Antigua or St. Lucia for a romantic honeymoon?
 

My fiance and I are starting our search for the perfect honeymoon. We are getting married next May. We have it narrowed down to Antigua and St. Lucia. We want an AI, romantic, but still have a place that has many activities and places to eat. What are the best activities on each island, places to eat, shop, and how are the spas, the beach, pools, and night life? I know that I asked a lot of questions but any suggestions would be great!

Both are beautiful but I prefer St. Lucia for its rain forests and cuisine.

Activities are much the same: beaches, snorkeling, diving, water sports.

If you want an AI, then restaurants are included.

Your questions are far too general (do you want someone to tell you all about the pools in Antigua? ).

Go to tripadvisor and read the many reviews on the resorts on both islands then post more specific questions.

If lush tropical is what you want then St.Lucia is a gorgeous island. It is a volvano island and the beaches are not anything like Antigua. The sand is black/dark and water clarity was not that great. I have heard good things about Beaches Resort, located on Dickenson's Bay in Antigua. It is located on a beautiful stretch of beach as well.We spent a day there on a cruise. Also spent 2 days at different points of time in St. Lucia. I think there might be more to do on St. Lucia. If a beach is of utmost importance I would stay with Antigua.

We did an AI on both Antigua and St. Lucia. We loved Antigua. We hired a driver so that we could both see everything. You can also take a five-minute ferry ride to a nature reserve and see the endangered sea turtles. There are a wide range of excursions including Off Road Jeep Safaris, Historical Tours, Catamaran Lunches, Kayaking, Pirate Ship Adventures and much more. There is a varied range of places to eat at different prices. Antigua can hold its own in the duty-free shopping category. The spa is worth raving about. Beaches? As the saying goes, "there are 365 beaches in Antigua, one for each day of the year." The pools were clean. I would rate the nightlife at the resort about a 3 1/2 out of a 5.
As far as St. Lucia goes, we went expecting a beautiful hideaway and unfortunately found very few things that we could say nice about the island. The food was not good, the beaches were red flagged the entire week we were there which meant we were not even able to go in the water, the beaches are not good,the pool was big but it was almost TOO massive. We really struggled to find something to do there. It was a week too long to be there.

Knowing, if the food was bad and the pool too big, that is the AI not the whole island. And the water conditions are not predictable.

Fact is that Anitgua is very dry and has to import much of their produce, where STL produces it.

I have had rough water on both islands, and also calm seas.

I think the beaches are better on Antigua and there is little poverty there but the quality overall of the islands themselves should not be judged by a single AI experience, IMO.

Thank you all for your responses. I appreciate it all. I am leaning towards St. Lucia right now. Have any of you stayed at Sandals or should I try a different resort?

kfusto,
Just to set the record straight: Just because we do an AI does not mean that we stay at the resort. We use it as a base, and although we eat more meals there than we would at a non-AI, we would never fly that far to not get a taste of any island. We ate at a number of places around the island and were disappointed in the food quality. St. Lucia is not known for it's beaches. That's just a fact. Additionally, as I suspected when the OP brought up Antigua and St. Lucia, she was looking at Sandals, which is where we had stayed. Thus I felt qualified in answering as I did. Sandals Antigua is worth the money. We would not, however, accept a free trip back to St. Lucia.

There is no doubt that I would choose Antigua over St. Lucia. The last time I was there, there was such a nasty little man in the customs/immigration area that I won't ever return. The mountains are beautiful but never felt very safe anywhere we went. There are many other islands with good beaches, rain forests, hills, friendly people and good food.

Knowing, food is subjective so we can agree to disagree on that subject:)

I stayed at Sandals Antigua 2x and was unimpressed. I have stayed elsewhere in St. Lucia as well as at the Grande and big hotels are just not my thing. LeSport was a much better experience.

Different strokes...