Raffle Winners Say: Antigua is Beautiful

Our 2018 Christmas raffle winners who won a holiday for two visited Antigua in February 2020 for 10 days courtesy of Yorkshire West Indian Carnival Network Culturama Raffles. The holiday was before the Coronavirus epidemic started. Below is what the lucky winners had to say.

Dear Ryan and committee of the Yorkshire West Indian Culturama Carnival Network,

We have had an amazing adventure in our first ever trip to the Caribbean.

We have had an amazing adventure in our first ever trip to the Caribbean. Antigua is beautiful. Much greener than expected. The beaches and sea are fabulous. We had our first swim in the sea for many years. It is so inviting and warm.

Our accommodation was lovely and spacious with amazing views of Dickenson Bay and the sea. We watched the sunset and sunrise from our balcony.

This was exciting and challenging, but great fun.

We have made the most of our trip by hiring a car and seeing most parts of the island. St John’s we found to be vibrant and full of local life. Lots of market sellers, shops and cafes/restaurants. We visited Jolly Harbour with all the beautiful yachts. Here we booked several excursions. We like to be active, so we did the bike/kayak and hike tour with Triflexcursion. This took us on a cycle tour split into two three-mile stints with kayaking round a bay and a beach stop and short hike to St James Fort, where we were told some of the history. We did Eli’s Eco Tour which was a boat trip to Hell’s Gate, exploration of a small cave, several beach and snorkelling stops. Snorkelling was great, again something fairly new to us. We found a whole new world under the sea surface! We called at Bird Island and hiked to see fabulous views. We learned about the Jumbo Bay Turtle conservation, snakes and the Mongoose. Another trip was to the Antiguan rain forest Zip line tour on Fig Tree drive. This was exciting and challenging, but great fun. Also a trip with Socoho Tours. A land rover took us to The South Coast Horizon resort where we kayaked through the mangroves and again snorkelled. On our own we visited Nelson’s Dockyard, saw the fabulous views at Shirley heights and Blockhouse, experienced the wild seas at Devil’s Bridge, took in the history at the Betty Hope sugar Plantation and the Antigua and Barbuda museum in St Johns.

We found the Antiguan people to be very friendly and hospitable. We sampled the rum punch on several occasions and tried fried plantain. Both of which were very good. The rum punch can be quite strong at times, I am sure you are aware!

We would like to thank you very much for giving us this opportunity to visit the Caribbean.

We would like to thank you very much for giving us this opportunity to visit the Caribbean. To thank Ryan so much for putting all the time and effort into organising all the details of our trip. This would not have been an easy task. It has passed very smoothly, so far and unfortunately too quickly. We set off back home tomorrow 1st of march 2020. Back to the cold, wet and probably snow! It has been a wonderful break from our cold winter weather.

Wishing you all the best for any future projects promoting Eastern Caribbean culture.

Louise & Tony,

Honley Village, West Yorkshire England.