Summer fly and flop: 5 reasons to visit Galley Bay, Antigua in the Caribbean off-season

For a secluded ‘fly and flop’ escape, an eight-hour direct flight from the UK, this adults-only five-star hotel on a three-quarter-mile expanse of Caribbean beach is a hidden gem. Giorgio Armani was so taken by the breathtaking bay, he bought a house on the cliffs and would often come down to the Galley Bay hotel bar for sunset drinks.

Tropical-meets-desert island: Galley Bay hotel’s private beach spans nearly a mile

I went on a girls’ trip with my yoga buddy and Get The Gloss contributor Marie-Louise Pumfrey. We wanted purely to eat, sleep and swim, to work out a bit (the gym is excellent), do yoga together (try our 20-minute holiday yoga workout), have a massage or two, but very little else. And Galley Bay was perfect. Most of the time, we felt as though we were the only people there  –  the layout is very much geared towards giving you personal space, no wonder couples and honeymooners love it.

Here’s why we’d go back to Galley Bay Antigua in a heartbeat.

Yoga buddies and Get The Gloss writers Marie-Louise Pumfrey and Victoria Woodhall spent a week relax at galley bay Resort and Spa, Antigua

1. It’s affordable in summer

The UK summer is a quiet time for the Caribbean, so there are deals to be had; we found a British Airways package to our all-inclusive hotel Galley Bay for £3,000 in August for seven nights including flights. If heatwaves and wildfires are to be the norm at home, islands such as Antigua, where temperatures rarely topped a breezy 30C during our stay, are suddenly an appealing and luxurious option.

The only disadvantage to going in low season is that not every restaurant (there are three) is open for breakfast, lunch and dinner, so the options are more limited than in high season. For us, that was no price to pay, given that we often had the beach to ourselves. The spa had moved to a temporary location for a major refurb during our visit (it didn’t overly affect the service), but it’s worth checking whether anything is unavailable when you book anywhere in off-season.

Enjoying the pure crystal waters of the Caribbean: Marie-Louise and Victoria

2. The rooms and grounds are lush

We had a Premium Beachfront Suite, which, as the name suggests, has direct access to sea and sand. It meant that our 5 am jet lag wake-ups weren’t particularly tough, as we could step out of bed and onto the beach to watch the sunrise and paddle in the balmy sea unobserved in our pyjamas.

The hotel rooms span the entire length of the beach, and even the cabins set back in the greenery are barely a stone’s throw from the white sands. Each room has a numbered lounger (with bar service) so there’s no arguing over whose towel was there first.

While the beach is at your back door, out front it’s a tropical paradise, full of sea grape and palm trees, where you’ll meet cheeky long-necked West Indian Whistling Ducks ever hopeful for a snack, tiny hummingbirds hovering among the frangipani and hibiscus flowers and a chorus of Whistling Frogs at night. The grounds are huge, and feature a lagoon, volleyball courts, a croquet lawn, and an organic fruit and veg garden, which you can cycle to on the hotel’s bikes.

The beach is only a few paces rom Victoria’s Premium Beachfront Suite. Cycling around the on-site organic fruit and veg garden

3. The food is delicious – and often organic

The organic garden on site has hydroponic greenhouses, which means that there’s always fresh salad (impossible to grow outdoors in searing sun) and a wide variety of herbs and fruits, including avocados, pineapples and mangos the size of your head. They try to import as little as possible.

Breakfast for us was always fruit, yogurt and then some variation of eggs, bacon, spinach, avocado, smoked salmon and pancakes from the beachside Sea Grape restaurant. Lunch, if we weren’t still stuffed, was a burger, quesadilla or salad from the Barefoot Grill.

If you can, eat at the hotel’s Gaugin restaurant, where you dine beachside in private candlelit thatched cabanas. There are only 13 tables, but several sittings, so booking is essential. The food in all the locations is classic, flavoursome fresh fish, seafood, meat, fresh veg, occasionally with a spicy Caribbean twist. On Thursdays there’s a lunchtime beach barbecue, where I ate my body weight in marlin, slaw and Antiguan wraps called rotis.

For white tablecloths and fine dining, head to Ismay’s restaurant, which has a 30US Dollar surcharge – probably because most people, me included, order the lobster. Like many holiday resorts, it has a gendered dress code (men need to wear long trousers or tailored shorts and closed-in shoes), so pack something smart.

Breakfast is buffet and a la carte at the Sea Grape Restaurant, which also has a weekly beach barbecue

4. The cocktails and music are flowing

It’s always cocktail o’clock (yes even at breakfast), and the Teepee bar has an extensive and ‘adventurous’ menu. What they do best is the rum sour (rum, lime, syrup) and every night about 6.30 pm we’d watch the blood red sunset over the bay, relaxing in pastel-coloured rocking chairs, sours in hand.

There are plenty of rums to try at the rum shack, which opens early evening, and if you’re better at staying awake than we were, there’s a live band every night around 9 pm. Every other Saturday, the Spirited reggae band plays – you might spot West Indies’ cricket legends (now retired) Sir Curtley Ambrose on bass and Richie Richardson on rhythm guitar, as they often join the line-up.

Watching the sunset with sundowners; rum sours highly recommended

5. You leave fitter and more relaxed

Every morning, we did 30 minutes of yoga self-practice on the elevated wooden yoga deck, which has a stunning view of the entire length of the bay – great motivation to get moving (I filmed a 20-minute yoga flow class there below for you to try). The hotel runs 8 am classes, but by that time we’d already been up for two hours and were finishing our weights workouts at the well-equipped gym.

Getting our exercise in early meant we could simply flop for the rest of the day. Had we wanted to, we could have gone snorkelling, stand-up paddle boarding, Hobie Cat sailing or sea kayaking – it’s all included.

The Indulge Spa menu is extensive, with facials, beauty treatments and a variety of massages, rituals and wraps.  There’s also a pool with loungers, which some guests prefer, although it’s more the ‘quick dip’ rather than the ‘swimming lengths’ kind.

The hotel has the most stunning shaded yoga deck. We were in the gym every morning too

Galley Bay Resort and Spa Antigua – our verdict

The stunning crystal waters and white sands location of Galley Bay Antigua are the can’t be beaten. The water is always warm and mostly calm; we saw no seaweed or jellyfish or felt any jagged rocks underfoot, and the sheer expanse of blue horizon, combined with the tropical greenery and the fresh food, was a real dose of vitamin N.

The giant beds were beyond comfy, the bathrooms the size of most urban bedrooms, and every need is catered for – you really don’t need to leave the resort: no surprise, we didn’t, although Antigua has plenty for us to explore, such as swimming with rays and legendary seafood restaurants when we return next summer, for more quiet luxury.

Fancy booking Galley Bay Antigua for summer 2027? Prices in June 2027 are approximately £2899 per person including flights on BA from Gatwick in a deluxe beachfront room, 7 nights all-inclusive, based on two sharing with Elite Island Holidays.

The Gaugin restaurant is a collection of private thatched cabins. Right: our private loungers at sunset