My wife and I will be spending next Christmas and New Year's Eve at the Sandals Resort in Antigua. I'd love to hear your reviews on the place, especially if you have gone scuba diving there. Are the places the resort takes you to for scuba the best places or do they just take you to the nearest and safest dives? Should I consider booking my dives on my own through a local operator? <BR>Thanks

John, <BR>My wife and I are also considering Sandals Antigua during November. We are very interested in diving there as well. I was wondering the same about the dive places. Let me know if you find out anything. Thanks. <BR> <BR>Ryan

We had a horrible experience at Sandals in St Lucia. I can't speak for other locations but at the corporate level, they have a poor customer satisfaction policy.....Mark

We were at Sandals Antigua in October 1997 and dove twice. The dive staff was very professional and were very well trained. The equipment was brand new. The diving was ok, not very good visibility due to Montserrat blowing its lid. We did a small reef and then a small wreck which was enjoyable. There are many more dive sites around the island to visit and I'm sure if the weather is good you will go to them. I would dive with Sandals for the first day and if you are not happy, book outside. The resort will plan their dives according to the least experienced in the group. They are very concerned with guest safety. If you do have a group of experienced divers, they will do their best to cater to you. Dray was a great divemaster, maybe just talk to them before you go out to see what sites they will be visiting. It is also useful to try and get a list of Antigua dive sites and them perhaps make suggestions to the divemaster. We love Sandals and have had excellant service all four times we have been to their resort. One thing to note : if you are not nice to the staff, they will not go out of their way to be nice to you. Antiguans are very nice people but quite reserved and shy. If you make an effort to talk to them, you will find some of the kindest people on earth. Enjoy your vacation. Please email me if you have any more questions. <BR>

We just returned from Sandals St Lucia and I have to say the SCUBA program is the only thing first class about the entire Sandals operation. We had a large, new dive boat and all new gear. The divemasters were absolutely first rate! If you do a little research about available dive sites, they are very willing to take requests for places to dive. Every place they took us was spectacular! They divemaster definitely leads the dive - very necessary with the large groups diving (12-16 each time we dove) - but our guys really knew the sites and showed us a good time. <BR> I would really warn you off the Sandals operation altogether, however. The more experienced you are at traveling, the more you'll be disappointed by Sandals. They are very superficial, a lot of glitz. Behind all that is really just a poor attempt at a class operation. Definitely a 3 star operation that wants you to think its a 5 star resort. Good luck!