and take about half a day with the crossing.
- 1Turtle Beach Power Snorkeling Adventure★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 521 reviews
- 2Stingray City Antigua for all the ages – ROUND TRIP INCLUDED★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 196 reviews
- 36-Hours Tour East Coast of Antigua: Stingray City, Lunch & Beach★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 109 reviews
Shirley Heights
The old signal station above English Harbour has the best view on Antigua and a Sunday evening habit to match: steel pan first, brass band after, and the whole south coast going gold underneath. The hill road is narrow and dark on the way down, which is why most people book the ride rather than drive it.
- 1Sunset party at Shirley Heights – SHARE round trip★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 71 reviews
- 2Antigua Sunset Catamaran Cruise From St. John’s★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 63 reviews
- 3E-Bike Historical Sunset Tour in Fort James★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 24 reviews
Nicole’s Table
Above Jolly Harbour, a handful of guests cook jerk, curry or rum dishes in a working home kitchen and then eat what they made on the terrace with the sea below. The classes are small by design and run on set mornings, which makes them the best answer to a grey Antiguan day.
- 1Nicole’s Table – All about Jerk★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 217 reviews
- 2Nicole’s Table – Cooking with Rum★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 112 reviews
- 3Nicole’s Table – From the Sea★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 72 reviews
Half of Antigua is only reachable by boat.
All boat trips →
Power 360 Sightseeing and Snorkel Cruise Antigua
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FANTASTIC Green Island and Sea Turtles – Half Day share boat trip
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Antigua Sunset Catamaran Cruise From St. John’s
Read our review →Book these before you land in Antigua.
Most of the island can be arranged at the hotel desk the evening before. These cannot: they run on set days, in small boats and in kitchens that seat a dozen.
- 01Sunset party at Shirley Heights – SHARE round tripOne evening a week fills the hill. The ticket is easy; the ride up and down is the part that goes.
- 02Nicole’s Table – All about JerkA home kitchen with a dozen places, cooking on set mornings only.
- 03Rum Making Masterclass Galleon Beach Antigua 2 People per StationTwo people to a station on Galleon Beach, so the class is small before anyone books it.
- 04Stingray City Antigua for all the ages – ROUND TRIP INCLUDEDFixed departures and a capped number of places on the sandbar each run.
A wet afternoon on Antigua goes indoors and inland.
Showers here usually arrive fast and leave faster, though September and October can settle in for a day. The good answers are all under a roof: a kitchen above Jolly Harbour, a rum masterclass on Galleon Beach, the dockyard museum buildings, and a long lunch somewhere watching the rain move across the water.
By place — where the tour actually goes
St John’s28 tours- Beaches near St John’s9 tours
St John’s on foot6 tours- Stingray City8 tours
The full island loop14 tours
English Harbour9 tours- Everything on the islands →
A week on Antigua, in the order most people take it.
The newest Antigua tour reviews.
All recent →
ATV Rugged Adventure- Scenic Exhilarating “four wheeling” fun!
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Shirley Heights Sunset Party Taxi (Other packages are available)
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Under the Sea snorkeling(Stingray/Kayak/ Power Snorkel available)
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Private Antigua Airport Roundtrip Transfer to Hammock Cove
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Caribbean Stonehenge – Hike on Green Castle Hill, Antigua.
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Discover the Best of Antigua Sightseeing Tour – Eagle Transfers
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Half-Day Small-Group E-Bike Guided Tour in Antigua
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