The fourth morning of our cruise we awoke to the beautiful sites of Antigua beckoning us to out to our balcony.
Our ship docked in the largest city in Antigua, St. Johns, located on the island’s northwest side. The island is fairly small, only 54 miles in circumference with around 88,000 residents. Antigua is said to have 365 beaches, one beach for every day of the year, with each beach as equally as beautiful as the next.
We decided to use Antigua as our beach day island, since it’s so well known for its beaches. Since we knew the beach would get pretty crowded, we decided to head out as soon as the ship docked.
When we walked out onto the pier, we were met by a steel drum band. It doesn’t get much more Caribbean than that.
Once we got out of the pier area, we headed over to the cabbies to see what they would charge to drive us to Valley Church Beach, our beach pick for the day. This is when we learned that Caribbean taxis will only go somewhere if they can pack a full van. With a little bit of searching, we found a taxi cab driver that already had a couple ready to go to Valley Church. We just had to wait a few minutes until they found two more people to fill the van.
My advice if you want to take a cab is to try to get a group together before you hit the pier. It’s easier to negotiate with the drivers when you have a group ready to go.
With the taxi cab filled, we headed out on our 10 minute drive to Valley Church Beach, on Antigua’s southwest side. The cab ride was $24 for a round trip for both people. If we had done Carnival’s shore excursion to a similar beach, it would have been $40/person (yay for saving money).
We took a few pictures along the way to show you Antigua’s tropical mountains.
Once we got to the beach, we arranged a pick time with our cab driver. It turned out that not everyone in our group wanted to go back to the ship at the same time. This was fine with our driver (just remember that Antigua is an hour ahead of the ship’s time). We found out later that there’s a taxi cab driver pool for this whole beach. Even if you can’t find your driver to take you back, there will be either another driver willing to or there’s someone there that can call you a cab.
Since we were going to spend the entire day at the beach, we opted to rent two chairs and an umbrella for $20. We moved the chairs to a more remote location, away from the noise and crowds of the restaurant.
This beach reminded me a lot of Magen’s Bay and I think it definitely ranks up there in terms of beauty.
We spent the rest of the day relaxing, reading and swimming. 
It was seriously a scene from paradise.
As a head’s up, the beach does get a little crowded between 11am-1pm but on the off hours it’s very deserted. Most of the time, we didn’t have anyone next to us. It also helps if you move yourself to the northern side of the beach where the sand isn’t as wide (means inherently there are less people).
When we got hungry for lunch, we walked down to the BBQ hut. We picked up a BBQ chicken for me for $12 and a hamburger for hubs for $10. The BBQ chicken was delicious.
Hubs also opted to try out a fresh coconut that the locals were offering for $4.
An Antiguan cut opened the coconut so we could drink the water, not as sweet as I would of thought.
After the water was gone, he cut open the coconut so we could eat the coconut inners, a little slimy for me. But it was nice to say that we tried it.
Once most people left for the day, I look a video of the beach so you could see it in its calm state. Seriously so peaceful.
Our time at this beach literally flew by in an instant and we headed back to the taxi cab hut for our ride back to the ship.
On the way back, I couldn’t help but notice how poor the surrounding area was.
It’s pretty typical of the Caribbean Islands, but no less disheartening. I think my senses were more attuned to it because I had been reading “Jesus Was A Liberal” all day.
Specifically, I had just finished a section that emphasized that we as Christians should stop using charity work to fix the problems of the world. As Christians, we are called to a higher duty. We should be searching for permanent ways to fix the situations that cause charities to be needed in the first place. Definitely a thought I meditated on throughout the rest of our trip.
I couldn’t help but think about that as we passed by shanties and abandoned buildings. I’m still at a loss as to what to do with that advice. It really seems overwhelming.
After a short ride, our cab driver dropped us off in the shopping district of the port. Not interested in any knick knacks, we made a beeline for the ship. 
Despite those contemplative downer moments riding through the town, Antigua was a beautiful island with amazing beaches. We probably could have spent a week sitting on Valley Church Beach. I still dream of that turquoise water.
