Most resorts give you one beach. The Verandah, on the north-east coast of Antigua, gives you two — and the choice between them, depending on which kind of day you’d like.
The bigger one — Long Bay — is the one most guests find first. It runs nearly a kilometre, soft sand and a long shallow shelf that the children always reach before the parents do. The Beach Bar sits at the western end, the Watersports hut at the eastern. On a windy afternoon, you’ll see the small fleet of catamarans pull out, white sails against a deep Caribbean blue. On a still morning, the only sound is the gentle work of the tide.
Walk five minutes through the trees behind the hill and you find the second beach. This one — Lover’s Beach — is smaller, cupped between two low headlands, and (most of the time) empty. There’s no bar, no service, no hammock unless you bring your own. The path down is steep enough that you have to want to be there. That is the point.
It’s the kind of choice The Verandah does well. The bigger family resort experience is right there when you want it — pools, kids’ clubs, six restaurants, evening entertainment if you’d like it. And the long quiet beach is a five-minute walk away, kept that way by the fact that most people don’t make the walk.
The Verandah is a four-and-a-half star resort on a 100-acre private peninsula. Family-friendly without being only-family. All-inclusive without losing the editorial sense of place. Two beaches at The Verandah.