ST. JOHN’S, ANTIGUA
Excursion: Taxi to Dickenson Bay
Booked Through: Self
Cost: $10-15/person – round trip / plus the cost of Beach Chairs
We did not book an excursion in Antigua so we made it a beach day. Once we decided on Dickenson Bay we went to the local taxi people, who took us to a nearby car park where we paid our dues and hopped in the van. (NOTE: Do not even try to negotiate with the drivers, they’re not buying it.)
Driving around Antigua was honestly unnerving. We thought about walking to a beach here and even the guys who practice MMA were thankful we didn’t walk anywhere! It is an extremely poor country with all the things that come with a poor country.
After being dropped off in a random area along the ocean, we had to walk a little way down the shoreline to get to an open area to park it for the day. We had to pay some seedy dude for beach chairs umbrellas which was just another money grab. This man later came back and tried to negotiate jet ski rentals to us.
My friend, Ahmad did end up renting a jet ski and it was honestly a great time in this bay. The water was clear, the sky was blue and cloudless, and the sand was white. It was a good idea to get an umbrella here because the beach is exposed without any care for your skin burning off. Be mindful too of the jet ski rental dudes… we brought ours back pretty much on time, honestly maybe a few mins late but they were trying to charge us for being gone another 15 minutes or so and so we just left the lifejackets on the jet ski and left it there. *rolls eyes*
By the time Ahmad and I were ready to leave, another group of folks from the cruise met up with Eric, Logan and Tino (people they became close with on the cruise)… so they decided to stay at the beach, while Ahmad and I went back to town to find food.
OK – as a woman this was terrifying for me. I felt so uncomfortable walking around Antigua looking for a place to eat when we looked like tourist with massive backpacks – I just felt like an easy target and we were not coming across any restaurants. There were feral dogs and muddy streets, sketchy alleys and such… I kept begging Ahmad to leave and he kept saying, “This is how these people live, it’s fine.”
After a few more attempts to find food and me becoming more uneasy, we finally
gave up and walked back to where our ship was docked…. Just inside the docking area we actually found a restaurant that looked like an oasis after what I just walked through. ‘Cutie’s’ was the name. We had some fantastic seafood there and I would highly recommend it to anyone!
