Catamaran Hotel Marina

The hotel location is perfect for staying at Falmouth Harbour whilst being far enough out of town to avoid the nightly hustle and bustle in the centre. The rooms are reasonable size with decent, solid furniture. We had two family rooms, which contained two double beds, showers, kitchen facilities and large fridge/freeze units. Aircon worked fine, and there were ceiling fans too. Hotel facilities included kayaks and little sailing boats, which you could just take out whenever you fancied - there was no extra charge for this and in the time that we were there you could always get hold of them. About 750m away across the harbour you could go to Pigeon Point Beach, or there were other more secluded beaches towards the West... or you could paddle around the superyachts (there were a lot in mid January!) We were there to welcome back a cross-Atlantic rowing team, coming in to the Yacht Club - sadly they returned at night so we couldn't greet them by kayak. The rowing boats coming in for the Worlds Toughest Race (cross-Atlantic) alight at English Harbour, which is the next bay along, but it would not be safe to get round there in the small kayaks. It's great fun watching them come in, holding flares aloft while lots of the yachts and superyachts are blowing their horns and the support boats are racing round them, doing "doughnuts". We hired a car from a local company, and there was always plenty of parking space at the rear of the hotel. The staff were very friendly and helpful all the time. They gave good advice on local places to visit, eating locations, supermarkets and so on. There were a couple of eating places very close (Cloggys and Sweet Ts). Other guests used the local buses to get into town (only a mile or so away, but few people seemed to walk that far). Our rooms faced onto a private(?) beach, and in the week that we stayed there we only saw other hotel guests and staff, with no pedlars hassling you to buy souvenirs. Breakfasts were served each morning on the verandas in front of the rooms at 8:15am, give or take a 1/4 hour. This gave ample opportunity to chat with the neighbours, or studiously look the other way if you didn't like the look of them! We made some great new friends by chatting with other guests while waiting for breakfasts. The island isn't particularly bad for mosquitos, and there were mesh screens on all doors anyway. For things to do nearby, the music and food at Shirley Heights on a Thursday or Sunday is great and good value for money, and no trip to Antigua is complete without a visit to Stingray City. There are lots of restaurants in the area, and we never found a bad one. Our favourite supermarket nearby was "Crab Hole Liquors" (not least because the name sounds like a pun). The Covent Garden supermarket in Falmouth Harbour may be the largest supermarket nearby but the range wasn't actually all that good and it seemed very expensive - clearly aiming at the superyacht crowd who didn't care what they were spending.