Alistair Baillie

Hmm, so I suppose I had better write something about my fortnight away in Antigua.

Well it started off on Friday afternoon with a nice EasyJet flight from Edinburgh to London Gatwick, which of course was delayed. I then checked in, yes Virgin Atlantic offer ‘Twighlight Check in’ which allows you to check in between 2pm and 9pm the day before you fly, to save you having to queue in the morning, I spent the night at a hotel in Gatwick airport, venturing out into London to go to TGI Fridays for dinner at the recommendation of one of the Virgin Atlantic staff.

We flew out to Antigua on Saturday morning, arriving around 3pm Antigua time, along with 3 other massive planes. Now the airport on Antigua is hard to describe, if you can imagine a small building, no air conditioning, and 1200+ passengers trying to go through 5 immigration desks and collect their baggage, which the guys are carrying from the plane 1 by 1!!

Anyway, after that we got to Jolly Harbour and into our villa. The first villa we were allocated was about 2 miles from the restaurants and shops in the complex, so we ended up hiring a golf buggy, which was great fun.

We spent most mornings on the nice white (and spotlessly clean) sandy beaches, by the afternoon it was really to hot to be outside, so we usually went back to the villa.

We went on a Jeep Safari on of the days, which is basically where 8 people get in the back of a jeep and go driving around the island, up and down hills and along roads most other people would try to avoid, great fun, and a great way to see the island, plus you got a nice lunch and free rum punch throughout the day.

That’s really all that we did on holiday, other than sleep and eat. Although coming home Virgin have a service called ‘check in and chill out’ where you turn up at a specific time at the reception of your resort, hand over your luggage, virgin hand you your boarding cards, and then all you have to do is turn up at the airport 40 minutes before your flight leaves and walk straight onboard. Saving you having to queue at the non-existent airport <g> and leaving you luggage free for the rest of the day.

And as I’ve said before, yes I do have pictures but they are all much too big to stick up on here, I simply don’t have enough space. Anyone I know who is that interested in seeing them, ask me.