Travel guides from liza

04/02/2022

A Stunning Sunset at Shirley Heights.
The day after we arrived in Antigua we spent the day on the beach and lounging around by the pool. Since Claire moved up to London to live with her lovely man James (who is basically the best cook ever), we don’t see each other as much as we used to when she lived around the corner from me, so we spent the day catching up on what we’d been up to over the past month or so and just having a proper girlie day. It was bliss! That evening we went up to the famous Shirley Heights for the sunset and party, and it was so much fun!

We got the shuttle bus up there from the hotel, and after paying the cheap-as-chips entry fee to the national park we walked through a small building towards the sound of a steel pan band, and were instantly hit by the view above.
It was breathtaking. You could see all over English Harbour, which was chosen as the main harbour of Antigua because they noticed that it was the only one that protected ships from storms. The atmosphere at Shirley Heights was electric, it was packed with tourists milling around drinking and eating food from the barbecue.

We went to watch the sunset, then queued up for food. Claire had the chicken while I just grabbed a hot dog. Pretty soon after we finished eating the music was cranked up a few notches and the party started.

The band were awesome and everyone was dancing and singing along, and we stayed until our taxi turned up around 9:30pm, when we walked away while the party continued. Shirley Heights is super touristy, but so much fun and well worth going to just for the sunset and great (and cheap) food!

04/02/2022

Sailing Around Antigua in the Caribbean.
Our first sailing trip in Antigua was the ‘Island Fever’ one, organised by St James’s Club on their Catamaran, and we actually preferred it to our trip to Barbuda! Claire and I both had so much fun on the Island Fever trip, and think it’s well worth the money (also it’s way cheaper than a lot of the boat trips in Antigua). We set off around 1pm in the afternoon from the jetty at St James’s, and before we knew it we were in the Atlantic Ocean rocking about in the waves, drinking cans of ginger ale to make sure we didn’t get seasick.

We sailed out into the ocean and then tacked back around towards the island so we didn’t enter into the ‘no-go zone’. Basically we couldn’t sail straight up the coast because of the wind direction, otherwise the catamaran would literally be stuck and wouldn’t go anywhere, so sailing out then tacking back around and sailing back diagonally was the only way to go. I bet you didn’t know that I used to sail when I was at school in Australia 😉 haha! Three times a week throughout my last year of high school!

Our first stop was English Harbour, where you can see Nelson’s Dockyard. The boat doesn’t dock at the Dockyard, you just see it from a distance, but Claire and I had already been there by ourselves so we didn’t mind this (post coming soon!). One of the best things about the sailing trip was the boat guys, all of them were SO nice and so much fun!

Next we sailed up to the Pillars of Hercules for snorkelling. The Pillars of Hercules were pretty amazing, but to be honest the snorkelling wasn’t great, nowhere near as good as Rottnest Island or the Tobago Cays (mainly because there were no turtles haha), we just saw a few fish. Also we had to wear these awful float things for health and safety reasons (tch), and I had the most awks moment ever when I dived down and my entire bikini top came down…and Claire caught it all on camera. Fml. That’ll serve me right for wearing a strapless bikini when snorkelling…

We then sailed over to Freeman’s Bay, and swam from the boat to the shore and back again. By the time we got back one of the boat guys was holding a sea urchin! Claire and I both had a hold, and it was SO weird – it felt all tickly as it moved around. I was a wee bit scared and asked if it would poison me, but thankfully as long as you hold it gently it’s fine. I then placed it gently back into the water, and it was time for a late lunch!

Please ignore the sunburn – I was so angry, on the first day we used Soltan suncream and despite reapplying every 30mins because I’m so paranoid about sunburn, we STILL got burnt! WTF!?
Lunch was e p i c. We had such a great selection of different food – including the most incredible banana cake ever – and we filled up before sailing back to the hotel. On the way back the guys got a tuna, I was a bit surprised at how small it was though as I thought tunas were huge, so I go ‘Why is it so small?!’ and everyone laughed at me. Also we saw dolphins!!! I didn’t get a photo unfortunately, but I did get a video of them jumping at the front of the boat – I’m going to do one big video/vlog from our trip, so it will be live in a few weeks time.

04/02/2022

04/02/2022